Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia did not reveal the future of Suns first-year coach Frank Vogel at today’s end-of-season press conference three days after the Suns were swept in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“Here’s how I think about it: coach, GM, players, like I’m not gonna specifically get into each of them right now,” Ishbia said. “Here’s how I will say it is: I just flew back from Michigan, I went to Michigan, I was hoping to come back for Game 6, just like all of you guys were hoping, which would be tomorrow night. But I’m not. I’m here to talk to you guys. And I have no problem going through it. I have not had one discussion. I know, there’s media reports and stuff, it’s just not true. Not one discussion about my GM, my coach, or trading players now supposedly in the media, not one discussion’s even been had, let alone a decision being made. So there’s been nothing at this point on any of those things on any of those people.
“I’m not gonna get into each personnel, each question, each player, or coach or GM, but honestly, not even a discussion. And that’s what I’m here for. I’m here Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to have those conversations. I’m meeting with players. I’m meeting with the coach, I’m meeting with the GM, I’m meeting with the CEO, I’m meeting with all those people this week. That’s what I’m here for.”
#Suns owner Mat Ishbia says he has not had one discussion about his coach, GM or trading players. He said the meetings will take place over the next few days
— Brendan Mau (@brendan_mau) May 1, 2024
President of basketball operations/general manager James Jones spoke to Vogel’s future as well.
“I think Frank did a great job given the circumstances,” Jones said. “We assembled a really talented team of guys from primarily three scorers. Whenever you’re trying to get guys to adjust and adapt their games, there’s a transition time. It is sometimes a struggle, but I thought he did a great job this year.”
#Suns GM James Jones on coach Frank Vogel: "I think he did a great job"
— Brendan Mau (@brendan_mau) May 1, 2024
There is a lot of uncertainty over many areas regarding future of the team, as Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal were all healthy in the playoffs. The team’s entire starting 5 is under contract heading into next season. However, Ishbia at least assured today that the team will not be blown up this offseason.
“Will we be better next year than we were this year? Yes. Are we better this year than we were last year? Absolutely. Think about the team that lost in Denver. Is our team better this year than last year? It's not even close. But… NBA championship, that’s what we’re focused on.” https://t.co/7q9WYX3kNm
— Brendan Mau (@brendan_mau) May 2, 2024
Vogel was hired on June 2 after the Suns fired Monty Williams on May 13, two days after their Game 6 loss in the second round to the Denver Nuggets. Vogel agreed to a 5-year, $31 million contract with the Suns when he was hired.
Phoenix finished Vogel’s first regular season with a 49-33 record, which was good for the No. 6 seed in the West. The Suns will already be losing Vogel’s lead assistant Kevin Young after the season after he was hired to be the next head coach at BYU.
“You look at our record, Mat talked about it: 49 wins compared to mid-40s last year,” Jones said. “It was a tough grind with the lack of continuity and health, but we won 49 games, and we were in the playoffs against a really good Minnesota team that just was a better team. I thought he did a tremendous job. I thought the staff did a great job. I thought the players did a really good job. Just not good enough to reach our goals.”
Multiple reports this week have claimed that Vogel’s future with the team could be in jeopardy.
Even with questions of his future, Vogel said before Game 4’s 122-116 loss that he is “very” confident he will be back for a second season with the team.
“I’ve got the full support of Mat Ishbia,” Vogel added.
#Suns coach Frank Vogel said he is "very" confident he will back for a second season
"I've got the full support of Mat Ishbia"
— Brendan Mau (@brendan_mau) April 28, 2024
Ishbia reiterated what he said before when asked about Vogel’s comments about having his support.
“I just haven’t had the conversation, honestly,” Ishbia said. “I think Frank Vogel did a lot of great things. I think James Jones does a lot of great things. I think (CEO) Josh Bartelstein does, I think our players do, I think I’ve done some great things. But we’re gonna evaluate everything.
“The way I look at is everyone is accountable. I’m accountable to you guys. The players are accountable to the coach, the coach accountable to the GM, the GM is accountable to the CEO or to me, however you want to think about it. And so we’re going to evaluate everything. Look at every single person. We got to look at the medical staff, are we doing a good enough job there? We got to look at the player development, are we doing enough? Everything’s on the table to evaluate, we have just not started it. When people are saying, ‘Mat’s making a decision, he’s going to do this, or James is going to do this, or like whatever.’ It’s just not true, and it hasn’t even been discussed, really.”
“It’s disappointing. There’s no other way to put it,” Vogel said. “There’s no worse professional feeling in the world than getting swept in the NBA Playoffs, I’ve never been a part of it. I feel pretty low right now.
“I want to speak to our fans directly and say, I share your passion. I’m as disappointed as y’all are. Okay, I want to share that with you all. But, we got beat by a better team this year. We put this team together with the mindset that we have a 3-to-5 year window, that every year we’re gonna have a team that has the firepower to compete for (a championship). But, this league is loaded with firepower. We got a talented group, so d0 the Timberwolves, every team in the top-10 teams in the Western Conference are loaded with talent as well. We got to evaluate and figure out ways we can get better. And just process this tough series loss.”
This was one of several pressing topics discussed by Ishbia and Jones today. Stay tuned for a lot more coming from this press conference.
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
