Over a week after the Phoenix Suns were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round, the Suns have still yet to make any moves.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to AZ Central’s Duane Rankin, the Suns are expected to make a decision “soon” on coach Frank Vogel’s future.
Phoenix Suns expected to make decision 'soon' on coach Frank Vogel, sources say (w/videos) #Suns #NBAPlayoffs https://t.co/pf7BWyNvvJ via @azcentral
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) May 7, 2024
PHNX’s Flex from Jersey reported on Sunday that he expected some news to come on the Suns’ first-year coach either yesterday or today.
I'd expect some news on Frank Vogel sometime tomorrow or Tuesday! Suns leadership has spent several days having their internal conversations.
— FLEX From Jersey (@FlexFromJersey) May 6, 2024
Vogel was hired on June 2 of last year 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 for sure be losing Vogel’s lead assistant Kevin Young after the season after he was hired to be the next head coach at BYU.
Just last week on Wednesday, owner Mat Ishbia said that the Suns had not made a decision on the future of Vogel or any other front office member or player in his end-of-season press conference.
This was part of the quote from Ishbia:
“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.”
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.”
“You look at our record, Mat talked about it: 49 wins compared to mid-40s last year. 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 last week claimed that Vogel’s future with the team could be in jeopardy. A report yesterday said the Suns were considering keeping Vogel.
Even with questions of his future, Vogel said before Game 4’s 122-116 loss last Sunday that he was “very” confident he would 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
When the team held exit interviews last Monday, Vogel was at the facility in good sprits, bidding farewell to players like he would be back next season.
Ishbia addressed these prior reports and Vogel’s comments in last week’s press conference.
“The way I look at is everyone is accountable,” Ishbia said. “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.”
Stay tuned for when the decision is finally made.
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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
