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BREAKING: Suns dismiss coach Frank Vogel

© John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

The Phoenix Suns have dismissed first-year coach Frank Vogel, more than a week after Phoenix was swept in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

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“As we said at the press conference on May 1, team leadership including myself, (CEO) Josh Bartelstein, and ownership would be looking across basketball operations to determine what changes needed to be made,” said Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager James Jones in a statement. “After a thoughtful review of the season, we concluded that we needed a different head coach for our team. We appreciate Frank’s hard work and commitment. 

“We are here to win a championship and last season was way below our expectations. We will continue to evaluate our operation and make the necessary changes to reach our championship-caliber goals. We all take accountability, and it’s my job, along with Josh and ownership, to build a championship team.”

The Suns will now begin the search for their third coach in as many seasons.

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 would have already for sure been losing Vogel’s lead assistant Kevin Young after the season after he was hired to be the next head coach at BYU.

Phoenix tried to load up on creating one of the best coaching staffs in the league last offseason highlighted by Young, who was also a lead candidate to be the team’s head coach, and former NBA head coach David Fizdale. Most of the other assistants won a championship with Vogel in the 2020 season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Even though the Timberwolves have continued their strong play against the defending-champion Denver Nuggets in the second round, there were, and now are even more questions surrounding the Suns.

Phoenix has the highest projected payroll in the NBA next season and three of the best players in the NBA in Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, yet could not win a single playoff game.

The Suns faced severe inconsistencies in play, turnover problems and a seeming disconnect in a lot of areas throughout the whole season not just the first round.

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.”

Jones spoke to Vogel’s future then 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. However, a report earlier this week suggested the Suns could keep Vogel and retool the coaching staff around him.

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.

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 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.”

Now, the final decision has been made.

Report: Suns decision on Frank Vogel coming ‘soon’

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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

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