Following yesterday’s dismissal of coach Frank Vogel, the Phoenix Suns “plan to hire Bucks champion Mike Budenholzer as their head coach on (a) deal expected to approach eight figures per year,” according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Phoenix Suns plan to hire Bucks champion Mike Budenholzer as their head coach on deal expected to approach eight figures per year, league sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The Holbrook, Ariz., native will be tasked with optimizing Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal. pic.twitter.com/eWFMedRNA2
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 10, 2024
Budenholzer had already been immediately reported to be a name to watch for the next Suns’ coach and was the frontrunner for the job less than two hours after Vogel was dismissed, per ESPN.
Budenholzer, 54, coached the Bucks to their 2021 NBA Finals win over the Suns. He has been out of coaching for a year after five seasons (2018-2023) with the Bucks, in which he finished with a 271-120 record (.639 winning percentage). Budenholzer, the NBA Coach of the Year in 2014-15 and 2018-19, was dismissed after the Bucks lost in the first round to the Miami Heat in 2023.
Before Milwaukee, Budenholzer spent five years as the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks (2013-2018), amassing a 213-197 record (.520 winning percentage) there.
Budenholzer began his coaching career as an assistant under coach Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs during Popovich’s first year in San Antonio. He stayed with the Spurs from 1996-2013, winning four NBA championships as an assistant.
Combined, Budenholzer has a 484-317 record as a head coach, which gives him the fifth-highest win percentage by a coach (min. 800 games). He is also 20th all-time in playoff wins, going 56-48 in the postseason.
Highest win percentage by a head coach (minimum 800 games):
.704 — Phil Jackson
.661 — Red Auerbach
.636 — Pat Riley
.628 — Gregg Popovich
.604 — Mike BudenholzerElite company. pic.twitter.com/D8pVyjus36
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 10, 2024
Budeholzer is an Arizona native, growing up a Suns fan in Holbrook, Arizona. His father coached basketball at Holbrook High School for 25 years, won a state championship in 1971 and is in the Arizona Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
If this report is true, Budenholzer will be the team’s third coach in as many years, as well as Devin Booker’s seventh coach in 10 years. Budenholzer would be the franchise’s 22nd head coach in their 56 years of existence.
Budenholzer would be tasked to head a team led by three stars in Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, who could not win a single playoff game this year and showed significant inconsistencies throughout the season. The Suns are projected to have the highest payroll in the NBA next season and will be severely limited due to the league’s second tax apron rules, which they would land over. The second apron line is projected to be $190 million next season and the Suns have a projected salary of $209 million.
In this threshold, Phoenix is unable to sign free agents outside of the Suns to anything other than veteran minimum contracts. In terms of trades, the Suns will not be able to take in more salary than they send out, include cash in deals, aggregate contracts or use a preexisting trade exception.
Updated Offseason in Phoenix pic.twitter.com/ctUY5qFN4L
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) May 9, 2024
A lot of the Suns problems this past season stemmed beyond coaching, so we will see if “Coach Bud” can re-establish a voice in the locker room.
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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
