{"id":133514,"date":"2025-04-10T12:49:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=133514"},"modified":"2025-04-10T12:49:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:49:41","slug":"suns-coach-mike-budenholzer-future-in-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/10\/suns-coach-mike-budenholzer-future-in-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Mike Budenzholzer Another One-and-Done In Phoenix?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>Phoenix Suns<\/span><\/a>\u00a0were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Wednesday night after suffering their 45th loss of the season to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Only a few days remain before the Suns’ season officially draws to a close, but it’s fair to speculate on the future of a few key figures, both player and coach.\u00a0<\/span>Kevin Durant<\/span><\/a>‘s\u00a0<\/span>future in Phoenix is likely non-existent<\/span><\/a>. As for the future of Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer, it’s fair to wonder if he will follow Frank Vogel as a one-and-done coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Mike Budenzholzer Another One-and-Done In Phoenix?<\/h2>\n

Mike Budenholzer’s future with the Phoenix looks bleak after Suns officially eliminated from playoffs<\/h3>\n

Vogel was let go by the Suns after just one season, but he led them to playoffs that season before being bounced in the first round. Budenholzer was brought in to fix problems, but he could not fix them as he doesn’t make roster decisions. One of Phoenix’s major flaws is its depth\u2014it has none. Budenholzer inherited virtually the same roster Vogel had, for the most part. Now, Budenholzer faces a similar demise Vogel did: being a one-and-done coach in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Of course, no concrete decisions have occurred yet, considering the season isn’t over, and the Suns have two more games left on their schedule. If Budenholzer is shown the door, it likely won’t happen until next week or in the near future. Regarding his future in Phoenix, Coach Bud deflected any talk on it following his team’s loss to the Thunder. Instead,\u00a0<\/span>he referenced the tough feeling of being eliminated from the postseason, per ESPN News Services<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty raw right now, it\u2019s pretty fresh. <\/em>It\u2019s been tough. There\u2019s no doubt about it. We haven\u2019t been as good as we\u2019ve needed to be and expected to be.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Coach Bud’s contract makes a firing complicated<\/h3>\n

With such a dismal and disappointing season behind them, Phoenix would stay in character if they fired Budenholzer. Plus, considering that Durant could be gone this summer and the Suns roster needs an overhaul, Matt Ishbia might feel the best path forward is to re-start from scratch, including the head coaching role. Budenholzer is signed to a five-year, $50 million deal. With that on the table, would it be wise to give up on the championship coach after just one campaign?\u00a0Firing Budenholzer would mean the Suns would have four coaches in four seasons\u2014that’s a terrible look for any franchise and a bad look for Ishbia, who hasn’t been around for very long.<\/p>\n

Budenholzer deserves more time<\/h3>\n

Phoenix needs a roster revamp more than another bench boss change. Again, this likely means\u00a0<\/span>Durant will be traded this offseason<\/span><\/a>, but what about\u00a0<\/span>Devin Booker<\/span><\/a>? Maybe Phoenix needs to completely clean house and start building again sans Durant and<\/em> Booker. Budenholzer is a solid NBA coach and deserves better than his predecessor Vogel received last year. He was signed for five years and should be given at least two or three of those to help right this desert ship.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Phoenix Suns\u00a0were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Wednesday night after suffering their 45th loss of the season to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Only a few days remain before the Suns’ season officially draws to a close, but it’s fair to speculate on the future of a few key figures, both player and coach.\u00a0Kevin Durant‘s\u00a0future […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":133518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1608,62],"tags":[352,69],"class_list":["post-133514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suns","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-devin-booker","tag-kevin-durant"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133540,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133514\/revisions\/133540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}