{"id":134477,"date":"2025-04-15T13:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=134477"},"modified":"2025-04-15T13:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:03:23","slug":"phoenix-suns-coaching-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/15\/phoenix-suns-coaching-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"After Firing Budenholzer, What\u2019s Next For The Suns?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenix Suns fans are going to want to forget about this season. They started with sky-high expectations and ended without even a spot in the Play-In Tournament. There are tons of different reasons you could pinpoint as being what went wrong, but one thing is for sure: this season was an utter failure. As a result, the Suns are going into the offseason looking to make some changes. The first of those changes came Monday as the<\/span> Suns fired <\/span><\/a>coach <\/span>Mike Budenholzer<\/span><\/a>. Budenholzer was with the team for just one season and led the Suns to a disappointing 36-46 record. Let\u2019s take a look at some Phoenix Suns coaching candidates and potential offseason trade options that could help turn this team around.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Firing Budenholzer, What\u2019s Next For The Suns?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Major Offseason Changes Coming<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Suns’ brass has made it clear that they are not going to stand still this offseason. <\/span>The first move was the Suns firing coach Budenholzer. Whatever comes next, however, could help define the next era for the Suns organization. The combination of Kevin Durant<\/a>, Bradley Beal,<\/a> and Devin Booker<\/a> never really clicked. On top of that, the Suns have traded away most of their future assets and have very limited roster flexibility. They are going to need to make some big changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a Durant Trade on the Way<\/strong><\/h3>\n

That and much more is why everyone is expecting the Suns to trade Durant this summer. They nearly dealt him at the trade deadline, and all things point<\/a> to the two sides separating this summer. However, the Suns need to decide something before trading Durant. Do they want to fully rebuild by trading Booker as well, or do they want to retool around their franchise star? Whichever they decide will greatly affect the Phoenix Suns’ coaching candidate search.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Phoenix Suns Coaching Candidates\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Finding a new coach is going to be very important for the Suns. Since Monty Williams<\/a> led them to the NBA Finals in 2021, they haven\u2019t been able to find the right fit at head coach. Budenholzer never gained control over the difficult Suns\u2019 locker room during his tenure, and the Suns need a commanding new voice to help lead their locker room. Depending on what path they take with Booker will determine which kind of coach they need.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Suns decide to retool around Booker, he needs to be the focus of their coaching hire. Two names that Booker would probably be very happy with are Willie Green<\/a> and Jared Dudley<\/a>. Green was the Suns’ assistant during their NBA Finals run and reportedly has a <\/span>good relationship with Booker<\/span><\/a>. While Green is currently still the head coach of the Pelicans, whoever becomes their new head of basketball operations may decide to let him go. Dudley is a former teammate of Booker and played parts of seven seasons with Phoenix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rebuilding option brings a few other candidates to mind. Sam Cassell<\/a> has been an assistant in the league for a long time and would be a great fit with a rebuilding Suns team. Chris Quinn<\/a> has also been a name that has been thrown around NBA circles as a great potential head coach. Quinn has been an assistant to Erik Spoelstra<\/a> for years and could be finally ready to take a head coaching position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of who the Suns chose and what the Suns do with Durant and Booker this summer, things are about to be very different in Phoenix.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phoenix Suns fans are going to want to forget about this season. They started with sky-high expectations and ended without even a spot in the Play-In Tournament. There are tons of different reasons you could pinpoint as being what went wrong, but one thing is for sure: this season was an utter failure. As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":134512,"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":[1608,62,3,28],"tags":[311,352,2036,69,550,2207,49120],"class_list":["post-134477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-suns","tag-bradley-beal","tag-devin-booker","tag-jared-dudley","tag-kevin-durant","tag-mike-budenholzer","tag-sam-cassell","tag-willie-green"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134477","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\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134514,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134477\/revisions\/134514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}