Suns SACK Bud - LMAO!

[Neal Romer]

Thats two highly paid, title winning coaches hired and fired within a year for two consecutive years.

What a time.

[Im Still Ballin]

Ishbia is running a circus over there.

[tontoz]

How many coaches are they paying now? :lol

[warriorfan]

Didn’t they sign him to a 5 year deal too? :roll:

Suns are competing for the biggest shit show in the league.

[SouBeachTalents]

So the Suns will now have 3 coaches on the books for next year, and Bud will be getting 2 salaries for doing nothing.

What an absolute shitshow that franchise is :lol

[Chick Stern]

So the Suns will now have 3 coaches on the books for next year, and Bud will be getting 2 salaries for doing nothing.

What an absolute shitshow that franchise is :lol

Frank Vogel’s stock is rising

[Wardell Curry]

Anything but admitting that the Bradley Beal deal crippled the franchise. Anything but that. Let's just keep firing coaches. Definitely wasn't the Bradley Beal deal. Nope.

[FKAri]

Bud's awful coaching, KD moping around, Booker being a bitch, Grayson not D'ing up, Bol Bol with 0 iq, will somebody get Bradley Beal some ****ing help? My God

[Proctor]

Anything but admitting that the Bradley Beal deal crippled the franchise. Anything but that. Let's just keep firing coaches. Definitely wasn't the Bradley Beal deal. Nope.

:roll:

[90sgoat]

Anything but admitting that the Bradley Beal deal crippled the franchise. Anything but that. Let's just keep firing coaches. Definitely wasn't the Bradley Beal deal. Nope.

This.

Anyone could see adding Beal to Booker was idiotic. All they had to do was get an average starting point guard and they fumbled it.

[Lakers Legend#32]

Three coaches fired in three years.

[Naero]

How many coaching changes do they need to make to realize that isn't the problem? :oldlol:

Coach Bud definitely didn't move the needle like I expected, but he wasn't put in a viable position to begin with. Multiple defensive-minded coaches struggled on that end with this roster, so perhaps, perhaps, the defensive personnel (or lack thereof) is to blame?

Maybe Bud wasn't the right fit, maybe the lack of player buy-in was (at least partly) his fault. But it should be obvious enough ATP that's not the biggest issue, so why hemorrhage even more money on a new HC already?

I guess they find it much easier to scapegoat the coach than to admit the roster needs overhauling.

[Duffy Pratt]

Looks like Malone’s next position, if he wants it.

[90sgoat]

Booker is a decent player, Beal isn't and Durant is just not important anymore.

Phoenix need to retool completely. Question is if they should waste Booker's prime doing that or if they should break it all up for picks.

[Norcaliblunt]

You can blame ownership for hindering Phoenix’s future by making the KD and Beal deals. And maybe blame them for not putting an ideal balanced contender together if they had crapped out in the playoffs.

BUT finishing last in the Pacific Division completely out of the play-in is on the COACH and the PLAYERS point blank period end of discussion. This team has the talent to not suck this bad. You can’t blame ownership for that. The coaches and players have completely failed here.

[Wally450]

This.

Anyone could see adding Beal to Booker was idiotic. All they had to do was get an average starting point guard and they fumbled it.

Its almost as if they had a perfectly put together team in 2021. Could've built off that, but here we are.

[90sgoat]

Its almost as if they had a perfectly put together team in 2021. Could've built off that, but here we are.

Yep, dumbest shit, on par with Mavs not re-signing J-Kidd and Chandler in 2012.

There was no reason to break up the team, they lost to Luka because Luka is great. Any small improvements would have put them over.

[90sgoat]

You can blame ownership for hindering Phoenix’s future by making the KD and Beal deals. And maybe blame them for not putting an ideal balanced contender together if they had crapped out in the playoffs.

BUT finishing last in the Pacific Division completely out of the play-in is on the COACH and the PLAYERS point blank period end of discussion. This team has the talent to not suck this bad. You can’t blame ownership for that. The coaches and players have completely failed here.

Ownership should have realized that Durant is a team cancer now, he hasn't been good since first year in Brooklyn. More trouble than he's worth now for sure. Beal was also a mindboggling decision when you already had Booker.

[SouBeachTalents]

The KD move in theory could've worked out like Kawhi to the Raptors, it could've gotten them a title in the short term. So while I understand the skepticism of breaking up the core of that team to bring in an injury prone 34 year old with baggage, it was at least an understandable move.

Let's keep it real about that Suns team, they caught an unprecedented amount of breaks to reach the Finals in 2021, literally having a key injury to every opponent they faced on their way to the Finals. They likely get bounced in the first round if AD doesn't get hurt. Then while their regular season was very impressive in 2022, they needed 6 games to get past the 8 seed, then got obliterated in the final 2 games against the Mavs. So I understand the FO thinking they needed to shake things up in order to win a title, and KD was still averaging 30 a night when they made that trade.

The Beal trade, factoring in contract, is genuinely the worst trade in NBA history. Even without his contract, Beal is the last player you would want on your team already having KD/Booker. Add in his albatross of a contract on top of that, that's legitimately the kind of trade a casual fan would make, a dumb one at that.

[Axe]

In the end they had to lay off coaches every year since 2023. Poor thing.

[Neal Romer]

The KD move in theory could've worked out like Kawhi to the Raptors, it could've gotten them a title in the short term. So while I understand the skepticism of breaking up the core of that team to bring in an injury prone 34 year old with baggage, it was at least an understandable move.

Let's keep it real about that Suns team, they caught an unprecedented amount of breaks to reach the Finals in 2021, literally having a key injury to every opponent they faced on their way to the Finals. They likely get bounced in the first round if AD doesn't get hurt. Then while their regular season was very impressive in 2022, they needed 6 games to get past the 8 seed, then got obliterated in the final 2 games against the Mavs. So I understand the FO thinking they needed to shake things up in order to win a title, and KD was still averaging 30 a night when they made that trade.

The Beal trade, factoring in contract, is genuinely the worst trade in NBA history. Even without his contract, Beal is the last player you would want on your team already having KD/Booker. Add in his albatross of a contract on top of that, that's legitimately the kind of trade a casual fan would make, a dumb one at that.

Nah Kawhi was in a contract year. You knew youd get his best down the stretch.

Durant is well known to have mailed it in years ago in terms of caring about winning. He's still an impactful guy on the court but you cant build a culture, set a tone, craft team chemistry with him as a cornerstone. Hes only fit to be a hired gun as in his Golden State roll.

I saw on some instagram post earlier in the year that Paul Pierce proposed a KD for Chet trade, which I found to be pretty compelling tbh. OKC would be one of the teams that could have plugged KD in seemlessly, esp after the addition of Hartenstein to compensate for the defensive loss of Chet. Adding KD's offensive punch in addition to Shai's with all the defensive players they have around them... I think that team would be much scarier right now.

But building a core from scratch with KD and Beal and Booker and no foundation or chemistry between each other or with the minimum contract role players? Just a terrible idea from the start. You dont add the roof before you have the foundation. Durant is definitely a roof.

I could see the Celtics trading for him after this year as a way to get out of Tatum or Brown's mega contracts and still be able to compete for titles the next couple years.

[RRR3]

The KD move in theory could've worked out like Kawhi to the Raptors, it could've gotten them a title in the short term. So while I understand the skepticism of breaking up the core of that team to bring in an injury prone 34 year old with baggage, it was at least an understandable move.

Let's keep it real about that Suns team, they caught an unprecedented amount of breaks to reach the Finals in 2021, literally having a key injury to every opponent they faced on their way to the Finals. They likely get bounced in the first round if AD doesn't get hurt. Then while their regular season was very impressive in 2022, they needed 6 games to get past the 8 seed, then got obliterated in the final 2 games against the Mavs. So I understand the FO thinking they needed to shake things up in order to win a title, and KD was still averaging 30 a night when they made that trade.

The Beal trade, factoring in contract, is genuinely the worst trade in NBA history. Even without his contract, Beal is the last player you would want on your team already having KD/Booker. Add in his albatross of a contract on top of that, that's legitimately the kind of trade a casual fan would make, a dumb one at that.
Like I said before, it's a move 3ball would have made. The Suns are built exactly how he'd build a team, 3 off ball midrange specialist scorers.

[90sgoat]

Durant at OKC or Celtics would be clever or in Warriors again (if they win this year, otherwise he don't dare).

The dumb thinking by Phoenix was that Chris Paul wasn't needed. It's like Rondo on Celtics or J-Kidd with Dallas, these point guards who are pass first and floor generals have massive value and there's not a lot of them out there. Conley is the same. A handful of pass first point guards.

[Axe]

Ever since kd went to phoenix, he's had those three coaches fired. :biggums:

[pandiani17]

Durant at OKC or Celtics would be clever or in Warriors again (if they win this year, otherwise he don't dare).

The dumb thinking by Phoenix was that Chris Paul wasn't needed. It's like Rondo on Celtics or J-Kidd with Dallas, these point guards who are pass first and floor generals have massive value and there's not a lot of them out there. Conley is the same. A handful of pass first point guards.

Agree. And I also think Ayton was more important than they thought. They have ended up with a roster full of excellent shooters but without intelligent players who assist, defend or rebound. Basically an NBA2K team.

[Norcaliblunt]

Chris Paul became washed overnight.

Ayton checked out after he got his contract.

Booker while good isn’t ever going to be the best player on a championship team.

Bridges is good but not KD good.

Johnson was an injury prone role player who was either gonna get traded or get overpaid.

These are facts.

The Phoenix front office swung for the fences and struck out big time, but finishing dead last in the pacific division and out of the play-ins is completely on the coaches and players.

Yeah if they make the playoffs and get beat you could question whether this team was balanced enough to be a real contender but absolutely sucking for the whole year? That’s on KD, Booker, and Bud.

The franchise’s biggest mistake was not drafting Haliburton.

[Wardell Curry]

The franchise’s biggest mistake was trading for Bradley Beal.

Fixed that for you.

[Norcaliblunt]

Fixed that for you.

You see that’s a low hanging fruit casual fan kind of take.

Yes the Beal deal has turned out to not be ideal, but the worst trade ever? Or this franchises biggest mistake? Come on bruh.

Taking Ayton over Doncic is a way worse move. Taking Jalen Smith over Tyrese Haliburton was stupid.

That’s the kind of shit that set this team back.

Swapping washed up Chris Paul and overpaid Shamet for overpaid and injured Beal is just another whatever trade that didn’t work out.

[Meticode]

Once a new head coach is named Devin Booker will have had 8 different head coaches in the 11 seasons he's played for the Suns since getting drafted there. Ooof...

[Naero]

Its almost as if they had a perfectly put together team in 2021. Could've built off that, but here we are.

Honestly, they might have been building off it with that KD trade in itself. They finished 2023 8-0 with him in the lineup and were the only team to take multiple games off the Nuggets that postseason. Hard to know how it would have panned out in the long run, but it didn't show serious signs of backfiring that latter half of the season.

What really did them in was dismantling the rest of the roster that off-season and onwards. They lost their de-facto leader in CP3, scrapped their best rim-protectors in Nurkic and Ayton, and shoehorned Beal into a lineup already glutted with scorers.

[Im Still Ballin]

The team with CP3 was real nice.