Suns fire head coach Frank Vogel

Suns fire head coach Frank Vogel

The Phoenix Suns have fired head coach Frank Vogel after just one season, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report Thursday.

This firing comes 10 days after it was reported that the franchise would take a “hard look” at a coaching change with the alternative of Vogel’s assistant coaches getting axed.

The head coach is typically the fall guy, and yet this is another instance where the team’s issues go way beyond the head coach.

The Suns went 49-33, finishing as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference before getting swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have yet to lose a game these playoffs. Beyond staying healthy, their roster construction was pretty poor.

Phoenix had no true point guard after trading Chris Paul for Bradley Beal . Their depth was improved over last year, but it was not enough to compensate for their lack of rim protection or shot creation outside of Devin Booker , Kevin Durant and Beal.

Phoenix is also pretty locked into the second apron for the foreseeable future, barring drastic changes. Owner Mat Ishbia believes it’s an easy problem to fix when it is, indeed, not.

There are plenty of roster-building limitations with being in the second apron. Let’s go over them again:

• You can’t aggregate salary in trade (i.e. combine $20 million and $10 million cap hits to make $30 million for salary-matching purposes in trades.)
• You can’t take back more salary than you send out in a trade.
• You can’t add cash in trades to complete a deal.
• You can’t use any of your pre-existing trade exceptions.
• You won’t have any access to your mid-level or bi-annual exceptions to sign free agents.
• Your first-round pick becomes frozen seven years in advance.
• Your frozen first-round pick will move to the end of the first round if you exceed the apron twice in a four-year span.

Tough! Really tough!

This season wasn’t on Vogel, and I don’t see how any current available head coaching candidate will likely navigate these limitations unless there are drastic changes somewhere. There’s a clear roster flaw, and Vogel is one of the more accomplished coaches in the league who’s done more with less.

Booker will also have his seventh head coach in 10 years! Seven! For your franchise player, that’s crazy! If Phoenix gets a better draw or somehow improves around the margins, perhaps they can win a series or two in the playoffs. But the goal of having Booker, Durant and Beal is to win a title, not a “series or two.”

With this roster and the restrictions they will have this offseason, I don’t see that being feasible, barring something unforeseen.

Good luck to the next head coach! Who do you think should be hired? Let us know in the comments!

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