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The Phoenix Suns have fired Mike Budenholzer as head coach after just one season in the job. Budenholzer replaced Frank Vogel, who also lasted just one season.

The Suns missed the Play-In entirely with a highly disappointing season. The Suns tried to trade for Jimmy Butler for multiple months but were unable to send out Bradley Beal in the process. 

The Suns are expected to trade Kevin Durant this offseason and reset the roster around Devin Booker. 

Via Shams Charania/ESPN

There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

All these reports and issues stem from acquiring Bradley Beal

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

They rotate coaches, once they sign with a new team the old one doesn’t have to pay them anymore. The smart ones (Monty Williams) just take the money and leave for good.

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

First question why does there need to be a cap for coaching? The coaches are cheaper and no salary cap and this money just comes out of the billionaire owners operating cost? I don't know why you would worry about this.

pushfloater wrote:All these reports and issues stem from acquiring Bradley Beal

Really the issue stems from letting Beal keep the no trade clause.. If he had waived it then they wouldn't be stuck

Vegeta10176 wrote:

pushfloater wrote:All these reports and issues stem from acquiring Bradley Beal

Really the issue stems from letting Beal keep the no trade clause.. If he had waived it then they wouldn't be stuck

They'd still be stuck because NOBODY is trading for that contract.

Not surprising.

YourGM99 wrote:

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

They rotate coaches, once they sign with a new team the old one doesn’t have to pay them anymore. The smart ones (Monty Williams) just take the money and leave for good.

Yeah, that's my point. You can check my knowledge of the CBA, but if a GM makes a mistake and gives Bradley Beal a supermax, waiving him doesn't remove his money from the cap if he clears waivers. The team is screwed and other players don't have the opportunity to make that money. The opposite is true for coaches. Once someone else picks up your old coach, that previously committed money goes back into the owners' pocket.

Vegeta10176 wrote:First question why does there need to be a cap for coaching? The coaches are cheaper and no salary cap and this money just comes out of the billionaire owners operating cost? I don't know why you would worry about this.

I don't know if this applies to head coaches taking an assistant role with a new team, like Darvin Ham going from LA to Milwaukee, but coaching salaries are on par with rookie scale contracts at this point... so I don't like the get-out-of-jail-free card because it saves billionaires money, nor do I like the knee-jerk decisions to fire coaches prematurely, because of said card.

GM should be fired for trading for Beal. Him and Booker are the same guy...Saw something that said, "Book, Cp3, KD and Ayton were 8-0" CP3 Played every game this season, he would of made this team a playoff team.

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

The main objective of a salary cap is to promote competitive balance. To protect small markets from rich/foolish owners. I don't think anyone cares about protecting foolish owners from themselves.

dubbmotta wrote:GM should be fired for trading for Beal. Him and Booker are the same guy...Saw something that said, "Book, Cp3, KD and Ayton were 8-0" CP3 Played every game this season, he would of made this team a playoff team.

Agreed. None of this was Beal's fault. He's overpaid but still a good player. They really missed having CP3 on the team. A leader on the floor and on the bench who isn't afraid to tell an all-time great like KD where to stand.

ontnut wrote:

Vegeta10176 wrote:

pushfloater wrote:All these reports and issues stem from acquiring Bradley Beal

Really the issue stems from letting Beal keep the no trade clause.. If he had waived it then they wouldn't be stuck

They'd still be stuck because NOBODY is trading for that contract.

There were a few bad teams interested in Beal.

Pickled Prunes wrote:

ontnut wrote:

Vegeta10176 wrote:
Really the issue stems from letting Beal keep the no trade clause.. If he had waived it then they wouldn't be stuck

They'd still be stuck because NOBODY is trading for that contract.

There were a few bad teams interested in Beal.

Only the Wizards and Hawks

pushfloater wrote:

Pickled Prunes wrote:

ontnut wrote:They'd still be stuck because NOBODY is trading for that contract.

There were a few bad teams interested in Beal.

Only the Wizards and Hawks

MIL also inquired. They aren't a bad team exactly, but that would not have worked out well.... so either way, not nobody.

YourGM99 wrote:

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

They rotate coaches, once they sign with a new team the old one doesn’t have to pay them anymore. The smart ones (Monty Williams) just take the money and leave for good.

Being an NBA head coach is way more prestigious then being a player, if you have the oppurtunity to be hired as one, you take it. Also they have to have some type of passion for the game in order to coach. You and I would take the money and sit on our asses, but that's probably why we are sitting on our couches talking about the nba and not involved in it.

Pickled Prunes wrote:

pushfloater wrote:

Pickled Prunes wrote:There were a few bad teams interested in Beal.

Only the Wizards and Hawks

MIL also inquired. They aren't a bad team exactly, but that would not have worked out well.... so either way, not nobody.

Yeah, if PHX gave up assets to get off of Beal, sure those teams might be interested. But I highly doubt either team was offering anything of real susbstance for him. I mean, the Bucks went and traded Middleton for friggin Kuzma who was having one of the worst seasons of his career in WAS at the time. I doubt they had any real discussions with PHX on Beal. 2 years $110 mil remaining on that contract. What were they really going to trade to get him lol.

YourGM99 wrote:

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

They rotate coaches, once they sign with a new team the old one doesn’t have to pay them anymore. The smart ones (Monty Williams) just take the money and leave for good.

But didn’t Monty Williams’s wife passed away? That might be the reason why he hasn’t been back.

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

The point of a salary cap is to level the playing field... so is there a strong correlation between the head coach and winning?
(Is there any correlation?)

I would guess not a strong one.

e.g.
Bud, Malone, Vogel, your Nurse, Doc, Carlisle are all championship coaches who have struggled and been mediocre based on the variance of rosters/situations.

Look how bad Popovich has been since his big 3 retired and Leonard left -- he has averaged almost 50 losses per season since the last playoff appearance.

Spurs were bad with and without Pop post stroke.

Similarly, the Suns were bad with both Vogel and Bud and they will be terrible with whomever comes next.

In Milwaukee:
Bud got fired in after winning 58 games & losing in the first round.
Then they fired Griffin at the mid point when he was *exactly* on a 58 win pace too (& they still lost in the 1st round with Doc).
Now down to 48 wins with Doc and almost surely going to lose in the 1st round again.

What advantage does a rich team have by dismissing any of these guys and replacing them with someone else?

It's a players league.

NightWatch wrote:

YourGM99 wrote:

Cassius wrote:There really needs to be a salary cap for coaching… or they need to get rid of the second apron. Teams cry poor when it comes to player salaries and dead cap numbers, but they’re more than happy to pay three or four coaches at a time and are never penalized for it.

They rotate coaches, once they sign with a new team the old one doesn’t have to pay them anymore. The smart ones (Monty Williams) just take the money and leave for good.

But didn’t Monty Williams’s wife passed away? That might be the reason why he hasn’t been back.

Monty's wife died many years ago, when he was with the Thunder.

Since then he has coached the Sixers, all the Suns years (ending with a 3y $20M buyout), plus he got the $65M buyout from the Pistons.

And he remarried almost 8 years ago, just months after his first wife died.

That explanation doesn't really track.

He made $100M+ from his last 2 jobs, so stepping back to coach his high school-aged sons likely seemed more appealing than being an NBA assistant.