Mike Budenholzer's firing puts Devin Booker's Suns loyalty to the test

The Phoenix Suns will have their fourth coach in four seasons when the 2025-26 campaign gets underway.

Mike Budenholzer is out after a single disappointing season in Phoenix, finishing 36-46 for the 11th-best record in the Western Conference. The former champ "had issues connecting with the locker room," per ESPN's Shams Charania. Phoenix's defense plummeted from the 13th-best last season under Frank Vogel to the third-worst with Budenholzer, a known defensive savant, in charge.

This was hardly unexpected, but it's jarring all the same. Phoenix has not kept the same coach for two seasons in a row since Mat Ishbia became owner. The real estate mogul reportedly took on a larger role in trades and front office operations this season. General manager James Jones is not expected to receive a new contract this summer, per The Athletic's Sam Amick. The Suns are instigating sweeping changes.

Is this good? Absolutely not. Ishbia has pushed all the wrong buttons while incurring the largest payroll in NBA history. The Suns are just about out of draft picks and financial flexibility. A Kevin Durant trade is coming down the pipeline, but it's unclear how things will improve with KD (and potentially Bradley Beal) off the books.

That leads us to Devin Booker, the longtime face of the Suns franchise. How much longer will he put up with this nonsense?

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Devin Booker endures another coaching change as Suns toil in NBA mediocrity

Next season will be Booker's 11th with the Suns. It will be his eighth NBA head coach.

Phoenix's rampant incompetence, top to bottom, has been a theme of Booker's tenure. The Suns reached the NBA Finals not long ago, but that entire core imploded in favor of this Durant-Booker-Beal triumvirate. The front office under Ishbia has been admirably aggressive, but that aggression has been almost entirely misguided.

The Suns kneecapped their future and sacrificed way too much flexibility on a flawed, aging core. It's one thing to invest in the Durant and Booker duo, a reasonable gamble at the time. It's another matter to strip the roster so comprehensively that it's impossible to pivot or improve around them. The Suns backed themselves into a corner and could not deliver results.

For what it's worth, Phoenix and Booker appear aligned for now. Booker has expressed his desire to spend his entire career in a Suns uniform, a goal the front office shares. Booker appears to be the only untouchable as this summer of change commences.

That said, one couldn't blame Booker if he gets antsy. What if next season goes south, too? Phoenix will have axed his last two All-Star teammates, CP3 and KD, with little to show for it. If a new coach and a reshaped roster does not put Phoenix near the top of the West, the feelings of futility will concretize. At that point, it'd come as zero shock if Booker starts to explore his options elsewhere.

For what it's worth, Booker is Phoenix's quickest ticket to a financial reset and a proper rebuild. The Houston Rockets own Phoenix's next few draft picks; we know the Suns covet Booker, who is still franchise cornerstone material at 28 years old. Durant, 36, won't return nearly as much in a trade, especially in the final year of his contract.

The Suns and Booker are joined at the hip for now, but it's fair to wonder how much longer this lasts as Ishbia turns the entire organization inside-out on an annual basis in a vain pursuit of greatness.