Mike Budenholzer was the scapegoat for a front office that won't admit it's wrong

What happened in Phoenix on Monday with Mike Budenholzer and the Suns has become a storyline we’re used to seeing in the NBA. A head coach who has a proven track record — whether with his current team or another — takes the blame for overpaid players who can’t shoulder enough of the burden for the team. Or players get tired of being coached “hard” and begin to tune out that same voice.

The Phoenix Suns released a statement alongside the firing of Coach Bud:

"Competing at the highest level remains our goal, and we failed to meet expectations this season. Our fans deserve better. Change is needed. "

The Suns were one of the biggest disappointments in the NBA's "big three" era. However, the bigger issue is these front offices that continue to believe you can just throw stars together and win at a high level.

The Big 3 that never was in Phoenix

Phoenix brought in Kevin Durant and then went out of its way to acquire Bradley Beal to pair alongside Devin Booker. Never mind depth, which suffered and never formed a proper team around their stars. The Suns finished the 2024-25 campaign in 11th place (36-46) in the Western Conference, missing out on the play-in tournament entirely.

In his second year with the team, Beal still failed to gel with his teammates seemingly and suited up for even fewer games than Durant this season. Beal played in 53 and started 38 games this year while KD started 62. They were supposed to contend in the West, but the Suns couldn’t even qualify for the play-in.

Coaching is one thing and Budenholzer should get some blame but his dismissal was clearly a response by a front office that flat out won’t admit when it’s wrong. We’ve seen this before in similar instances, like Mike Malone in Denver, Frank Vogel with the Lakers a few years ago, or the Suns again with Monty Williams after he’d taken them to the NBA Finals.

NBA front offices will never admit their wrongs

These players make so much money and many of these NBA front offices are so inept that they’ll never admit when they’ve been bamboozled like Phoenix was with Beal. He’s not the same player he was in Washington. It’s either that or the lights got a little too bright once he was expected to win and not just score points on a team with zero expectations.

Now Phoenix is back to square one, needing to figure out how to right this ship and their best move was to fire a championship-winning head coach after one season. A report came out about a conversation that Budenholzer had with Beal where the former told the latter he’d like him to play more like Jrue Holiday.

According to what’s been reported, Beal was not happy with this and ultimately shot down the idea. The only thing Beal has ever done better than Holiday on the court is score. He surely doesn’t defend like Holiday. But that’s the difference between players who want to win and those who just want to compile Instagram highlights. The Suns deserve exactly what they’ve gotten themselves into.