Firing Mike Budenholzer won't fix what ails collapsed Suns

The Phoenix Suns made one of the least surprising moves in recent memory on Monday, firing head coach Mike Budenholzer after just one season, per ESPN's Shams Charania.

The move was virtually a foregone conclusion after a season that started with Phoenix being seen as a potential title contender went so spectacularly off the rails. Not only were the Suns not among the Western Conference's top teams, they weren't even a playoff team. Their 36-46 record put them level with the rebuilding Portland Trail Blazers, and they missed the play-in tournament by a full three games.

Firing Budenholzer was unquestionably the right move; he was a questionable fit with the Suns pretty much from the jump. While Budenholzer is a good coach, he's not a versatile coach by any stretch of the imagination. He has a system, and he runs that system. When it works, it works. When it doesn't...well, you go 36-46 and miss the playoffs despite having two of the top 20 players in the NBA.

But getting rid of Budenholzer, while logical, won't fix this team. In fact, it's not clear what the fix for the Suns is at this point. Their issues were myriad, but chief among them was health.

Bradley Beal missed nearly 30 games, only started 38 on the season, and looked like a shell of the player the Suns were likely hoping they were getting from the Wizards in the 2023 blockbuster deal. Kevin Durant missed another 20 games, and unfortunately for the Suns, those 20 games seldom seemed to line up with the games Beal missed, meaning it was rare for all three of Phoenix's talismanic stars to be on the court at the same time.

When the trio was on the court together, it was clear that the pieces of the puzzle weren't fitting together as well as owner Matt Ishbia and GM James Jones had hoped. Phoenix has gone 45-33 over two seasons with all three stars in the lineup, and went just 19-18 this season. Even with the full season's worth of games, the Suns' record likely would have put them squarely in the play-in tournament rather than the main field, and might not have secured them a place in the 7/8 game.

That's not what anyone had in mind when this team was assembled, but one look at the Suns' roster shows they have a pretty significant depth issue. Durant, Booker, and Beal notwithstanding, the rest of this roster is largely a collection of role players who don't particularly complement the Suns' big three. Jusuf Nurkic, who was expected to be their interior force, found himself benched and traded to Charlotte, and none of their other bigs made all that significant an impact. Without their stars, the Suns are a lottery team, and with them, they lack the depth to hang with most of the playoff teams in the West.

There's not much help coming on the horizon, either. Phoenix is well over the first and second aprons this season, and rank 29th in the NBA in cap space thanks to Durant, Beal and Booker's mega-deals. They have precious little draft capital, and none of it is likely to be particularly appealing, meaning even though they've struggled, they're unlikely to find a superstar in the Draft.

The only real, tradeable asset they have right now is Durant, who remains a superstar at age 36. Durant has just one year left on his contract, but the idea of trading one of their two most consistent stars will be a bitter pill to swallow for Ishbia and the Suns.

This is a team who thought their title window was wide open, only to have it slam shut in their faces, and it's not clear how to fix it, or if it's even possible.

Firing Budenholzer was probably the right call, but don't expect it to fix all the problems in the desert.

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