Frank Vogel's firing was signaled long before Suns' announcement
James Jones did indeed praise Frank Vogel, saying he did a “tremendous job” this season coaching the Phoenix Suns a little over a week before releasing a statement Thursday announcing the firing of the veteran head coach.
“I thought Frank did a great job, given the circumstances," the Suns general manager said last week. "We assembled a really talented team, primarily three scorers and whenever you're trying to get guys to adjust and adapt their games, there's a transition time. It's sometimes a struggle, but I thought he did a great job this year.”
Signing a five-year deal last summer for $31 million, Vogel went 49-33 in the regular season, but the sixth-seeded Suns were swept in the first round by the third-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves. Phoenix was the first team eliminated from the playoffs this year.
“It was a tough grind with the lack of continuity and health, but we won 49 games and we were in the playoffs against a really good Minnesota team that was just a better team than us,” Jones continued. “I thought he did a tremendous job. I thought the staff did a great job. I thought the players did a really good job. Just not good enough to reach our goals.”
That’s not only thing Jones said on that May 1 afternoon at Footprint Center.
Looking back on that sunny afternoon in Phoenix, team owner Mat Ishbia and Jones sent messages that signaled what was likely going to go down despite Vogel saying before Game 4 against the T-Wolves in the same arena sitting the same chair at the same table and probably using the microphone he had “full support” from Ishbia when asked his confidence level to have a second season in Phoenix.
For starters, Ishbia didn’t confirm Vogel would be back for a second season, saying “everything” will be evaluated.
“When people are saying Mat is making a decision, he's going to do this, or James is going to do this, it's just not true and it hasn't even been discussed," Ishbia said.
Ishbia and Jones talked about valuing continuity, but they also made comments to suggest the players, not the coaches, are the most important parts of that team dynamic.
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Q: How fixable do you think this is?
Ishbia: “Oh it’s extremely fixable. Let’s just be real, although this isn’t a cool narrative and the national media really won’t want to play it out there, but ask the other 29 GMs, 26 of them would trade their whole team for our whole team and our draft picks and everything as is. The house is not on fire. We’re in great position. It’s not hard to fix. It’s not like, hey we don’t have enough talent. We have enough talent to win a championship.”
Key words: “Enough talent” to win a title.
Ishbia: “Do we have enough continuity? Do we have enough time together. There’s a lot of things we can look at. Do we have the right leadership in place? Do we have to add a little pieces around. It’s not like we don’t people who can’t score or play defense. We have all the things.”
Key words: “Right leadership” in place? Suns superstar Kevin Durant said during the playoff series “the coach” is the leader and Ishbia said the same thing in the press conference.
Q: Devin Booker has been through six coaches in nine seasons. Does that give you pause in deciding the future of Frank Vogel?
Ishbia: “Nothing gives me pause. The only thing that pauses me is are we getting better or are we not. You saying Devin Booker having six coaches in nine years. That’s not even a conversation in my head. What’s a conversation in my head is do we have the right people, leadership from the general manager to the coaches to the players to the CEO to the trainers to the scouts. Do we have the right people in place, to win an NBA championship and that’s what I’m focused on. When we have those people, we’ll win a championship. When we don’t have that, we won’t win a championship.”
Key words: “That’s not even a conversation” on the idea of keeping Vogel considering Booker, the team’s franchise player, has had six different head coaches in nine seasons.
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Q: How much do you value continuity in maybe making some changes and shaking some things up?
Jones: “Continuity is key. I can guarantee you I can ask every player because make no mistake, continuity for us, the fans, front office, that’s great, (but) continuity really matters for the players. So if you were to ask any of our players, hey, I know who I’m going to battle with next year and I know all summer I can reach out to that guy and I can work with that guy. I can continue to build with those guys, they’ll all tell you they’ll take that and it’s even more so when you’re talking about having elite talent around you. So our chemistry will be great going through the summer and it will serve us well as we can continue to talk about how we translate this continuity and chemistry into a championship.”
Key words: “Continuity really matters” for the players.
Q: How do you assess where you guys are at in terms of flexibility with roster building?
Jones: “We’re starting from a place of having a very good core of players and we have assets necessary to continue to use those assets to acquire players. Going into this offseason, we have everything we need to be able to add the players or the positions that will make us better. I’m not thinking about 2031. Like Mat said before, we’re not thinking about the 7th grader in 2031. We’re talking about elite players who want to win saying, ‘How can we win today? How can we win tomorrow. How can we win the next 12 months.'”
The Suns have a first-round pick (22nd overall) in the 2024 draft.
“Devin is not thinking about 2031. Kevin is not thinking about 2031. Brad (Beal), Grayson (Allen), Royce (O’Neale), Eric Gordon, none of our guys are thinking about 2031. They’re thinking about we feel short of our goal this season. How do we run it back, how do we get better, how do we improve, how do we use all of our resources, all of our assets, all of our energy, all of our time; how do we invest those the right way so that we don’t have this result again next summer.”
Key words: “Having a very good core of players” without one mention of the coach.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mat Ishbia, James Jones spoke around the fate of Frank Vogel
