Phoenix Suns coach Frank Vogel had something to say straight to Suns supporters in his postgame press conference after the Suns were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first time in 25 years.
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On a squad led by a healthy Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, the Suns’ championship hopes were nonexistent in their first season with their core intact.
“This is disappointing. “There’s no other way to put it,” Vogel explained. “There is no worse professional feeling in the world than being swept in the NBA Playoffs, and I’ve never been a part of it. I’m feeling quite low right now.
“I want to talk directly to our followers and tell them that I share their passion. I am as disappointed as you all are. Okay, I’d like to share that with you all. However, we were beaten by a better team this year. We assembled this club with the expectation that we would have a team capable of competing for a title every three to five years. However, this league is filled with firepower. We have a tremendous squad, and like the Timberwolves, every team in the Western Conference’s top ten is also stacked with quality. We need to assess and figure out how we can improve. And just process this difficult series loss.”
Questions are brewing over the team’s future, with one of them being whether Vogel will be retained.
Vogel was hired on June 2, after the Suns fired Monty Williams on May 13, one day after losing Game 6 of the second round to the Denver Nuggets. Vogel signed a 5-year, $31 million contract with the Suns when coach was hired.
Despite worries about his future, Vogel stated before Game 4’s 122-116 loss that he is “very” certain he will return for a second season with the team.
“I’ve got the full support of (owner) Mat Ishbia,” Vogel went on to say.
#Suns coach Frank Vogel said he is "very" confident he will back for a second season
"I've got the full support of Mat Ishbia"
— Brendan Mau (@brendan_mau) April 28, 2024
Ishbia confronts a difficult decision because the Suns’ whole starting lineup is signed until next season.
According to Spotrac, Kevin Durant will earn $51.2 million next season, with an additional year on his contract after that, Bradley Beal will earn $50.2 million in the third year of a five-year contract, and Devin Booker is expected to earn $49.4 million in the second season of a four-year extension. Jusuf Nurkić has signed for two more seasons and will earn $18.1 million next year. Grayson Allen will begin the first season of a four-year, $70 million contract extension inked exactly three weeks ago.
In addition, Nassir Little will earn $6.75 million in the second year of his rookie agreement next season. David Roddy is owed $2.9 million on the third year of a four-year rookie contract (about equivalent to the veteran minimum).
The Suns hold Royce O’Neale’s bird rights if they want to sign him to a contract extension, and Eric Gordon, Josh Okogie, Drew Eubanks, and Damion Lee all have player options to extend their senior minimum contracts until next season.
Offseason in Phoenix
📝https://t.co/cSsbgKmXHa pic.twitter.com/C07cXuErrZ
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 29, 2024
With its salaries, Phoenix is expected to have the NBA’s biggest tax burden next season, at $209 million. Ishbia has stated numerous times that he does not care how much money he spends, but he has now put all his chips in for this roster and could be chained to it.
"They went all in on this roster. They lost." 😳
—@windhorstESPN joins the @PatMcAfeeShow to break down what's next for the Phoenix Suns. pic.twitter.com/i79nIpx9lk
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 29, 2024
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski stated earlier this year that the estimated second-apron level for next season is $190 million.
ESPN Sources: Projected 2024-2025 NBA salary cap levels:
Minimum Team Salary:
$127 million
Tax Level:
$172 million
First Apron Level:
$179 million
Second Apron Level:
$190 million— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 30, 2024
With the Suns exceeding this threshold even before considering the rest of the roster, and next year being the first year of the complete new collective bargaining agreement, Phoenix will be unable to send away cash in trades, aggregate contracts, or use a pre-existing trade exception. at the same time, “if the Suns finish the 2024-25 season over the second apron, their 2032 first-round pick will be frozen and unavailable to use in trades,” Wojnarowski says in his article.
The Suns’ only known draft picks are this season’s No. 22 and a 2028 second-round pick from the Boston Celtics (protected 31-45). The Suns will still have a first-round pick in 2026, 2028, and 2030 because they are all pick swaps, but they may be in a difficult situation with them if they finish in the lottery and must give up a nice pick.
With Vogel stating that the Suns are operating within a 3-to-5-year timeframe, it appears that the team is expecting that stability will allow them to improve and fill gaps surrounding key players on the roster.
“The list is long (of why we didn’t reach our peak),” Vogel went on to say. “When you lose, you tend to scrutinize everything. Personally, I believe that no one is harsher on me than I am on myself. I constantly look inside to see what I could have done differently or pulled different strings with our group. I’ll be sure to evaluate myself in that manner. I usually do.
“But we turn the ball over too often. We didn’t improve our rebounding skills enough. And I believe we didn’t really find our rhythm in terms of consistency with our offensive flow, so there are some things I think we can look at and improve on.”
We’ll see what Ishbia does after considering all of these variables, as well as whether Vogel’s words are real.
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