Game Day - Playoff Edition - Game 4: Wolves (3-0) @ Suns (0-3), Sun 4/28/24

[Flagrant Fowl]

What pg are we getting for the vet min? Westbrook?

CP3 once GSW doesn't guarantee his deal. No way they're going into next year with 30 million to CP3.

He creates more issues than he solves if he's in the playoff rotation. He's just too old.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Nurk has to go too. He was useless in the playoffs. He had been so good at times during the regular season.

Probably gotta try and trade Beal, just don’t see it

It's their only way out unless KD asks for a trade.

[TOO]

► Show Spoiler

Hmm. Interesting. Concerning.

Spoiler: show/hide

Phoenix Suns swept: What went wrong, what’s next for Frank Vogel, Big 3 and more

Frank Vogel entered the home locker room at Footprint Center and lit into his team. After his Phoenix Suns had fallen into a 35-4 hole en route to a loss to the LA Clippers on April 9, the head coach yelled so much that his voice could be heard outside the locker room. There was only one problem.

On this night, Suns players weren’t buying it. The outburst seemed forced and out of character in their eyes. It continued at the next day’s shootaround in Los Angeles, Vogel tearing into the Suns before that night’s road win over the Clippers. Vogel’s eruption left players rolling their eyes, sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic. One player even told The Athletic he had to keep from laughing.

On Sunday, the Suns were swept from the playoffs, losing four straight to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a Western Conference first-round series that was seldom close. The Suns made a valiant effort but lost Sunday’s Game 4 at home 122-116. Phoenix did show signs of life as Devin Booker (49) and Kevin Durant (33) combined for 82 points.

But built around the star power of Booker, Durant and Bradley Beal, the Suns were expected to contend for the organization’s first championship. Instead, they spent the entire season struggling to find an identity, and in the process, lost some trust in the man in charge.

Durant, Booker and Beal did not produce at their best in these playoffs as a unit, and sources in the locker room also believe not one of the trio emerged as the necessary leader on the floor. But the buck stops at the head coach, and for the second offseason in a row, sources briefed on the situation told The Athletic that Phoenix will take a hard look at making a full coaching change or, at the very least, discuss adjustments to Vogel’s staff. General manager James Jones, however, is expected to continue overseeing team-building for the Suns, those sources said.

For his part, Vogel said before Game 4 that he is confident he will return next season, adding that he has the “full support” of team owner Mat Ishbia.

Less than a year ago, Ishbia hired Vogel on a five-year, $31 million deal to replace Monty Williams after the Suns had lost to eventual-champion Denver in the Western Conference semifinals. The decision to move on from Williams had its merits, as every sector of the Suns organization had lost faith in him. In his first season with the Detroit Pistons this year, Williams didn’t fare much better — the exact opposite, in fact, as the team posted its worst record ever.

Vogel had strong credentials when he got the job. Over an 11-year NBA head coaching career, he had led LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to a championship during the 2019-20 bubble season and had guided the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals twice. A defensive-minded coach, he entered his first season in the desert with a high-priced coaching staff, established offensive stars, a solid big man in Jusuf Nurkić — and several questions.

How will the big three mesh? Can the team’s stars stay healthy? Is more depth needed, in particular a true point guard?

Nevertheless, Vogel promised: “When we get out there and play, we’re going to be scrappy as hell. We’re going to be a scrappy team that plays harder than our opponent every night.”


In Frank Vogel’s first season, the Suns, with three high-priced stars, struggled to find consistency. (Stephen Lew / USA Today)
The Suns didn’t always demonstrate that kind of desperation or urgency. Even in the NBA, good teams in some ways resemble the head coach. Although Phoenix improved defensively, it seldom stayed connected. The Suns would look great one night, disinterested the next. Then, after a strong finish to a 49-33 regular season, the sixth-seeded Suns — and their internal flaws — were exposed when it mattered most.

In a 105-93 Game 2 loss at Minnesota, the Suns let the officiating and sloppy play take them out of a winnable game. Once Phoenix lost its composure, Minnesota pulled away, igniting the Target Center crowd.

Trailing by 15 with 3:53 left, Vogel tried to empty the bench, saving his starters for Game 3, scheduled for three days later in Phoenix. He called on five bench players to prepare to check into the game, but sources briefed on the situation say Booker expressed in the huddle that he preferred the current group stay in, as he thought the Suns still had a chance. Vogel kept the current five in the game, but not much changed. Booker fouled out 90 seconds later, and Vogel sent in the reserves.

In the second half of the same game, Vogel and Beal appeared to exchange words. After Game 2, both said the incident stemmed from the heat of the moment.

“It was not between us two, it was just kind of like what was going on in the game,’’ Beal said. “The refs. Our flow. Our defense was bad. I’m just like, ‘What are we doing?’’’ With Phoenix headed home for Game 3, Beal added that he and Vogel were on good terms.

On-court disagreements are often excused if a team operates with high efficiency and consistency, but that was never the case with Phoenix this season.

“We’re all trying to fight out there, and so far this series, once it has turned to sh–, we’ve kind of separated instead of being together,” Booker said after Game 2. “That’s everybody. Top to bottom.”

In late March, the Suns posted three wins, then lost at struggling San Antonio, which played without presumptive Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama. A week later, the Suns started their best stretch, posting wins over playoff teams New Orleans, Cleveland and Minnesota. And yet, two days later in Phoenix, the Clippers blasted them with the 35-4 start that left Vogel ripping them after the game.

What went wrong?

Entering the postseason, guard Grayson Allen estimated the Suns had endured 10-15 questionable regular-season losses. The kind “where you look back and you’re like, ‘Man, we should’ve had some of those,’’ he said.

One possible reason is that Booker and Durant struggled to find the right chemistry. Since acquiring Durant in a blockbuster trade in February 2023, the Suns have won just one playoff series: last season’s first round, when they beat the Clippers, who played without stars Paul George (for the entire series) and Kawhi Leonard (for three of five games). Overall, Phoenix is 6-9 with Durant in postseason action. A franchise that reached the 2021 NBA Finals, losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games, has since been slipping.

At the team’s preseason media day, Ishbia said he thought Phoenix had the NBA’s best roster. Over his first year as owner of the Suns, Ishbia has spared no expenses in giving the franchise the necessary resources to win and spearheaded efforts to bring to Phoenix the WNBA All-Star weekend this summer and the NBA All-Star weekend in 2027. In addition, Ishbia has dug deep into his pockets: The Suns have the third-largest payroll in the league this season. After acquiring Durant and Beal in 2023, the Suns stayed over the dreaded second apron and will pay a projected $68 million in luxury tax alone for the 2023-24 campaign. That’s a total of roughly $260 million (players plus tax) this season.

But as it turned out, the roster still lacked two things: a pure point guard and a defensive stopper on the wing or at center. In acquiring Beal, the Suns had dealt Chris Paul, an aging (and expensive) point guard but an accomplished one who very much understood how to organize offense. The trade moved two players out of the Suns’ plans — Paul and Landry Shamet — and second-round picks for a star in Beal, a risk many executives believed made sense. But the Suns never replaced Paul, an oversight that would prove costly.

Phoenix tried to mitigate the offensive disruption caused by losing Paul by retaining Kevin Young from Williams’ staff as Vogel’s lead assistant. He was given the largest salary in the league for an assistant coach because of his offensive background, relationship with Booker and a new task to run the Suns’ offense.

In Booker and Beal, the Suns had two scoring guards who could handle playmaking duties, something they hoped to patch the hole at point guard. Booker had done so at a high level the past few years in spurts, and this season he averaged a career-high 6.9 assists. But it was Beal who was supposed to enter the regular season as the starting point guard, something he had previously done for the Washington Wizards.

“We wanted (Beal) to have the ability to be a player that could bring the ball up and create things off the dribble and in pick-and-roll situations, and he became that player,’’ former Washington coach Randy Wittman told The Athletic before the season. “He worked very hard.”

In Phoenix, Beal dealt with injuries to begin the season, played in 53 games and never gained consistency at the point guard position. The arrangement was never ideal. Booker ran the offense more before the All-Star break, Beal did so after. Neither seemed comfortable as the point guard, particularly when the opposing team pressured full-court and wore on their stamina. Turnovers were a major problem. The Suns averaged 14.9 turnovers during the regular season (an increase of 1.5 from the previous season with Paul), which ranked 25th in the league. They fumbled away dribble handoffs, threw lazy passes and were stripped on penetration. In the playoffs, Minnesota coach Chris Finch had Jaden McDaniels and others pick up Booker and Beal full-court, disrupting Phoenix’s offensive flow.

Across the season, Young was in charge of the Suns’ game plans on the offensive end, which featured a heavy dose of pick-and-rolls for Booker and Beal. But Phoenix’s players questioned the coaching staff’s inability to structure the offense and maximize the output of a lineup featuring three of the game’s best scorers, per team sources.

An NBA head coach candidate, Young recently took the head coaching job at BYU, staying on Phoenix’s staff until the Suns were eliminated.

Durant not comfortable, Booker not himself

Meanwhile, Durant, among the best scorers in NBA history, was not always happy with how he was used. Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often and not having the proper designs to play to his strengths as the offense was built around pick-and-rolls. At the same time, some teammates and people close to the organization believed Durant needed to voice his concerns more adamantly and directly with Vogel and his coaching staff.

Durant averaged 27.1 points, fifth best in the league, and remained one of the league’s best players in the regular season. His 52.3 percent field goal percentage during the regular season was nearly five percentage points off last season’s accuracy, however.

Booker, meanwhile, wasn’t himself in these playoffs. Since Phoenix drafted him with the 13th pick of the 2015 draft, the smooth scoring guard has become one of the most popular athletes in state history. He’s been loyal, charitable and appreciative. Before games, he stops and greets children, posing for photos. From his first NBA season, Booker has understood and embraced the responsibility that comes with being a face of the franchise.

But this season, something was missing. Like many NBA players, Booker grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. This can be seen in his game, how Booker turns and shoots a fading jumper. At times, this has been seen in his attitude, not backing down on the court, not tolerating nonsense. In the first half of a Christmas Day loss to Dallas, then-teammate Chimezie Metu threw a lazy pass that Luka Dončić picked off and converted into an easy layup. After the ball fell through the net, Booker realized that he had been the only Phoenix player to give chase. “Why aren’t you running back?” he yelled at Metu, audio picked up by game mics. “You just turn the ball over and don’t run back?”

But asked about the team’s frustration level after the April 9 loss to the Clippers, Booker took a different approach, keeping his feelings to himself but misreading the fanbase’s frustration. “Chillin’,’’ he said. “Another chance tomorrow.” He explained this by saying he’d seen nearly everything over his nine-year career, the highs and the lows.

This has been a theme of sorts. After head-scratching losses, it was easy to wonder if the Suns had enough leadership inside the locker room to help them navigate adversity. Durant said this week that while every Phoenix player has a voice – the freedom to bounce ideas and be heard – “the coach is the leader.”

It was a curious answer given that championship teams are usually player-led.


The Suns’ big three of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant did not mesh on the court this season. (Kiyoshi Mio / USA Today)
What’s next?

Over the regular season’s final weeks, Vogel preached the same message: That, after several injuries in the first half of the season, the Suns were improving. That they were figuring it out defensively. That this was a dangerous team.

But once the postseason began, as Phoenix prepared to face Minnesota, Vogel said that while the Suns had players with postseason experience, this would be the first time they’d go through it together. It sounded like an excuse. A coach trying to protect himself.

After Phoenix fell behind Minnesota 2-0, crumbling in the second half of each game, Durant was asked if that collective inexperience had contributed.

“Nah, I don’t think that’s a factor at all,” he said.

The Suns now enter the summer planning to build around their top six players in Booker, Durant, Beal, Allen, Nurkić and Royce O’Neale. Allen signed a four-year, $70 million contract extension before the start of the playoffs, and Phoenix officials hope to retain O’Neale as a free agent this offseason. Booker remains at the center of everything, and will be tasked with continuing to embrace an enhanced role as a leader and a return to his usual assassin self once he’s being set up by a proper point guard again — two things the team considers musts for the 2024-25 season. The Suns could also look to bring in additional locker room presence, which was filled late in the season by Isaiah Thomas and Thaddeus Young.

Looking forward, the NBA’s current salary cap projection for the 2024-25 season puts the second apron line at $189.5 million and the Suns owe their projected starting five a whopping $184 million, only $5.5 million under than that threshold. That means a massive tax bill will come from even filling out their roster with minimum contracts but even more importantly, the front office will have only a few methods to improve the roster in the offseason as teams over the second apron cannot use the midlevel exception or take on money in trades along with other restrictions in the new collective bargaining agreement.

In terms of assets for offseason moves, the Suns will have access on draft night to trade two first-round picks — No. 22 this year and one in 2031 — as well as holding a protected 2028 second-round pick from Boston.

On Sunday, Phoenix finally played with urgency. Booker was aggressive from the start, finally looking like the best player in the series. Durant was just as strong, scoring on dunks and fading jumpers.

With the outcome in doubt late in the contest, the sold-out crowd stood and chanted, “DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!” trying to will the Suns on to Game 5. But familiar problems surfaced. Phoenix committed three turnovers. Reserve Josh Okogie missed two foul shots. Minnesota held on, ending the Suns’ season.

As the final seconds ticked away, Ishbia sat with his children in their normal seats, across from the Phoenix bench. The offseason had arrived, earlier than expected, and difficult decisions await.

Wow. They sure had that ready to go.

Suns had an offense built for Chris Paul but didn't have Chris Paul. Fuckin genius.

[Flagrant Fowl]

► Show Spoiler

Hmm. Interesting. Concerning.

Spoiler: show/hide

Phoenix Suns swept: What went wrong, what’s next for Frank Vogel, Big 3 and more

Frank Vogel entered the home locker room at Footprint Center and lit into his team. After his Phoenix Suns had fallen into a 35-4 hole en route to a loss to the LA Clippers on April 9, the head coach yelled so much that his voice could be heard outside the locker room. There was only one problem.

On this night, Suns players weren’t buying it. The outburst seemed forced and out of character in their eyes. It continued at the next day’s shootaround in Los Angeles, Vogel tearing into the Suns before that night’s road win over the Clippers. Vogel’s eruption left players rolling their eyes, sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic. One player even told The Athletic he had to keep from laughing.

On Sunday, the Suns were swept from the playoffs, losing four straight to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a Western Conference first-round series that was seldom close. The Suns made a valiant effort but lost Sunday’s Game 4 at home 122-116. Phoenix did show signs of life as Devin Booker (49) and Kevin Durant (33) combined for 82 points.

But built around the star power of Booker, Durant and Bradley Beal, the Suns were expected to contend for the organization’s first championship. Instead, they spent the entire season struggling to find an identity, and in the process, lost some trust in the man in charge.

Durant, Booker and Beal did not produce at their best in these playoffs as a unit, and sources in the locker room also believe not one of the trio emerged as the necessary leader on the floor. But the buck stops at the head coach, and for the second offseason in a row, sources briefed on the situation told The Athletic that Phoenix will take a hard look at making a full coaching change or, at the very least, discuss adjustments to Vogel’s staff. General manager James Jones, however, is expected to continue overseeing team-building for the Suns, those sources said.

For his part, Vogel said before Game 4 that he is confident he will return next season, adding that he has the “full support” of team owner Mat Ishbia.

Less than a year ago, Ishbia hired Vogel on a five-year, $31 million deal to replace Monty Williams after the Suns had lost to eventual-champion Denver in the Western Conference semifinals. The decision to move on from Williams had its merits, as every sector of the Suns organization had lost faith in him. In his first season with the Detroit Pistons this year, Williams didn’t fare much better — the exact opposite, in fact, as the team posted its worst record ever.

Vogel had strong credentials when he got the job. Over an 11-year NBA head coaching career, he had led LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to a championship during the 2019-20 bubble season and had guided the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals twice. A defensive-minded coach, he entered his first season in the desert with a high-priced coaching staff, established offensive stars, a solid big man in Jusuf Nurkić — and several questions.

How will the big three mesh? Can the team’s stars stay healthy? Is more depth needed, in particular a true point guard?

Nevertheless, Vogel promised: “When we get out there and play, we’re going to be scrappy as hell. We’re going to be a scrappy team that plays harder than our opponent every night.”


In Frank Vogel’s first season, the Suns, with three high-priced stars, struggled to find consistency. (Stephen Lew / USA Today)
The Suns didn’t always demonstrate that kind of desperation or urgency. Even in the NBA, good teams in some ways resemble the head coach. Although Phoenix improved defensively, it seldom stayed connected. The Suns would look great one night, disinterested the next. Then, after a strong finish to a 49-33 regular season, the sixth-seeded Suns — and their internal flaws — were exposed when it mattered most.

In a 105-93 Game 2 loss at Minnesota, the Suns let the officiating and sloppy play take them out of a winnable game. Once Phoenix lost its composure, Minnesota pulled away, igniting the Target Center crowd.

Trailing by 15 with 3:53 left, Vogel tried to empty the bench, saving his starters for Game 3, scheduled for three days later in Phoenix. He called on five bench players to prepare to check into the game, but sources briefed on the situation say Booker expressed in the huddle that he preferred the current group stay in, as he thought the Suns still had a chance. Vogel kept the current five in the game, but not much changed. Booker fouled out 90 seconds later, and Vogel sent in the reserves.

In the second half of the same game, Vogel and Beal appeared to exchange words. After Game 2, both said the incident stemmed from the heat of the moment.

“It was not between us two, it was just kind of like what was going on in the game,’’ Beal said. “The refs. Our flow. Our defense was bad. I’m just like, ‘What are we doing?’’’ With Phoenix headed home for Game 3, Beal added that he and Vogel were on good terms.

On-court disagreements are often excused if a team operates with high efficiency and consistency, but that was never the case with Phoenix this season.

“We’re all trying to fight out there, and so far this series, once it has turned to sh–, we’ve kind of separated instead of being together,” Booker said after Game 2. “That’s everybody. Top to bottom.”

In late March, the Suns posted three wins, then lost at struggling San Antonio, which played without presumptive Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama. A week later, the Suns started their best stretch, posting wins over playoff teams New Orleans, Cleveland and Minnesota. And yet, two days later in Phoenix, the Clippers blasted them with the 35-4 start that left Vogel ripping them after the game.

What went wrong?

Entering the postseason, guard Grayson Allen estimated the Suns had endured 10-15 questionable regular-season losses. The kind “where you look back and you’re like, ‘Man, we should’ve had some of those,’’ he said.

One possible reason is that Booker and Durant struggled to find the right chemistry. Since acquiring Durant in a blockbuster trade in February 2023, the Suns have won just one playoff series: last season’s first round, when they beat the Clippers, who played without stars Paul George (for the entire series) and Kawhi Leonard (for three of five games). Overall, Phoenix is 6-9 with Durant in postseason action. A franchise that reached the 2021 NBA Finals, losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games, has since been slipping.

At the team’s preseason media day, Ishbia said he thought Phoenix had the NBA’s best roster. Over his first year as owner of the Suns, Ishbia has spared no expenses in giving the franchise the necessary resources to win and spearheaded efforts to bring to Phoenix the WNBA All-Star weekend this summer and the NBA All-Star weekend in 2027. In addition, Ishbia has dug deep into his pockets: The Suns have the third-largest payroll in the league this season. After acquiring Durant and Beal in 2023, the Suns stayed over the dreaded second apron and will pay a projected $68 million in luxury tax alone for the 2023-24 campaign. That’s a total of roughly $260 million (players plus tax) this season.

But as it turned out, the roster still lacked two things: a pure point guard and a defensive stopper on the wing or at center. In acquiring Beal, the Suns had dealt Chris Paul, an aging (and expensive) point guard but an accomplished one who very much understood how to organize offense. The trade moved two players out of the Suns’ plans — Paul and Landry Shamet — and second-round picks for a star in Beal, a risk many executives believed made sense. But the Suns never replaced Paul, an oversight that would prove costly.

Phoenix tried to mitigate the offensive disruption caused by losing Paul by retaining Kevin Young from Williams’ staff as Vogel’s lead assistant. He was given the largest salary in the league for an assistant coach because of his offensive background, relationship with Booker and a new task to run the Suns’ offense.

In Booker and Beal, the Suns had two scoring guards who could handle playmaking duties, something they hoped to patch the hole at point guard. Booker had done so at a high level the past few years in spurts, and this season he averaged a career-high 6.9 assists. But it was Beal who was supposed to enter the regular season as the starting point guard, something he had previously done for the Washington Wizards.

“We wanted (Beal) to have the ability to be a player that could bring the ball up and create things off the dribble and in pick-and-roll situations, and he became that player,’’ former Washington coach Randy Wittman told The Athletic before the season. “He worked very hard.”

In Phoenix, Beal dealt with injuries to begin the season, played in 53 games and never gained consistency at the point guard position. The arrangement was never ideal. Booker ran the offense more before the All-Star break, Beal did so after. Neither seemed comfortable as the point guard, particularly when the opposing team pressured full-court and wore on their stamina. Turnovers were a major problem. The Suns averaged 14.9 turnovers during the regular season (an increase of 1.5 from the previous season with Paul), which ranked 25th in the league. They fumbled away dribble handoffs, threw lazy passes and were stripped on penetration. In the playoffs, Minnesota coach Chris Finch had Jaden McDaniels and others pick up Booker and Beal full-court, disrupting Phoenix’s offensive flow.

Across the season, Young was in charge of the Suns’ game plans on the offensive end, which featured a heavy dose of pick-and-rolls for Booker and Beal. But Phoenix’s players questioned the coaching staff’s inability to structure the offense and maximize the output of a lineup featuring three of the game’s best scorers, per team sources.

An NBA head coach candidate, Young recently took the head coaching job at BYU, staying on Phoenix’s staff until the Suns were eliminated.

Durant not comfortable, Booker not himself

Meanwhile, Durant, among the best scorers in NBA history, was not always happy with how he was used. Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often and not having the proper designs to play to his strengths as the offense was built around pick-and-rolls. At the same time, some teammates and people close to the organization believed Durant needed to voice his concerns more adamantly and directly with Vogel and his coaching staff.

Durant averaged 27.1 points, fifth best in the league, and remained one of the league’s best players in the regular season. His 52.3 percent field goal percentage during the regular season was nearly five percentage points off last season’s accuracy, however.

Booker, meanwhile, wasn’t himself in these playoffs. Since Phoenix drafted him with the 13th pick of the 2015 draft, the smooth scoring guard has become one of the most popular athletes in state history. He’s been loyal, charitable and appreciative. Before games, he stops and greets children, posing for photos. From his first NBA season, Booker has understood and embraced the responsibility that comes with being a face of the franchise.

But this season, something was missing. Like many NBA players, Booker grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. This can be seen in his game, how Booker turns and shoots a fading jumper. At times, this has been seen in his attitude, not backing down on the court, not tolerating nonsense. In the first half of a Christmas Day loss to Dallas, then-teammate Chimezie Metu threw a lazy pass that Luka Dončić picked off and converted into an easy layup. After the ball fell through the net, Booker realized that he had been the only Phoenix player to give chase. “Why aren’t you running back?” he yelled at Metu, audio picked up by game mics. “You just turn the ball over and don’t run back?”

But asked about the team’s frustration level after the April 9 loss to the Clippers, Booker took a different approach, keeping his feelings to himself but misreading the fanbase’s frustration. “Chillin’,’’ he said. “Another chance tomorrow.” He explained this by saying he’d seen nearly everything over his nine-year career, the highs and the lows.

This has been a theme of sorts. After head-scratching losses, it was easy to wonder if the Suns had enough leadership inside the locker room to help them navigate adversity. Durant said this week that while every Phoenix player has a voice – the freedom to bounce ideas and be heard – “the coach is the leader.”

It was a curious answer given that championship teams are usually player-led.


The Suns’ big three of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant did not mesh on the court this season. (Kiyoshi Mio / USA Today)
What’s next?

Over the regular season’s final weeks, Vogel preached the same message: That, after several injuries in the first half of the season, the Suns were improving. That they were figuring it out defensively. That this was a dangerous team.

But once the postseason began, as Phoenix prepared to face Minnesota, Vogel said that while the Suns had players with postseason experience, this would be the first time they’d go through it together. It sounded like an excuse. A coach trying to protect himself.

After Phoenix fell behind Minnesota 2-0, crumbling in the second half of each game, Durant was asked if that collective inexperience had contributed.

“Nah, I don’t think that’s a factor at all,” he said.

The Suns now enter the summer planning to build around their top six players in Booker, Durant, Beal, Allen, Nurkić and Royce O’Neale. Allen signed a four-year, $70 million contract extension before the start of the playoffs, and Phoenix officials hope to retain O’Neale as a free agent this offseason. Booker remains at the center of everything, and will be tasked with continuing to embrace an enhanced role as a leader and a return to his usual assassin self once he’s being set up by a proper point guard again — two things the team considers musts for the 2024-25 season. The Suns could also look to bring in additional locker room presence, which was filled late in the season by Isaiah Thomas and Thaddeus Young.

Looking forward, the NBA’s current salary cap projection for the 2024-25 season puts the second apron line at $189.5 million and the Suns owe their projected starting five a whopping $184 million, only $5.5 million under than that threshold. That means a massive tax bill will come from even filling out their roster with minimum contracts but even more importantly, the front office will have only a few methods to improve the roster in the offseason as teams over the second apron cannot use the midlevel exception or take on money in trades along with other restrictions in the new collective bargaining agreement.

In terms of assets for offseason moves, the Suns will have access on draft night to trade two first-round picks — No. 22 this year and one in 2031 — as well as holding a protected 2028 second-round pick from Boston.

On Sunday, Phoenix finally played with urgency. Booker was aggressive from the start, finally looking like the best player in the series. Durant was just as strong, scoring on dunks and fading jumpers.

With the outcome in doubt late in the contest, the sold-out crowd stood and chanted, “DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!” trying to will the Suns on to Game 5. But familiar problems surfaced. Phoenix committed three turnovers. Reserve Josh Okogie missed two foul shots. Minnesota held on, ending the Suns’ season.

As the final seconds ticked away, Ishbia sat with his children in their normal seats, across from the Phoenix bench. The offseason had arrived, earlier than expected, and difficult decisions await.

Wow. They sure had that ready to go.

Suns had an offense built for Chris Paul but didn't have Chris Paul. Fuckin genius.

That's a overly simplistic to me. They tried to make implement the bench scheme from the Finals run as the primary set, but Saric was an actual shooting threat while Nurkic isn't at all.

[Split T]

Ant really is a gem.

[Superbone]

I still don't think they can insert a PG if they're planning to play them with Booker, Beal, and KD.

Maybe the turnovers will go down, but the rebounding and defense will almost certainly be much worse.

Yeah, I think Beal will need to come off the bench. He can be sixth man.

$50M and he's coming off of the bench. I don't see it working.

The easiest way to fix the roster is to move one of the three $50M guys for complementary players. Enough with stuff that looks good on paper, build a team.

That's fine too. But we have to find a good situation for Beal in order for him to sign off on it.

[Wally_West]

They need to play bigger. Split is right about KD playing small. They need a legit 4 next to him. To me the 1-2-3 should be Beal-Book-KD next to a solid 4 and 5 who are good defensively and not total zeros on the offensive end. Either they can shoot 3s or rim run and be a lob threat.


An Aaron Gordon type would be great. I have no idea who that can for be but that’s what I’d be shooting for on a starting 5. Maybe Bol can be that 4 next to Durant idk.

[Superbone]

They need to play bigger. Split is right about KD playing small. They need a legit 4 next to him. To me the 1-2-3 should be Beal-Book-KD next to a solid 4 and 5 who are good defensively and not total zeros on the offensive end. Either they can shoot 3s or rim run and be a lob threat.


An Aaron Gordon type would be great. I have no idea who that can for be but that’s what I’d be shooting for on a starting 5. Maybe Bol can be that 4 next to Durant idk.

Really? You want to continue to run without a true point guard?

[Mori Chu]

I feel for Beal tonight. He had a nightmare of a game and you could see the disappointment and frustration on his face. I hope he uses that as fuel to come back better next year and doesn't let it get in his head like Nick Anderson did many years ago.

Coach should be fired but I'm glad he tried playing some new guys tonight including Okogie and Little. But then he played Gordon a lot of ineffective minutes and didn't try Bol.

Book and KD had nice nights offensively but there really wasn't much offensive flow otherwise. Nurk had a stinker of a game and struggled most of the series. I'm not down on Nurkic but this was a bad matchup for him. Anybody saying or implying that a certain former center of ours would have been better, well, all I can say is that former center also struggled mightily against Gobert. So I don't think he would have been the answer.

We can't trade Book, we won't trade KD, and the Beal trade can't be done because he'll block it and no team would take him anyway. So we're stuck with those guys. The more I think about it, the more I think this team would be well served by bringing some of our current starters off the bench. Having Beal be our 6th man would be huge. That way we could go get an actual PG and not force a square peg into a round hole. And/or maybe we bring Grayson Allen off the bench and start O'Neale for defense. I just think we need better offensive/defensive balance on the floor.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I still don't think they can insert a PG if they're planning to play them with Booker, Beal, and KD.

Maybe the turnovers will go down, but the rebounding and defense will almost certainly be much worse.

Yeah, I think Beal will need to come off the bench. He can be sixth man.

$50M and he's coming off of the bench. I don't see it working.

The easiest way to fix the roster is to move one of the three $50M guys for complementary players. Enough with stuff that looks good on paper, build a team.

That's fine too. But we have to find a good situation for Beal in order for him to sign off on it.

Orlando is the first place that stands out to me because it's not far from where he went to school in Gainesville. They have $42M in cap space coming up without desperately needing to re-sing anyone. The talent in the deal would likely look awful for the Suns on paper.

[Wally_West]

What pg are we getting for the vet min? Westbrook?

CP3 once GSW doesn't guarantee his deal. No way they're going into next year with 30 million to CP3.

The way CP was talking after the trade was makes me think the bridge is burnt between us.

[3TheHardaway]

If that 4 was Draymond Green or Lebron, you could roll with Book-Beal-KD 1-3.

If the Suns do snag Bronny, I think that means Beal stays and we go all in banking on LeDad signing for the minimum.

More likely is Beal is traded for size, and we figure out a more traditional PG thereafter.

[Flagrant Fowl]

They need to play bigger. Split is right about KD playing small. They need a legit 4 next to him. To me the 1-2-3 should be Beal-Book-KD next to a solid 4 and 5 who are good defensively and not total zeros on the offensive end. Either they can shoot 3s or rim run and be a lob threat.


An Aaron Gordon type would be great. I have no idea who that can for be but that’s what I’d be shooting for on a starting 5. Maybe Bol can be that 4 next to Durant idk.

Really? You want to continue to run without a true point guard?

This is when having a capable PG on the bench becomes viable. I think Wally's point is that this team needs to fix it's size/athleticism to improve their defense before anything else. It's about balancing the roster.

[Wally_West]

They need to play bigger. Split is right about KD playing small. They need a legit 4 next to him. To me the 1-2-3 should be Beal-Book-KD next to a solid 4 and 5 who are good defensively and not total zeros on the offensive end. Either they can shoot 3s or rim run and be a lob threat.


An Aaron Gordon type would be great. I have no idea who that can for be but that’s what I’d be shooting for on a starting 5. Maybe Bol can be that 4 next to Durant idk.

Really? You want to continue to run without a true point guard?

Not in the starting lineup. Beal isn’t going to the bench, thinking otherwise is silly, so that means starting a pg next to Beal and Book which makes us even smaller and even more vulnerable to teams with size.

A back up PG on the bench, replacing the EG minutes and being able to start if Book or Beal is hurt would be ideal.

[Wally_West]

They need to play bigger. Split is right about KD playing small. They need a legit 4 next to him. To me the 1-2-3 should be Beal-Book-KD next to a solid 4 and 5 who are good defensively and not total zeros on the offensive end. Either they can shoot 3s or rim run and be a lob threat.


An Aaron Gordon type would be great. I have no idea who that can for be but that’s what I’d be shooting for on a starting 5. Maybe Bol can be that 4 next to Durant idk.

Really? You want to continue to run without a true point guard?

This is when having a capable PG on the bench becomes viable. I think Wally's point is that this team needs to fix it's size/athleticism to improve their defense before anything else. It's about balancing the roster.

Bingo

[Wally_West]

If that 4 was Draymond Green or Lebron, you could roll with Book-Beal-KD 1-3.

If the Suns do snag Bronny, I think that means Beal stays and we go all in banking on LeDad signing for the minimum.

More likely is Beal is traded for size, and we figure out a more traditional PG thereafter.

Ngl Lebron would be great. Him as a pg on on this team would legit make us an offensive juggernaut. His defense has taken a big step back but he can play in spurts and lock in during big games. He just can’t do it over a full season.

A boy can dream.

[Split T]

I wish we could trade Beal for Dejounte Murray and Clint Capela…that would help a lot. You could still start Grayson, but I’d also happily bring him off the bench if we could find an actual wing. Like what if you traded Nurk with a 1st for Dorian Finney-Smith?

Murray/Booker/KD/DFS/Capela

Allen/Bol off the bench…plus whatever vet min guys you can find.

[Flagrant Fowl]

No chance in hell Atlanta would make that deal because they could do much better than Bradley Beal for Murray and Capela.

And they should be skeptical of pairing Beal with Trae Young.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I brought up Orlando, so I could see something like Joe Ingles, Jett Howard and draft capital for Beal.

I have a hard time believing the Suns could directly turn Beal into the right pieces to fit the rotation. It's more likely they'd have to start by freeing up space and acquiring contracts to eventually bring in their targets.

Targets? Who the hell am I kidding? We don't really know who is even running player personnel at this point.

[SunsSince92]

I feel for Beal tonight. He had a nightmare of a game and you could see the disappointment and frustration on his face. I hope he uses that as fuel to come back better next year and doesn't let it get in his head like Nick Anderson did many years ago.

Coach should be fired but I'm glad he tried playing some new guys tonight including Okogie and Little. But then he played Gordon a lot of ineffective minutes and didn't try Bol.

Book and KD had nice nights offensively but there really wasn't much offensive flow otherwise. Nurk had a stinker of a game and struggled most of the series. I'm not down on Nurkic but this was a bad matchup for him. Anybody saying or implying that a certain former center of ours would have been better, well, all I can say is that former center also struggled mightily against Gobert. So I don't think he would have been the answer.

We can't trade Book, we won't trade KD, and the Beal trade can't be done because he'll block it and no team would take him anyway. So we're stuck with those guys. The more I think about it, the more I think this team would be well served by bringing some of our current starters off the bench. Having Beal be our 6th man would be huge. That way we could go get an actual PG and not force a square peg into a round hole. And/or maybe we bring Grayson Allen off the bench and start O'Neale for defense. I just think we need better offensive/defensive balance on the floor.

I totally disagree on playing Little. Why on earth would you turn to a guy that hasn't played anything but garbage time minutes for months in the biggest game of the season. It made zero sense and was indicative of desperation.

Realistically we have to trade KD to have any chance of bringing back a serviceable PG/ rotation pieces. I don't see how we can go into next season with the 'big 3', Allen and a bunch of vet minimums and expect a different outcome.

Beal's not going anywhere so it has to be KD or Book. Personally I wouldn't be averse to trading either.