Mike Budenholzer’s return to head coaching is not quite going according to plan.
An unflattering report emerged on Friday about the Phoenix Suns head coach Budenholzer. Speaking on his radio show “Burns & Gambo,” longtime Phoenix sportswriter John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported that Budenholzer has been “miserable” to work with behind the scenes in Phoenix this season.
“Mike Budenholzer has done a terrible job,” said Gambadoro. “To me, it looks like he’s disinterested in coaching this basketball team. From everything I hear in the organization, from people that are around [it], he is miserable to deal with. MISERABLE to deal with.”
The report from Gambadoro comes after veteran NBA writer Chris Haynes reported earlier in the day on Friday that Budenholzer recently called Suns franchise player Devin Booker into his office and complained that Booker was being too vocal on the court and during timeout huddles. Booker is said to have been “completely shocked” by Budenholzer’s complaint.
Despite having the NBA’s highest payroll this season at a gargantuan $220 million (plus another roughly $200 million or so in luxury tax), the Suns are just 27-32 in Budenholzer’s first year in charge of the team. That is not even good enough for a play-in tournament spot right now as Phoenix has failed to get any sort of buy-in or reliable contribution from anybody other than Booker (26.4 points and 6.9 assists per game) or Kevin Durant (26.9 points per game). The Suns now rank 27th in the league in defensive efficiency and are the losers of seven of their last eight games (with a more difficult schedule to close out the regular season still to come).
The future is also looking bleak for Phoenix as their first-round selection in the 2025 NBA Draft belongs to Houston, and they still owe a wide array of pick-swap rights and outright selections to other teams in future drafts as well. On top of that, Durant is growing frustrated with the Suns and will likely be traded away after the season.
Budenholzer, 55, is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year and led the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA title. But there have been signs in the past that he has not worked well with certain players, and that may be the case again in an increasingly ineffectual tenure for Budenholzer in Phoenix.
