On May 11, Beijing time, according to Shams, the Suns have acquired Budenholzer with an annual salary of more than 10 million, with a contract amount of more than $50 million for five years.
The Suns fired Vogel on May 10 after announcing that the team needed to make a change due to their poor record. The team has the league's third-highest player salaries and taxes, and with the goal of delivering championship-caliber basketball games to fans, management has run out of patience.
Vogel signed a five-year, $31.2 million contract with the Suns in the 2023 offseason and has led the Suns to a 49-33 record this season. Unfortunately, they faced the strongest team in the West this season and were swept out 4-0 by the Timberwolves.
Vogel's tuning is known for its defense, but the Suns are a singles team, and the style of the two sides is really not suitable.
Budenholzer was fired by the team in May 2023 due to the Bucks' black eight by the Heat and has been unemployed.
Budenholzer made his debut as an assistant coach to Popovich. His first head coaching resume was with the Hawks, where he was named the best coach of the year with the Hawks to a 60-22 record in the 14-15 season.
He was promoted to president of basketball for the Hawks, and while the offensive tuning was unique in the league, the Hawks never went further in the playoffs. In the 17-18 season, the Hawks failed to make the playoffs, and Budenholzer was cut.
After losing his job, Budenholzer landed a job with the Bucks in less than a month. Budenholzer became the new head coach of the Bucks in May 2018, and under his coaching, the Bucks have a total of 271 wins and 120 losses, and have always been among the best in the East.
His main achievement with the Bucks is to adjust the offense and boost the record, and in 2023 the Bucks are ranked first in the league with a 58-24 record. In addition, his highlight was undoubtedly the 20-21 season when he led the Bucks to defeat the Suns to win the NBA championship.
So, now after two weeks of intent on the Lakers, one of the Lakers' top targets, Budenholzer, was cut off by the Suns with a high salary. Today's market for good managers is very scarce, and scarce is expensive, so the market will not wait for you to hold coins and choose slowly.
The Lakers' management team simply doesn't want to pay a lot of money in the coaching role. Their main focus at the moment is to think about James's idea, and take Bronny down first.