ScapeG.O.A.T.'d

Frank Vogel gets shot out of another canon. Kevin Durant goes through another head coach.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Interior With Poppies and Reading Woman; Anna Ancher; 1905

The most difficult job in the National Basketball Association just might be keeping your job as Kevin Durant’s head coach.

The Suns dismissed Frank Vogel on Thursday, less than a year after hiring him. Getting to 49 wins in the West and getting swept by a team currently up 2-0 on the defending champs wasn’t enough for a second swing in 2024-25.

When the Suns hire a new head coach, assuming they don’t trade Durant this summer, that coach will be Durant’s fifth in two years. FIFTH IN TWO YEARS. At the beginning of last season (2022-23), Steve Nash was Durant’s head coach. Durant pushed for his dismissal; Nash basically quit a couple weeks into the regular season. He was replaced by Jacque Vaughn. After a few months under Vaughn, Durant re-requested a trade. It was granted and he landed in Phoenix under Monty Williams … who was fired after a disappointing second-round exit. Vogel was hired in his place; Vogel lasted exactly one season. I suspect none of Durant’s recent past coaches will be back in Phoenix next fall; ergo, that’s five head coaches in two years with just one trade in there. Incredible.

The last time Vogel was fired, it was two years after winning a championship and it also involved an all-time great, as LeBron James’ Lakers canned Vogel in 2022. LeBron, for what it’s worth, has been through three head coaches in six years in Los Angeles: Luke Walton, Vogel and now Darvin Ham.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has had three head coaches in two years: Mike Budenholzer (fired two years after a championship), Adrian Griffin and Doc Rivers.

This is all to point out how deeply unstable life is for coaching at the top of the league.