Mike Budenholzer’s five seasons as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks are filled with lasting, proud and disappointing memories.
He captured NBA Coach of the Year honors his first year at Milwaukee in 2018-19, coached the Bucks to the 2020-21 NBA championship and won nearly 70% of his games there.
Budenholzer experienced personal struggles and lost his brother in a car crash during the 2023 first-round series the No. 1 seeded Bucks lost to Miami and was fired after that.
Nearly two years later, Budenholzer is facing the franchise Monday for the first time since being let go when the Suns play host to the Bucks at PHX Arena.
“I feel like coach Bud would say it’s just like any other game, but it’s probably a little different considering how long he was there, winning a championship there,” Suns guard Grayson Allen, who played two seasons (2021-23) under Budenholzer in Milwaukee.
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“I’m sure he’s thinking about some of that, but at the same time, I know he’ll say same preparation, same everything.”
Pretty close there.
“It was a great five years, but I think right now before the game, I’d rather just focus on Phoenix, focus on us, get ready to do our jobs,” said Budenholzer, who didn’t do media availability after Sunday’s practice or after Monday’s early shootaround, after the Suns said he’d available for both. “Our players don’t care. I probably shouldn’t, either.”
Correction, coach. Your players do care and think you do as well.
“Knowing Bud, I know he’ll have a little bit more juice to play against his former team,” Suns superstar Kevin Durant said after Friday’s upset win over Cleveland. “We got to match his energy. Usually, great teams match the coach’s energy. So we’re looking forward to playing that game.”
Next week, Phoenix plays at Milwaukee for the rematch for what should be an emotional return for the two-time NBA coach of the year, who posted a 271-120 record with the Bucks.
“To take this long to get to this game here it’s late March,” Budenholzer said. “First time playing anybody in the league. A little bit of quirkiness, unusual, but every NBA schedule has a little bit of that.”
Suns ‘grinding’ after fast start, decline
The Suns were riding a three-game win streak going into Monday’s game, which is part of a five-game homestand that ends Wednesday against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics.
They’re coming off a 123-112 victory Friday over East leader Cleveland.
“We keep grinding, man,” Durant said after Friday’s win. “Like I’ve been saying, even though it’s late in the season, we only have a handful of games left, but those are the most important games. Looking forward to playing them.”
Budenholzer didn’t coach last season after he and the Bucks parted ways. He reconnected with his family and landed a dream job coaching the Suns back in his home state of Arizona, but the season hasn’t gone as planned.
Phoenix started 8-1, but it has fallen way short of expectations with the NBA’s highest payroll. The Suns fell as far as six games under .500, but rookie big Oso Ighodaro isn’t putting their disappointing season on Budenholzer.
“I always feel like it comes down to the players on the floor and what we have to do,” Ighodaro said after Sunday’s practice.
“They give us the game plan and how they want us to execute it, but I think it comes down to us on the court. All season, he’s done a good job of holding us accountable. I’m a firm believer you’ve got to go out there and get it done. You can talk, you can have a great game plan, but if you don’t go out there and execute and play hard, we can’t win games no matter how talented we are.”
Budenholzer is Phoenix’s third coach in three years under new team owner Mat Ishbia, who fired Monty Williams after the 2022-23 season and Frank Vogel following the 2024-25 season.
Now Budenholzer, who is on a five-year contract for $50-plus million, will wind up with fewer wins than Vogel even if Phoenix wins its remaining 11 games. The Suns went 49-33 last season, but Minnesota swept them in the first round of the 2024 playoffs.
Williams went 45-37 in his final season with the Suns, who fell to the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets in six games in the Western Conference semifinals. Budenholzer would have to win his final 11 games to match Williams’ win total that season.
Durant: Every game ‘means a lot’
Ishbia is still paying Vogel on a five-year, $31-million deal, but he’s also fielding the NBA’s first $400-million team.
So, like Jermaine Dupri and Jay-Z, spending money hasn’t been a thing for Ishbia, but winning a championship is the ultimate goal. The Suns will likely have to go through the play-in just to reach the playoffs, but a deep postseason run would go a long way in Budenholzer breaking that one-and-done trend in Phoenix under Ishbia.
“Every game at this point with where we are means a lot,” Durant said after Friday’s win.
Budenholzer’s first season in Phoenix is also being defined by his interactions and relationship with players, starting with Durant.
The coach and superstar have had their share of heated exchanges this season with TNT capturing one of them on camera during a March 4 win against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Budenholzer has chalked it up as the two being “old friends.”
Durant has been more open in discussing the relationship.
“You catch something on TV, get a quote and now you pushing that narrative as if me and Bud don’t do that (expletive) all the time,” Durant said. “We’re competitive as two individuals who want to see things done the right way.”
Durant recently addressed a question about how it appears he’s telling Budenholzer what to do during the game and timeouts.
“I don’t say, ‘Coach, we’ve got to do this.’ It’s his team,” Durant said last week. “I’m here to be of assistance. If he needs me to do anything. If I got some suggestions on what may happen, I’m asking him. I’m not telling him what to do. I’m asking him, ‘Yo, Coach, what you think, we should do this right here?’ If he doesn’t think so, all right, then I’ll move on.”
NBA Insider Chris Haynes reported earlier this season that Budenholzer told Devin Booker to “tone down” his voice during the game and timeouts and that it shocked the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.
“When things start going bad, everybody tries to point fingers to find out what’s wrong,” Booker said earlier this month. “People are going to come up with stuff. The relationship is great. We’re on the same page, we’re trying to win and that’s that.”
Jones: ‘You’re going to make changes’
Then there’s Budenholzer’s benching of three-time All-Star Bradley Beal on Jan. 6 at Philadelphia for rookie Ryan Dunn, a move that drew national attention considering Beal had last come off the bench in his fourth NBA season in 2015-16.
Beal is in the middle of a five-year, $251-million deal.
“We’re always kind of looking and trying to figure out the best combinations, the best groups,” Budenholzer said. “We keep trying and we keep mixing it up.”
Budenholzer also benched Jusuf Nurkic the same game. The 7-footer later said he and Budenholzer didn’t talk for months.
“We don’t have a relationship,” Nurkic said back in January. “So, it’s fine. For me, just be a pro and do the best I can. Work and stay ready for whatever might be, but there is no chaos or bringing that to this team. They already have plenty of it. Trying to be as professional as I can and work my ass off for something else.”
The Suns later traded Nurkic to Charlotte right before the trade deadline.
Budenholzer later put Beal back in the starting lineup on Feb. 22 at Chicago in place of Tyus Jones, who had started 54 games this season before that decision.
“Definitely wasn’t the easiest thing, but I definitely feel for coach, too, because it’s not easy trying to figure out where the energy is coming from and how you can put some lineups together,” Beal said after the road win over the Bulls. “He’s doing what he can to give us that push. I don’t do anything but support whatever he does. Can’t do nothing but respect it and go out there and compete.”
Jones has had to adapt to changing roles throughout the season under Budenholzer.
“The season hasn’t gone as anyone was expecting or would’ve planned,” Jones said after Sunday’s practice. “When you’re not winning games or as many games as you’re supposed to be or expecting to, you’re going to make adjustments, you’re going to make changes and I think that’s what Bud has done.”
Ighodaro: ‘So many moving parts’
Beal was missing a fourth straight game Monday, but Budenholzer has started two-way player Collin Gillespie at point guard instead of Jones.
“He’s the head coach, he has to make difficult choices, difficult decisions on a daily basis,” Jones later said. “Whether it’s rotations, whether it’s scheme, whether it’s philosophies or different things like that. For me, all I can do is show up, work every day. Whatever role I’m asked to play, do it to the best of my abilities.”
The latest changes have factored in the Suns riding a three-game win streak, something it last did in late January.
“We’re hanging our hat on the defensive end,” Booker said. “We’ve been saying that all year. It’s super important. We can score with the best of them. I feel like it’s easier to score after we’re getting stops.”
Budenholzer is still searching, but he may have found a winning formula at the right and most necessary time of his first season in Phoenix.
“There’s been so many moving parts this year,” Ighodaro said. “Rotations, health, our schedule, schedule, everything, but I think we’ve done a good job, especially as of late coming together and still just trying to find a way to make things work and make a run at the end of the season.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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