How the Suns decided on Frank Vogel, and what hell bring to Phoenix

June 28, 2024

PHOENIX — Frank Vogel was early for his interview with Mat Ishbia. About 20 minutes early. The rest of the Suns’ executive team still had not arrived in Ishbia’s office inside the massive headquarters of United Wholesale Mortgage in Pontiac, Mich.

It was Friday, May 26, nearly two weeks after Ishbia and general manager James Jones had fired popular coach Monty Williams, setting an organization that had never won an NBA championship on a different path.

Ishbia, 43, had taken ownership of the Suns and Phoenix Mercury not even four months earlier but already he had made his mark. Three days after the sale went official, he orchestrated perhaps the biggest trade in Phoenix history, acquiring Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets, sacrificing a bit of the future while doubling down on the Suns’ present status as a title contender. Then, two days after Denver routed the Suns in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, Phoenix discarded Williams.

In his office, Ishbia and Vogel chatted casually while waiting on the others. Despite making his fortune in the mortgage-lending business, Ishbia had a basketball background, dating to his days as a Michigan State walk-on under coach Tom Izzo. Even so, he never had met Vogel. His initial impression, one that ultimately would contribute to Vogel getting the Phoenix job, is how comfortable he and others felt around him.

“Right away, he puts you at ease,” Ishbia told The Athletic.

In his sixth year in the Suns’ front office, Jones knew Vogel but not extensively. A former player, he had competed against Vogel’s teams during his days with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. With the former, Jones had played a supporting role behind stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to help eliminate Vogel’s Indiana Pacers, a stepping stone to two NBA championships. Since then, Jones occasionally had crossed paths with Vogel but little more. One thing Jones knew for sure: People whom he respected spoke highly of the 49-year-old coach. And he was starting to understand why.

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Throughout its history, which began in 1968, Phoenix has attracted coaches from all basketball backgrounds. In 1970, Cotton Fitzsimmons was just three months from his final game at Kansas State before taking the Phoenix job. “I expected to wind up in the NBA,” he said confidently upon his introduction. In 1973, John MacLeod arrived from the University of Oklahoma, where he had won 90 games in six seasons. In later years, former NBA players such as Paul Westphal, Danny Ainge and Jeff Hornacek ran the team. Mike D’Antoni and Igor Kokoskov brought international touches, all with different degrees of success.

This search produced similar basketball diversity. The Suns heard from top college coaches, top-tier NBA assistants and even head coaches. Executives attributed this to the organization’s location, where the sun shines year-round. To Durant and Devin Booker, two of the top scorers in the sport. To the organization’s commitment to winning. And how close Phoenix has been to capturing a title.

Under Williams, the Suns had advanced to the 2021 Finals, where they lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks. In 2022, they posted a franchise-record 64 wins and captured the top seed in the playoffs. In 2023, they added Durant to a core that included Booker, point guard Chris Paul and big man Deandre Ayton. The decision to make a change had come after fizzling out in the Western Conference semifinals for the second season in a row, but it went beyond the embarrassing loss.

“Sometimes you need an injection of something, a different message, a different focus, a different perspective,’’ Jones told The Athletic. “You just need a different message and someone to carry the message differently. That’s sports.”

Jones interviewed 10 candidates by Zoom and narrowed the list to five — Vogel, former Toronto coach Nick Nurse, former Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers, Phoenix assistant Kevin Young and Sacramento assistant Jordi Fernández. They liked that Vogel, Nurse and Rivers all had won championships. They liked the potential of Young and Fernández.

Throughout the process, Jones and Ishbia kept players such as Durant and Booker updated. This is the vision. This is the process. These are qualities and traits we’re looking for. These are the candidates.

“We want to make sure they feel comfortable about what we were doing,’’ Ishbia said.

“But they trust and believe in what we’re doing,” Jones said.

Over two days, the finalists flew out for face-to-face interviews in Michigan. At UWM headquarters, they toured the campus (Ishbia does this to show the culture he has built within his company) and met with the Phoenix team, which included Ishbia, Jones, CEO Josh Bartelstein and others. Vogel’s interview lasted nearly three hours.

The coach had been on this path for most of his life. Growing up in Wildwood Crest, N.J., a blue-collar community about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, he had played basketball on a hoop in front of his house. In 2016, Andy Ridgway, a gym teacher and assistant varsity basketball coach, told The Orlando Sentinel that the basketball court had been “like Frank’s heaven.” In college, Vogel traded in his playing career at Juniata College in Pennsylvania to become a team manager and learn from Rick Pitino at Kentucky.

Pitino and Kentucky assistant Jim O’Brien became Vogel’s ticket to the NBA. He edited video for the Boston Celtics and worked his way up to assistant coach. He worked under O’Brien with Philadelphia and Indiana before replacing him as head coach of the Pacers in 2011. He later coached the Orlando Magic and Lakers, winning the 2020 NBA title with a roster that included LeBron and Anthony Davis.

Among the priorities in the Suns’ search: experience coaching star players. Vogel coached LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers to the 2020 NBA title. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

During the interview in Michigan, Jones took notes. (“You can’t trust your memory,” he said.) What stood out most to the GM: Vogel’s experience. Vogel had coached young teams, older teams, championship-level teams, rebuilding teams and injured teams. Jones was impressed with how he had responded to different challenges. But, also, Vogel had a unique way of articulating ideas. He didn’t come off as someone delivering a sales pitch. To prep for the interview, Ishbia had talked to players who had played for Vogel and to owners who had employed him. No one had said a negative word, which surprised Ishbia simply “because we had dug pretty good.” Jones felt this during the interview.

“The clarity that he gave around his answers left you feeling that he was extremely genuine and authentic,’’ Jones said.

After the interview, Ishbia told the Phoenix executives to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend, to gather their thoughts and they would discuss the candidates during a strategy call Tuesday morning. During that time, news broke that Nurse had reached an agreement to coach the 76ers. Jones pored over his notes and was fairly certain. Vogel was their guy. He had everything they wanted.

— Championship pedigree. In addition to his championship with the Lakers, Vogel twice had led Indiana to the Eastern Conference finals.

— Experience coaching star players. It’s a player’s league, and stars win titles. During his career, Vogel had coached LeBron, Davis, Dwight Howard, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and David West. As an assistant, he had coached Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce and Jermaine O’Neal.

— An ability to adjust defensively. During his 10 full NBA seasons as a head coach, Vogel’s teams seven times had finished among the top 10 in defensive rating. Ishbia had noticed this while watching video of Vogel’s Indiana teams. “You can see he has complete control of the game,” Ishbia said. Jones didn’t need to see it on film; he had experienced it first-hand competing against the Pacers. “He tries to take away the things that you do well — without losing the identity of his team,’’ he said.

The decision was obvious.

“Check, check, check, check,” Ishbia said, referring to all the boxes the Suns had established throughout the process.

“He’s an incredible communicator and great guy,’’ Bartelstein, the Suns CEO, told The Athletic, “but also has an immense basketball acumen that can build deep-level strategy to win games at the highest level.”

The Suns and Vogel agreed to a five-year deal worth $31.25 million. They have since reached an agreement with Kevin Young to stay on as Vogel’s lead assistant (Ishbia said Young was highly impressive during the interview process) and added Utah associate GM and former NBA head coach David Fizdale to the staff as well.

In the three-plus weeks since dismissing Williams, the Suns have come a long way. The next step is improving the roster, which will require difficult decisions. But a major one is out of the way.

“It’s always hard,’’ Jones said of moving on from Williams. “These things are never easy, but in this business, you understand it’s hard all the way around. Winning, losing. It’s hard. It was difficult but necessary.”

“You have to have the right people,” Ishbia said. “You can’t win in business or in basketball or anything without the right people. And Frank is the right head coach. We obviously got some great stars on our team. … Everybody’s got to play their role. Now it’s time to start executing.”

(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

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