Steve Nash, Brooklyn Nets
PHOENIX – In the NBA, the head coach of a “Super Team” can quickly become a scapegoat if the team implodes without the expected fast success.
Phoenix Suns coach Frank Vogel was among them after the team was swept out of the Western Conference playoffs’ first-round playoff by the Minnesota Timberwolves, despite winning 49 games in his first year with the team. Vogel was fired on Thursday. It also was the first year of the “Big 3” – Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal – playing together.
The 2023-24 Suns were an example of a roster built around three or more All-Stars via blockbuster trades and free agency drawing championship expectations. When things don’t work out, it’s easier to get rid of the coach than a star player who carries a hefty contract.
Here are some more examples of coaches fired from Super Teams that fell short over the past decade.
Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns
Making the Suns relevant again in the tough West and league overall, plus Williams’ personal achievements during his four years in Phoenix didn’t matter when he was fired last year. Those achievements included a trip to the 2021 finals, which Phoenix lost, and a recordsetting 64 franchise wins the following year. He earned the 2021 NBCA Coach of the Year and 2022 NBA Coach of the Year, and had the third-best winning percentage in Suns’ history (.628).
After the Suns, under new owner Mat Ishbia, acquired Kevin Durant from the Nets in February 2023 to form their first version of the Big 3 with Booker and Chris Paul, expectations soared. But Phoenix was demolished at home for the second straight year in a series-closing Game 6 of the same round to eventual champ Denver in May 2023. Williams was replaced by Vogel soon after.
The Suns legend and Hall of Famer Steve Nash was a rookie head coach in September 2020. He got the ax two years after that when the Brooklyn Nets’ Big 3 couldn’t get over the hump in the postseason.
James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Durant played just 17 regular season games together for the Nets, with injuries a factor and Irving’s league suspension in November 2022 that resulted in eight games missed for posting an anti-Semitic video on social media.
Brooklyn completed a four-team trade to get Harden from Houston, which included a whopping eight of Brooklyn’s future first-round draft picks in exchange for him in January 2021. In their first season together, they lost to the eventual 2021 champion Milwaukee Bucks in the East semifinals’ Game 7 after the Nets took 2-0 and 3-2 series leads. The next season, the Nets were swept out of the first round by Boston. Durant demanded a trade in 2022, and gave an ultimatum to either upload his trade request or have Nash and Nets GM Sean Marks fired. Durant ultimately rescinded his trade request shortly before training camp, but Nash and the team agreed to part ways on Nov. 1, 2022. He finished with a 94-67 record.