In a move that has been expected for a while now, the Phoenix Suns officially fired head coach Mike Budenholzer on Monday after a disastrous season that resulted in the Suns somehow missing the play-in tournament.

Now, Phoenix becomes the latest team to open up its head coaching vacancy after the Memphis Grizzlies and the Denver Nuggets also offloaded their head coaches before their playoff runs.

Plenty of reasons surely led to this decision to fire Budenholzer, some of which may not have been his fault. Regardless, the results on the floor weren't good enough but his relationship with the team's stars, specifically Devin Booker, may not have been good enough either according to Shams Charania.

“Budenholzer had issues connecting with the locker room this season, with team officials concluding that the roster failed to respond to the 2021 NBA championship coach, sources said,” Charania reported. “Budenholzer's inability to coexist with his players centered around the franchise's cornerstone, Devin Booker, and went down the roster, those sources said.”

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You could see the disconnect every time the Suns played this season. Not only was there a lack of execution on both ends of the floor, there was a lack of cohesion and chemistry between the players and the coaches that didn't allow them to play to their full potential.

Even if the Suns weren't firing to their best ability all season, there is really no excuse for a roster with Booker and Kevin Durant to have missed the play-in tournament over teams that are significantly less talented. Durant dealt with injuries throughout the season, but the team still should have had enough juice to at least get a chance to make a run.

Now, a long offseason begins in Phoenix as it tries to figure out how to salvage the Booker era and get back to competing for titles. All signs are pointing to Durant being traded, so the front office has a lot of work to do to rebuild the asset chest and get this team back to the top of the West.