Reports: Suns finalizing deal to hire Frank Vogel as next head coach

Frank Vogel last served as coach of the Lakers from 2019-2022.

The Phoenix Suns are set to hire veteran coach Frank Vogel to fill their vacancy, per multiple reports.

The Phoenix Suns are hiring Frank Vogel as the team's new head coach. After two East Finals with Paul George in Indy, an NBA title with LeBron James and Anthony Davis in LA, Vogel now will coach Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.

Details at @TheAthletic: https://t.co/QWzIOPShyC

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 2, 2023

BREAKING: The Suns are planning to hire Frank Vogel as the franchise’s next coach, sources tell ESPN. Sides are starting work on a long-term deal. Vogel brings with him a 2020 NBA title and history of constructing high-level defenses. pic.twitter.com/csF6bO8Bp7

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2023

Vogel has been out of the NBA since the Los Angeles Lakers fired him after the 2021-22 season. He led the Lakers to an NBA title in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season and was 127-98 in three seasons there, making the playoffs twice. Vogel was fired exactly 18 months after he led the Lakers to the franchise’s 17th title in his first season in charge.

In Phoenix, Vogel will replace coach Monty Williams, who was dismissed shortly after the team’s loss to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. Williams recently reached a reported $78.8 million deal to become the Detroit Pistons’ coach, but that move has yet to be made official.

Suns GM James Jones hired Williams in 2019, when Robert Sarver still owned the Suns. He proceeded to lift Phoenix’s culture and winning rate, culminating in a Finals run that simultaneously snapped the longest playoff drought in team history. They followed that up with a franchise-record 64-win season in 2021-22, only to be stunned by Dallas.

The 2022-23 season went less smoothly for Williams and the Suns. Veteran starter Jae Crowder requested a trade and did not suit up for the team before ultimately being dealt as part of a blockbuster deal that brought Kevin Durant from Brooklyn to Phoenix. Yet Durant’s arrival was immediately met by the same ill injury luck that plagued the team all season, and the newly arrived superstar played in just eight games with his new team before the playoffs.

Williams’ chemistry with starting center Deandre Ayton was also of note. The former and franchise’s first No. 1 overall pick, Ayton surprised many when he said neither he nor Williams spoke during the 2022 offseason, which saw Ayton sign a max offer sheet with Indiana before Phoenix promptly matched it to keep him. Ayton’s 2023 playoff production was especially diminished compared to previous seasons, and Williams ultimately benched him in favor of backup big man Jock Landale during key moments of the Suns-Nuggets series.

Vogel is perhaps best known for the era of success he enjoyed with the Indiana Pacers in the early 2010s, when they made the playoffs in five out of six seasons (2010-11 to 2015-16) under him. The high mark under Vogel came in 2013-14, when the Pacers won 56 games with a team led by Paul George, David West and others.

Vogel was fired by the Pacers as their coach on May 5, 2016 but wasn’t unemployed for long. He then became coach of the Orlando Magic for two seasons, amassing a 54-110 record as the team went through a lengthy rebuild.

Vogel was hired in May 2019 by the Lakers to assemble a cohesive team around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who was officially acquired from New Orleans two months later. Vogel’s plans worked right away: His first team weathered the NBA’s coronavirus shutdown and then won a ring, with Vogel leading a deep, defensively dominant group to the title.

Ultimately, the Lakers parted ways with Vogel after a 33-49 season in 2021-22 in which a veteran-laden roster led by James, Davis and Russell Westbrook failed to ever find its rhythm.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.