1 seed in the West while Phoenix was seeded fourth. It was time for change and we made a tough decision to change, but change for the better." After we looked at it, sitting down, evaluating it, we just thought it was time to inject a different voice, different vision. Hard decisions are made, tough decisions are made, but for us, it was necessary. "Personally, really hard, professionally really hard," said Jones about the firing of Williams. They lost Game 7 to Dallas by 33 points in the 2022 playoffs as the top overall seed and Game 6 to Denver by 25 points in this year’s postseason. The Suns fired Williams after being eliminated from the playoffs in the Western Conference semifinals on their home court for a second straight year. "His willingness to come in and dig in and be honest and transparent and to communicate those things, it was really impressive." Vogel coached seven teams to the playoffs in his 11 seasons as a head coach. And when we looked at all of those things, we just wanted a well-rounded coach we felt could help us, lead on both sides of the ball and Frank checked all those boxes." Someone who had experience coaching young, talented players. Being really good on both sides of the ball. "When we went through this process, we were looking for people who had certain characteristics," Jones said. Vogel coached the Lakers to the 2019-20 NBA championship as the end of the regular season and postseason ended in the Orlando Bubble. So as we went through it, they said, 'Hey, if these are the things that you're looking for, we're on board and we'll be ready to rock come opening day." If we can find someone with the attributes we're looking for, we'll be OK. "We talked to those guys about a lot of things, basketball in general, but we've been in communication around the numerous candidates, but it always came back down to the attributes we were looking for and they just felt like how I feel. Read more: Suns introduce Frank Vogel as new head coach Jones said he talked with Durant and Booker about "numerous" candidates when asked if he had talked with his star players before making the hire. "KD even hit me when we were talking, he said, 'I can't wait to guard in your system.' He wants to get after it on both sides of the ball and feels like that's something that really gets him going on the other end and I love that." "I really love how Kevin and Devin compete on the defensive end," he said. Vogel is known for his defensive schemes and strategy as three of his teams have finished first in the league in defensive rating and two more ranked third at the end of the regular season. Vogel later said Durant talked to him about looking forward to playing defense in his system. A lot of our expectations and hopes on what we want to do to this league this year, we're all very excited about." "A lot of our beliefs are really aligned. "Had great conversations with those guys after being hired," Vogel said. The new Suns head coach had his introductory news conference Tuesday afternoon at Footprint Center. Vogel said he's talked to Booker and Durant since the hire. View Gallery: Photos: Frank Vogel introduced as Phoenix Suns head coach "For coaches, it's critical that you have buy-in, that you have belief, but that usually comes with your resume and that usually comes with your relationships and Frank has both of those." Vogel was a finalist for the job along with Nick Nurse, Doc Rivers, Suns associate head coach Kevin Young and Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez. "When we talk to these guys about the things that we want, the things that we need to do and the areas we need to improve in, we communicate to them and they believe in that, then they believe in the process and the people that you bring in." "We have it and we've always had it because our focus is on winning championships," Suns president of basketball operations and general manager James Jones said Tuesday. Watch Video: Video: Phoenix Suns introduce Frank Vogel as head coachĪ typical part of hiring a coach is having the best players on the team buy into the decision.ĭevin Booker and Kevin Durant have bought into the Phoenix Suns choosing Frank Vogel to replace Monty Williams as head coach.
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