Suns fire coach Vogel after 1st-round playoff sweep, Bucks’ Beverley suspended 4 games

Frank Vogel’s tenure as coach of the Phoenix Suns is done after one disappointing season that ended without a playoff victory.

The franchise fired the 50-year-old Vogel on Thursday, less than two weeks after getting swept out of the first round of the NBA playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“After a thoughtful review of the season, we concluded that we needed a different head coach for our team,” Suns general manager James Jones said in a statement. “We appreciate Frank’s hard work and commitment.”

Vogel was hired last summer with much fanfare and charged with leading the Suns’ All-Star trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. The group had some good moments, but was never quite able to gel.

Beal was hurt for much of the first half of the season. Even when he returned, the Suns were plagued by turnovers and a thin bench. Vogel said before Game 4 against the Wolves that he’s “got the full support of [owner] Mat Ishbia” and expected to be back for a second season.

Now he’s out of a job.

Vogel always seemed like a strange fit for the Suns, even though he won a championship with the Lakers in 2020 in the Florida bubble. He was a defensive-minded coach in charge of a team that’s strength was offence. All season, it felt like the coach was searching for answers.

“You reflect back on the season, we were just inconsistent with our play and the style of play that we wanted,” Durant said after the playoff sweep. “But I think guys will dig deep this summer, work on what they need to work on individually, the coaches will make adjustments because we’ve got stuff on film from all season on who we can be.”

Booker and Durant are among the 12 players who will represent the U.S. at this year’s Paris Olympics.

Ishbia has been unafraid to make big changes in his one and a half years leading the franchise. He dealt for Durant at the trade deadline last season, blowing up a roster that had made the Finals in 2021. He also fired coach Monty Williams and added Beal last summer in another huge trade.

Those big changes have led to mostly big disappointment.

Now the franchise will be looking for its third head coach in three seasons. Former Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer — who beat the Suns in the 2021 Finals — is among the potential candidates.

“We are here to win a championship and last season was way below our expectations,” Jones said. “We will continue to evaluate our operation and make the necessary changes to reach our championship-calibre goals. We all take accountability, and it’s my job, along with Josh and ownership, to build a championship team.”

Jones doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre with the roster under the league’s salary cap unless major changes are made. Durant, Booker and Beal all have big salaries and Grayson Allen just received a $70 million US, four-year extension.

The Suns finished the regular season with a 49-33 record, earning the No. 6 seed to narrowly avoid the play-in tournament.

Vogel has a 480-422 record over 12 seasons with the Pacers, Lakers and Suns.

Bucks’ Beverley suspended 4 games

Milwaukee Bucks guard Patrick Beverley was suspended by the NBA on Thursday for four games without pay to begin next season for his actions during and after the final game of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers.

This suspension was handed down one day after Indianapolis police said they were investigating an “NBA player and citizen” altercation that happened during that May 2 game without mentioning anyone by name.

Beverley threw a ball at fans in the closing minutes of Milwaukee’s 120-98 Game 6 loss at Indiana that knocked the Bucks out of the playoffs. Cameras showed him sitting on the bench and tossing a ball into the stands, hitting a fan in the head with about two and a half minutes left. After a different fan threw the ball back to Beverley, who was holding his arm out for it, the Bucks guard fired it back at that spectator.

Beverley spoke about his behaviour on an episode of “The Pat Bev Podcast” that was released Wednesday. He said he was called a word that he’d never been called before, but added that his actions were “still inexcusable.”

“I will be better,” he said. “I have to be better, and I will be better. That should have never happened. Regardless of what was said, that should have never happened. Simple as that.”

After the game, Beverley wouldn’t allow ESPN journalist Malinda Adams to ask him a question in a group interview in the locker room. He said it was because she didn’t subscribe to his podcast. Beverley told her to get her microphone out of his face and then eventually asked her to leave the interview circle.

The next day, Adams said on X that she had received apologies from both the Bucks and from Beverley himself.

On his podcast, Beverley said he had asked that of reporters who interviewed him ever since he launched his podcast. Beverley said he told Adams that “it was never my intent to disrespect you.”

A day after the game, Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Beverley’s behaviour was “not the Milwaukee way or the Bucks way.

“We’re better than that,” Rivers said. “Pat feels awful about that. He also understands emotionally — this is an emotional game and things happen — unfortunately, you’re judged immediately and he let the emotions get the better of him.”

‘Big Baby’ Davis sentenced to 40 months for fraud

Former Boston Celtics player Glen “Big Baby” Davis was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in a federal prison for his participation in a scheme New York prosecutors said defrauded an insurance plan for NBA players and their families of more than $5 million.

More than 20 people were convicted in the case, many of them one-time NBA players who submitted fictitious dental and medical claims to the NBA Players’ Health and Benefit Welfare Plan. A jury found Davis and former Detroit Pistons guard Will Bynum guilty in November.

Davis will have three years of supervised release after he serves his term, and he has been ordered to pay $80,000 in restitution. Davis’ attorney, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment. Bynum was sentenced last month to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release and also must pay $182,224 in restitution.

Prosecutors said doctors and dentists working with the players created fraudulent invoices that were submitted to the supplemental insurance plan for reimbursement.

Davis was found guilty of health care fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to make false statements and conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.

Davis was the Southeastern Conference player of the year while leading LSU to the 2006 NCAA championship game. He played for three teams over eight NBA seasons and was a member of the Celtics’ 2008 title team.