Special to Sports News Highlights

(SNH) — Phoenix waited 11 days to fire coach Frank Vogel.

Vogel was in the first year of a five-year, $31 million contract. The Suns won 49 games but got swept out of the National Basketball Association Western Conference playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Management has already found a replacement in retread Mike Budenholzer, who reportedly already is assembling a staff. The former Milwaukee coach is expected to be announced next week.

Vogel isn’t the problem. The three-headed monster they assembled is.

Bradley Beal, acquired by Phoenix from Washington; All-Star guard Devin Booker and All-Star forward Kevin Durant don’t work. Durant turned on Vogel and he paid the price.

Budenholzer will have the same problems and similar frustrations Vogel experienced with this lineup.

Beal doesn’t fit. Booker is the shooting guard. Beal is a shooting guard. Neither one of them needs to play point guard. Neither plays much defense. Therein lies the problem.

Neither is a great defender. Neither is Durant. All three can score, but in this trio, Beal is the odd man out. When Booker has the ball, he isn’t necessarily looking for Beal. He is looking for Durant.

The best thing Beal did in the Minnesota series was foul out in Game 4. He was ineffective. He committed bad fouls. He couldn’t handle 22-year-old Anthony Edwards.

In short, Washington is smiling because it unloaded a monstrous contract by dumping Beal. He’s due $52 million next season. The year after it’s $54 million and the final year of his deal is $55 million.

No team with any fiscal responsibility in the NBA will take on a contract of Beal’s size with his inconsistency since he has been in Phoenix.

Owner Mat Ishbia has a problem.

According to ESPN reports, the Suns payroll is $209 million for next season. It adds up to a projected luxury tax of $116 million.

You can’t trade Booker, unless he wants out. He’s one of the best jump shooters in the league, and at 27 he’s still in his prime years.

You can’t trade Beal because the contract is too big. Duran? Even if you move him the Booker-Beal backcourt won’t work. One would have to start Booker, and Beal would have to come off the bench.

Less firepower with a Durant trade makes the Suns the sixth or seventh seed in the West with no size and two needy shooting guards. They have no interior defense.

The Suns may have done Vogel a favor because worse days could be in store.

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