Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray had quite the take about who gets blamed for team-wide failures in the NBA, especially on the same day that the Phoenix Suns announced they fired coach Frank Vogel.
Murray took to social media and said "it's crazy how coaches get blamed before the players" in the aftermath of Thursday's news about Vogel:
Dejounte Murray @DejounteMurrayIt's Crazy How Coaches Get Blamed Before The Players!!!!! 🤦🏽♂️
Phoenix surely had championship aspirations at the start of the season given the trio of Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, but it ended up being swept in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
While Vogel's squad failed to live up to expectations, Beal missed 29 games during the regular season and there was no true point guard to rely on to set the stars up in ideal positions to score. What's more, the Suns weren't exactly loaded with quality depth behind the trio.
It was hard to completely blame Vogel given those circumstances, and then Beal went out and fouled out of the closeout game against the Timberwolves with nine points on 4-of-13 shooting and six turnovers.
Phoenix doesn't have a lot of options this offseason given the roster construction and amount of money tied up in Durant, Booker and Beal. One option was changing the coach with the hope a new voice could get the best out of the roster, and that is what the Suns chose to do while the playoffs are still ongoing for other teams.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer is seen as a "prominent" candidate. Budenholzer won a championship in 2021 with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, so he at least has a track record of getting the most out of a team with stars.
As for Murray, the comments are certainly noteworthy after the Hawks' 2022-23 campaign.
That season was his first in Atlanta after starting his career with the stability of Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs. The Hawks ended up firing Nate McMillan, using Joe Prunty as an interim coach for a grand total of two games and then hiring Quin Snyder for the end of the season.
They lost in the first round of the playoffs and then exited in the play-in tournament this season with Snyder remaining as the head coach.
