'There's no justification for this': What comes next for the flailing Phoenix Suns -- and Kevin Durant

The speech, given in a bare and sterile concourse turned makeshift locker room at Walt Disney World, became both legend and rallying cry in the Phoenix Suns franchise.

It was June 2020. Standing in front of his team, Monty Williams was beaming after his young Suns team had gone 8-0 in the Orlando bubble to end its season.

"We are not the Suns of old!" Williams proclaimed. "It's hard to play the way you've played and not get the respect you deserve. But guess what, you've got it! We've shocked the world and this is special. You've gained the respect of the league!"

This was the last time, before this season of misery, the Suns missed the playoffs. Their run in Orlando left them just barely out of the first play-in tournament. Still, it was the 10th consecutive year the Suns missed the postseason. They'd gone over .500 only once in that span.

But Williams was right. The pivot had happened and the Suns were in the 2021 Finals the following summer. They'd made the playoffs ever since.

Last week, that streak thudded to an end after four years, and there was an absence of the inspiration of their last near miss.

"There's no justification for this," Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said in a news conference after the Suns lost by 38 points at home to the Golden State Warriors, the seventh straight loss by double digits that essentially ended their season. "We're going through a tough time."

Budenholzer was fired Monday, one year into a five-year, $50 million deal. The Suns will start next season with a fourth different head coach in as many seasons, all of the changes coming since owner Mat Ishbia bought the team in February 2023. General manager James Jones, architect of the Finals team and the 64-win team that followed in the 2021-22 season, is not under contract for next season, sources told ESPN.

"It's been a slow bleed out," franchise player Devin Booker acknowledged after the team was officially eliminated from postseason contention after an eighth straight double-digit loss, this one to Oklahoma City. "I've been feeling this way for the majority of the season."

It all raises an uncomfortable question: What can the Suns, with a failing $367 million roster -- the second-most expensive in NBA history --- and without control of any of their draft picks for the rest of the decade, do to avoid another multiyear drought?

This is a question the Suns have been privately confronting since last winter, when they began to come to grips with the reality that what they'd built was deeply flawed.

And while they now have no coach, and the possibility of some front office turnover, a new plan is being formalized -- and according to multiple sources close to the team, there are already cornerstones emerging.

Build around Booker as the franchise player

Booker was the franchise player before Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal were acquired, and he remains the franchise player. He was the franchise player before Budenholzer and previous one-year coach Frank Vogel -- Ishbia is on the hook for paying the departed coaches around $18 million combined next season, sources said -- and Booker remains so as he finishes the first season of a four-year, $220 million extension. Booker is eligible to sign a two-year, $149.8 million extension this summer, which Phoenix is expected to offer, sources said.

In his first season under Budenholzer, Booker averaged a career-high 37.3 minutes, 25.6 points -- his lowest since 2018 -- and shot a career-low 33% from 3.

As the season fell to pieces, Booker made a perceptible shift in speaking about the importance of his "voice." It was multifaceted -- and intentional, sources said. He and Budenholzer got into a dustup during the season about Booker's communication in team settings, such as in huddles and film sessions, sources said. Booker referencing it sent a message to the coach who was on his way out. And Booker, now 28 and 10 years into his career, is also subtly letting it be known he will have more to say going forward.

"[I need] to be a leader and use my voice more," Booker said last week. When he was asked whether that was to speak to teammates or to coaches and management, Booker made it clear.

"Everybody."

Still, because of the position the Suns put themselves in -- firmly in the second apron, with its severe salary cap limitations -- building quickly around Booker, a four-time All-Star, will be extremely challenging.

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Yes, it's time to trade Durant

The Suns played much better when Durant, who averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists in his 62 games this season, was in the lineup.

They were 3-17 in games in which he did not play. When he did, they went 33-29, a 44-win pace that still would've landed them ninth in the loaded Western Conference. They finished 11th.

Even so, on its face, this seems like a player a team should want to retain.

But with their sky-high payroll putting them in the NBA's penal second apron, the Suns' ability to adjust the roster is saddled with restrictions that kneecap any flexibility.

And of the few options they have to seriously alter a roster that failed, looking for a Durant trade is the most logical. They arrived at that conclusion midseason when they tried to trade him.

Trading Booker is not an option, the team has said publicly.

And even if the Suns find a way to swap some of their role players, the apron prevents them from combining any of their salaries or take back more money in a deal. This is why by late January they were on the phone discussing Durant deals -- an unpalatable end to a short-lived era that cost them four first-round picks, three pick swaps and valued young players Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson in the deal in February 2023.

When Durant, who has only next year at $55 million left on his contract, learned the organization was gaining traction on trading him back to Golden State, he informed team leaders he did not want to be traded and hoped to help the Suns turn around their season.

Durant explained his thinking to former teammate and Warrior Draymond Green on his podcast, saying: "I want my career to end on my terms, that's the only thing. That's the only thing I'm worried about."

The deadline passed without a deal.

Durant's hopes of salvaging the situation ended with a badly sprained left ankle on March 30, the final straw on his doomed season, and perhaps era, in Phoenix.

And while the idea of a midseason roster adjustment fizzled in February, the team learned some valuable information: that there was robust interest in Durant, including from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs, ESPN's Shams Charania reported recently.

The Wolves, also mired in the second apron, have resolved their ownership situation with Marc Lore expected to take over as governor by this summer. Sources said they were the most aggressive team in February in trying to get Durant, who is close with star Anthony Edwards, after the Warriors' option was taken off the table.

The Rockets hold two future first-round picks from the Suns (2027 and 2029) and can swap this year's lottery pick, which they will do. With these assets in house, the Rockets will always be lurking when the Suns do business over the next few years.

The Knicks have been interested in Durant for the better part of a decade and had hoped to land him in free agency in 2019. Depending on how their season ends, they could again revisit the concept this summer.

Privately, the Suns admit they made a mistake by not involving Durant earlier in the process. They had hoped to keep the discussions closed, the way the Dallas Mavericks did with Luka Doncic, but when the Suns inevitably had to discuss scenarios with third teams to find a way to execute a deal, word leaked across the league.

They appear to be trying a different approach going into the offseason. Rich Kleiman, Durant's longtime agent and business partner, planned to travel to Phoenix this week for discussions with the organization, sources said.

There are several concepts that will define how the potential trade discussions evolve.

If a team is going to pay a premium to acquire Durant -- and at midseason the Suns were indeed looking for a premium, sources said, specifically packages that include current or former All-Stars, young players and/or first-round picks -- then making sure he wouldn't simply be around for one season will be a priority.

Durant is eligible to add two years and up to $124 million to his contract, his three-year max being just short of $180 million. He will turn 37 before next season.

Finding a team Durant likes, and one that has the salary flexibility to add him, will be a challenge, especially if he prefers a contender. Finding one willing to pay him, able to make a deal with the Suns, and that can afford to pay him is an especially difficult alignment. The last time Durant was traded, the aprons had yet to take hold of the NBA.

There is also the option of finding a team comfortable with one year of Durant. This could be a team looking for a last piece in a title push -- or one looking to draw in fans. The team acquiring Durant would still have until June 30, 2026, to offer the same extension Phoenix could.

"Durant is a top-three name in this league," one high-ranking NBA official said. "I can see a team who'd love to have him for a season just to sell tickets."

How it will play out is difficult to foresee, with the playoffs, draft lottery, the draft itself and free agency still to come.

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Hire a coach for the long haul

There was surprise in league circles when Ishbia fired Williams after a 4-2 series loss in the 2023 conference semifinals to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets. They had been tied 2-2 in the series, but two Nikola Jokic triple-doubles led to blowouts in Games 5 and 6 and convinced ownership there was need for change. The Suns have not won a playoff game since.

In response, Ishbia became very focused on hiring a coach who had a championship on his résumé to replace Williams. That list initially included Doc Rivers and Nick Nurse, before Vogel, a 2020 champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, was hired. The franchise doubled down on that desire last spring after Vogel was dispatched for Budenholzer, who won his ring with the Milwaukee Bucks by beating the Suns in the 2021 finals.

The Suns also have brought in promising young coaches for interviews over the past several years, including Jordi Fernandez, who was later hired by the Brooklyn Nets, and former assistant Kevin Young, who has found success as the coach at BYU.

Whether the Suns hire a first-time head coach or another one with experience, they might pivot from someone who, at least by reputation, could instantly lead the team to a championship, to one who could come in and build relationships with the players. That, sources said, was something Budenholzer, who is still owed another $40 million, was unable to do.

In this way -- and in everything the Suns do this offseason to evaluate their flawed instant-gratification strategy that has gone belly up -- they might have to follow the directive of the tersely worded statement they published after Budenholzer's firing:

"Change is needed."

ESPN's Bobby Marks contributed to this report.