In less than two weeks of facing a humiliating sweep in the first round, the Phoenix Suns have made multiple changes to improve their chances next season. Primarily, they started by firing first-year head coach Frank Vogel on Thursday, even though he led them to the sixth seed in the West despite the team dealing with multiple injuries all year.

Then, just a day later, the Suns might have found their new leader, a person who led the Milwaukee Bucks to a title three years ago and ended their fifty-year Championship drought- Mike Budenholzer. As tweeted by NBA Insider Shams Charania, Budenholzer has reportedly agreed to a five-year fifty-plus million deal with the Suns to take on their vacant head coaching position.

“After a thoughtful review of the season, we concluded that we needed a different head coach for our team.” While firing Vogel, Suns GM, James Jones, made it clear that they were not happy with the way this season played out for the Suns. And hiring Mike Budenholzer, a veteran professional with ten years of head coaching experience under his belt, could prove to be a great decision for the benefit of the team. Moreover, it might possibly solve the issues that Kevin Durant has been facing in Phoenix lately.

Soon after the Suns’ Big 3 experiment crashed and burned, reports about KD being unhappy with his role alongside Bradley Beal and Devin Booker broke out. Displeased with how he was used under the leadership of Vogel and never feeling comfortable in his new role, Durant might expect a big change next season. Going by what the sources told The Athletic, The Slim Reaper constantly felt like he was being pushed to the corner way too often and was not getting opportunities to play to his strength, hindering his productivity in the regular season and maybe also during their brief playoff run.

Can Mike Budenholzer turn things around in Phoenix?

If the Suns front office decides to give the KD, Beal, and Booker trio one more run at accomplishing their goal, Budenholzer might play a key part in their master plan. More importantly, the coaching change could do wonders for Durant as Budenholzer has a lot of experience coaching and adjusting to the style of a superstar forward from the time he coached Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee.

On top of that, Budenholzer worked seventeen years as an assistant coach under one of the greatest coaches in NBA history, Gregg Popovich, in San Antonio, which would have taught him how to handle multiple superstars being on the same team. Then, taking the head coaching job for the Atlanta Hawks, after his lengthy run with the Spurs, Budenholzer bagged his career’s first Coach of the Year trophy nearly a decade ago by leading the Hawks to a 60-22 record.

Proving that his first victory was not a fluke, he achieved the same feat four years later in Milwaukee, winning his second Coach of the Year award by helping the Bucks become the top team in the East, again with a sixty-win record. With his versatile coaching tenures and vast experience of playing in pressure situations and Championship games, Budenholzer might be the exact change the Suns needed to get over the hump.

“We are here to win a championship and last season was way below our expectations.” With Jones making the team’s expectations clear for next season, hopefully Budenholzer will be able to solve the Suns’ problems and lead them to a Championship as he did in Milwaukee.