Suns given permission to interview Hawks’ Mike Budenholzer

The Phoenix Suns have been granted permission from the Atlanta Hawks to interview their current head coach Mike Budenholzer, according to 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s John Gambadoro.

An Arizona native born and raised in Holbrook, Budenholzer has two years remaining on his deal with the Hawks for over $14 million, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

In the 2014-15 season, Budenholzer led the Hawks to 60 wins, a No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Eastern Conference Finals in his second year as head coach. He was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year.

Budenholzer was promoted to president of basketball operations in the summer of 2015.

The Hawks would follow the next two seasons with win totals of 48 and 43, but a core built around Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague would disintegrate. All three players were gone by the start of the 2017-18 season.

Budenholzer resigned from the position of president of basketball operations last summer and the team went 24-58 this season. It was the first season under Budenholzer that Atlanta would miss the playoffs.

He previously worked as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs from 1996-2013 under Gregg Popovich. He won four NBA championships with San Antonio during that time.

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