CEO: Mike Budenholzer engaging Suns, from Kevin Durant to 2-way players

It’s nitpicky to find too serious of flaws in the Phoenix Suns’ 7-1 start under head coach Mike Budenholzer.

As we learned last season with Frank Vogel in charge, there can be red flags and warning signs in wins as much as losses. The record can be an indicator that any problems with Phoenix so far will raise questions about the ceiling rather than the floor.

Because if you judge the Suns on an individual basis so far, there’s a case to be made that a very strong majority of players are confident, comfortable and buying in.

Suns president and CEO Josh Bartelstein throws a good chunk of the credit at head coach Mike Budenholzer, who has made his approach as much about the human relationships as the Xs and Os.

“The attention to detail is off the charts,” Bartelstein told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Friday. “He comes into one of our first meetings (after Budenholzer was hired) and he has a list of every player on our team, from the stars to the two-way guys: ‘Here’s my plan to go meet them.’ Not just talk to them on the phone, but go meet them in person.”

So Budenholzer visited Jusuf Nurkic in Europe and dropped by Kevin Durant and Devin Booker in France around their Olympics run. On and on down the line.

“I think what we’ve built is a care factor and a trust factor with him and our staff and our players,” Bartelstein said. “They truly think the coaching staff cares about them, that matters. When you actually care, you can coach them as players. You can hold them accountable. You can tell them when they took a bad shot, you can tell them when they’re not defending the right way. But they have to know you care about them first.”

Suns trending up and down have earned Mike Budenholzer’s trust

To this point, Nurkic’s season is a good example of what that player-coach trust means. He was yanked from his regular rotation role twice against the Lakers in the first week of the season due to matchup issues and mistakes, as he was still getting his legs back after missing the preseason.

The minutes have built back up this past week against Philadelphia and Miami, with Nurkic posting 20 points and 18 rebounds Wednesday in a win against the Heat. There, he outplayed Olympian Bam Adebayo.

On the other side of the spectrum are Durant and Bradley Beal, who have been efficient offensively and active defensively.

There has been buy-in from Beal playing the role of third banana with an emphasis on his defensive assignments, while Durant has found his points in a more efficient way compared to last season.

“What he’s doing is just ridiculous,” Bartelstein said of Durant. “I think it goes to optimizing our team … from bringing in Bud, to the guys around our roster from Tyus (Jones) to Monte (Morris), to re-signing Royce (O’Neale) and Grayson (Allen), the draft picks, how we put KD in the best position to be as dominant as he is.

“That’s (about) where he’s getting the ball on the court, the actions we’re running for him so there’s not as much stress where he’s catching it. Also defensively — he’s been great defensively — but not having to guard the best guys every night.”

Durant is shooting 55% overall and 42% from 3 this season, and he’s adding 1.4 blocks as his defensive activity has popped.

Phoenix’s challenge is how to keep bench players engaged with the rotation already tightening up after the first few games.

The solution is the same thing, Bartelstein believes: Keeping people engaged and trusting in the coaching staff.

“There’s some guys not playing right now that are really good NBA players. We’ve been really intentional about building out our team,” the CEO said. “Everyone has a role and we talk about it all the time.

“We have playgroups where yesterday we had practice where the guys who haven’t played as much are playing 5-on-5 and staying in shape. And Coach engages them. Some teams, the guys who aren’t stars who don’t play as much, you don’t have the same level of communication, you don’t take them to dinner, you don’t ask them how their family is. For us, there’s no difference. We’re going to spend the same amount of time with player 15 as we are with player 1. I think they see that and they don’t feel forgotten.”

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