With the Phoenix Suns’ dismissal of Mike Budenholzer, another quality head coach has hit the market. For a team like Philadelphia 76ers who need someone to right the ship, Budenholzer could be their man.
Right now, the Sixers are a mess. Under head coach Nick Nurse, their past few seasons have been mediocre, with the most recent being abysmal. Nurse was a good hire at the time, coming off a Toronto Raptors title and a couple good years, but his luck with Philly didn’t pan out.
In comes Budenholzer. In his career, he’s a much better coach than Nurse. He has a career record of 520-363, which is a 59% win rate. With his two teams before Phoenix, he turned the Atlanta Hawks into a playoff contender, making the playoffs every year except his last when they blew up, and then turned the Milwaukee Bucks into a powerhouse.
He also won a championship with the Bucks in 2021, where the Bucks came back from a 2-0 deficit against his most recent team, the Suns. He has a storied career as a coach, and only two bad seasons, which were both out of his control.
A team like the Sixers would definitely benefit from a coach like Budenholzer. While both he and Nurse have championships, Budenholzer has something else; a history of winning.
Nurse was riding the high of two great years with the Raptors, but it seems his records were more due to the efforts of his players. Budenholzer on the other hand has a little over a decade of head coaching under his belt, and had eight 40+ win seasons, with two being 60 wins. This also doesn’t mention the decade and a half of assistant coaching he has done as well under Gregg Popovich.
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Hopefully, the Sixers take a good long look at coach Budenholzer, as he could be the man to return their franchise back to deep playoff contention.
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