Bol Bol enjoyed some promising stretches during the 2024-25 season with the Phoenix Suns but found himself out of the rotation at the end. It appears his play on the court had nothing to do with that, as NBA insider Chris Haynes revealed on Haynes Briefs that Bol had angered head coach Mike Budenholzer with his actions during a game against the Houston Rockets on March 12.
“The Suns were playing the Rockets when Steven Adams and Mason Plumlee got into that altercation, that little scuffle on the ground,” Haynes said. “Players start to run and pull other players off, [but] Bol was in the background shooting layups. He didn’t run to the incident.
“League sources told me coach Budenholzer was irate when he saw that Bol did not run to the defense of his teammate,” Haynes continued. “Bol, after being in the rotation for over a month, was out of the rotation for the remainder of the season.”
Sources: On Haynes Briefs show, how Phoenix intends to avoid star-chasing for defensive toughness, how potential coaches can prepare, how next coach could factor into Kevin Durant's future, and why Bol Bol lost his spot in rotation. #haynesbriefs
Full EP: https://t.co/cdC3fAc7RE pic.twitter.com/eJeUPrgnLl
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) April 18, 2025
As you can see in that clip, Bol was shooting a layup in the background as players and coaches tried to separate Mason Plumlee and Steven Adams. Was that an unforgivable act that merited the 25-year-old being kicked out of the rotation? Well, you might think not, but Budenholzer did.
In the 15 games leading up to this clash with the Rockets, Bol was averaging 21.3 minutes. He had put up solid averages of 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.3 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game in that stretch and had become an integral part of the team. Following this game, though, he was removed from the rotation.
The Suns played 16 games the rest of the season, and Bol featured in just six of them. He played only 29 minutes in total in those six games. Even with the Suns being eliminated from the play-in race with a couple of games left in the season, Budenholzer refused to give the big man extended minutes on the court.
Bol played just under five minutes in their last regular-season game against the Sacramento Kings, and that might have been the last time we saw him in a Suns jersey. That was also probably the last time that we’ll ever see Budenholzer coaching the team.
The Suns fired Budenholzer on Monday after just one year at the helm, and it certainly wasn’t a surprise. The season was an abject disaster, and while he alone isn’t to blame for that, the 55-year-old didn’t do a great job of managing the team either, as the Suns finished 11th in the West with a 36-46 record.
Haynes had reported earlier that Budenholzer’s relationship with Devin Booker had been strained. The head coach had also apparently rubbed Bradley Beal the wrong way by asking him to be the Suns’ Jrue Holiday. It seems like they were just a wreck behind the scenes.
Budenholzer is the third head coach to be fired by the Suns in three years, and you wonder who is coming in next. This is definitely not an ideal situation to get into, but there would still be many coaches who’d be backing themselves to turn things around. It’s incredible, though, how bad things have gotten for a team that made the NBA Finals in 2021 and had the best record in the league (64-18) in 2021-22.
