3 coaches in 3 years. That’s the record the Phoenix Suns are now rocking after firing Mike Budenholzer (Think the ‘Coach Killer’ title should be assigned to them now?). Now, it’s not just the fact that the Suns couldn’t make it to the postseason despite having three All-Stars on the team that got him fired. It’s also that Coach Bud’s relationship with the locker room and one All-Star in particular fell apart. Nevertheless, despite his firing, it’s not all doom and gloom for Bud after losing his job. At least on the fiscal side of things.

But first things first. Who’s the All-Star we’re referring to? It’s not Kevin Durant; let’s get that out of the way. It’s actually the only Suns player with a no-trade clause that Mike butted heads with. Yes, Bradley Beal. And Mike Budenholzer fell out after a directive from him rubbed Beal the wrong way. And we have this information, thanks to senior NBA insider Chris Haynes.

“So league sources told me earlier in the season, coach Budenholzer met with Bradley Beal. And he told Bradley Beal that he wanted him to be the Jrue Holiday of this team. Now listen… You gotta understand, like, when you’re talking to a guy, a player of Bradley Beal’s caliber, to tell him to play like Jrue Holiday; it wasn’t well received. That’s the way it was relayed to me,” revealed Chris on his show, Haynes Briefs.

No wonder Bradley didn’t take it well. Now, we’re taking nothing away from Jrue Holiday as we say this. But using Beal like Jrue just seems like a waste of his talents. Beal may be in a slump after joining the Suns. He’s averaging 17 points a season for the first time since the 2015-16 NBA season. However, he still carries a much greater offensive threat than Holiday.

Moreover, Beal isn’t really the player you’d want to use to establish defensive dominance over another team. Granted, he’s solid, but a career defensive rating of 112.5 (as opposed to Holiday’s 109.4) doesn’t exactly scream DPOY. Haynes also revealed that Bud had rubbed others the wrong way, too. Namely Devin Booker and former Suns players Jusuf Nurkic. He’d allegedly told Booker, a locker room leader, to “to tone it down to allow the coach’s voice to be heard.”

And he called Nurkic a “bad teammate” before his eventual trade. So, all these locker room frustrations, coupled with the Suns’ disastrous season, likely led to Budenholzer’s termination.

However, like we said before, there’s still a silver lining in all this for Coach Bud. And soon, Mat Ishbia may come to regret firing Bud. But it all depends on Mike’s next move. Here’s why!

Mike Budenholzer may receive a huge windfall if he can avoid doing this one thing

Last May, after ending a disappointing run with Frank Vogel, the Suns hired Mike Budenholzer as their head coach. However, as someone who’d won a title with the Milwaukee Bucks just a couple of years ago, getting him to take the job was not easy. However, a 5-year, $50 million contract ended up doing the trick.

Little did Mat Ishbia know that he would have to make the tough call to fire Mike, with $40 million still left on his contract. But here’s where things get interesting. Per Forbes‘ Evan Sidery, if Mike Budenholzer does not take another coaching job, the Suns will need to pay out the remaining amount on his massive contract.

That means for the next 4 years, Mike Budenholzer can pick up a $10 million paycheck from the Suns despite them firing him. And Ishbia’s pockets will be $40 million lighter for trying to turn things around for his team by letting someone else take the reins as the coach.

Now, sitting around till 2029 may be a tough call for Bud to make. However, becoming $40 million richer (doing absolutely nothing) because of it may just be enough motivation for him. We will only find out when he announces his next move. Till then, we’re sure Mat will be sweating bullets over this entire fiasco.