Trigger happy

 Hey, I get that it's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world today. But I didn't think it meant this lately.

I mean, seriously, Phoenix Suns. Seriously.

Forty-eight hours after the Suns bowed out of the NBA playoffs in Game 6 of the conference semifinals, head coach Monty Williams was told to hit the bricks. Owner Mat Ishbia, not content with interfering with game play a few nights earlier, decided to interfere with Williams' employment almost immediately after being eliminated by the West's top seed, Denver. Apparently he didn't like that they got blown out by 25 in the deciding game.

Couple things about that.

1. The Suns were playing without starters Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton, both out with injuries.

2. The Nuggets were playing with two-time MVP Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the league's dynamic duo so far in the playoffs. 

So the Nuggets, who won eight more games than the Suns during the regular season, prevailed as everyone expected. Except, apparently, Mat Ishbia.

It seems Ishbia, who bought the team in February, thought his almost immediate acquisition of Kevin Durant made the Suns a lock for the NBA Finals. In fairness, so did a lot of other folks who frankly should have known better.

And Williams?

All he did in four years in Phoenix was turn a pile of rubble into a perennial contender. They were the winningest team in the NBA the last three seasons, and Williams was named Coach of the Year two seasons ago, when the Suns reached the Finals and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Who just fired their coach, Mike Budenholzer, after the Bucks lost in five games to the Heat in the first round. The Bucks, who won a league-best 58 games largely on the back of Giannis Antetokounmpo, were playing without him.

This despite Budenholzer bringing the Bucks their first title in 50 years, coaching them to the league's best record in three of his five seasons and winning a combined 310 games in the regular season and playoffs -- more than any other team in the NBA.

In the playoff loss to the Heat, he drew fire for being badly outcoached by Erik Spoelstra, who generally outcoaches everyone. Part of that might have had something to do with Budenholzer losing his brother in a car accident before Game 4, which, you know, might have been a tad distracting.

In any event, he's out. And Williams is out. And Ishbia and the Bucks ownership group share the prize for coldest and most trigger-happy firings of this and probably several seasons.

Impulse control is not a thing for much of anyone these days. But this was like walking onto a used car lot, pointing at a hot-pink 1982 Ford Escort and saying, "I'll take that one."

And I can't help wondering now what Ishbia and the Bucks owners would have done with a guy who missed the playoffs the last four years and never won more than 34 games in any of those years. He'd likely have been gone after the first of those years, if not sooner.

Or maybe the Impulse Boys would have restrained themselves for once.

After all, the guy in question is named Gregg Popovich. And you can find him in the Hall of Fame these days.