PHOENIX — Days after a first-round playoff sweep ended a disappointing Phoenix Suns season that started with championship expectations, Suns proprietor Mat Ishbia declined to say whether or not the workforce would retain coach Frank Vogel subsequent season.
Ishbia additionally declined to supply assist for Vogel, who, simply days in the past, said he had Ishbia’s “full assist” and was “very” assured he’d be returning to the workforce that signed him to a five-year, $31 million deal final summer time.
Ishbia, who purchased the Suns in February 2023, made his remarks Wednesday throughout an end-of-season media availability on the Footprint Middle, only a few days after the Suns have been swept on their house ground by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Suns common supervisor James Jones additionally addressed reporters Wednesday.
Ishbia mentioned he hadn’t had any discussions about the way forward for any Suns personnel or gamers and that he was in Phoenix to have these in-person discussions this week.
“We’ll consider every thing,” Ishbia mentioned. “… All the pieces is on the desk to guage. Now we have simply not began it.”
It was identified to Ishbia that he was addressing reporters one yr after the workforce fired coach Monty Williams — and that Devin Booker, the Suns’ star taking pictures guard, has performed below six head coaches in 9 years.
Would bringing aboard one other new head coach so quickly doubtlessly give Ishbia pause? Ishbia mentioned he wasn’t involved with that concept and that his solely concern was whether or not the workforce was adequate and had the best folks to win a championship.
Jones praised Vogel however famous the challenges of teaching a core that was in its first full season collectively — with star ahead Kevin Durant being acquired final February and star guard Bradley Beal being acquired final summer time.
“I believed Frank did an incredible job given the circumstances,” Jones mentioned. “I believed the workers did an incredible job. I believed the gamers did a extremely good job, simply not adequate to achieve our targets.”
Throughout a 25-minute handle to reporters, Ishbia typically referenced the frustration of the season.
“I really like that persons are annoyed that we did not win an NBA championship, as a result of, guess what? So are we,” he mentioned. “… I am completely satisfied the place we’re at, from that perspective, that persons are dissatisfied, as a result of, guess what, there’s not somebody within the group that is extra dissatisfied than me, my GM, my CEO, my gamers, my coach. Everybody’s dissatisfied, identical to the followers. Guess what? I will personal the workforce for 50 years, and possibly 45, 46, 47 of these years, we’ll in all probability have the identical dialog — like, hey, we did not win the championship, and we will be dissatisfied then, too. That is how it’ll be, and I like it.”
Ishbia remained assured within the workforce shifting ahead, saying the Suns have been in a “nice place” whereas downplaying considerations about their flexibility to construct the roster due to their high-salary commitments and the variety of draft picks they traded to amass Durant and Beal.
“I really feel just like the narrative round [here is] the home is burning, it is incorrect,” Ishbia mentioned. “… Followers prefer to look sooner or later and say, ‘Hey, I actually like that 2031 draft choose as a result of possibly that seventh grader goes to be actually good and we will draft him and someday he’ll be a participant.'”
He later added, “5 within the subsequent eight years, we’ve got a first-round draft choose. I do know that is not a cool factor to say on the market as a result of folks prefer to say their narratives that we’ve got no draft picks, however we’ve got 5 within the subsequent eight years and we will commerce two of ’em subsequent month if we wish. So it’s not like folks say we’ve got no flexibility.”
Jones agreed, saying, “Going into this offseason, we’ve got every thing we’d like to have the ability to add the gamers or the positions that may make us higher.”
The Suns enter this offseason with $209 million in wage, the largest payroll of any NBA workforce, and face a projected luxurious tax penalty of $116 million.
The Suns are additionally above the so-called second apron of the posh tax for a minimum of the following three years in the event that they maintain their core collectively. That place will result in punitive penalties, limiting their capacity so as to add to their roster.
Ishbia identified that they’ve their beginning 5 signed collectively for a number of years and that it is vital to construct continuity.
“It was by no means, ‘We’ll win a championship this yr or we acquired to blow it up,” Ishbia mentioned. “… Championship or bust, this is not bust. We’re in an incredible place. We’ll be in an incredible place subsequent yr.”
He mentioned that the workforce’s points — and he cited well being and general newness collectively — have been “extraordinarily fixable.”
“Let’s be actual — ask the opposite 29 GMs [in the NBA], 26 of them would commerce their entire workforce for our entire workforce and our draft picks as is,” Ishbia mentioned. “The home will not be on fireplace. We’re in an incredible place. It isn’t arduous to repair. Now we have sufficient expertise to win a championship.”
Ishbia cited the workforce profitable 49 regular-season video games regardless of their core of Beal, Booker and Durant taking part in collectively for precisely half of the common season, with the workforce posting a 26-15 file in these video games — a 52-win tempo that will have been good for fourth place within the Western Convention.
“We’re inches from the place we must be,” Ishbia mentioned.
Ishbia additionally defended the excessive worth of the trades that the workforce made — notably for Beal and Durant.
“You look again at among the trades that James and all of us have been a part of — we do these issues a 100 out of a 100 occasions, not 99 out of a 100, a 100 out of a 100,” Ishbia mentioned. “And we nonetheless do ’em once more. And I believe [the] different 29 GMs would all do the very same factor. We really feel nice concerning the strikes we have made on the courtroom, off the courtroom and we’re actually happy with it.”
Ishbia mentioned there was accountability, together with himself, after a season the place the workforce failed to fulfill excessive expectations.
“Let’s be actual — ask the opposite 29 GMs [in the NBA], 26 of them would commerce their entire workforce for our entire workforce and our draft picks as is. The home will not be on fireplace. We’re in an incredible place. It isn’t arduous to repair. Now we have sufficient expertise to win a championship.”
Suns proprietor Mat Ishbia
“Did I believe it was going to be simple? No,” Ishbia mentioned. “However do I believe we’ve got an incredible probability to win subsequent yr? Sure. And if I ever thought we did not, I would say that — I would say, ‘Hey hear, I do not assume we’ve got a adequate workforce to win a championship.'”
Jones praised the Timberwolves, saying they have been the higher workforce. He additionally famous that the Suns’ poor communication — an oft-cited difficulty — was due partly to this being the primary season with their massive three assembled collectively below a first-year head coach.
“I believed our communication acquired higher, however I simply thought below stress, plenty of occasions you noticed the dearth of chemistry, the dearth of cohesion and the uncertainty, and that is simply one thing that you need to speed up for us as a workforce,” Jones mentioned.
Each Ishbia and Jones mentioned the Suns have been a gorgeous workforce and that Phoenix was a gorgeous market without cost brokers to affix.
“We’ll undergo each channel, we’ll discover each situation so as to add and construct our workforce,” Jones mentioned. “It is vital to do not forget that we’re beginning with six, seven, eight actually good gamers.”
Jones, too, mentioned the Suns want extra time collectively to construct continuity — a difficulty that Vogel cited typically in the course of the first-round sequence as gamers described poor communication and inconsistent play that lingered all season lengthy.
“For us, chemistry is constructed over time,” Jones mentioned. “And I really assume chemistry is constructed by way of fireplace. So for those who ask our guys at the moment what their chemistry is like after going by way of the ache that we went by way of this previous week, I assure you after they come into coaching camp subsequent yr, they seem to be a tighter, extra cohesive group.”