How a Crazy New Owner Ruined the Phoenix Suns

How a Crazy New Owner Ruined the Phoenix Suns

On July 8th, 2021, the Phoenix Suns went up 2- 0 in the NBA finals, bound to cruise to the franchise’s first championship. Instead, they didn’t win another game. The Bucks won four straight. Giannis won finals MVP. But Phoenix had young stars on their roster on good contracts. All their future draft picks to improve. And four years later, all of it is gone. They might be the worst situation in the entire NBA. Why? because of one man, Matt Ishbia. The new owner, inherited a balanced, young, well-run organization and in just 2 years gutted the entire thing. But how could a guy who loves basketball and wants to win be this dumb? Well, the crazy thing is some Suns fans refuse to believe it because they are still traumatized by the old owner, Robert Sarver. This guy was maybe the worst owner in sports for how cheap he was. During the Steve Nash championship window, Sarver would undercut the team every year. From ‘ 04 to 2010, the Suns sold seven first round picks or the equivalent for just over 10 million bucks in cash. That’s right, first round picks for cash. Sarver did it to stay under the luxury tax, but it may have cost his team a championship. He also refused to pay players. Joe Johnson at 23 years old walked for nothing and became an eight-time all-star. Amari Starttomire left and it ended that Steve Nash era. So, you can imagine how excited fans were to have a new owner who loves the game with deep pockets. Ishpppia came into the league as the sixth richest NBA owner. Now, some of these numbers vary, but he’s at least top 10 even after buying the team for $4 billion. But Ishppia is showing us there is more than one way you can ruin a franchise. Thanks to Bearmattress for he did was push for his own GM to sell depth and picks for Kevin Durant. Got KD and TJ Warren for Muel Bridges Cam Johnson Jay Crowder and control of five first round picks. But it wasn’t enough. The next year he made two disastrous trades. The first one was Chris Paul Andrew Shimick control of five first and seven seconds for Bradley Beal in that infamous no trade clause. But people don’t talk enough about the other trade that Phoenix made that summer. They dealt out Aiden and Tummani Comra for Yousef Nerkage, Grayson Allen, and Cat Filler. Now Allen ended up being a good shooter, but Aiden and Kamra for Yousef Nerkage. Nerk ended up being one of the worst centers in the league. And Kamara became second team all defense as a rookie, a rising star. And what did they get for all these big moves? Suns went from NBA Finals to 2021. Get KD losing the second round. Get V losing the first round. Last year missed the playoffs entirely as the most expensive team in NBA history. And every step along the way, Ishbia keeps raising red flags. He has hired and fired four different head coaches in two calendar years. My goodness. But what’s worse is the people he does hire make no sense. See, Ishbio was a walk-on for his college basketball team, Michigan State. even won a championship in 2000. Dude was inspired by his coach Tom Mizo. But it feels like all you need to work for the Suns these days is a connection to MSU. The owner was a player, the new GM and assistant coach, and the new coach was a video coordinator. Oh, but what’s the big deal? They obviously know basketball. Yeah, but for a team that is desperate for good leadership, were those guys all the best person for the job? Or could they possibly have passed up on the best guy from the job for a guy connected to Michigan State? Probably not a great thing. For example, this GM, Brian Gregory, never even had an NBA job before working for the Suns 11 months ago. Doesn’t know any other NBA GMs. And the Suns kind of need a genius level executive to navigate them out of this mess. But why does it feel like genius level wasn’t Ishbia’s number one job requirement? I mean, the one thing that Gregory might have is knowledge of college players, but Fish doesn’t even have any draft picks. Now, part of this is not Ishbia’s fault because when he bought the Suns, people were still thinking under the old CBA where owners could pay a ton for a super team and it’s all good. But the new second apron started to crush expensive rosters. Bradley Beal quickly became the worst contract in the NBA. And because they could not trade him, Phoenix had to move on from Kevin Durant. So this means next year they will be paying Booker Beal and Jaylen Green 140 million bucks or 90% of the salary cap which makes building depth around them impossible. Hilarious tweet by Dan Feldman showing the Suns depth chart next year. Pretty funny but also pretty sad. And on top of that, they’ve got almost no draft picks for the future. Suns don’t control their own first round pick until 2032 outright. In between they do have a couple of Cavs picks likely near the back of the first round. So that is how Ishbia ruined this team in just a few years. But why did he do it? I think the first big reason is the mindset that helped him succeed in business does not work in a salary cap sport. See, in some sports like soccer, if some mega billionaire buys your team, it is the championships the next 10 years. But in a salary cap sport, it will limit the influence that money can have. So, you cannot just rush in and dominate your competition like in business. The NBA favors patience, smart moves, and timing. All of which Ishbia threw out the door day one. Dune once said, “It’s surprising to me that other people, other fans actually like the rebuild process. You think I’m going to go for seven years and try to get back to the playoffs? I want to try to see the game today. Maybe not this year, but I promise you we are going to win it all. Uh, no, Matt. They don’t like the rebuild process, but you cannot rush things, especially with the new CBA. The next problem is he’s obsessed with making a big splash deal. Ishbia values headline moves over sustainable ones, which is a hallmark of bad ownership across all sports. But worst of all, he overrates his own basketball IQ. This man clearly loves the game, but sometimes you get the impression that because he was a walk-on at Michigan State, Ishbia considers himself an expert even at the NBA level. I mean, clearly still has a player’s mindset. Like in the playoffs when he refused to give Nicola Joic the ball back, which led to Yogic touching him, flopped and Joker got a technical foul. Dude, you’re not playing anymore. But he also got clowned for getting swept in the first round and then saying, “Ask the other 29 GMs. 26 would trade their whole team for ours.” Clearly a man who overrates his own evaluations. But even after pushing for the Kevin Durant trade and firing all those coaches, ISB is now doubling down on meddling with the team. Said he’s going to be even more involved as an owner. This is not how you run a team. Obviously, I’ve never done it, but three years of Ishbia ownership proves it. So, between their last two owners now, over 20 plus years, Suns fans have seen there is more than one way to ruin a franchise. But at least Ishbia’s heart is in the right place. You cannot say the same for some of these WNBA players in Caitlyn Clark. Over and over, they are pushing the face of their league away. I mean, Clark clearly is going to get everybody paid like Tiger Woods did in golf, but they don’t want anything to do with it. So, I just ask a simple question. Why does the WNBA seem to hate Caitlyn Clark?

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