Mat Ishbia addressed the media on Wednesday, but he said he has yet to begin his assessment of the Phoenix Suns following their first round sweep by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The future of Frank Vogel as head coach is uncertain and Ishbia declined to say whether he would remain in the job next season.
“We’re going to evaluate everything,” Ishbia said. “… Everything is on the table to evaluate. We have just not started it.”
The Suns reached The Finals in 2021, won 64 games in 21-22 before a surprising second round exit against the Dallas Mavericks, lost in six games to the Denver Nuggets in 2023 before their first round exit in 2024.
“I love that people are frustrated that we didn’t win an NBA championship, because, guess what? So are we,” he said. “… I’m happy where we’re at, from that perspective, that people are disappointed, because, guess what, there’s not someone in the organization that’s more disappointed than me, my GM, my CEO, my players, my coach. Everyone’s disappointed, just like the fans. Guess what? I’m going to own the team for 50 years, and probably 45, 46, 47 of those years, we’ll probably have the same conversation — like, hey, we didn’t win the championship, and we’re going to be disappointed then, too. That’s how it’s going to be, and I love it.”
The widely held belief about the Suns is that the NBA’s punitive second luxury tax apron and their lack of future draft assets will make it difficult for the roster to improve.
“I feel like the narrative around [here is] the house is burning, it’s incorrect,” Ishbia said. “… Fans like to look in the future and say, ‘Hey, I really like that 2031 draft pick because maybe that seventh grader is going to be really good and we’re going to draft him and one day he’s going to be a player.'”
He later added, “Five in the next eight years, we have a first-round draft pick. I know that’s not a cool thing to say out there because people like to say their narratives that we have no draft picks, but we have five in the next eight years and we can trade two of ’em next month if we want. So it is not like people say we have no flexibility.”
Ishbia believes health and the newness of their team are “extremely fixable.”
“Let’s be real — ask the other 29 GMs [in the NBA], 26 of them would trade their whole team for our whole team and our draft picks as is,” Ishbia said. “The house is not on fire. We’re in a great position. It’s not hard to fix. We have enough talent to win a championship.”