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 group would retain coach Frank Vogel subsequent season.
Ishbia additionally declined to supply help for Vogel, who, simply days in the past, said he had Ishbia’s “full help” and was “very” assured he’d be returning to the group that signed him to a five-year, $31 million deal final summer season.
Ishbia, who purchased the Suns in February 2023, made his remarks Wednesday throughout an end-of-season media availability on the Footprint Heart, just some days after the Suns have been swept on their residence flooring by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Suns common supervisor James Jones additionally addressed reporters Wednesday.
Ishbia stated 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 will consider every little thing,” Ishbia stated. “… The whole lot is on the desk to judge. We’ve simply not began it.”
It was identified to Ishbia that he was addressing reporters one yr after the group 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 stated he wasn’t involved with that concept and that his solely concern was whether or not the group was adequate and had the fitting individuals 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 season.
“I believed Frank did an excellent job given the circumstances,” Jones stated. “I believed the employees did an excellent job. I believed the gamers did a very good job, simply not adequate to succeed in our objectives.”
Throughout a 25-minute deal with to reporters, Ishbia usually referenced the frustration of the season.
“I like that individuals are pissed off that we did not win an NBA championship, as a result of, guess what? So are we,” he stated. “… I am completely happy the place we’re at, from that perspective, that individuals 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, similar to the followers. Guess what? I’ll personal the group for 50 years, and doubtless 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 is going to be, and I adore it.”
Ishbia remained assured within the group 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 accumulate Durant and Beal.
“I really feel just like the narrative round [here is] the home is burning, it is incorrect,” Ishbia stated. “… Followers prefer to look sooner or later and say, ‘Hey, I actually like that 2031 draft decide as a result of perhaps that seventh grader goes to be actually good and we will draft him and someday he will be a participant.'”
He later added, “5 within the subsequent eight years, now we have a first-round draft decide. I do know that is not a cool factor to say on the market as a result of individuals prefer to say their narratives that now we have no draft picks, however now we have 5 within the subsequent eight years and we are able to commerce two of ’em subsequent month if we would like. So it isn’t like individuals say now we have no flexibility.”
Jones agreed, saying, “Going into this offseason, now we have every little thing we’d like to have the ability to add the gamers or the positions that can make us higher.”
The Suns enter this offseason with $209 million in wage, the most important payroll of any NBA group, 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 not less than the subsequent three years in the event that they maintain their core collectively. That place will result in punitive penalties, limiting their capability 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 essential to construct continuity.
“It was by no means, ‘We will win a championship this yr or we received to blow it up,” Ishbia stated. “… Championship or bust, this is not bust. We’re in an excellent place. We will be in an excellent place subsequent yr.”
He stated that the group’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 group for our entire group and our draft picks as is,” Ishbia stated. “The home is just not on hearth. We’re in an excellent place. It isn’t laborious to repair. We’ve sufficient expertise to win a championship.”
Ishbia cited the group profitable 49 regular-season video games regardless of their core of Beal, Booker and Durant enjoying collectively for precisely half of the common season, with the group posting a 26-15 report in these video games — a 52-win tempo that may have been good for fourth place within the Western Convention.
“We’re inches from the place we must be,” Ishbia stated.
Ishbia additionally defended the excessive worth of the trades that the group made — notably for Beal and Durant.
“You look again at a few of 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 stated. “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 in regards to the strikes we have made on the courtroom, off the courtroom and we’re actually happy with it.”
Ishbia stated there was accountability, together with himself, after a season the place the group failed to fulfill excessive expectations.
“Let’s be actual — ask the opposite 29 GMs [in the NBA], 26 of them would commerce their entire group for our entire group and our draft picks as is. The home is just not on hearth. We’re in an excellent place. It isn’t laborious to repair. We’ve sufficient expertise to win a championship.”
Suns proprietor Mat Ishbia
“Did I believe it was going to be simple? No,” Ishbia stated. “However do I believe now we have an excellent probability to win subsequent yr? Sure. And if I ever thought we did not, I might say that — I might say, ‘Hey hear, I do not assume now we have a adequate group to win a championship.'”
Jones praised the Timberwolves, saying they have been the higher group. He additionally famous that the Suns’ poor communication — an oft-cited situation — was due partially to this being the primary season with their massive three assembled collectively below a first-year head coach.
“I believed our communication received higher, however I simply thought below stress, a whole lot of occasions you noticed the shortage of chemistry, the shortage of cohesion and the uncertainty, and that is simply one thing that you need to speed up for us as a group,” Jones stated.
Each Ishbia and Jones stated the Suns have been a gorgeous group and that Phoenix was a gorgeous market totally free brokers to affix.
“We’ll undergo each channel, we’ll discover each situation so as to add and construct our group,” Jones stated. “It is essential to do not forget that we’re beginning with six, seven, eight actually good gamers.”
Jones, too, stated the Suns want extra time collectively to construct continuity — a difficulty that Vogel cited usually through 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 stated. “And I really assume chemistry is constructed by means of hearth. So should you ask our guys as we speak what their chemistry is like after going by means of the ache that we went by means of this previous week, I assure you once they come into coaching camp subsequent yr, they are a tighter, extra cohesive group.”