Mat Ishbia. Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated
Last season started with so much promise for the Phoenix Suns: the dynamic trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal was the sort of collection of talent that had people speculating about a deep playoff run, and new coach Mike Budenholzer offered the promise of a fresh approach with this talent. But after one season, that promise is already dead.
Budenholzer was recently fired after just one season, a season that saw the Suns finish up with a profoundly disappointing 36-46 record and failing to even make a play-in game in the notoriously expanded playoff structure.
Furthermore, this likely indicates a deeper and harder truth: that the Phoenix Suns are going to have to rebuild. That they are going to need to start from scratch, with aging stars with big contracts, and worse yet, with a notorious shortage of draft picks for this entire decade.
The future is about as bright as a winter in Seattle.
How did they get there? There has been one tying bind for all of the questionable roster and leadership hires, and that’s owner Mat Ishbia. A new poll demonstrates that we are not alone in pointing that finger; most local sports fans have come to the same conclusion.
The Arizona Republic polled 500 local sports fans about their thoughts about all of our teams. ASU football coach Kenny Dillingham received absurdly high praise, with a stunning 96% of respondents approving of his performance. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo and Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon both received extremely high praise as well.
Respondents were less glowing about ownership of those franchises however, with one particular owner standing out with particularly low ratings: Mat Ishbia. About 66% of readers overall disapproved of Ishbia’s job performance, with 34 percent strongly disapproving.
Getting rid of an underperforming coach is easy, but when you have a bad owner you’re stuck with them generally until they want to sell the team, which is rare if the team is making money. So the Phoenix Suns are in the worst situation imaginable: an aging, expensive, and underperforming roster that they mortgaged their future to get, and an owner who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. The forecast for the Suns is a very dark rest of the decade, if not longer.