The Phoenix Suns finished 10 games below .500 this season and missed the postseason despite having probable Hall of Famer Kevin Durant on the roster.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia didn’t like his view, either. He saw a team with no passion and lacking an identity.
“Embarrassing season, right?” Ishbia told reporters on Thursday. “Disappointing. Awful. I watch every game like all you guys do and no one’s proud of it, no one’s happy with it, from me, to the front office, to the coaches and players, to the marketing executives to the security guards. It was a failure.”
Ishbia nailed it by referring to the Phoenix season as a failure.
The Suns jumped off to an 8-1 start and seemed ready to compete for a Western Conference playoff spot. But when a play-in spot was there for the taking, Phoenix collapsed and lost nine of its last 10 games to end an underachieving season.
And Ishbia didn’t see much fight down the stretch.
“I want to put a team out there on the court that everyone is proud of,” Ishbia said. “It has to have an identity — an identity similar to Phoenix. Some grit, some determination, some work ethic, some grind, some joy. We just haven’t had that.”
The Suns fired Mike Budenholzer after the season and the next coach will be the franchise’s fourth in four years.
“We’ve got to get the next hire right,” the 45-year-old Ishbia said. “And we will.”
Durant is expected to be on the move with Phoenix looking to acquire rebuilding assets. He’ll be 37 years old next season but showed there was plenty of life in his body by averaging 26.6 points in 62 games this season.
The Suns will build around fellow star Devin Booker, who is just 28 after 10 seasons in the NBA. He averaged 25.6 points this season and became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with 16,452 career points.
“He’s the franchise player, he’s done amazing things,” Ishbia said. “I speak with him and we’re very aligned with what we want to do. His mission and my mission are very similar — let’s bring a championship to Phoenix.”
Booker has repeatedly expressed hope that he can spend his entire career with the Suns.
Phoenix also would like to ship Bradley Beal but was unable to do so at the trade deadline due to a no-trade clause in the contract that pays Beal more than $50 million a season. The Suns will surely ask Beal again if he will waive the clause.
