Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia acknowledged that his aggressive early roster moves following his purchase of the franchise in 2023 were a product of not yet establishing a clear organizational identity, expressing measured regret about the sequence of decisions made during that period.
Ishbia connected those early transactional errors directly to an absence of cultural groundwork within the organization. He suggested the deals would have looked different had core values been set first.
“The transactional (mistakes) wouldn’t have happened if I had set the cultural stuff, because – no disrespect – but the type of players and the type of people we were looking to have, it’s different (now),” Ishbia said. “I would have said ‘Does that meet my identity? Is that the definition of what we’re about? And we wouldn’t have made those moves, potentially.”
Ishbia acquired the Suns in early 2023 and immediately pursued a star-driven win-now strategy, assembling an expensive roster around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. That core failed to advance past the second round in 2023, the first round in 2024, and the play-in altogether in 2025.
The owner struck a notably different tone when describing the franchise’s current direction, emphasizing internal cohesion over individual talent acquisition.
“But (now) everyone’s aligned. …(It’s) what kind of guy do we want? What kind of player do we want? What are the things we’re looking for? We’re very aligned. We could be aligned and be wrong, by the way, too. But at least we’re f– aligned,” Ishbia said.
Phoenix is currently rebuilding around younger talent following the departures of Durant, Beal, and other veterans from that earlier era.