The Phoenix Suns are not one of those 16 teams, and President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby told Arizona Sports 620's Doug and Wolf it is tough to watch other teams keep playing while his has already begun its offseason.

"We set out this year and our goal was to make the playoffs, so in a real sense the year's a disappointment," Lon Babby said. "That's not to say there were not a tremendous amount of positives."

Babby talked about the All-Star season played by Steve Nash, the improvement of rookie Markieff Morris and the solid years newcomers like Sebastian Telfair and Michael Redd as things to be pleased with.

Still, the goals the team had going into the season went unmet, and that was one of the things discussed in the team's recently ongoing exit interviews.

"We're committed here to really debrief our guys, and talk to them and get their opinions," Babby said. "We probably spend, on average, about an hour with each of them."

Whether it's about food the team provides, travel schedules or feelings on their teammates and coaches, Babby said the organization is learning a lot about how they can make the Phoenix Suns a better organization to play for.

"We put a lot of time into it and it's time very well worth spending because you can learn an awful lot," he said.

The trick is learning as much as they can as quickly as they can, because with the draft and free agency fast approaching, the time to make decisions will soon be at hand.

So, the plan is already being worked on, and as Babby said while the team has some problems to fix, the Suns are certainly not alone in needing to make changes. Going forward for his team, though, Babby said the goal is to find a way to balance the future with the present.

"That's been the challenge since I got here," he said. "How do we stay as competitive as we can while beginning a process of returning where we want to be, which is elite status?

"I'm absolutely confident that we've done it the right way, but it requires a little patience and it can't all be done in one fell swoop."