Mat Ishbia earned trust in handling Suns’ turnaround, but here comes the hard part
Victory laps are one of the greatest rewards in professional sports. Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia took his on Thursday, Dan Bickley writes.
Watch: Suns Owner Mat Ishbia on the future of the Phoenix Suns | 14 mins
Victory laps are one of the greatest rewards in professional sports. Mat Ishbia took his on Thursday. It was richly deserved.
The Suns owner had a remarkable season. The Mercury went from last place to the WNBA Finals. His NBA team defied all odds and all critics. We no longer roll our eyes at the promise of future championships in Phoenix. We nod our heads.
Under fire and a microscope, Ishbia won the Kevin Durant trade; hired a rookie head coach who turned out to be a savant; and hired a former college basketball lifer to be his general manager, an astounding move that paid huge dividends.
Top down, it was a first-class performance from our heritage franchise. But now comes the hard part. How do the Suns win a playoff game? A playoff series? A title that’s eluded Arizona for 58 years?
There is little merit behind making only minor alterations to the team Ishbia gushed over on Thursday. Yes, the Suns were hit hard by injuries, missing key players down the stretch and into the postseason. The trio of Devin Booker-Dillon Brooks-Jalen Green had precious little time to create real chemistry.
But there is also great danger in delusions. After a remarkable three months of regular season basketball, the Suns wobbled to the finish line. The team badly needs size and length. The roster needs balance. And then there’s the matter of Devin Booker.
Wise or otherwise, Ishbia made it clear on Thursday that Booker will NOT be traded. To the contrary, he boldly declared Booker will win a championship in Phoenix. The show of loyalty was heartwarming. As a sports town nourished and enlightened by longtime relationships with Larry Fitzgerald and Shane Doan – two players who loved us back and never left for greener pastures – we all know the power of fidelity and devotion in professional sports.
Except Booker no longer resembles an ascendant force who can be the main guy on a championship team, who can win big games on his own when necessary. Which means the Suns must be even better over the coming offseason. Which means Ishbia must acquire the right mix of talent around Booker to decrease the traffic around Booker, including a real threat at the rim.
Which means Ishbia is going to have to ace another big trade, probably of Jalen Green and others, threading a needle yet to be found in the haystack.
We wish him luck. And after unofficially winning Comeback Owner of the Year, he deserves some benefit of doubt.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7.
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Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Dirk Nowitski, Kobe, Udonis Haslem, Tim Duncan, Steph Curry, David Robinson, Manu Ginobli, Daymond Green, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Kevin McHale and the list goes on and on and on
The Thunder landed Ajay Mitchell at 38. These are exceptions and still don't make the pick "devastating to the franchise"
Here is an MJ thought after watching Detroit’s game 7 victory today:
If you compare the Detroit teams of 1990, 2004, and 2026, all three were no. 1 seeded playoff teams with respective defensive ratings of 109 (top 2), 95 (one of the best ever ratings), and 104 (no. 2).
OKC is considered the top team in the league this year although SAS has had their number. Against DET, OKC split its two games, with the losing team in each case missing 4 or 5 of their starters. The game at OKC went to OT, but both games were close. Against the premier offensive player in the league, Doncic (in my opinion), DET held him to 11-29 (38%) and played w/o Cunningham (DET won a close game); and 9-22 (41%). The second game was a blowout win for DET. Against ORL just now in the playoffs, in games 6 and 7, DET stymied them, especially in the second half of game 6 (55-19). In game 7, DET held ORL to 41% and only 64 points after 3 quarters (after building a 19-pt lead after 3).
My point? I can’t see this DET team being anywhere close to those 2 past DET juggernauts with their top 2 defenses and very efficient offenses (in my opinion, even in today’s “offensive promotional age,” DET’s 2026 offense is not even close to the 1989-91 and 2003-05 DET offenses.). The NBA has obviously been in an era of “offensive promotion” virtually this entire century, and while LeBron James eventually “solved” DET’s defense by his 4th year (ECF, 2007) and once DET began to age, he still famously and very passively passed up a clutch shot in game 1 of that series for which he caught a lot of flak (that I’m sure led to him having to talk himself into being more aggressive which he was in game 5, i.e., it was not innate for him to be clutch).
The Pistons of the late 80s / early 90s developed the “Jordan Rules” solely to try and counter Jordan’s greatness; the entire league then adopted a “defensive-promotion” identity for the entirety of the 90s decade. And yet, LeDrama continues to cry about not being considered the best player of all time.
Can you imagine James playing in the 90s with full physicality? He couldn’t handle DET for several years from 2003-2006 (granted he was a rookie in 2003/04) where the rules included no hand-checking & limited contact, and until DET had aged, and until he held a one-on-one psych session with himself to play more aggressively. And while Jordan struggled against DET for many years before finally breaking through, I believe that even when Jordan finally got Pippen (and Pippen came of age after a few years) and he had a real head coach (Jackson, to me, was the best leader, psychologist, and strategist of all time… but definitely not the best teacher), he still had to contend with a league that had redefined / re-identified itself defensively after the Bad Boys. And that doesn’t even consider, of course, Jordan’s greatness in the clutch, as arguably the most clutch player of all time, hence a 6-0 Finals record. James made it to as many Finals (10) as he did because of the weak defenses / offensive promotions of the 21st century. I even wonder if Doncic would have been another Euro-trash player in the 90s, sent back home in a body bag.
James is a physical specimen whose physicality benefited greatly from playing in an era where physicality was disallowed. Imagine Jordan playing in this century. Imagine LeDrama playing in the age of Jordan. To me, there is no comparison. As much of a Pistons fan as I was growing up and despised Jordan for it, there was none better. Ever. Hands-down. Sorry, LeDrama; there is a reason you were 4-6.
Anyways, after watching the Pistons’ defense dismantle ORL the last 2 games (and their defense is objectively and tactfully superb) and after seeing a few clips of LeDrama defending himself (with respect to MJ) last week, it got me thinking and comparing the three DET defenses from three eras, the rules’ evolutions, and of course LeDrama’s absurd self-promotion.