The NBA’s play-in tournament begins today, and the rest of the postseason gets underway on Saturday. The Phoenix Suns, despite having the highest payroll in league history, will not be a part of either.
The Suns ended the season 36-46, in 11th place in the Western Conference. And yesterday, the team fired its head coach, Mike Budenholzer after one season on the job.
Budenholzer followed Frank Vogel, who also only lasted one year as head coach.
Brad Cesmat, CEO of Sports360AZ.com, joined The Show to talk about what’s next for the Valley’s original sports franchise.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Hey there, Brad.
BRAD CESMAT: Mark, how are you?
BRODIE: Doing all right. I think I'm doing a little bit better than the Suns right now. What's going on over there?
CESMAT: We’d need a whole hour. No, we don't. Here's the thing, they're now paying three coaches. They're gonna hire a fourth coach on, so we're gonna have four coaches on payroll. Mat Ishbia has come in, and the mortgage industry, as we know, is not doing as well as it once was doing when he took over. So, I'm wondering behind the scenes what's going on on the business side.
You have Devin Booker saying it's been a slow bleed out, which that was his quote, and that's not good because he has a couple of years left on his deal. And I think the big question mark is: Is this another bottoming out of the Suns franchise?
We went through the decade of decline — as I call it — from 2010 to 2020, where it was just misery all over the place. But now you have to wonder if you're going to trade Kevin Durant — and it's been out there now that Durant's people and the Suns are saying they're going to work a deal to get him out of here — OK, then do you keep Devin Booker, who has two years left on his deal? Or do you tear this thing all the way down to the ground and get together so many draft picks, so much asset, that you can rebuild and have a long, long run. But are fans willing to do that?
BRODIE: Well, that seems like a really interesting question. And Brad, I've read — I'm sure you've read as well — there's some national basketball writers who are saying that really the only way out of this for the Suns is to trade Devin Booker. He's the only player who will land them the young players and draft picks that will help them rebuild.
But at the same time, he is sort of the face of the franchise. He's the franchise's all-time leading scorer. Can you envision a universe in which Mat Ishbia would actually trade Devin Booker?
CESMAT: Well, I think we're gonna know more this summer on that question, Mark, because Booker's eligible to sign a 2-year, $150 million extension this summer. And I expect the Suns are going to make that offer to him. But is there gonna be any pullback at all? So we're gonna know the direction.
And so far, just look at this owner. I think it's fair to say Mat Ishbia has been a ready-fire-aim owner so far. Let's go get Bradley Beal and give him a contract in which Bradley Beal sits in a locker room with a losing team and stares into the cameras and microphones and confidently says, "I own all the cards."
If that quote doesn't make fans sick of what's going on in pro sports at times — at times — we don't want to hear that here in Arizona. What we are used to seeing and hearing is, "It's about the team." The last time a guy threatened to walk out of here was Charles (Barkley), when Charles said, I've been treated like a piece of meat by Jerry Colangelo, his famous quote, if you remember that one.
So, can I see a universe? Sure, I can. Would it be the right move to make? It depends on what you want. Mark, if he's a businessman-only owner, then he's gonna be concerned about the lower bowl, selling tickets, television contracts, and public backlash of Devin Booker.
If he's about winning, then I can make the argument you should listen to all offers, including if it's the No. 1 pick in the draft this year, Cooper Flagg, and you have to trade Devin Booker, you do it. You absolutely have to do it, because now you're set up for another 10-year run. So there's scenarios that are easy for you and I to talk about, play ping pong on today here in April, but I think we're gonna know a lot more in the next 60 days about what direction this owner wants to go.
BRODIE: Interesting. So, Brad, I mentioned that the Suns are looking for yet another head coach. Given where the team is, is being head coach of the Phoenix Suns a desirable job?
CESMAT: It's a great question, and I would say that there's always somebody who thinks it would be. Because they're gonna want to know, do I have Devin Booker to work with, or am I gonna be micromanaged from above? Remember, let's just look at who's been in the circles of Mat Ishbia: Isaiah Thomas sitting with him in his suite. That was caught, people wrote about it, talked about it. He's very close with Tom Izzo at Michigan State.
There's some layers here to this story, Mark, I think everybody's looking at the what happened, what went wrong with Coach Bud? I'm more along the lines of what's going on with the owner behind the scenes? Because so far, you know, when you own a sports franchise, it's a public trust. We trust the owner.
So far, you look at this owner and say, “Yeah, a lot of money.” I don't care about lots of money. What I care about is winning. And yeah, the two go together, I get it. But when it's a public trust, you don't take this thing and run it into the ditch like what we're looking at right now. As you said, right off the top, biggest payroll in the history of the league, they don't even make the playoffs. In fact, they don't even sniff the play-in game with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Completely inexcusable.
BRODIE: Well, so Brad, we have about a minute or so left, and the phrase that I keep hearing is “new owner syndrome” with Mat Ishbia. He comes in and immediately makes the trade for Kevin Durant. He then fires a head coach. He trades for Bradley Beal. He's now fired another head coach. Is Mat Ishbia a part of the problem here?
CESMAT: Well, if he is, it's not gonna get fixed because he's now been given control. We can go back to Robert Sarver, when Robert took over with the Suns. And Robert brought in a guy named Steve Kerr as a consultant, and Steve got out of here, and the Suns almost had Steph Curry rather than Amar'e Stoudemire. I mean, you could go back through the history and say, “Was it the owner's fault? Was it all Jerry that the Suns had such great success?” No, Cotton Fitzsimmons was behind him. Other people were behind him.
I don't know if Matt has a deep group of people invested in Phoenix, or if they're just invested in, “Hey, we're cool. We own an NBA team.” There's a lot of that this day and age in pro sports.
