After the Phoenix Suns were defeated in the first round of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, team owner Mat Ishbia sent a lengthy statement on social media.
Losing is never easy, but I feel quite good about our squad today and am already considering where we go from here, Ishbia said on X. I am so proud of this season and would like to thank everyone who made it happen.
First, thank you to all of the supporters that encouraged our squad every day… And the players, coaches, front office, and whole organization who worked tirelessly to provide our community with a team to be proud of. So many admirers have told me how much they liked supporting this squad and how proud they were of how we fought for 48 minutes in every game. This season marks the start of a new era of Suns basketball, and we have much more work to do, which I am very thrilled about. We are just getting started!
Losing is never fun, but I feel quite good about our team today and am already considering where we should go from here. I’m very happy with this season and would like to thank everyone who helped make it happen. First, thanks to all of the fans who backed our team every step of the way.
How Mat Ishbia’s Vision Enabled Suns to Exceed Expectations
Before the season, the Suns were predicted to win about 30 games, but they finished with 45 victories and a playoff berth.
This occurred after Phoenix failed to reach the playoffs last season and traded away Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal in the offseason, but Ishbia had a goal for success even amid last year’s setback.
The most significant change I want to discuss is that I am responsible for this one, which is to improve at defining the Phoenix Suns’ identity, Ishbia said following last season.
He stated: I want to field a team on the court that everyone is proud of. ‘Proud of’ needs to have an identity, one that is similar to Phoenix but with a dash of grit, determination, hard ethic, grind, and delight. And we haven’t had it. We did things differently, and it didn’t work. I will do a better job as owner of establishing the tone for the vision… That is a change on the way, and it will be unavoidable. You will notice the difference next year.
Ishbia followed up this pronouncement with an unusual decision, elevating Brian Gregory, the vice president of player programming, to general manager.
They then hired Jordan Ott as head coach for the first time and restructured the roster around Devin Booker, most notably by trading Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, rookies Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, and Koby Brea, as well as a 2026 second-round selection.
All of these decisions, surprisingly, paid off, and the Suns’ grit and resolve throughout the year, regardless of who was in or out of the lineup, made the identity shift obvious.
We didn’t have a strong identity when we first arrived here. And from the first game, everyone demonstrated that our identity would be to go out and play hard every night, according to Green following last night’s Game 4 defeat. We have a group of dogs that battle every time they walk on the floor, from the starting five to the bench, with each individual contributing something unique to our cause.
So that says something. And I mean, no one genuinely anticipated us to even be here in the first place. People did not believe we would make the play-in, yet we did. People didn’t believe we would make the playoffs, but we did. You must take everything with a grain of salt and realize that they counted us out, but we overcame it.
It was obvious that the Sun embraced this personality and goal that Ishbia had established, and they will now attempt to build on it in the future, based on what they were able to demonstrate this season.
