Good news for the Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker and owner Mat Ishbia are speaking the same language. Not literally of course, but both men have the NBA championship as their expectation.
After the Suns missed out on the 2024-25 playoffs, it proved to be a crucial time of reflection and disappointment.
While Ishbia had a four-minute opening statement regarding the team’s ‘disappointment’ and ’embarrassing’ season, he touched on a crucial point regarding Booker.
When asked about his input, the Suns’ owner made it very clear how much say the star shooting guard has.
“He’s the franchise player….I speak with him and we’re very aligned on what we want to do and what we’re gonna do,” Ishbia said. “And his mission and my mission are very similar: Let’s bring a championship to Phoenix. And he understands the vision.”
The vision is clear: Both men want an NBA championship.
After a disappointing season, the Suns are clearing house. They fired Mike Budenholzer after one season, and marked the third head coach fired in a matter of seasons.
Many were disappointed that Ishbia placed the blame on the head coach. However, it makes sense. After all, Budenholzer had major communication issues with Booker.
For instance, he said that the shooting guard needed to “tone it down vocally.” Furthermore, he benched rookie Ryan Dunn without a legitimate reason midway through the season.
Main reason I point to this is because that the issue that needed to be addressed was a head coach. During the season, he lost the trust of Booker, and evidently the entire organization.
It’ll be back to square one for Ishbia. Luckily, he knows that Booker has a blueprint for what previous success was.
Mat Ishbia and Devin Booker have the Suns blueprint for rings
Although Ishbia has experience winning a national title with Michigan State in 2000, he hasn’t done so at the NBA level. Granted, the latter has only owned the Suns for two and a half years.
Meanwhile, Booker will be coming in on his tenth season in the league. While some of his seasons have been filled with losing, he’s reached the pinnacle of winning, or at least close to it.
In 2021, the Suns reached the NBA Finals, yet lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks. Coincidentally, Budenholzer coached the Bucks team that defeated Phoenix.
Either way, it’ll be three seasons since that happened.
Booker desperately wants to get back to that form. Since the team traded for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, they were projected to reach that threshold.
However, it’s been anything but. They’ve been one of the biggest disappointments in the league’s history. Three either current or former All-NBA players should at least make the playoffs.
With Ishbia’s comments, it’s worth noting that he didn’t mention Durant to build around. It was only Booker. Since the trade deadline, it’s clear that Durant is on his way out of Phoenix.
The Suns tried to include him in a deal with the Golden State Warriors before he shot it down.
At the end of the day, the championship expectation is always there, as long as Ishbia is the owner. Luckily, though, the duo of Mat Ishbia and Devin Booker still has one thing on their minds.
Bringing a title to Phoenix, no matter the cost.
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