Phoenix Suns insider breaks down Bradley Beal contract buyout
The Suns bought out guard Bradley Beal’s contract, ending his time in Phoenix. The Republic’s Duane Rankin explains what it means for the team.
Ishbia takes responsibility for the team’s lack of alignment and subsequent struggles, emphasizing a new long-term vision focused on building a winning culture.The Suns are rebuilding around Devin Booker and have made significant changes to the roster, coaching staff, and front office.
Phoenix Suns team owner Mat Ishbia remains committed to competing for an NBA championship, but he’s not looking for the quick fix in trying to achieve that goal.
“The big thing I learned is you got to start and have the vision and identity from Day 1 and I did not do that with the Phoenix Suns,” Ishbia said, during an interview Thursday, July 17, with Sirius XM NBA Radio. “I thought, hey, let’s add some money. They’ve already got a good thing going. Let’s untap some resources and it will only get better and that’s not how it works.”
Trading three rotation players and four first-round picks to Brooklyn for Kevin Durant and dealing Chris Paul and five second-round picks to Washington for Bradley Beal didn’t result in a championship.
The blockbuster deals only resulted in Phoenix rising above the second tax apron with the NBA’s first $400-million team, firing three head coaches, four playoff games in two years, trading Durant and buying out Beal.
“We all had a vision and an idea that we thought would work and it didn’t work,” Ishbia said. “You can point to different things. You can point to games played. You can point to injuries. You can point to fit. You can point to not playing as well as we thought we would play or you can just say it didn’t work.”
Beal has agreed to a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers for $11 million, his agent Mark Bartelstein informed The Arizona Republic this week. The Suns will now fall under the first and second tax apron as they plan to stretch essentially $97 million of Beal’s previous contract over five years, sources have informed The Republic.
“He’s a great guy,” Ishbia said. “Just not a fit with Phoenix Suns going forward. We told him that. We made that decision. We let them know wanted to move forward without him. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad player. … He’s a great player, but for Phoenix and what we’re doing, it wasn’t a fit and we had to move on and make those decisions.”
Ishbia can’t duck the results and the criticisms, but the billionaire CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage is making changes he believes will lead to a turnaround.
“Everybody has got to have an alignment of what we’re about here in Phoenix and we didn’t do a good enough job of that,” Ishbia said. “That’s on me. I’ll take the blame.”
Ishbia isn’t giving up on bringing Phoenix its first NBA championship. He’s just taking a new approach.
“We are going to do it the right way in Phoenix for the long term,” Ishbia continued. “And the long term could be a year or two or three or it could be 10, but we are going to build it the right way.”
Phoenix concludes NBA Summer League play Saturday against Portland at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m. MST, in a game televised on NBA TV. They are 1-3 so far in Summer League games.
The Suns are building this new identity of passion, grit, physicality and aggressiveness around their all-time leading scorer, Devin Booker. The four-time All-Star signed a two-year extension for $145 million, marking the highest annual salary extension in NBA history.
“We’ve got to make our fans proud,” Ishbia added. “No one is going to question whether I care. I promise you that and no one is going to question whether I spend. I promise you that.”
Ishbia said he doesn’t “feel any pressure” to keep Booker happy in this new situation.
“Devin’s going to be happy because we’re going to try to win,” Ishbia said. “We’re going to do things that will be aligned with the vision and the identity that he agrees with 1000% and I agree with 1000% along with our GM (Brian Gregory) and our coach (Jordan Ott). The alignment from owner to GM to coach to star/franchise player was never there before, to be clear. It is now and it’s crystal clear.”
The Suns have Booker under contract through 2029-30.
“I don’t need any external pressure to try to win,” Ishbia added. “We want to win every single day. We want to get better every single day, but the expectations have changed. When you have Kevin, Devin and Brad, people think championship or bust. We unfortunately busted two years in a row.”
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Big deals didn’t work, changes inevitable
The Suns were just two years removed from the 2021 finals with Chris Paul and Booker leading the way when Ishbia bought the Phoenix Mercury and Suns for a then-record $4 billion from Robert Sarver.
Ishbia then traded three key players from that 2021 team – Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder – and multiple first-round picks to acquire Durant right before the 2023 trade deadline. The Suns reached the Western Conference semifinals before losing to eventual 2022-23 NBA champion Denver.
Feeling a need to make even more changes, Ishbia fired Monty Williams, who coached the Suns to the 2021 finals and a franchise-best 64 victories in winning NBA Coach of the Year in 2021-22, and hired Frank Vogel, an NBA championship coach.
Phoenix traded for Beal, who was on a five-year, $251-million deal he signed in Washington, and dealt Deandre Ayton, who was also on the finals team, to Portland before the 2023 training camp.
The Suns won 49 games in 2023-24, but Minnesota swept them in the first round.
Thinking another coaching change was necessary to maximize the roster’s talent, Ishbia fired Vogel and hired another NBA championship coach, Mike Budenholzer.
The Suns imploded, winning just 36 games and failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20, which was the last time they experienced a losing record.
Changes were inevitable.
“The reality is, after all those moves, everybody thought it was great,” Ishbia said. “We all thought it was going to work and it didn’t. There’s a lot of reasons we can argue and debate. Monday morning quarterback is a lot easier than when it’s actually happening, but we decided, hey listen, let’s change this view. Let’s get involved. Let’s make some changes. Let’s set an identity and a vision going forward.”
Ishbia elevated Gregory from vice president of player programming to general manager while shifting James Jones to senior adviser.
Jones, who was Phoenix’s general manager during its finals run and historic season the year after, is the NBA’s new head of basketball operations.
“Brian Gregory has done a great job so far,” Ishbia said. “We’re completely aligned with what we’re trying to do.”
The Suns then hired Ott to replace Budenholzer. The 40-year-old served as a Cleveland Cavaliers assistant under 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year, Kenny Atkinson.
The Cavs posted the best record in the Eastern Conference with Ott playing a key role.
“We had to get a coach that’s thinking forward and not looking back,” Ishbia later said. “Not looking at what worked in 2020, but what’s going to work in 2030. What’s the future and Jordan Ott is an unbelievable basketball mind. Praised by everybody we reached out to, every reference possible and we’ve been really happy with him so far. He’s young, he’s going to build with our team and he hopefully can be a great coach for the Phoenix Suns for the future.”
The Suns traded Durant before the 2025 draft and acquired Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the 10th overall pick in the draft from Houston.
“We wanted Jalen Green to be clear,” Ishbia said. “We like Jalen. He’s 23 years old, the leading scorer for the two seed in the West and Dillon Brooks, he’s a straight dog. He’s the type of guy we want here in Phoenix. He’s not on your team, you probably don’t like him, but I’m telling you. … He plays defense against the best player. He’s great around Booker. You put him around Booker, you put Jalen Green with Booker, we feel good about that.”
Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green discusses joining the team
New Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green on joining the team after being traded from the Houston Rockets for Kevin Durant.
Phoenix landed Duke freshman big Khaman Maluach with that 10th overall selection.
“We’re excited about Maluach,” Ishbia said. “He’s 18, though. People have unreal (expectations). He’s 18. I have a son that’s 14. He’s four years older. He’s still a kid and he’s going to develop. It’s going to take a little bit of time, but we really love what he’s got and think he can be a real impact player.”
The Suns also acquired another 7-footer in Mark Williams in a trade with Charlotte on Day 1 of the draft.
“We were able to pivot a lot quicker than people thought,” Ishbia said.
The Suns later waived Cody Martin in June to inch closer to getting under the second tax apron.
A month later, they bought out Beal to dip below the first and second apron.
“We had to kind of flip the roster from older, descending roster, over the salary cap, to a younger, up-and-coming, normal size salary cap roster to give us more flexibility,” Ishbia said.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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