Results have not matched ambition since Mat Ishbia took over the Phoenix Suns. His first move was to flood the payroll with cash, a strategy that might have worked in another era, one before luxury-tax shackles and newly drawn apron lines made overspending a dead end. A decade earlier, the city might have been drenched in confetti. Instead, the Durant-and-Beal gamble carried short-term hope but little long-term sustainability.
On the other side of his basketball empire, Ishbia took a different path.
Advertisement
The Phoenix Mercury, buried by a 9–31 record and in need of a total teardown, became the canvas. In October of 2023, he and CEO Josh Bartelstein hired Nate Tibbetts as head coach, brought in Nick U’Ren from the Golden State Warriors’ front office to be general manager, and together they sketched out a new vision. Two years later, that vision has crystallized. The Mercury are headed to the WNBA Finals after toppling the Minnesota Lynx.
And so the contrast is sharp. The Mercury, reimagined and resilient, stand on the doorstep of a title. The Suns, burdened with bloated contracts and tempered expectations, are preparing for a season where “retool” feels more like reality than rebirth. For one franchise, the Finals are here. For the other, they remain a dream.
The debate surrounding Mat Ishbia’s strategy with the Suns has been relentless, and deservedly so. In a results-driven league, results have been absent. The approach of hiring mercenaries to chase a title rarely works, because true success requires a foundation. Without it, everything else eventually crumbles.
That’s where the Mercury provide a counterpoint. And perhaps a measure of hope.
Advertisement
Their run to the Finals isn’t a sign that the Suns will suddenly follow them to the NBA’s grand stage, but it does prove that a foundation can be rebuilt under Ishbia’s direction. For Suns fans, faith has been shaken since the Ishbia Era began. The rhetoric has flowed freely all offseason, but there are early indications of a philosophical reset, a process that takes time, patience, and vision to coalesce into a nucleus worth building around.
The Mercury have shown it can be done in two years. The Suns, however, operate in a far less forgiving ecosystem. Ishbia’s first gamble — a spend-heavy strategy that mortgaged the future — has left the franchise weighed down by stripped draft capital and $23 million in dead money stretching across five seasons. Those decisions created an anchor, one that could drag on the franchise long after the short-term hope faded.
So the contrast is clear. The Mercury’s rebuild, swift and purposeful, has already borne fruit. The Suns’ rebuild, delayed by the residue of reckless spending, may take far longer to materialize. One path has revealed possibility. The other, inevitability.
Still, with Ishbia locked in as the owner for the coming decades, there’s value in pausing (and maybe even smiling) at the evidence that strategy can be learned, adjusted, and redeployed.
Advertisement
The knee-jerk reactions on social media may cast his era as chaos, a hype machine of overreactions, but the truth is more nuanced. Mat Ishbia’s acquisition of the Suns has been, and continues to be, a good thing. Early results have disappointed, yes. The results rank alongside some of the franchise’s greatest letdowns. But those disappointments were born out of expectations. And to Ishbia’s credit, he created those expectations by swinging big.
What has never been in question is his willingness to spend; on the roster, on the fan experience, on the chance to build something lasting. The hope now is that he has absorbed the lessons of the modern NBA. If a culture can be established, even within the fractured structure of the current Suns roster, Ishbia will push to make it happen. That has always been the defining trait with him: he tries. He cares. He won’t sit idle and let the league dictate his reality. He wants to be the one shaping it.
Some owners view their teams strictly as investments, unwilling to risk their bottom line. Ishbia risks. On the Suns’ side, those risks have yet to bear fruit. On the Mercury’s side, they’ve produced a Finals berth. So take it as you will: a cautionary tale, or a glimpse of hope for the future.
The paradox of Mat Ishbia’s empire is that both truths can exist at once. The Suns, saddled with the weight of impatient ambition, show how fragile a franchise becomes when shortcuts replace structure. The Mercury, revitalized through patience and planning, prove that vision and alignment can still yield something sustainable. Together, they form a mirror of what Ishbia is as an owner: bold enough to risk, willing enough to spend, and human enough to learn from the outcomes.
Advertisement
Maybe that is the lesson for Phoenix fans staring down the uneven road ahead. The Suns’ gamble has already been paid for, in cash, picks, and patience, and the return has not yet arrived. The Mercury’s ascent reminds us that foundations can be rebuilt, that expectations can be earned rather than bought. For Ishbia, the question is not whether he will continue to try — he will — but whether his next attempt can merge the best of both approaches: the audacity to chase greatness and the discipline to build it.