{"id":204822,"date":"2025-07-31T09:22:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/204822\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T09:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:22:22","slug":"phoenix-suns-seek-greatness-at-all-levels-ahead-of-2024-25-nba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/204822\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Suns seek greatness at all levels ahead of 2024-25 NBA season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mike Budenholzer brings championship experience and a fresh perspective to the Phoenix Suns\u2019 pursuit of an NBA title. (Photo by Brendon Pricco<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n

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Suns owner Mat Ishbia highlights the team\u2019s commitment to winning and fostering a championship culture in Phoenix. (Photo by Brendon Pricco<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n

PHOENIX \u2013 The only way that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia will feel vindicated is by winning a championship. And he expressed that desire Monday at Suns media day.<\/p>\n

Ishbia\u2019s goal this offseason after the Suns were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves was to cultivate a more collective winning culture. He believes that goal starts with him and putting his team in a position to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to be the best player or the best coach or the best GM,\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cMy job is to be the best owner in sports which means give (the Suns) the best resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that it\u2019s a team game \u2026 you have to have great players, a great coach, a great GM, great CEO, great owner, great marketing people, great concession people. We\u2019re a team. That\u2019s why we\u2019re able to compete for a championship at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ishbia bought the Suns in February of 2023 and is preparing for his second full season as owner. Since he and Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein stepped foot in the door, Ishbia let it be known that he\u2019ll do whatever it takes to facilitate winning.<\/p>\n

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Entering his second season with the Suns, Bradley Beal sets his sights on bringing a championship to Phoenix. (Photo by Brendon Pricco<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best,\u201d Bartelstein said about Ishbia\u2019s initiative to finance winning at all costs. \u201cThat\u2019s not the norm. Usually there\u2019s a lot of restrictions. Any time myself, James (Jones) or (Mike Budenholzer) come to Mat with an idea \u2026 he always supports it. He understands how basketball works and it\u2019s a major competitive advantage for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the investments that Ishbia and Bartelstein have made to the Suns organization \u2013 such as upgrading the Verizon 5G Performance Center where they practice or retaining key additions Grayson Allen, Royce O\u2019Neale, Damion Lee, Josh Okogie and Bol Bol \u2013 have helped attract free agents. <\/p>\n

The Suns signed nine new players during free agency, including Tyus Jones, Mason Plumlee and Monte Morris, all of whom have skill sets that adress the team\u2019s shortcomings last season.<\/p>\n

Among all of Phoenix\u2019s notable additions, one was possibly the most crucial \u2013 the hiring of coach Mike Budenholzer, an NBA champion and two-time coach of the year. Naming Budenholzer the coach of the Suns was yet another move in line with Ishbia\u2019s goal of putting together an accomplished organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cBud cares about every detail of every aspect,\u201d Ishbia said \u201cThere\u2019s no detail too small for this guy. He\u2019s been everything that I thought he would be and then some.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Suns hired Budenholzer in May after dismissing Frank Vogel after one season. The club finished 49-33 and didn\u2019t win a playoff game. <\/p>\n

Also significant in the offseason was the summer that stars Devin Booker and Kevin Durant experienced. They returned not only as Olympic gold medalists but as arguably two of the four most important pieces to winning a gold medal.<\/p>\n

The pair learned how much buy-in it takes to win Olympic gold in a short amount of time, lessons that can be applied to a full season of NBA competition and playoffs shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

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Devin Booker shares his excitement for the new season and opportunity to lead the Phoenix Suns back to the NBA playoffs. (Photo by Brendon Pricco<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were tested to the highest degree but I think our chemistry got us over the hump,\u201d Booker said. \u201cEverybody was not in their normal roles and we wanted to do other things to help contribute and that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant added, \u201cit\u2019s always good to win and understand what goes into it and how much of the pride it is. Even though that was a condensed period of a month. It was good on the brain to understand what it takes every day to go win.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1992 Olympics, future Suns star Charles Barkley aided the \u201cDream Team\u201d in winning gold in Barcelona. The subsequent season, Barkley led Phoenix to the NBA Finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

Budenholzer believes that international basketball, especially at an Olympics level, is great at preparing players for NBA greatness,, and thinks a Barkley-esque future is fitting for Booker.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go for it,\u201d Budenholzer said. \u201cLet\u2019s get Devin Booker to go from gold medalist to the NBA Finals. I think the international play can be a springboard to a great season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning is the primary goal for Ishbia and his organization. And he believes championship is the only way to justify his intentions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow am I going to be vindicated?\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cThere\u2019s only one way to say we had a lot of success (in and after the offseason), and that\u2019s win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Budenholzer brings championship experience and a fresh perspective to the Phoenix Suns\u2019 pursuit of an NBA title.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[5339,7,3086,2292,938,3224,3358,6,3220,11,2065,472,4045,604,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-204822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-2024-25-nba-season","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bradley-beal","11":"tag-devin-booker","12":"tag-kevin-durant","13":"tag-mat-ishbia","14":"tag-mike-budenholzer","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-championship","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-phoenix","19":"tag-phoenix-suns","20":"tag-phoenixsuns","21":"tag-suns","22":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114947119576794166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}