Amid league-wide claims that he was already leaning too heavily on his East Lansing, Michigan history, with Spartans legends like Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell already on the Suns\u2019 coaching staff and Phoenix fast becoming known as \u2018West Lansing\u2019 around the NBA, Ishbia decided to lean all the way into the green.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people wanted to blame me last time, I wasn\u2019t actually doing it my way,\u201d Ishbia, sitting inside a restaurant booth at the Global Ambassador hotel across the street from the team\u2019s practice facility, told The Athletic during a recent visit. \u201cNow, I am, and there\u2019s no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man who was widely accused of meddling too much, in other words, had privately decided that he needed to be even more involved. And he wasn\u2019t about to feel an ounce of shame for it.<\/p>\n
For Ishbia\u2019s part, this realization that his Michigan State experience was worth incorporating into a new endeavor was nothing new. To hear him tell it, that\u2019s how he attacked the challenge of growing his company, United Wholesale Mortgage, from a 12-employee outfit that he took on from his father in 2003 to the one that has more than 9,000 employees today. And as it related to the Suns, there was an honest discussion to be had about organizational culture \u2014 or lack thereof.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not gonna win a championship every year \u2014 we know that,\u201d Ishbia continued. \u201cBut we\u2019ve gotta make sure it\u2019s a team that we\u2019re proud of, and an organization that we\u2019re proud of. We have to have a culture. My mortgage business has been built on people, and caring. So I (said), \u2018I don\u2019t care how the NBA does it. We\u2019re gonna do it a different way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Suns\u2019 way,\u201d as they deemed it that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI revert back to what got me here, and what got me here is I\u2019m gonna outwork everybody, and I\u2019m going to do things differently than how everyone else does things,\u201d Ishbia continued. \u201cI\u2019m going to lean into who I am. \u2026(What) I learned at Michigan State basketball, (and what) I learned at UWM Mortgage Company, is that it\u2019s about people, about family, about alignment, and we\u2019re going to make sure everybody\u2019s on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n After paying a king\u2019s ransom for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, only to be left with the most expensive non-playoff team, owner Mat Ishbia knew he had to change his approach. (Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
So the three men shared their detailed answers to one central question: What is the Suns\u2019 DNA?<\/p>\n
As they all agreed, they would build around Booker in an entirely different way this time around, putting an end to the unsophisticated star chase and instead focusing on players who were known for their grit and two-way talents. They would create a culture where they made a big deal out of players doing the little things \u2014 diving for loose balls, cheering their teammates on from the bench and giving the kind of effort at practices and shootarounds that isn\u2019t often seen in the pros. The continued belief in Booker \u2014 a proud \u201cMichigan man\u201d himself, as he put it, after a childhood spent in Grand Rapids \u2014 remained at the heart of their plan.<\/p>\n
After learning the hard way in those first few years, with Ishbia going after star players and coaches like shiny objects to put around their five-time All-Star, they wanted to flip the script. Establish the culture first \u2014 identifying all the shared beliefs and philosophies that foster synergy in the coaching, scouting and roster-building ranks \u2014 and then make the moves. Not the other way around. And despite the fact that major decisions loomed, from the latest head-coaching hire to a monumental choice on where to trade Durant, they focused on the more foundational aspects of the floundering operation.<\/p>\n
With this sort of basketball approach, and a business playbook that included Suns games for free on local television<\/a>, a $2 menu at games<\/a> and new luxury options inside the arena for the first-class crowd, this was all part of a broader plan to win back the many disheartened fans whose loyalty faded in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wrote it down on paper: What\u2019s the Suns\u2019 DNA?\u201d Bartelstein said. \u201cWhat is it gonna be defined by? \u2026 Before you get to all (of the moves), let\u2019s figure out what we want to stand for? And me, BG, and Mat said here\u2019s the list of what we\u2019re gonna be. The hardest-playing team. We\u2019re going to (embrace players who) sign autographs for our fans, and stuff like that. Everyone\u2019s up on the bench. A little bit more collegiate really, like college style. We think when everyone\u2019s zigging, we kind of zag.\u201d<\/p>\n This was the turning point, as they all see it, the moment when a Suns team that so many thought was doomed began to change its fortunes by going against the NBA grain. Entering Wednesday, Phoenix (32-22) is seventh in the West and just a half-game back of the sixth spot. Ishbia, it\u2019s safe to say, will walk onto the court for the NBA All-Star weekend celebrity game in Los Angeles on Friday night in a much better mood than he ever could have imagined.<\/p>\n After hiring a first-time head coach in Jordan Ott who has proved to be quite capable, then recharging their roster by trading Durant to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, the No. 10 pick and five second-round picks, there is organizational hope again for this group that was widely seen as stuck around this time a year ago. Add in the fact that Booker recommitted by way of a two-year, $145 million extension in July, and the Suns are suddenly, and surprisingly, looking ahead to brighter days again. To that point, consider this: By downing Portland on Feb. 3, the Suns beat their preseason over-under odds<\/a> for win total (30.5) with 31 games left to go.<\/p>\n As Ishbia is the first to admit, they still have a long way to go. On the basketball side, the Durant and Beal trades left them devoid of draft picks and, in turn, constrained when it comes to building the roster from here. On the business side, Ishbia finds himself in a legal battle with minority owners that, at minimum, is a reflection of the exorbitant price paid to do those deals.<\/p>\n Yet by NBA standards, the organizational overhaul that sparked so much of this season\u2019s success is as extreme as you\u2019ll ever see. Resets don\u2019t get much more radical than this.<\/p>\n The irony of it all? The media personality who once ridiculed Ishbia from his massive platform, and who would publicly apologize days later for the hyperbolic nature of his statement, also empowered him to put his personal stamp on the Suns more than ever before.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like, \u2018If you\u2019re going to be who you are, be who you are,\u2019\u201d Ishbia said of his private discussions with Smith. \u201cSo now I\u2019m leaning into, \u2018I\u2019m unapologetically Mat Ishbia.\u2019 I\u2019m going to be who I am, and do what I believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n \n The Phoenix Suns used a rigorous process to vet potential head coaches. Jordan Ott rose to the top, and while his hiring was initially met with skepticism, his results on the court speak for themselves. (Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n When Ishbia decided to promote Gregory to the GM role, putting an NBA neophyte in the position that had been held by former player (and three-time champion) James Jones since 2018 (including the Suns\u2019 2021 Finals run), his longtime friend and former coach gave a blunt assessment of how he thought the unconventional move would be received.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like, \u2018You\u2019re gonna get blasted for this,\u2019\u201d said Ishbia, who is based in Detroit and attends approximately half of the Suns\u2019 games. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018F\u2014 it. We\u2019re gonna do what the right thing is.\u2019 I got blasted when I did everything everyone wanted me to do. Give them the money, make all these big splashy trades, do all these nice things \u2014 and I got blasted for that. So if I\u2019m gonna get blasted, I\u2019m going to get blasted with what I believe. And what I believe is that you are the best guy for this job.\u201d<\/p>\n There was no questioning Gregory\u2019s pedigree as a basketball lifer, one who was the head coach at Dayton, Georgia Tech and South Florida before joining the Suns in the summer of 2024. But for Ishbia, who admits that he wishes he made these sorts of changes earlier in his tenure, it was the deep trust they\u2019d built together in the late \u201890s that mattered most. And after giving serious consideration to taking another big swing, with former Golden State executive Bob Myers reportedly among his early targets<\/a>, he circled back to what he knew.<\/p>\n Again.<\/p>\n During Gregory\u2019s time as an assistant at Northwestern, he scouted Ishbia when he was in high school at Ernest W. Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Michigan. There was never a scholarship offer, but they would meet again during Ishbia\u2019s sophomore year at Michigan State in 1999. And this time, a partnership that would lead to a three-decades long friendship was formed.<\/p>\n Gregory, who was a Michigan State assistant from 1990 to 1996 and returned from 1999 to 2003, handled all the Spartans\u2019 scouting for every game. And Ishbia, who eschewed Division II scholarship offers to come to Michigan State, was his trusted scout team partner, and point guard, on that project for three years. For nearly a half hour before every practice, they\u2019d run through film together, peeling back the layers of each opponent\u2019s playbook. All in the name of helping the Spartans reach that ultimate goal.<\/p>\n \u201cI coached him hard every day, as if he was Mateen Cleaves, you know what I mean?\u201d Gregory said. \u201cAnd I think there was a respect factor. We loved each other. I mean, we went through a lot together.\u201d<\/p>\n As Ishbia saw it, any concerns about Gregory\u2019s learning curve were mitigated by his reputation as a relentless worker. And so long as he surrounded him with institutional knowledge, with Bartelstein and assistant general manager Matt Tellem (the son of former agent and Detroit Pistons executive Arn Tellem) on hand to assist, he was confident Gregory would be able to play catch-up when it came to the vast complexities of the job.<\/p>\n So when Gregory expressed concern about how the hiring might land, Ishbia didn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n \u201cBrian Gregory, you\u2019re the right GM for my (team),\u201d Ishbia said he told him. \u201cYou\u2019re the guy I want. \u2026I don\u2019t care what everyone else says, because they\u2019re not gonna be in those meetings when we\u2019re debating on a trade or fighting over a draft pick, or deciding what kind of a guy we want where we cut or sign someone.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Devin Booker remains the Suns\u2019 best player, a homegrown talent who has stuck around through recent highs and lows. (Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n When the time came to find the Suns\u2019 next head coach, it should come as no surprise that Ishbia asked Izzo if he might want to leave East Lansing and head for West Lansing, as some NBA folks have dubbed Phoenix these days. But those conversations never advanced \u2014 Izzo wasn\u2019t going anywhere \u2014 and so Ishbia leaned on him for more broad advice about the Suns chapter to come.<\/p>\n There was no shortage of pressure when it came to the head coaching decision, as Ishbia had jettisoned two well-respected coaches \u2014 in back-to-back summers \u2014 whose contracts were worth a combined $81 million. So in the wake of their mid-April meeting, the new Suns\u2019 brass decided to take the opposite approach from the two hirings before. They would take their time while interviewing a long list of candidates, with a focus on experienced assistant coaches who showed great potential to develop down the line.<\/p>\n They started with 15 coaches in all, with Gregory leading the way during four rounds of interviews that were so in-depth that some candidates privately expressed concerns about sharing too much about their personal philosophies. If they didn\u2019t get the job, the thinking went, there was a level of detail discussed that could be used against them in the season to come at their current job. Secrets are bound to get shared when you\u2019re asked to prepare for a four-hour Xs and Os Zoom session.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where I really got a feel for a guy\u2019s ability to control the room and what narrative is he trying to get across (to his players),\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n But the process appears to have come with a side benefit, too, as it helped Gregory expand his understanding of the league that was still so new to him at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really all three of us working through it, and the whole thing \u2014 the transcript of the interviews, my notes \u2014 I knew it was critical,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cWe can set the tone and tempo from up above, but the day in and day out grind (with the coach) needs to be on track too.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly two months after they fired Budenholzer, the Suns made the decision to hire Ott, who spent a combined nine seasons as an assistant with Brooklyn, the Lakers and Cleveland before coming to Phoenix. Yet while his NBA credentials were more than adequate to justify the choice \u2014 including his start as a video coordinator with the Atlanta Hawks under Budenholzer in 2013 \u2014 the public focus after his hiring quickly shifted to the fact that he had Michigan State ties.<\/p>\n After graduating from Penn State, Ott spent five years as a graduate assistant and video coordinator for Izzo with the Spartans.Yet in stark contrast to Gregory, Ott had no previous relationship with Ishbia.<\/p>\n As Gregory and Ishbia see it, the only part that matters now is that Ott \u2014 who is also known for his work ethic \u2014 is off to a very strong start. If the best-case scenario unfolds here, they\u2019re hoping, as Gregory shared, that Ott can be their version of another former video coordinator who has carved out an elite career: Miami\u2019s Erik Spoelstra.<\/p>\n \u201cMat has a thing from when he started his business, and he figured out that if you show up at six o\u2019clock in the morning, or five o\u2019 clock in the morning, every day, that\u2019s 28 (extra work) hours a month,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cThat\u2019s how he thinks. And to this day, Jordan Ott is the first guy in this building every day and the last guy to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n Added Ishbia: \u201cJordan Ott\u2019s the worker. He comes in early, stays late, watches more film (than others), spends time with the guys. It\u2019s not dissimilar to what Tom Izzo used to do. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s gonna win a championship. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s gonna be as successful as it has been (early this season), but you know what I do know? I feel really good about how we\u2019re doing things \u2013 and the way we\u2019re doing them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ott, who raves about the prospect of having an owner and a general manager who truly know the game, has license to push his players in the kind of way that isn\u2019t the NBA norm. There is, they all agree, a college feel to the shared strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the importance of doing it together is real,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want a group that wants to go out and compete at an extremely high level, but do it together. And we trust that the group, when they feel that we\u2019re all together, that we can do it better than any individual can.<\/p>\n \u201cThe skill of playing hard is extremely valuable in today\u2019s game, and it\u2019s stressed here by our group on both ends. Having each other\u2019s back is something that\u2019s talked about here more than probably some other places that I\u2019ve been around. I think you just lose (that energy) over time in professional basketball, to a certain extent. When you get the right guys, and you already want to do that, and it\u2019s emphasized, I think you can take it to a level that not every place is stressing in quite the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n When the dust finally settled on the 2025 trade deadline, and after so much speculation that he might be on the move, Durant was still in Phoenix. While Jones was still in the top front office spot at the time \u2014 he would later be named a Suns \u2018adviser\u2019 before leaving in July for a job as the head of basketball operations in the league office \u2014 \u2013 league sources say Bartelstein led the way in communications with teams that were interested in Durant. But the discussions had been held without any sort of direct involvement of Durant himself, which \u2014 after they learned that he wasn\u2019t pleased with the prospect of a reunion \u2014 ultimately compelled the Golden State Warriors to back away from a deal. The Rockets, however, didn\u2019t show any interest in Durant until the 11th hour.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was \u2018No, no, no,\u2019 (from Houston) until the day of the trade deadline last year, when (Rockets general manager Rafael Stone) called me at 4 in the morning,\u201d Bartelstein said. \u201c(But) it wasn\u2019t the right package. It wasn\u2019t as good as the package we got. That was the really hard part for me and Mat at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n More specifically, it was the fact the Rockets hadn\u2019t offered Brooks that proved to be a deal-breaker. Per league sources, the offer included Houston big man Jabari Smith Jr. along with Green as the main players in the deal. As such, as Ishbia remembers it, they decided to revisit this scenario in the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deal was never gonna get done without Jalen and Dillon in the deal,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the two players we wanted. It wasn\u2019t, \u2018Hey, how do we fill a salary with these numbers?\u2019 It was, \u2018In order to have Kevin Durant on your team, I want Dillon Brooks to help me with my culture and my identity. I want Jalen Green as a 23-year-old up-and-coming leading scorer. You\u2019re gonna get a Hall of Fame player. And then we obviously negotiate draft picks involved with it as well. But Dilllon Brooks was targeted, just like Jalen Green was targeted. \u2026The Kevin Durant trade turned out to be everything we wanted it to be \u2014 and then some.\u201d<\/p>\n To this point, this part of the plan has worked wonders. While Green (six games played) has faced injuries (hamstring, hip) that delayed his Suns start until recently, Brooks has fast become a complementary co-star to Booker and the very definition of a fan favorite. He\u2019s averaging a career-high 21.1 points per game \u2014 second on the Suns behind Booker\u2019s 25.3 \u2014 and providing a level of defensive intensity that has everything to do with Phoenix ranking eighth in the league on that end of the floor (they were 27th last season). While Brooks never knew Ishbia before the trade, he had been told that the Suns refused to do the deal without him in it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat just gave me more confidence,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I knew I was getting traded to a team that needed some flair, some physicality, some motivation. The whole summer, I was working on my offensive game. So even though (the Suns) thought I was just gonna bring defensive spirit, I knew I had a little more in the tank. I feel like I was the right guy for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n The guy who was deemed the wrong fit for the job, meanwhile, made his strong feelings about his exit known back on Jan. 5. Not long after Durant hit a game-winner to beat the Suns in Houston, the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer shared his view that he was \u201cscapegoated\u201d by the Suns on his way out.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Kevin thinks about his time here is fine,\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t successful. And guess what? When things don\u2019t go well, I\u2019m going to make changes to get it to go well \u2014 by any means necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focused on our guys now. I love our team. I love Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, Khaman (Maluach, who was taken with the 10th pick) and Rasheer (Fleming, at No. 31), who we got in place of Kevin. Of course I love Booker and our team and our coach. So I\u2019m just focused on us. I\u2019m really not focused on what happened last year anymore, because we turned that page. I know how it went. I know every detail of how it went, and now I know what we\u2019re gonna do going forward. So how Kevin feels about that, that\u2019s his own problem, and his own thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n Now for the bad news, Suns fans: Even with all this internal optimism, the harsh fact remains that the original Beal and Durant deals put them in the sort of roster-building hole that will still make it very difficult to upgrade from here.<\/p>\n For starters, the Durant deal with Brooklyn in February 2023 cost them four unprotected future first-round picks and a first-round swap. Then not only did they lose Chris Paul, four first-round pick swaps and six second-round picks in the trade that brought Beal (and his no-trade clause) from Washington in June of 2023<\/a>, but the decision to buy him out in July means they have $19.3 million in \u2018dead money\u2019 on their books every season through the summer of 2030. As it stands, they don\u2019t control their own first-round pick until 2032 (they do have a 2027 first that is the least favorable of Utah\u2019s, Cleveland\u2019s or Minnesota\u2019s).<\/p>\n Those aren\u2019t the only challenges that Ishbia faces, either.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2255485847-1024x683.jpg\")
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