Suns Owner Mat Ishbia Had Honest Admission About Team's Disappointing Season

A title remains elusive for Phoenix.

Mat Ishbia watches the Suns play the Pacers. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Just four years after their 2021 breakthrough, the Phoenix Suns' run as a contender appears to be over.

The Suns boldly added guard Bradley Beal and forward Kevin Durant in 2023, but had minimal success marrying their talents to guard Devin Booker. Phoenix crashed out in the first round in 2024 before slumping to 36-46 in 2025.

In a Thursday postmortem, Suns owner Mat Ishbia bluntly addressed his team's shortcomings.

"There’s a lot of reasons why (coach Mike Budenholzer) is not here. I’m not going to get into all those reasons, but definitely believe we should’ve won a lot more games and been a lot more competitive during those games as well," Ishbia said via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.

Phoenix fired Budenholzer on Monday after just one season. The veteran coach is still just four years removed from his '21 title with the Milwaukee Bucks, won over the Suns—a franchise without an NBA championship.

"Wish him the best, but it was the wrong coach for our organization and for that team and at the end of the day, you can blame me for it because I’m the owner," Ishbia said.

---

More NBA on Sports Illustrated

feed