Mat Ishbia didn’t dance around it. Looking back at the Suns’ bold Kevin Durant swing, the Phoenix owner made it clear he sees the move as a miss - not because Durant wasn’t great, but because the process behind it didn’t match the direction he wanted for the franchise.
Ishbia, who became majority owner of the Suns in February 2023, spoke to CNBC and said the team’s approach after he took over was too reactive. Phoenix was sitting around the eight or nine seed when he bought the club, and he was eager to push harder. He said he was told to stay out of the way and simply approve spending, so he did exactly that and authorized a luxury-tax push in the name of chasing a title.
That led straight into the blockbuster trade for Durant from the Brooklyn Nets just days after Ishbia officially took over. The Suns sent Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks, and a first-round pick swap to Brooklyn in the deal. It was the kind of all-in move that announces a franchise’s intentions loudly.
But the results never matched the cost. Phoenix won only one playoff series in two and a half seasons with Durant, and Ishbia said the move was “not aligned with my vision.”
He said the team had “a couple of years, and it did not succeed, as we’re well aware of at this point.” From there, he said he decided to reset the operation, bringing in his own general manager, his own coach, and taking a far more hands-on role in shaping the roster and the organization.
Durant still delivered on the floor. He averaged 26.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game during his Suns run, and the 16-time All-Star performed at a high level.
The issue was bigger than production. The Suns never reached the level that the trade was supposed to unlock.
The breakup finally came in the 2025 offseason, after Phoenix attempted to move Durant at the 2025 February deadline and then completed the deal with the Houston Rockets. The return was Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, one first-round pick, and five second-round picks.
The Durant move was only one part of the larger reset. Jordan Ott replaced Mike Budenholzer as head coach, Brian Gregory was elevated to general manager, and Ishbia said the franchise is now focused on building around a clearer identity. He pointed to players such as Dillon Brooks, Jordan Goodwin, and Collin Gillespie as examples of the kind of fits the Suns want going forward.
“I’m not saying it’s Kevin Durant or not Kevin Durant,” Ishbia added. “But here’s what I just say: it is Dillon Brooks, it is Jordan Goodwin, it is Collin Gillespie… I’m not going to go name every one of my players, but we’ve defined what matters to us. We have a thing called the Suns’ DNA, the type of player that we believe in, that we want, and it’s a team that the fans will be proud of.
“Everyone thought we were going to be the worst team in the league last year,” Ishbia said. “We made the playoffs, won 45 games.
We’re going to build on that. And so, what I’ve learned, my biggest lesson to kind of come back, one, it’s not positive or negative about Kevin Durant.
What it is is we have to define what we’re about in Phoenix and then stick with it and believe in our vision and our path.
“And I didn’t do that at the beginning,” Ishbia continued. “I kind of just threw money at the problem.
Now I got personally involved with every decision, from the 14th man on the roster to the first man on the roster, every aspect of it, fan experience, players, coaches. I’m putting my heart and soul into it.”
For Ishbia, the lesson is bigger than one star player. He said the takeaway is that talent alone doesn’t guarantee a championship if a team doesn’t have a defined culture or a clear North Star - and that Phoenix is now trying to build with those things front and center.
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