The Suns have made major changes each of the past three offseasons under owner Mat Ishbia . However, unlike last year, when Ishbia’s buzzword was “alignment,” he was preaching “continuity” at Thursday’s end-of-season media availability, writes Doug Haller of The Athletic.
Phoenix exceeded external expectations in 2025/26, winning 45 games and making the playoffs one year after finishing 36-46 with the most expensive roster in the league. The Suns were only projected to win 31.5 games entering the season, and they were swept in the first round by Oklahoma City, Ishbia viewed ’25/26 as a building block for the future.
“Can we win more games?” he said. “Can we win a playoff series? That’s what we’re going to focus on. … I like the culture that we’ve built. We’re not going to do anything silly to mess that up.”
Player development was another talking point for both Ishbia and general manager Brian Gregory, who replaced James Jones last year, Haller notes.
“We have a young, ascending team,” Ishbia said. “Where in years past we had players that were maybe on the decline, we have players that are getting better, and they’re going to continue to get better.”
“This is an ongoing process for sure,” Gregory said (subscriber-only story via Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic). “Mat talked about it. Our continuity, our development, our internal development is so critical for us right now and that’s just the players and we’re going to demand the best out of them.”
Here’s more from Ishbia and Gregory:
- According to Haller, Gregory is confident Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green will look better together in ’26/27 after injuries limited their opportunities to share the court this season. “One hundred percent,” the GM said. “You’re talking about three guys who are driven to become better, to do what is asked of them and help the team be successful to win. When you have that baseline, it puts you in a pretty effective spot to move forward.”
- Gregory spoke in general terms about the team’s approach to the offseason, according to Rankin. “Where are the gaps we need to fill?” Gregory said. “You can’t fill them all to the top, but what are the critical ones that we have control over? Does that mean tighten up systems, schemes, or whatever the case might be? Was there one thing that led to the other that if you eliminate the first, now you can get better at the second? All those things are done at this time and if it has to be a personnel issue, then we’ll have to address it at that time, but a lot of times, you see dramatic improvement from Year 1 to Year 2 simply because of the understanding and the ability to execute automatically where it comes who we are every single day.”
- Gregory mentioned the Suns plan to have their players back in the gym in a couple weeks rather than taking extended time off, Rankin writes. Gregory also praised the roster for buying into the team’s identity of “grit, toughness and unselfishness” while stressing that maintaining that culture is an ongoing process.
- Ishbia, who lauded head coach Jordan Ott‘s work ethic, stressed the team isn’t satisfied despite the positive steps that were taken this season. “I’m really proud of where we are and hopefully you realize that although I’m proud of where we are, we have a long way to go to where we’re going,” Ishbia said, per Rankin. “I’ve got the right people and the right vision and the right organization here with me and we’re going to do it together.”
- In case you missed it, we passed along several more items of interest from Phoenix in the past few days. You can find those stories here and here.