Matt Ishbia has changed his tune this summer. No longer tossing stacks of cash onto the fire, he is now directing the Phoenix Suns to make moves not to prioritize wins in the present, but to save their owner money.
The Suns were all-but forced out of the hands of Robert Sarver, and Michigan State alumni and mortgage billionaire Matt Ishbia swooped in to buy the team and present himself as the modern, empathetic, deep-pocketed owner whose business acumen was going to deliver untold profit and titles to the desert.
Almost immediately, Ishbia got involved in the trade to bring Kevin Durant to the Suns in exchange for every draft pick that wasn't nailed down on top of Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder. Then when the NBA announced new punitive restrictions on expensive teams, Ishbia decided to steer into the storm and bump the payroll through the roof by adding Bradley Beal and re-signing players to baloon contracts to make them more tradeable.
Unfortunately, most of those players promptly tanked their own values, to the point that the likes of Jusuf Nurkic and Josh Okogie were dumped on other teams and Beal had to be bought out. Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets for a package that was decidedly not win-now.
The Suns went from a team happily over the second tax apron and giving the middle finger to everyone else to one meekly trying to get out of the luxury tax entirely. And their most recent move proves just how intent they are at avoiding the luxury tax alterogether.
The Suns are trying to save money
In negotiating a contract buyout with Bradley Beal, then promptly waiving and stretching his salary over five years, the Suns mortgaged their future to improve their present financial situation. This was a move first pulled off by the Milwaukee Bucks earlier in the offseason, but in contrast they waived and stretched Damian Lillard to clear space to sign Myles Turner, most recently seen starting at center in the NBA Finals.
The Suns waived and stretched Bradley Beal to...save money. They are now under not only the tax aprons but out of the luxury tax itself. That is, until they had to sign enough players to field an entire roster, which would bump them back over.
If Matt Ishbia truly didn't care about the money, he would okay being a few million into the luxury tax, no problem. But the difficulties of being in the tax for another season would only compound the costs. The repeater tax would make it quite painful for anyone in the tax, multiplying the tax payments by 2, 4 or six times the actual contract costs.
Ishbia is a shrewd business man; he likely sees the writing on the wall. He knows it doesn't make sense to be the NBA's most expensive team with no chance at competing for a title. He knows that if they take their lumps this season they will have the flexibility to spend more and improve the team in the future.
That is why the Suns claimed former guard Jordan Goodwin off of waivers. On the surface, he is a talented defensive guard who can fill a role on the roster. But looking further, by claiming his current contract, the Suns now can waive him up to January 10th and only owe $25,000. That tiny guarantee is less than what it would cost to roster a veteran free agent for the first few months of the season.
The Suns can keep Goodwin, then waive him in a few months and make it even easier to duck the luxury tax. His contract is perfect for a team this close to the luxury tax line.
And since getting and staying below that line and saving ownership millions of dollars is now the top priority, Goodwin proves to be the ideal player to add. And Matt Ishbia makes his stance on saving himself money crystal clear in the process.