New franchise owner swoops in to take all the heat off Suns' Mat Ishbia

The 2025 offseason has been a sobering one for Phoenix Suns' owner Mat Ishbia. Despite immediately promising the world upon buying the franchise, the reality of trying to build a championship winner in the short-term proved to be a much more difficult proposition than he imagined.

Which led to the organization changing course this summer, with Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal departing as the Suns now look for a more sustainable way to win it all. For what it is worth in a recent interview Ishbia himself uttered the one sentence that proves he has learned his lesson, albeit one that cost him a lot of money.

New Portland Trail Blazers owner doomed to repeat Ishbia's mistakes.

News broke last week - somewhat unexpectedly - that the Portland Trail Blazers were going to change hands with a group headed up by Tom Dundon going to buy the franchise. Although the deal itself is likely not going to go through until next year - March has been mentioned as a possible time for the Trail Blazers to change hands - already the new ownership group is promising big things.

The same piece by HoopsRumors also cited a source which said of Dundon; "He brings a swagger. If Tom was the owner last year, he would have been trying to get Luka (Doncic). He would be like, ‘Why should the Lakers have him?' If that is indeed the case, then that will both feel all too familiar to Suns' fans and will ensure the spotlight won't be on every decision Ishbia makes for much longer.

Like Phoenix, Portland is a small market team and its best success in the last 10 years has come from drafting a franchise player. Both Devin Booker and Damian Lillard have some similarities in that regard, although Booker is yet to leave The Valley in pursuit of a championship. As soon as Ishbia was in control of the franchise, he made a massive trade to acquire Kevin Durant.

This came at a time when the Suns were not used to adding superstars in this way, and Beal followed soon after. From the wording above it seems like - as soon as the new ownership is officially in charge - they are going to set about taking big swings to try and get the Trail Blazers competing for a championship as soon as possible.

While that is likely happening, Ishbia and his own front office will likely be enduring a losing season as the seek to build a roster the right way. We've seen the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder have success doing it this way in recent seasons, and now it will be their turn. The Trail Blazers meanwhile appear doomed to make the mistakes Ishbia once did, and they too will suffer.