The Phoenix Suns are in the early stages of what is going to be a busy and important summer, and very little is off the table for them right now. About the only non-negotiable in The Valley should be the future of Devin Booker - and as long as he wants to call Phoenix home - then the Suns should continue with him as the franchise cornerstone.
A new head coach is needed, but that is a process that owner Mat Ishbia has said will take some time. This is the right approach, because the last two hires in Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer have only lasted one season. Going after a veteran coach with championship experience made sense, but the reality was very different for this team.
Suns may shake up front office some more before head coach hire.
Marc Stein recently dropped some league-wide intel as part of a bumper first weekend of playoff action in the association, and the Suns featured quite heavily. A surprise, given there's 16 teams still in with a chance of winning it all and none have to hit the panic button yet after being dumped out of the postseason early.
The Houston Rockets are a team to monitor in any potential Kevin Durant trade, but that hinges heavily on how deep they can go in the postseason. Right now that is looking like not very, but it may be that Ishbia decides to hold fire on any big decisions - including a new head coach - until after he brings in a fresh face to be a top executive for the organization.
Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia’s full response when I asked him about Stephen A Smith’s notion that he’s “on the verge of becoming the worst team owner in sports history.”
— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) April 17, 2025
Video credit to @azfamily pic.twitter.com/6rNrI5jkZj
That's what Stein thinks is likely to happen at this point, and it appears even more likely given General Manager James Jones's current deal expires this summer. There's been no word yet on if he'll be brought back - and you get the sense no news is most certainly not good news for Jones here - but the feeling is his tenure has come to an end.
A harsh reality perhaps given Jones oversaw some solid draft selections and attempted to salvage the Bradley Beal trade by ditching center Jusuf Nurkic, but the time has surely come for change. Ishbia himself said the team were "an embarrassment" in 2024-25, and that usually means an owner is going to clear the deck before starting over.
Quite who the Suns could get for the role is unclear - we've had some thoughts on that already - but it is a positive to know that Ishbia is being proactive here. He's also gone on the record as saying he doesn't meddle with the running of the franchise - he just fronts up the money and knowledge from the business side to keep this show on the road - which is what any future executive wants to hear.
Another key factor working against Jones here is the fact Budenholzer was axed before he could even conduct an exit interview. Something the Suns didn't even do to Vogel when they fired him. The organization are not messing around - and as we've seen elsewhere with the likes of Nico Harrison - getting the right executive is as important as a new head coach. Another positive development.