Mat Ishbia says he used to throw money at the problem, and last season's Suns won 45 games on the 19th-highest payroll
It's not every day an NBA owner describes his own spending the way Mat Ishbia did. "I kind of just threw money at the problem," the Suns owner told CNBC about the Kevin Durant years, in remarks SI's Eric Jay Santos quoted in a piece that is mostly about Durant's life in Houston.
The longer version is more careful than the soundbite. "My biggest lesson is not positive or negative on Kevin Durant. It is that we have to define what we're about in Phoenix... I didn't do that at the beginning," Ishbia said, adding that he's now "personally involved with every decision, from the 14th man on the roster to the first man on the roster."
Two caveats before anyone calls that a turning point. SI doesn't say when Ishbia sat down with CNBC, so this is a reflection getting a second airing, not a new announcement. And a reflection isn't a money move. What the numbers can do is narrower: show what Phoenix's payroll bought last season against what it bought in 2024-25.
SI's telling of the Durant run is two full seasons, a Western Conference Semifinals series against Denver and a four-game first-round exit against Minnesota, ending with the trade to Houston that SI dates to last year. SI doesn't say which seasons those series came in, and ClutchPoints has the Suns at 36-46 in 2024-25, which doesn't sit neatly beside two playoff seasons. So I'm not going to guess.
Then came last season. The Phoenix Suns carried an Effective Payroll of $186.3M in 2025-26, the 19th-highest in the league, and won 45 games. That's a bottom-half bill for top-half wins.
That bill earned a WAGE Score of 59 in 2025-26, squarely Going Rate, up from 9 in 2024-25, a return near the bottom of the scale. Whatever the reason, the same franchise got far more for its money in one season than in the one before.
It didn't end in a parade. ClutchPoints reports the Suns got in through the Play-In Tournament under Jordan Ott and were swept in the first round by Oklahoma City. A sweep doesn't undo 45 wins on that payroll, but it does tell you where the ceiling was.
Here's where I get skeptical of the tidy version. The numbers say the results got ahead of the money last season. They don't say Ishbia's hands-on approach is why, and nothing in the reporting connects the two beyond his own account.
The biggest bets sit at the top of the payroll. In 2025-26, Devin Booker at $53.1M and Jalen Green at $33.6M took 54% of the Suns' payroll and produced 16% of the roster's production. That's a season total, so games missed count as much as anything else, but it means last season's return came mostly from the cheaper part of the roster.
That matters for what this season asks. ClutchPoints reports the Suns sent Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and a 2033 first-round pick to Charlotte for Miles Bridges, who averaged 17.1 points in 77 games in 2025-26. The reporting doesn't give his salary, so I can't tell you what share of the bill he takes. I can tell you that a 2033 pick is a long-dated bet, and if Bridges is what Ishbia means by "we only get those types of players," it's a bet on that idea working on the court.
The owner who says he's in on the 14th-man decision does have a 14th man now. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 reported that the Suns waived Haywood Highsmith, after earlier reporting that Jamaree Bouyea would keep the 14th spot and the 15th would stay open to start the season. So for the moment, one roster spot is getting no money thrown at it at all.
The preseason didn't help the mood. ClutchPoints has Phoenix at 1-4, finishing with a 119-116 loss to Utah, which is about as much as you should read into exhibition games, meaning not much.
So here's the ask for the new season. For the lesson to look like a lesson, Booker, Bridges and everyone else have to get ahead of the money again on whatever this year's bill turns out to be, because 2024-25 showed what the same franchise's money looks like when they don't.