New Owner - Mat Ishbia

[Yuma]

New team? New Food? What's next? New BOOZE!!!

 

[Muggz]

New team? New Food? What's next? New BOOZE!!!

I'm gonna go with, New winning tradition!

 

[Muggz]

Life will be too short for the next rebuild when it comes around. I will probably just have to turn in my NBA fan card and do something else.

I have no reason to think Ishbia won't be just as aggressive for the next rebuild as he was for this one.
I'm still dumbfounded he was able to pull THIS team together.

 

[Phrazbit]

I know there's great places to eat around the arena but it was almost a necessity to eat elsewhere because the food in the arena sucked. Not sure who the DBacks/Chase Field has contracts with but I know eating there was always fine, in terms of quality. Not worth complaining over pricing because everyone knows it's overpriced inside any sporting event but good quality items make that an easier pill to swallow.

The food at Chase Field is pretty damn good, especially for stadium food, but I think they have an advantage over the Footprint Center because of the size, most of their food vendors have space for an actual kitchen, while a lot of the spots at Footprint Center don't, they're clearly just using heaters to serve food that was cooked hours earlier. Also, I think baseball teams are more comfortable having fans wait for fresh food, the game is slower, while basketball games are far more dynamic.

However, that does not excuse how exceptionally awful a lot of the food at Footprint Center is. There is a food court in the upper deck, with TONS of space, it has like 8 food vendors inside of it, all of them cost, at minimum 12 dollars a plate. They could cut the amount of stalls there in half, give those stalls actual kitchens and the food experience would be dramatically improved.

Occasionally, they'd bring in random guest vendors, serving stuff our of warmers and their food would crush what the arena typically served.

In my 2 1/2 years as a season ticket holder I have only eaten arena food... about 4 times. They've all been disappointing, but the worst was a simple hamburger. I got a burger from the "Gorilla grill"... the first red flag was that it was ready in less than a minute after ordering. It was entirely awful... a stale bun, a steamed burger that wasn't remotely warm enough to melt the sad bit of cheese and some limp veggies to put on top. It reminded me of elementary school, but probably worse, at least those things were warm... and probably cost 1/10th as much.

The food at the arena is so bad that it adds a layer of difficulty before games. I LOVE going to games, I have tickets to 20+ games a year and I only ate there when I was so hungry or running so late that I had no alternative. On nights I had tickets I was either eating at 5 pm, 2-3 hours earlier than normal, or waiting until 11ish. It would make things a lot easier if they had some food that was not revolting AND wildly expensive. I can handle expensive arena food in a pinch, but not when it is freaking gross. Even at it's best, the footprint center's food has struggled to elevate itself above public school cafeteria... while charging 8 times the cost.

Napoleon once said that an army marches on it's stomach.

Ishbia... be our Napolean... except without the invasion of Russia.

 

[Mainstreet]

Life will be too short for the next rebuild when it comes around. I will probably just have to turn in my NBA fan card and do something else.

Isn't that the truth, but I will always enjoy watching young players develop.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

The food at Chase Field is pretty damn good, especially for stadium food, but I think they have an advantage over the Footprint Center because of the size, most of their food vendors have space for an actual kitchen, while a lot of the spots at Footprint Center don't, they're clearly just using heaters to serve food that was cooked hours earlier. Also, I think baseball teams are more comfortable having fans wait for fresh food, the game is slower, while basketball games are far more dynamic.

However, that does not excuse how exceptionally awful a lot of the food at Footprint Center is. There is a food court in the upper deck, with TONS of space, it has like 8 food vendors inside of it, all of them cost, at minimum 12 dollars a plate. They could cut the amount of stalls there in half, give those stalls actual kitchens and the food experience would be dramatically improved.

Occasionally, they'd bring in random guest vendors, serving stuff our of warmers and their food would crush what the arena typically served.

In my 2 1/2 years as a season ticket holder I have only eaten arena food... about 4 times. They've all been disappointing, but the worst was a simple hamburger. I got a burger from the "Gorilla grill"... the first red flag was that it was ready in less than a minute after ordering. It was entirely awful... a stale bun, a steamed burger that wasn't remotely warm enough to melt the sad bit of cheese and some limp veggies to put on top. It reminded me of elementary school, but probably worse, at least those things were warm... and probably cost 1/10th as much.

The food at the arena is so bad that it adds a layer of difficulty before games. I LOVE going to games, I have tickets to 20+ games a year and I only ate there when I was so hungry or running so late that I had no alternative. On nights I had tickets I was either eating at 5 pm, 2-3 hours earlier than normal, or waiting until 11ish. It would make things a lot easier if they had some food that was not revolting AND wildly expensive. I can handle expensive arena food in a pinch, but not when it is freaking gross. Even at it's best, the footprint center's food has struggled to elevate itself above public school cafeteria... while charging 8 times the cost.

Napoleon once said that an army marches on it's stomach.

Ishbia... be our Napolean... except without the invasion of Russia.

Ha, I haven't spent much time in the upper deck, but I always found tolerable solutions in the lower bowl...Pork on a Fork, Spinatos, hell even some chicken fingers and fries would tide me over.

That said, kudos to Ishbia for continuing to find other ways to differentiate and improve - he's like the opposite of all the ownership we've ever had.

 

[JCSunsfan]

New team? New Food? What's next? New BOOZE!!!

Matt Ishbia, the beer Nazi.


No more Bud Light for you!

 

[Proximo]

I have no reason to think Ishbia won't be just as aggressive for the next rebuild as he was for this one.
I'm still dumbfounded he was able to pull THIS team together.

You can be as aggressive as possible, but if you have no assets to use, you will get nowhere.

We have to pray Ayton's value goes up, Durant stays healthy, and Beal stays a top tier player for the next 5 years.

 

[Yuma]

You can be as aggressive as possible, but if you have no assets to use, you will get nowhere.

We have to pray Ayton's value goes up, Durant stays healthy, and Beal stays a top tier player for the next 5 years.

This is the same for every team. Plus some teams don't take a chance to build a championship roster. We are talking about our owner taking a risk to win it all. He could have just Sarver phoned it in, and only dabbled here and there.

 

[Hoop Head]

This is the same for every team. Plus some teams don't take a chance to build a championship roster. We are talking about our owner taking a risk to win it all. He could have just Sarver phoned it in, and only dabbled here and there.

You seem to be ignoring the parts about this team specifically, as in the lack of assets, our big 3's health, and Ayton's trade value. Those are all vital to the Suns quest for a championship.

 

[Yuma]

You seem to be ignoring the parts about this team specifically, as in the lack of assets, our big 3's health, and Ayton's trade value. Those are all vital to the Suns quest for a championship.

Name me assets GS has? No team is alike. We should ALL be happy we retooled the team to try for a championship. Instead, people are worrying if it doesn't work. Why not worry if it DOES work? Prices will go up for tickets. Merch will be more.

 

[Hoop Head]

Name me assets GS has? No team is alike. We should ALL be happy we retooled the team to try for a championship. Instead, people are worrying if it doesn't work. Why not worry if it DOES work? Prices will go up for tickets. Merch will be more.

Golden State has picks available to trade. I don't care much about what other teams have though since I'm a Suns fan. I worry about what the Suns have and how it'll work for them. Until we win a championship the job isn't finished. We're trying to get there but it's fair to say we need certain things to work in our favor to get there.

 

[Yuma]

Golden State has picks available to trade. I don't care much about what other teams have though since I'm a Suns fan. I worry about what the Suns have and how it'll work for them. Until we win a championship the job isn't finished. We're trying to get there but it's fair to say we need certain things to work in our favor to get there.

Every year there's an element of luck with every champion. Look at Denver, this is the healthiest their team has been in multiple seasons. It all came together for them in one year. Even if we don't win with this team, I can't say it wasn't worth the moves they made to try.

 

[Yuma]

You seem to be ignoring the parts about this team specifically, as in the lack of assets, our big 3's health, and Ayton's trade value. Those are all vital to the Suns quest for a championship.

Booker, Beal, KD, those are assets. We have Ayton, that's an asset. We have second rounders back. Those are assets. Also, we reloaded the coaching staff. That's a strategic change.

 

[Mainstreet]

Name me assets GS has? No team is alike. We should ALL be happy we retooled the team to try for a championship. Instead, people are worrying if it doesn't work. Why not worry if it DOES work? Prices will go up for tickets. Merch will be more.

I'm not quite sure why you are concentrating on Golden State.

The Warriors starting five are assets as well: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green. They have some nice bench players as well.

As far as this coming season, the Suns look to have a roster that can contend if healthy. I'd worry as much about the Nuggets and Lakers.

IMO, the Suns got very fortunate after trading for Durant when they were able to add Bradley Beal. This helped create a domino effect of good signings.

I don't see a lot of people unhappy about the coaching change. It was time.

 

[Yuma]

I'm not quite sure why you are concentrating on Golden State.

The Warriors starting five are assets as well: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green. They have some nice bench players as well.

As far as this coming season, the Suns look to have a roster that can contend if healthy. I'd worry as much about the Nuggets and Lakers.

IMO, the Suns got very fortunate after trading for Durant when they were able to add Bradley Beal. This helped create a domino effect of good signings.

I don't see a lot of people unhappy about the coaching change. It was time.

I am not. Just happens to be the first team we play this year. I did say no teams are alike, inferring about other teams, too. I just don't want to go through the whole NBA. Team by Team. I did talk about Denver in a later post, too!

No. I am tired of people here wringing their hands and moaning about how bad we are. We don't have Cam and Bridges and draft picks. We also weren't going anywhere with that set up. If draft picks make people sleep better at night, I guess I am worried for them. We showed even with the cupboard bare this season, we were able to acquire MORE assets.

We have been the same thing for over 50 years and never won a championship. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Finally change comes.

We changed ownership.
We changed coaching.
We changed TV deal.
We changed Players.
We changed uniforms.
We are changing food at the stadium.

Maybe people are afraid of change? Maybe they want to stay the same way we have been for 50 years, and embrace the "almost" Suns.

It's almost like people are focusing on why we CAN'T win instead of why we CAN win, and still saying they are Suns fans.

I am the most hopeful I have been in 50 years. Draft picks in your pocket never rebounded, dunked, or hit game winning shots. They are lottery tickets that allow you to dream about some day. Some day we can use them for drafting a player, some day we can use them in a trade. Well that someday finally came! We did use them in a trade. People are now moaning we could have maybe got a bigger lottery pay out, instead of being happy they did hit a pretty good pay out now. Man, we only got 800 million, and we should have waited to buy tickets when the pay out was $1.5 Billion. See we told you!

Rant over!

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I am not. Just happens to be the first team we play this year. I did say no teams are alike, inferring about other teams, too. I just don't want to go through the whole NBA. Team by Team. I did talk about Denver in a later post, too!

No. I am tired of people here wringing their hands and moaning about how bad we are. We don't have Cam and Bridges and draft picks. We also weren't going anywhere with that set up. If draft picks make people sleep better at night, I guess I am worried for them. We showed even with the cupboard bare this season, we were able to acquire MORE assets.

We have been the same thing for over 50 years and never won a championship. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Finally change comes.

We changed ownership.
We changed coaching.
We changed TV deal.
We changed Players.
We changed uniforms.
We are changing food at the stadium.

Maybe people are afraid of change? Maybe they want to stay the same way we have been for 50 years, and embrace the "almost" Suns.

It's almost like people are focusing on why we CAN'T win instead of why we CAN win, and still saying they are Suns fans.

I am the most hopeful I have been in 50 years. Draft picks in your pocket never rebounded, dunked, or hit game winning shots. They are lottery tickets that allow you to dream about some day. Some day we can use them for drafting a player, some day we can use them in a trade. Well that someday finally came! We did use them in a trade. People are now moaning we could have maybe got a bigger lottery pay out, instead of being happy they did hit a pretty good pay out now. Man, we only got 800 million, and we should have waited to buy tickets when the pay out was $1.5 Billion. See we told you!

Rant over!

Amen

 

[Mainstreet]

I am not. Just happens to be the first team we play this year. I did say no teams are alike, inferring about other teams, too. I just don't want to go through the whole NBA. Team by Team. I did talk about Denver in a later post, too!

No. I am tired of people here wringing their hands and moaning about how bad we are. We don't have Cam and Bridges and draft picks. We also weren't going anywhere with that set up. If draft picks make people sleep better at night, I guess I am worried for them. We showed even with the cupboard bare this season, we were able to acquire MORE assets.

We have been the same thing for over 50 years and never won a championship. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Finally change comes.

We changed ownership.
We changed coaching.
We changed TV deal.
We changed Players.
We changed uniforms.
We are changing food at the stadium.

Maybe people are afraid of change? Maybe they want to stay the same way we have been for 50 years, and embrace the "almost" Suns.

It's almost like people are focusing on why we CAN'T win instead of why we CAN win, and still saying they are Suns fans.

I am the most hopeful I have been in 50 years. Draft picks in your pocket never rebounded, dunked, or hit game winning shots. They are lottery tickets that allow you to dream about some day. Some day we can use them for drafting a player, some day we can use them in a trade. Well that someday finally came! We did use them in a trade. People are now moaning we could have maybe got a bigger lottery pay out, instead of being happy they did hit a pretty good pay out now. Man, we only got 800 million, and we should have waited to buy tickets when the pay out was $1.5 Billion. See we told you!

Rant over!

I guess I haven't seen the hand wringing lately, so I was curious about the conversation.

If the Suns hadn't turned Paul and Shamet into Beal and had a good free agency and draft, then I could better understand it.

Now I wasn't particularly fond of sending cash, a second round pick and Cam Payne to the Spurs in what amounted to a salary dump.

 

[Covert Rain]

I am not. Just happens to be the first team we play this year. I did say no teams are alike, inferring about other teams, too. I just don't want to go through the whole NBA. Team by Team. I did talk about Denver in a later post, too!

No. I am tired of people here wringing their hands and moaning about how bad we are. We don't have Cam and Bridges and draft picks. We also weren't going anywhere with that set up. If draft picks make people sleep better at night, I guess I am worried for them. We showed even with the cupboard bare this season, we were able to acquire MORE assets.

We have been the same thing for over 50 years and never won a championship. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Finally change comes.

We changed ownership.
We changed coaching.
We changed TV deal.
We changed Players.
We changed uniforms.
We are changing food at the stadium.

Maybe people are afraid of change? Maybe they want to stay the same way we have been for 50 years, and embrace the "almost" Suns.

It's almost like people are focusing on why we CAN'T win instead of why we CAN win, and still saying they are Suns fans.

I am the most hopeful I have been in 50 years. Draft picks in your pocket never rebounded, dunked, or hit game winning shots. They are lottery tickets that allow you to dream about some day. Some day we can use them for drafting a player, some day we can use them in a trade. Well that someday finally came! We did use them in a trade. People are now moaning we could have maybe got a bigger lottery pay out, instead of being happy they did hit a pretty good pay out now. Man, we only got 800 million, and we should have waited to buy tickets when the pay out was $1.5 Billion. See we told you!

Rant over!

Preach.

 

[95pro]

I am not. Just happens to be the first team we play this year. I did say no teams are alike, inferring about other teams, too. I just don't want to go through the whole NBA. Team by Team. I did talk about Denver in a later post, too!

No. I am tired of people here wringing their hands and moaning about how bad we are. We don't have Cam and Bridges and draft picks. We also weren't going anywhere with that set up. If draft picks make people sleep better at night, I guess I am worried for them. We showed even with the cupboard bare this season, we were able to acquire MORE assets.

We have been the same thing for over 50 years and never won a championship. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Finally change comes.

We changed ownership.
We changed coaching.
We changed TV deal.
We changed Players.
We changed uniforms.
We are changing food at the stadium.

Maybe people are afraid of change? Maybe they want to stay the same way we have been for 50 years, and embrace the "almost" Suns.

It's almost like people are focusing on why we CAN'T win instead of why we CAN win, and still saying they are Suns fans.

I am the most hopeful I have been in 50 years. Draft picks in your pocket never rebounded, dunked, or hit game winning shots. They are lottery tickets that allow you to dream about some day. Some day we can use them for drafting a player, some day we can use them in a trade. Well that someday finally came! We did use them in a trade. People are now moaning we could have maybe got a bigger lottery pay out, instead of being happy they did hit a pretty good pay out now. Man, we only got 800 million, and we should have waited to buy tickets when the pay out was $1.5 Billion. See we told you!

Rant over!

Ishbia has sure made it a point that he is in charge now, not captain phillips.

 

[Proximo]

This is the same for every team. Plus some teams don't take a chance to build a championship roster. We are talking about our owner taking a risk to win it all. He could have just Sarver phoned it in, and only dabbled here and there.

It's absolutely not the same for every team. Almost every other team has most of their future picks and some young players under long term contracts.

We have no margin for error at all till 2030.

 

[Chaplin]

It's absolutely not the same for every team. Almost every other team has most of their future picks and some young players under long term contracts.

We have no margin for error at all till 2030.

And before the Durant trade, we were one of the only teams that had ALL of our picks.

Point is, it doesn't matter when you are "WIN NOW" mode. Which we are. We may be hurting in a few years, but if we win a championship before then, it's damn well worth it.

 

[AzStevenCal]

It's absolutely not the same for every team. Almost every other team has most of their future picks and some young players under long term contracts.

We have no margin for error at all till 2030.

We have huge risks on our future calendar but we have an aggressive owner and at least the chance of a title in the near future. We also have enough assets that if things broke well for us, we could extend our window well beyond next year. The closer we get to 2030 while still being a viable team, the less damage those missing picks represent for us.

 

[Mainstreet]

We have huge risks on our future calendar but we have an aggressive owner and at least the chance of a title in the near future. We also have enough assets that if things broke well for us, we could extend our window well beyond next year. The closer we get to 2030 while still being a viable team, the less damage those missing picks represent for us.

If things break well for the Suns, they will not need to add more stars around Booker, Durant and Beal. Adding role players is much easier than adding stars.

There is also the wild card in Deandre Ayton. If he plays fundamental basketball, he could be enough to put the Suns over the top.

Also, I'm counting on Mat Ishbia adding a G-League team and recognizing the need to find and develop young players to build the team for the future. I'm encouraged the Suns took a step in this direction by adding Toumani Camara. Hopefully it becomes a new trend.

 

[Proximo]

And before the Durant trade, we were one of the only teams that had ALL of our picks.

Point is, it doesn't matter when you are "WIN NOW" mode. Which we are. We may be hurting in a few years, but if we win a championship before then, it's damn well worth it.

All my point is, is that I don't care how aggressive Ishiba is - people aren't going to make deals without getting some compensation - so the idea that somehow we can be a good team 5 years from now based on his "AGGRESSION" is a ridiculous take.

Our only hope is to somehow have enough of a team based on free agent pickups ala the heat and that Booker and Beal remain in top form.

I'm not saying his aggression hasn't worked out for this season - I have repeatedly said I think we should be the favorites - at least on paper.