New Owner - Mat Ishbia

[Muggz]

A few years ago, when the Sacramento Kings were for sale, a group tried to purchase them with the intent to move them to Seattle. The league denied their ownership bid. If the league won’t allow Sacramento to move, they sure as hell won’t allow Phoenix.

GD I really miss the SuperSonics. Gary Payton talking trash and a young Shawn Kemp dunking on anything that moved.

 

[JerkFace]

GD I really miss the SuperSonics. Gary Payton talking trash and a young Shawn Kemp dunking on anything that moved.

I think they will be back within the next 5 years (expansion).

 

[Mainstreet]

I think they will be back within the next 5 years (expansion).

What's perplexing, the NBA is pushing hard for an expansion team in Mexico City.

Would the NBA expand with an odd number of teams, including Seattle and Las Vegas, or could there be a fourth team?

 

[Hoop Head]

What's perplexing, the NBA is pushing hard for an expansion team in Mexico City.

Would the NBA expand with an odd number of teams, including Seattle and Las Vegas, or could there be a fourth team?

Mexico City is much further away than Seattle and Vegas. There were too many travel issues with Toronto recently because of Covid and thats still fresh in peoples minds. Mexico City would present similar issues. There's also the fact players won't want to live in Mexico City. It took long enough for Toronto to be accepted and it's still viewed a little off by some players but Mexico City has a different language and culture. It'll take a while before players open up to Mexico City. The league wi!l need to continue to play games there and building a foothold but it's no less than a decade away, at the absolute earliest.

 

[Hoop Head]

Back to the new owners, definitely getting off on the right foot. The brothers donated $100k so 7,000 under privileged kids could go to the Suns vs Raptors in January.

Edit: The story is worth reading. It seems to be more than a PR stunt on their part.

Ishbia brothers make $100,000 donation to Bright Side Night!!

The donation will send almost 7,000 kids to see the Phoenix Suns play the Toronto Raptors on Jan 30

t.co

 

[Muggz]

What's perplexing, the NBA is pushing hard for an expansion team in Mexico City.

Would the NBA expand with an odd number of teams, including Seattle and Las Vegas, or could there be a fourth team?

I could see a border town but Mexico City is too far to travel, especially for the northern teams.
Plus its Mexico not Canada no chance they could guarantee the safety of the players.
What would we ever do if Luka got abducted and turned out to the streets of Mexico City.

 

[Mainstreet]

I could see a border town but Mexico City is too far to travel, especially for the northern teams.
Plus its Mexico not Canada no chance they could guarantee the safety of the players.
What would we ever do if Luka got abducted and turned out to the streets of Mexico City.

Adam Silver keeps talking about Mexico City for a reason.

Maybe they are not in the plans for the nearer future but they are being groomed as a possible destination. There are a reported 30 million NBA fans in Mexico.

The current talk is not new. I've read articles from five years ago about it.

Mexico City is already the home of the NBA G-League Capitanes.

However, it's hard to see them beating out Las Vegas and Seattle in the near term.

 

[Hoop Head]

Adam Silver keeps talking about Mexico City for a reason.

Maybe they are not in the plans for the nearer future but they are being groomed as a possible destination. There are a reported 30 million NBA fans in Mexico.

The current talk is not new. I've read articles from five years ago about it.

Mexico City is already the home of the NBA G-League Capitanes.

However, it's hard to see them beating out Las Vegas and Seattle in the near term.

David Stern talked about European expansion a lot in his final decade as commish. I can see a G-League expansion of some sort down there. Like another team, a tournament, possibly a feeder league of some sort. Silver is just covering his bases and talking up Mexico because it's a relatively untapped market for the league. However Baja would be probably the most realistic option for an NBA team because it's right on the border and players could live in the US still and travel for games. Someone here brought up the idea before and it makes a lot of sense. I can't recall who though.

Another reason I think Silver is hyping Mexico city as a destination is they'll need a market ready to go to use to threaten other franchises and cities to get favorable stadium deals after Seattle and Vegas get teams. Sports leagues love having a city at the ready to use to leverage other cities. The NFL did it with LA for a long time. The NBA has done it with Seattle.

BTW, Merry Christmas Mainstreet. Hope you and yours are having a great holiday!

 

[Muggz]

It will be over the first time the cartel grab a player for ransom and saws his head off anyway.

 

[Superbone]

When's this thing going to be official? I hope we start seeing the benefits of it soon.

 

[JerkFace]

When's this thing going to be official? I hope we start seeing the benefits of it soon.

I believe the Utah sale lasted about 6 weeks from when he was announced to when he was official.

 

[Superbone]

I believe the Utah sale lasted about 6 weeks from when he was announced to when he was official.

Ugh. That would be like five more weeks. Maybe even longer due to the holidays. Hopefully, it doesn't affect what we do starting January 15th.

 

[Matt L]

Borg

what does this mean?

 

[AzStevenCal]

what does this mean?

It's from the Star Trek universe, it basically means "ditto".

 

[Cheesebeef]

I can only chuckle at the growing legion of The Borg.

Resistance is futile.

 

[Superbone]

The Borg have a communal hive mind.

 

[Mainstreet]

I already posted this on the "Waiting to trade Crowder" thread. It helps explain why the Suns have not made any trades.

Brian Windhorst sheds light on why the Suns are not making trades. They have three quasi-owners.

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[Superbone]

This is exactly what I thought was going on in spite of Jones saying he has the authority to get things done.

 

[Mainstreet]

I can't help but wonder how much of James Jones decision-making was influenced Robert Sarver.

For example, were his spending decisions influenced by a budget such a having to eliminate things that weren't cost-efficient (such a G-League team and cutting short player development) so he could spend the money on more tangible things elsewhere.

In other words, was there a trade-off where he had to spend the money. It would explain some things if he did.

 

[Town Drunk]

I already posted this on the "Waiting to trade Crowder" thread. It helps explain why the Suns have not made any trades.

Brian Windhorst sheds light on why the Suns are not making trades. They have three quasi-owners.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

They didn’t have three quasi owners during the off-season. Jones failed to address the needs of the team. Granted, injuries have killed the Suns this year, but they had glaring weaknesses before the injuries.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I can't help but wonder how much of James Jones decision-making was influenced Robert Sarver.

For example, were his spending decisions influenced by a budget such a having to eliminate things that weren't cost-efficient (such a G-League team and cutting short player development) so he could spend the money on more tangible things elsewhere.

In other words, was there a trade-off where he had to choose where to spend the money. It would explain some things if he did.

I've said this before but I think (or maybe I just hope) that Sarver instead of JJ was ultimately behind getting rid of our youth, player development, the college and international scouting and the G League team. It makes sense that you win games with veterans but that doesn't mean you don't need to be bringing along young players at the same time.

I'd imagine JJ influenced where the cost cutting moves would damage the product the least, similar to when Kerr made that horrendous decision to give up picks to get rid of Kurt Thomas. I think we're paying a price for that G League decision right now, just think about how much easier it would have been to bring up a player from our own minor League team because he'd already be familiar with our system.

 

[AzStevenCal]

They didn’t have three quasi owners during the off-season. Jones failed to address the needs of the team. Granted, injuries have killed the Suns this year, but they had glaring weaknesses before the injuries.

No but one of the owners was still Robert Sarver. And the writing was probably already on the wall as far as him surviving the investigation. When we first heard he was looking to sell, I believe they even said the process had started months earlier.

As for glaring weaknesses, you'll get plenty of support for that here but I disagree. Even with injuries early we still had a top 4 record. No team has a perfect roster, there was plenty of room for improvement but at the time a midseason addition or two looked to be all we'd need to have a chance. Unless CP3 returned to superstar form though, "a chance" is about all we could have hoped for IMO.

For me it all goes back to the horrible drafting decisions of the past decade. We wasted an awful lot of draft capital, had we turned even just a couple of them into real assets we'd have had a lot more to work with when it came time to try and land another star to offset CP3's decline. Going into this season, our only real trade value was players because our picks were projected to be so late. So, no matter who we upgraded with, it would have come at the cost of multiple players we already depended on.

 

[95pro]

They didn’t have three quasi owners during the off-season. Jones failed to address the needs of the team. Granted, injuries have killed the Suns this year, but they had glaring weaknesses before the injuries.

Sarver still could have cuffed JJ.

JJ is a champion, former Sun, do you think he would sit on his hands on not do anything to make the team better.

No moves this season happened for a reason up to this point.

Other moves were more about depth while being budget friendly. Sounds like Sarver to me.

 

[GatorAZ]

I've said this before but I think (or maybe I just hope) that Sarver instead of JJ was ultimately behind getting rid of our youth, player development, the college and international scouting and the G League team. It makes sense that you win games with veterans but that doesn't mean you don't need to be bringing along young players at the same time.

I'd imagine JJ influenced where the cost cutting moves would damage the product the least, similar to when Kerr made that horrendous decision to give up picks to get rid of Kurt Thomas. I think we're paying a price for that G League decision right now, just think about how much easier it would have been to bring up a player from our own minor League team because he'd already be familiar with our system.

.
What the the instant reaction on here to that deal? I feel like today with social media/hot take shows a GM would’ve been publicly shamed out of a job for trading two unprotected picks to get rid of a guy with 1 year/$8m left on his deal….

 

[GatorAZ]

I already posted this on the "Waiting to trade Crowder" thread. It helps explain why the Suns have not made any trades.

Brian Windhorst sheds light on why the Suns are not making trades. They have three quasi-owners.

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I figured this was the case. Sarver is still the owner whether he’s suspended or not and adding salary changes the value of an already agreed upon sale. It’s promising that Windhorst said Ishbia is trying to take control before the trade deadline.