{"id":175208,"date":"2025-08-25T20:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T20:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175208\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T20:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T20:29:09","slug":"phoenix-suns-slammed-for-trading-future-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175208\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Suns Slammed for Trading Future Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_jjfd68tcl\">PHOENIX &#8212; The 2025-26 regular season slowly approaches, and nobody knows what to make of the <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_8td2uv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/suns\/news\/phoenix-suns-modern-mt-rushmore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix Suns<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_9j9ctjxmv\">The Suns are in a far different place than the last time we saw them take the court after making major shakeups within the front office and coaching staff. Phoenix also dismantled their &#8220;big three&#8221; of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal with <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_8td2uv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/suns\/news\/devin-booker-still-viewed-top-nba-shooting-guard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">just Booker<\/a> remaining in the desert. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_ogzw24cqn\">The Suns are confident <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_8td2uv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/suns\/news\/phoenix-suns-owner-crafting-team-fans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they can turn things around<\/a> &#8211; though not everybody believes. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbi\" title=\"Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbi\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dec 19, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia sits courtside against the Indiana Pacers at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<br \/>\n \/ Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_sl2euqedh\">&#8220;No team has mortgaged more of its future for less in the present than Phoenix, which is an underdog to finish even in the top 10 in the West next season. But it&#8217;s not as if the Suns can realistically pivot to a tanking posture, because they don&#8217;t control their first-round pick until 2032,&#8221; wrote ESPN&#8217;s Zach Kram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_zyut0lyga\">&#8220;That&#8217;s six more years of other teams feasting on Phoenix&#8217;s lottery possibilities after the Suns gave Houston the No. 10 pick this summer (only to reacquire it in the Kevin Durant trade).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_pjtuuaqjr\">Projections around the Suns aren&#8217;t quite exciting entering the new season, as many outlets have the organization well below play-in territory. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_rdv9ku6wq\">Suns owner Mat Ishbia chooses to take the more optimistic approach to the season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_rwdzhcdsj\">\u201cWhat I expect is we\u2019re gonna be competitive, a team that you\u2019re gonna be proud of and we\u2019re gonna be building,\u201d Ishbia told Arizona Sports&#8217; <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_8td2uv\" href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/nba\/phoenix-suns\/culture-defined\/3593499\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Burns and Gambo<\/a>. \u201cOver the next couple years, you\u2019re gonna see us follow that same Phoenix Mercury path to be competing for a championship, playing hard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_9mo7si5wi\">\u201cEveryone\u2019s gonna rally around these guys, and I\u2019m excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX &#8212; The 2025-26 regular season slowly approaches, and nobody knows what to make of the Phoenix Suns.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-175208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}