Suns owner Mat Ishbia says franchise doing 'excellent,' expects starters to stay put

Mat Ishbia knows the offseason chatter around the Phoenix Suns is it's a team with a top-heavy roster, salary cap issues and precious little room to maneuver after a disappointing season.

The second-year owner doesn't believe it.

"The narrative that the house is burning is incorrect," Ishbia said. "The Phoenix Suns are doing great. Excellent. Not as good as we want to be. Not as good as we're going to do next year. And that's what we're going to figure out — what we've got to tweak, modify and adjust to win a championship next year."

Ishbia and Suns general manager James Jones talked with the media on Wednesday, three days after their team was swept out of the playoffs in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was a weak performance by a franchise that had championship aspirations after assembling the All-Star trio of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

Ishbia — who splits his time between Michigan and Arizona — is back in the desert to do exit interviews and plot out the direction of the franchise for next season.

That includes deciding whether coach Frank Vogel will return for a second season.

Ishbia said he didn't want to get into Vogel's performance because he hadn't talked with him yet, but mentioned several times he'd like to maintain continuity.

Jones supported his coach.

"I thought Frank did a great job given the circumstances," Jones said. "We assembled a really talented team, primarily three scorers. Whenever you try to get guys to adjust and adapt their games, there's a transition time. It's sometimes a struggle, but I thought he did a great job this year."

Vogel had a tough assignment thanks to questionable roster construction. The Suns didn't have a true point guard — asking Booker and