New Suns owner Mat Ishbia made "a fortune in the mortgage business, where risks are calculated down to the final decimal point," so there is "probably no one more aware of the chance the Suns are taking by trading" for F Kevin Durant, according to Kent Somers of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. The team's future "has been mortgaged." However, it is "worth it because Durant should make the Suns substantially better in the present." Less than a day after closing a deal that made him the majority owner, Ishbia "pushed for the Suns to make their most impactful trade since acquiring" Basketball HOFer Charles Barkley in 1992. It is "risky." Dealing four first-round picks "obviously impacts the Suns’ ability to add talent and depth around Durant, and after he’s gone." But acquiring a superstar "requires giving up valuable players." Ishbia’s "first big decision" as majority owner "possibly will go down as his worst, no matter how long he owns the team" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 2/9). THE RINGER's Rob Mahoney wrote this move "completely resets the expectations for the Suns, who had faltered to a middling seed in the West, and allows them to think so much bigger." With Durant, the team "has the makings of a championship favorite." Mahoney: "There’s everything Phoenix could be, and there’s everything Phoenix is now" (THE RINGER, 2/9).
