When Suns owner Mat Ishbia said the house isn’t on fire last week he was right.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of smoke detectors going off right now.

The team’s brass including Ishbia and James Jones sold the city and fans on this being a championship team. 

Thanks to injuries – which isn’t a surprise based on the history of the team’s stars – chemistry problems and offensive philosophy, they came nowhere close to the goal they set out. 

That’s why, when the aforementioned owner and GM both brought up the fact that the team won 49 games it fell on deaf ears. 

Sure, it was only the third time since 2010 the franchise reached that level of wins but is the bar really set so low that being better than the worst decade in franchise history is something to be celebrated? 

The answer is no. 

That’s why this team needs to take a long hard look at their goals, the state of the Western Conference and the CBA and chart a course to win it all. 

Firing Frank Vogel and hiring Mike Budenholzer as the Phoenix Suns head coach is just the start. 

Here’s how Budenholzer and the front office can fix the suns

Want more takes from Espo? Follow him on X @Espo and hear him on the @PHNX_Suns show.