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How much is going to change with the Suns now that Sarver is gone? Over the years we have seen numerous reports on how disliked Sarver was around the NBA. Ex-players saying that he was glad that they didn’t make the All-star team, to referees saying that dislike of Sarver was one of the reasons for them fixing games; and players blaming Sarver for bad feeling on contracts. So, what I am asking is how much of an impact is going to have with the NBA now that Sarver is gone?
NBA players have spent a lot of time devolving the skills that they have and generally they do better in a player friendly environment. From Joe Johnson leaving to Goran Dragic saying that Sarver was happy and told him that he didn’t make the All-star team. Even Ayton blames Sarver for him not getting a 5-year extension
https://basketnews.com/news-175417-suns-owner-told-goran-dragic-that-he-was-happy-that-he-didnt-make-the-all-star-team.html
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10050586-suns-deandre-ayton-reportedly-blames-robert-sarver-for-not-getting-5-year-contract
Since Mat Ishbia first appeared courtside against the Pistons, we have seen more effort from Ayton, almost as if he had not been giving his best effort until Sarver was official gone.
Even the referees disliked Sarver so much they were rigging games against his Suns teams. Last year the Suns were one of the worst at getting to the line despite the fact they had an offence this based on quick movement. https://arizonasports.com/story/2122637/donaghy-dislike-of-suns-owner-sarver-was-factor-in-rigging-of-spurs-series/
So now with Sarver gone and Durant on the team are we going to see major change in how the games are called? and are we going to see more players wanting to come to Phoenix?

I'd predict it's going to be better with new ownership. Way, way better.

I don't really have high hopes for the new one, but it's going to be really difficult to be worse than Sarver.

For now, it's a clean slate. I think Sarver had a lot to do with the reputation of the team and how many players (and even a coach) used the Suns as leverage to get the contract they wanted. Even media bashed the Suns extensively.

I think in recent years Sarver wasn't really a factor because Chris Paul signed here to play with Booker and KD wanted to be traded here even before Mat Ishbia took over so in my opinion it was really during the post Nash years where we were losing terribly and Sarver's mismanagement that scared off free agents.

Since bringing in JJ the organizations has been on the basketball side of things doing really well, of course the front office scandal hit but those allegations were also mostly during the decade of hell when we had a rotating door of head coaches and a culture of losing.

Despite that I don't think a new owner will really change things too much for free agents because Phoenix is never a top free agent destination anyway.

garrick wrote:I think in recent years Sarver wasn't really a factor because Chris Paul signed here to play with Booker and KD wanted to be traded here even before Mat Ishbia took over so in my opinion it was really during the post Nash years where we were losing terribly and Sarver's mismanagement that scared off free agents.

Since bringing in JJ the organizations has been on the basketball side of things doing really well, of course the front office scandal hit but those allegations were also mostly during the decade of hell when we had a rotating door of head coaches and a culture of losing.

Despite that I don't think a new owner will really change things too much for free agents because Phoenix is never a top free agent destination anyway.

I think the FA thing is less of an issue now with Book being so well respected around the league and how the leagues moved towards guys wanting to team up with other players specifically. Guys will still gravitate to LA/NYC but I think it'll be less lopsided than before