Josh Bartelstein Rumors

Suns CEO Bartelstein Talks Durant, Jones, Budenholzer, More

August 15th, 2024 at 8:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Asked during an extensive interview with PHNX Sports about Kevin Durant‘s future with the Suns, team CEO Josh Bartelstein reiterated the same message that he delivered to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic two weeks ago. While Bartelstein offered no guarantees that Durant will sign a contract extension before the season begins, he stressed that the relationship between the franchise and its star forward is in a very good place.

“He loves it here. We talk to Rich Kleiman, who’s his partner, all the time about the vision and what we’re building, and everyone’s really happy, and I think we’re gonna have a really really good year,” Bartelstein said. “And Kevin’s part of all the discussions about the vision for the team, all the stuff we’re doing on the court, off the court. So the fact that we have all that dialogue, there’s equity built into it. If you do those things, everything else will take care of itself.”

Bartelstein’s conversation with PHNX Sports covered a wide range of additional topics, including his day-to-day duties for the organization, his expectations for the Suns’ new G League affiliate, navigating the second apron, and much more.

The interview is worth checking out in full, especially for Suns fans, but here are a few of Bartelstein’s most noteworthy comments:

On unexpectedly landing Tyus Jones on a minimum-salary deal late in free agency:

“We pulled it out of the back pocket. I think it’s why relationships matter so much. His agent, Kevin Bradbury, and I are friendly, and there’s a balance of just checking in and knowing what’s going on. And (Suns general manager) James (Jones) and I would talk all the time about, ‘Hey, if we could get Tyus, it would be a home run.’ But the first 10 days of free agency, you’re kind of just sitting there and seeing how the market plays out. I think with the new rules and, like, the cap space, a lot of people got squeezed.

“So our first real meeting with Tyus and his agent Kevin was in Vegas during Summer League, and we had a nice drink and kind of talked about the role and vision, how it could be a perfect fit, but also just that they were gonna take their time and see how things played out. And from there, then we said, like, ‘Let’s go all in and recruit him, and the worst thing they can do is say no to us.’ But we went all in on recruiting him, from little gift bags to videos for their kids, to all the small details and showing the care factor.

“… Obviously if someone offers you way more money, like, that matters. But if it’s close or it’s on the margins, we think the community we have here, the relationships we have here, the concierge service we have here, we can really give ourselves an advantage, and it’s worked in getting some of these guys to pick us.”

On the impact he expects new head coach Mike Budenholzer to have on the team:

“He is awesome. I mean, he’s the real deal. We’ve become very, very close over the three months. It’s crazy it’s been that fast. He’s so detail-oriented. He thinks Phoenix Suns all day, every day, from the biggest things of where is Kevin gonna get the ball to the smallest things of how do we maximize our two-way guys’ days? Like, he’s just always thinking Suns basketball, and he’s a basketball savant. The way he uses players, the success he’s had, the wins, you’re talking about one of the best coaches in the NBA.

“And he’s a great person too. I think he’ll be great in the community. He’s so happy to be here that he can’t wait to get started. So just seeing how he thinks has been cool, about the things he values, how we want to play. We’ve had so many discussions. He was a huge part of the recruiting. I mean, Tyus Jones said it, Bud was a big part of why Tyus picked here. How Bud has gotten players paid, how Bud uses guys, how he optimizes them, so all of our free agents, all of our guys, Bud has a say in it, ’cause he’s the head coach and we’re really, really lucky to have him.”

On why the Suns are excited about 2024 draftees Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro:

“As good of a basketball player as (Dunn) is, he’s an amazing person. Like, he’s a really, really good young man, and he works his tail off. He’s always, always in the gym. And I think for us, that athleticism, size, defensive versatility — that’s what we need, right? Like, if you checked the box of what we’re missing, it’s him. It’s a lot to ask him to go play 20 minutes a game in year one, but we’re gonna develop him. He’ll have a lot of opportunities to play.

“And Oso is someone that came here twice to work out and we loved him. His passing, his play-making, incredibly high IQ. He’s today’s NBA big, and I think with Nurk (Jusuf Nurkic) and Mason (Plumlee), he’ll learn a ton too, ’cause they have a similar archetype player-wise.”

Pacific Notes: Warriors, Lakers’ Coaching Search, M. Brown, Suns

May 22nd, 2024 at 11:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

After being eliminated in the play-in tournament, the Warriors know they’ll have to improve their defense to get back into title contention, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. That may include roster changes to bring in players who are more defensive-minded.

“It’s not just about scheme and personnel,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s also about how much better the rest of the league is. And how much different things are with the shooting and the pace. It’s just much, much harder to guard. There’s a reason the offensive ratings have skyrocketed. But there’s no doubt we’ve got to be better defensively. We were good at a lot of things. We were. We were, not surprisingly, excellent when Draymond (Green) was healthy.”

Suspensions and injuries caused Green to miss 27 games this season, which had a sharp impact on the team’s defensive numbers. Poole points out that the Warriors had a 113.5 defensive rating with Green, which would have ranked 11th in the league. It fell to 121.1 when he wasn’t available, the worst mark in the NBA.

“But we can’t just say, ‘Well, as long as Draymond’s healthy we will be fine defensively,'” Kerr added. “We’ve just got to be better. I’ve got to do a better job. Our staff has got to do a better job. We have to assess everything.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

The Lakers are moving slowly in their head coaching search and are getting acquainted with several candidates they didn’t interview before hiring Darvin Ham two years ago, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link). He cites examples such as Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Heat assistant Chris Quinn, Pelicans assistant James Borrego and ESPN broadcaster J.J. Redick. Wojnarowski expects a lengthy hiring process, saying, “There’s no obvious choice, there just isn’t. There’s no star coach out there available.”
Mike Brown has proven he deserves an extension in his first two seasons as head coach of the Kings, contends James Ham of The Kings Beat (subscription required). Brown is entering the last year of his contract, and Ham believes the team should take care of him soon to avoid any speculation about his future.
Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein, who played a role in purchasing the franchise’s former G League affiliate when he was working for the Pistons, helped to unveil its replacement today, notes Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. The Valley Suns give Phoenix a G League partner for the first time since 2021 when the Northern Arizona Suns were sold to Detroit and renamed the Motor City Cruise. “Ironically enough, I was the one on the other side buying the team from the Suns and getting it to Detroit, and now three years later, I’m here,” Bartelstein said. “It’s really, really important. I mean, the G League is a staple of many NBA franchises.”

More Details On The Three-Team Lillard Blockbuster

September 30th, 2023 at 1:47pm CST by Rory Maher

The Bucks were interested in acquiring Damian Lillard immediately after he made his trade request on July 1, but the deal didn’t start to come together until this past Sunday.

As Adrian Wojnarowski writes in an in-depth story for ESPN (Insider link), Bucks general manager Jon Horst told Trail Blazers GM Joe Cronin from the outset that their talks had to remain a secret or Milwaukee would withdraw from negotiations.

According to Wojnarowski, Horst didn’t want Jrue Holiday to be involved in any trade rumors, or used as leverage by Cronin with other teams to increase offers for Lillard. The Bucks didn’t want to disrupt their chemistry and hold Holiday in very high regard. That meant Cronin was unable to gauge Holiday’s market value before agreeing to the trade.

As Wojnarowski details, Horst told Cronin that the only way a deal would work is if the Blazers took their time fielding offers and eventually circled back to Milwaukee for one-on-one talks. That started Sunday evening, with both sides feeling like they had reached a breakthrough.

Cronin was determined to say patient and accept the best possible offer, per Woj, and kept details of Lillard negotiations hidden from prying eyes. Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, was determined to steer him to Miami, but Lillard didn’t have much leverage. Wojnarowski strongly suggests Cronin felt the need to keep things private from Goodwin in case he tried to tank trade talks with non-Heat teams.

One of the most fascinating and “delicate” parts of the deal was Phoenix’s involvement. According to Wojnarowski, the Blazers and Suns had the outline of a trade together for months — Deandre Ayton to Portland for Jusuf Nurkic. Cronin wanted to tie that agreement into any Lillard trade, so throughout the offseason he kept circling back to the Suns.

However, as Wojnarowski writes, due to Milwaukee’s insistence on secrecy, Cronin was unable to tell Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein the final details until the last minute. According to Woj, Phoenix knew it was getting Nurkic, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson from the Blazers in a three-team deal, but the Suns wanted another asset in return.

Cronin was unable to tell the Suns who that player was — or who he played for. Cronin did tell the Suns the mystery player’s position and gave an approximation of his salary, and Phoenix was able to deduce it was either Thunder guard Victor Oladipo or Bucks guard Grayson Allen.

Only on Wednesday afternoon — just before the trade was made public — did Cronin confirm that it was Allen, whom the Suns had reportedly been interested in for several months. According to Wojnarowski, Bartelstein, GM James Jones and owner Mat Ishbia quickly discussed and then agreed to the deal.

The Blazers were happy and relieved to have completed the deal, per Woj, and believed they did right by Lillard by sending him to a contender, even if it wasn’t his preferred destination. Shortly thereafter, Cronin was bombarded by calls inquiring about Holiday, who is now the hottest name on the trade block.

Wojnarowki’s full story is definitely worth reading in full if you subscribe to ESPN+.

Suns To Hire Josh Bartelstein As CEO

March 4th, 2023 at 5:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

Pistons executive Josh Bartelstein will become the next CEO in Phoenix, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Sources tell Wojnarowski that new Suns owner Mat Ishbia targeted Bartelstein as someone he could work closely with to help rebuild the organization’s image after the scandals surrounding former owner Robert Sarver. Woj adds that Ishbia and Bartelstein will operate jointly to oversee both the business and basketball divisions of the team.

James Jones will retain his positions as president of basketball operations and general manager and will report directly to Ishbia, according to Wojnarowski’s sources.

Bartelstein will replace former CEO Jason Rowley, who was alleged by several team employees to have been part of the atmosphere of verbal abuse and intimidation that resulted in Sarver’s one-year suspension and led to his decision to sell the team.

The 33-year-old Bartelstein spent seven years in Detroit and was promoted to assistant general manager in September. Wojnarowski notes that he was involved in several high-profile projects during that time, including the Pistons’ move to a downtown arena.

Wojnarowski also points out that Bartelstein was a walk-on player in college, just like Ishbia, and served as a team captain at Michigan during the 2012/13 season. His father is Mark Bartelstein, CEO of Priority Sports and Entertainment and one of the NBA’s most powerful agents.

Central Notes: Pistons, Middleton, Bucks, Bulls

September 23rd, 2022 at 1:41pm CST by Luke Adams

As had been previously rumored, the Pistons are adding a pair of former NBA players to their coaching staff, announcing today that Keith Bogans and Rashard Lewis are coming aboard as player development assistants, writes Mike Curtis of The Detroit News.

The Pistons have also hired former Celtics assistant Brandon Bailey as a player development assistant and Brittni Donaldson – formerly of the Raptors – as an assistant coach and director of coaching analytics. The team announced a series of other promotions, including George David to associate general manager and Rob Murphy, Josh Bartelstein, and Tony Leotti to assistant GM.

Here’s more from around the Central:

As we previously relayed, the Pistons sent the Jazz some cash as part of the Bojan Bogdanovic trade. The exact amount, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), was $1,752,638, which is equal to the amount that Saben Lee is earning in 2022/23. That means, from a financial perspective, Utah essentially swapped Bogdanovic ($19.55MM) for Kelly Olynyk ($12.8MM this season, plus a $3MM partial guarantee in 2023/24) and will get a free look at Lee.
Khris Middleton could become a free agent as soon as next summer if he turns down a $40MM+ player option for 2023/24. While he’s not sure how his contract situation will play out, the standout wing tells Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he wants to stay with the Bucks long-term. “I think everybody knows that. Even though I know you’re really not supposed to say it for all the reasons out there, but I think everybody knows deep down that I want to stay,” Middleton said. “But also, you know it’s a business. Things change, things happen. You just never know. For sure I would love to stay, if everything works out.”
Eric Nehm of The Athletic poses a series of questions for Bucks players to answer this season, including whether Grayson Allen‘s playoff struggles vs. Boston were a fluke or a harbinger of things to come.
The Bulls will miss Lonzo Ball, one of their best two-way players, as he recovers from another knee procedure to open the season, but they have enough depth at point guard and don’t need to make a trade to fortify the position, opines Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.

Pistons Notes: Weaver, Direction, Assets, Bartelstein

September 14th, 2021 at 9:00pm CST by Rory Maher

The Pistons have undergone a total roster overhaul under second-year general manager Troy Weaver. After the recent trade of 2019 first-round pick Sekou Doumbouya to the Nets, no players remain on the roster that Weaver inherited on June 18, 2020. The Pistons’ GM has been very open about his desire to aggressively upgrade the roster for both the short and long-term.

After a series of trades, two drafts, and some noteworthy free-agent signings, Weaver has certainly fulfilled his promise. Will that make the Pistons a better team in 2021/22? Rod Beard of The Detroit News believes that the team has real direction, but suggests the playoffs appear unlikely. He notes that the team’s future looks brighter than it did when Weaver took over almost 14 months ago, and although they currently lack a proven star player, the Pistons are in a better position to sign, trade for, or develop one going forward.

We have more on the Pistons:

James Edwards III of The Athletic ranked the team’s best assets. Unsurprisingly, No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham tops the list, followed by Jerami Grant and a couple of reigning All-Rookie Team members: Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart. Edwards states that a few more players on the roster have value around the league as well, like Kelly Olynyk, whose versatility and shooting on offense is coveted, but others have to show improvement in specific areas to improve their standing.
According to Edwards (Twitter link), sources informed him that executive VP of operations Josh Bartelstein‘s title will be adjusted to include basketball operations as well. In a follow-up tweet, Edwards notes that Bartelstein is very close to vice chairman Arn Tellem, and has been instrumental in the team’s move to downtown Detroit as well as the team’s operations as a whole.
In case you missed it, the Pistons have reached a deal to sign free agent point guard Derrick Walton Jr. to an Exhibit 10 contract ahead of training camp.