Inside the War Room: The Suns take us behind the scenes on draft day

Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

First off, a tip of the cap to the Phoenix Suns' social team for putting this together. This was A+ content. More teams need to do this to take fans behind the curtain.

Many Suns fans have been skeptical of this front office, and frankly, I don’t blame you if you’re in that camp. I’m right there with you.

This group must demonstrate to us that they’ve learned from their mistakes and can establish the right culture to succeed. I thought they did a fantastic job with their overall draft haul, bringing

in Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, and Koby Brea. This was a great starting point.

Are you starting to feel aligned?

Photo by Zach Barron/NBAE via Getty Images

This was just a sneak peek of the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on, so it’s impossible to draw any massive conclusions from this other than it being a fun watch.

That said, I came away impressed with how it went down. Suns GM Brian Gregory looked in control and poised.

FYI - the Suns did this same concept last year in the 2024 NBA Draft. It was less than five minutes in total. It also featured a whole lot of Josh Bartelstein, in what looked like him and Jones tag-teaming the decisions under Ishbia’s supervision.

2025 War Room Highlights

The video starts with Gregory mentioning, “The last three weeks or so, we’ve been working on this, creating lists and narrowing it down.” Which sounds less bad when you remember he’s new on the job “officially”.

He goes on to say, “I thought we were very well prepared.” Agreed on that front with how the final results panned out. I was a very big fan of their draft haul.

At the 20-second mark, Gregory indicated that “when Ishbia came to town,” they were able to present him with their plan. To me, that seems a little PR-ish in the sense that they’re trying to convey that he’s (Ishbia) not super involved. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it. Anyways, let’s proceed.

Mark Williams was a high priority for this front office — he was on their radar leading up to the draft. At 23 years old, it’s easy to forget that he is younger than some rookies will be and he’s entering his fourth season in the league.

Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

Gregory followed up on the Williams deal by saying that it “would be good to get another big,” as they were hoping Khaman would drop to them. Watching the first domino fall with Jeremiah Fears going 7th, then Brooklyn reaching for Egor Demin at 8, was good stuff. Their reactions to the Demin pick were hysterical.

“We weren’t the only organization in the NBA that thought highly of him. A lot of teams reached out”, said Gregory. Phoenix had “several strong offers” that they ultimately refused. It’s not surprising that teams reached out after the Williams deal went down.

Gregory indicated that Khaman was “five spots higher” on their board than where they got him. “He is everything we wanted and more”, said Gregory.

Photo by Zach Barron/NBAE via Getty Images

On Day 2, they were targeting their top-ranked undrafted (in the 1st round) prospect in Rasheer Fleming.

For Phoenix to come away with another first-round talent with upside was another home run from a value perspective. He fits like a glove long-term next to cornerstone Devin Booker and also their newly acquired centers in Mark Williams and Khaman Maluach.

I thought the point around the 8:40-second mark, where Gregory tells Bartelstein, “I’m the GM, we’re taking Koby Brea,” was awesome. Another PR thing? Possibly. But I still enjoyed it even if it was calculated.

The phone calls were already posted on social media previously, so nothing new there. It was great to watch those and hear the nerves and excitement in their voices.

Kobe Brea was the final pick of their draft, and I thought he had the best phone call reaction of them all.

Inside the 2025 Phoenix Suns Draft War Room pic.twitter.com/Q9duXooDbn

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) July 22, 2025

This was a fun watch, and if you haven’t seen it yet and could use something a little more positive Suns-related content, here you go.

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