The Suns are not expected to be a very good team this season. Phoenix has one of the lowest over/unders coming into the year and are expected to compete for a lottery pick.
The Ringer is a sports and pop culture website founded by Bill Simmons that covers the NBA. As part of the site's coverage, writer Michael Pina made 24 "increasingly bold predictions" for the upcoming season. Sandwiched in between Jalen Johnson, Chet Holmgren and Jamal Murray will be All-Stars and the Spurs will win 50 games was the prediction that the Suns would have "the worst defense in the NBA" in '25-'26.
This prediction made its way to Suns owner Mat Ishbia's feed on Tuesday night and he quickly fired off a tweet directed at Simmons with a challenge to put his "money on this take." Keep in mind this was not Simmons's take and it's unclear if you can even bet on which team will have the worst defense in the NBA.
.@BillSimmons, you and your crew have some good takes and some that are terrible. You’re the betting guru and even you know better than to actually take this bet. Tell you what, go put your money on this take. When you lose, I will donate the same amount to charity of your… https://t.co/dCLMUdtbMz
— Mat Ishbia (@Mishbia15) October 22, 2025
Phoenix gave up the ninth-most points in the league last year, but basicallyswapped Bradley Beal for Dillon Brooks among other moves so it does seem like a bold take that could very well be wrong, but what exactly does Ishbia expect to happen here? How much does he imagine Simmons might bet on the intentionally bold opinion of one of his writers? And exactly how owned would Simmons feel if the Suns missed the playoffs and had one of the worst, but not the worst, defenses in the NBA?
As of the publication of this post, Simmons has not responded to the challenge, so we may never know.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Suns Owner Challenges Bill Simmons to Bet Based on ‘Ringer' Article He Didn’t Write.