Phoenix Suns And The Ryan McDonough Era

Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

In the midst of another losing season, the Phoenix Suns face missing out on the playoffs for the seventh straight season. Therefore, the performance of general manager Ryan McDonough deserves to come into focus.

Ryan McDonough was hired by the Phoenix Suns as the team’s general manager following a tumultuous 25-57 season.

McDonough learned from the best, having spent 10 years working in the front office of the Boston Celtics, where his last three seasons in Boston were in the role of assistant general manager to the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, Danny Ainge.

Upon his arrival, McDonough’s first task at hand was the appointment of the team’s head coach. The previous season, the Suns experienced a coach being fired mid-season in Alvin Gentry, followed by the interim appointment of the divisive Lindsay Hunter.

McDonough’s choice was Jeff Hornacek, pointing out at the time:

“Jeff has all of the qualities we were looking for in a head coach—he is a leader, a teacher and a student of the game. Jeff’s name has been high on our list ever since my first interview with the Suns.”

The first season under McDonough’s watch was a resounding success. Despite missing out on the playoffs, the Suns recorded a 48-34 record and far exceeded expectations. Point guard Goran Dragic won the league’s most improved player award and was named to the All-NBA third team.

Naturally when the following season arrived, expectations internally and externally had already shifted.

But it was the summer of 2014 that would signal the beginning of a downward spiral from which the Suns have yet to recover.

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Start Of The Rot

The Suns experimented with the dual point-guard back court during the 2013-14 season when McDonough acquired Eric Bledsoe shortly after his arrival. Although the Suns had a remarkably successful season, the Dragic-Bledsoe partnership was never fully tested.

Bledsoe played just 43 games for the season due to injury, with Dragic excelling particularly in his absence.

Hence it was a surprise to many when McDonough decided to attack the new season with a three-headed monster at the point guard spot.

In acquiring restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas in a sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings, the Suns found themselves with three starting calibre point guards on their roster.

But it didn’t take long for this to unravel.

Coming off the best season of his career, Dragic soon publicly aired his dissatisfaction with the new arrangement and requested a trade. He was soon thereafter traded to the Miami Heat.

The same day Dragic was traded, McDonough and the Suns decided to move on from Thomas and acquired a new point guard, Brandon Knight, in the process.

It may work on a fantasy team, but trying to integrate three high-calibre point guards in an NBA setting is almost a recipe for disaster. After all, there is only one ball and asking point guards to spend large amounts of time playing off the ball is an extremely hard sell.

And even if they were to buy in, you’re still using players out of position for large chunks of the season.

One only has to look at this triumvirate’s performances this current season to see how such an arrangement is highly unlikely to prosper.

The Thomas acquisition was essentially the start of the rot that continues to the present day.

Recent lottery selections Dragan Bender (left), center Alex Len (center) and forward Marquese Chriss. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Front Office Failures

The point guard experiment was just the beginning of the McDonough experience for the Suns franchise. The first example comes back to McDonough’s first major draft pick as the Suns’ general manager. With the fourth overall pick, McDonough selected center Alex Len.

Now in his fourth season, Len has exhibited glimpses of his potential. But nonetheless, Len has yet to average greater than 22.3 minutes per game for a season.

It was the acquisition of veteran free-agent center Tyson Chandler in the summer of 2015 that has been primarily responsible for the stunt in Len’s growth as a player.

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The reasoning for Chandler’s signing was that it would increase the Suns’ chances of acquiring of then free-agent All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge.

With McDonough being aware that Aldridge was seeking a new home where he could play primarily at the 4 spot, securing Chandler’s signature was a tool that McDonough could use a selling point when meeting with Aldridge.

But it was to no avail, as Aldridge elected to sign with the San Antonio Spurs.

Therefore, McDonough had now signed an ageing veteran on a superfluous four-year deal . Also, Chandler’s expected playing time was only going to eat into the development of a fellow center in Len.

As a result, Len has now started in just 103 out of 234 career games, which includes just 10 starts this current season.

Furthermore, the Chandler signing had a cumulative effect. In order to clear salary cap space, McDonough shipped off forward Marcus Morris to the Detroit Pistons. As a result of this move, his brother Markieff became completely disenfranchised with the Suns for moving on his twin sibling.

Once again, McDonough was in a position of covering his tracks, this time trading the remaining Morris to the Washington Wizards.

Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

Knightmare

The aforementioned Thomas trade has certainly not aged well. Having played just 46 games in Phoenix, McDonough decided to ship Thomas while acquiring Knight on the same day in a separate deal.

In essence, this was the outcome of the separate Thomas and Knight deals:

Amazingly, McDonough noted at the time of the deals regarding the acquisition of Knight:

“We feel like we got the best player in the trade, coming or going.”

Even at the time, this statement was fairly bold. Right now, it sounds preposterous. Knight is presently seventh on the Suns’ roster for minutes per game. He is averaging 11.4 points and 2.4 assists in 21.9 minutes per game.

He has started just four games this season, with the emergence of second-year guard Devon Booker clearly eating into his playing time.

Most worryingly, Knight is an overall minus-291 when on the floor this season. This represents the third worst plus/minus total in the league, ranking him among a stack of Brooklyn Nets players.

To make matters worse, Thomas has just been named to his second straight All-Star Game, while Dragic is enjoying his best season since his aforementioned All-NBA campaign of 2013-14.

Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Roster Construction

Aside from small forward P.J. Tucker, every player on the Suns’ roster has been added since McDonough’s arrival. Despite the success of the 2013-14 season, just Tucker, Len and Bledsoe remain from that team which won 48 games in a highly competitive season.

The current team is 15-32, placing them dead last in the Western Conference. Since McDonough’s arrival, the Suns have enjoyed five lottery selections, including three picks in the top eight. Despite these selections, the overall performance of the team has not improved.

Last season saw the dismissal of head coach Jeff Hornacek in just his third year in charge. His interim replacement, Earl Watson, was later selected as the permanent coach despite not interviewing any other applicants.

At the time of Watson’s hiring, McDonough said:

“We do value and emphasize the development of our young players. That’s something extremely important to us. I think we’re going to try and continue to do both is the best way to put it. We want to win games. We want to establish a culture, and a framework of an organization that is conducive to winning, and is sustainable over a long period of time. At the same time, we do want to develop our young players. We’re gonna toe that line as best we can. I think coming into the season we hoped to be a playoff team and also get our young guys experience. I know that can be difficult to do at times.”

Two things stand out from this statement. Firstly, McDonough says he wants to develop young players. Two young players that stand out, Len and Knight, clearly fall under this category. And in the case of both, neither are receiving the recess playing time and opportunity to carry this out.

Having averaged 19.6 points and 5.1 assists in 36.0 minutes per game in his first full season in Phoenix, Knight has taken a complete back seat this season.

Presently signed to a five-year, $70 million contract and still just 25, this makes no sense when considering McDonough’s sentiments. And then there is the aforementioned Len, whose progress will continue to be halted whilst Chandler is manning the middle.

Furthermore, McDonough said he expected the Suns to be a playoff team last season. Considering the team won just 23 games, this is an alarming miscalculation. Granted, there were injury problems with Bledsoe playing just 31 games and Knight 52.

Having said that, the remainder of the roster consisted of young developing players and experienced role players.

So his expectations last season for the roster he had constructed were either overly optimistic, or very misleading.

Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The Road Ahead

One positive for the Suns moving forward is they currently do not owe any future draft picks. Therefore, with a place at the bottom of the standings looming, the Suns will be in a great position to obtain a high draft selection in what is considered to be a particularly strong draft.

A further positive that can be realized from the current season is the form of their starting backcourt. Bledsoe is averaging 21.4 points and 6.3 assists — both career-highs — to go along with 5.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals.

And in just his second season, Booker is averaging 20.8 points and 3.0 assists per game.

Their most recent form is even more encouraging moving forward. Over the last 12 games, Booker has averaged 26.7 points on 49.1 percent shooting, including 48.4 percent from behind three. This represents a huge leap from his 40.0 percent shooting up until this point.

At the same time, Bledsoe has averaged 25.4 points and 7.9 assists as the Suns posted a 5-7 record.

So give credit where credit is due.