The Phoenix Suns have never made the playoffs under general manager Ryan McDonough, but he deserves time — this season and beyond — to build a contender the right way.
It’s not often that an NBA general manager can miss the playoffs for the first four years of his tenure and still keep his job, but it appears that may be the case for Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough.
According to ESPN’s Marc Stein and Chris Haynes, the Suns plan to keep McDonough as their GM through the 2017-18 season, the final year of his contract.
On the surface, it’d be easy to see why the fan base might react harshly to this news. Despite being the fourth-winningest NBA franchise all-time, the Suns have never won a title, they’ve never earned the No. 1 overall pick and they’re facing the longest playoff drought — seven years — in the team’s 49-season history.
Phoenix’s current position — blatant tanking to enhance the youth movement — is not one that’s particularly familiar.
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That being said, the Suns’ outlook, ironically enough, might be as bright as it’s been since McDonough’s first season, when the team surprisingly won 48 games and just barely missed the postseason despite being pegged as a tanking team.
The unexpected success during that 2013-14 campaign pigeonholed McDonough into rebuilding from the middle, an exceedingly difficult task for any GM, let alone without a superstar name to attract other premier talent. That season ultimately doomed Phoenix to the NBA’s no man’s land — too good to tank, but not quite good enough to make the playoffs.
Since then, the steady decline down into the league cellar has been difficult to embrace for the fans of a fair-weather city, but at least this time around, Phoenix is actually starting to put together something sustainable.
"“It’s not always a linear progression,” McDonough said. “If you look at Oklahoma City’s model, which we’ve studied, if you look at Golden State’s model, which we’ve studied, I think a lot of people wouldn’t realize how few games Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson won their first few years. Obviously if some of our guys end up in the stratosphere of those MVP candidates, then we’ll have done well and that bodes well for the future.”"
Devin Booker, the No. 13 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, was a diamond in the rough that McDonough hand-selected. Booker recently became the fourth-leading scorer in NBA history before turning 21 years old, with the other names in the top five being LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant. Oh, and he also dropped 70 points in a game this year.
T.J. Warren was another mid-first round pick that could turn out to be a very gifted scorer at only 23 years old, even if a minor head injury derailed his potential breakout year. Tyler Ulis already looks like a capable backup. Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender were two of the youngest players in their draft class and are bursting with potential despite being long-term projects.
Alex Len, Alan Williams and Derrick Jones Jr. are all 23 years or younger as well. Throw in this year’s first round selection — currently slated as the No. 2 overall pick before the NBA Draft Lottery — plus the two first-rounders Miami owes Phoenix from the Dragic trade, and this team’s youth movement could turn out to be something pretty special. That goes double if it can wait until the NBA’s current contenders are no longer such unassailable juggernauts.
"“If you look at the top of our conference, the top four teams — what do they have in common? They all have multiple future Hall of Fame players in their prime,” McDonough said. “So that’s what the competition is, and it’s daunting. To get to that level — not only to just make the playoffs but to have a chance to win in the playoffs — that’s what you need. It’s a process.”"
The gaffes have been memorable, and when McDonough overplayed his hand during frequent attempts to rebuild the Suns through the middle, he really overplayed his hand.
Fans won’t soon forget how bringing Isaiah Thomas aboard — even though the individual deal was a home run — alienated Goran Dragic and ruined the Slash Brothers chemistry he had developed with Eric Bledsoe.
Fetching two future first-rounders for Dragic was quite an impressive haul, but it was overshadowed by unceremoniously shipping away IT during the same trade deadline in the now-infamous Brandon Knight deal that also lost a valuable, top-three protected pick from the Lakers.
McDonough’s build-through-the-middle attempts were an unforgettable sequence of failures that would’ve made Lemony Snicket cringe. But 30 of the last 35 NBA champions featured a player that was originally drafted by that franchise and served as the team’s superstar. The Suns could have that in Booker already, and they could find another superstar in this year’s loaded draft.
In either case, letting McDonough finish out his contract and put together another draft — the strongest area of his GM tenure, regardless of your opinion on Alex Len — makes sense.
"“There is some talent at the guard position,” McDonough said of this year’s draft. “I think where we’re picking, at the guard and the wing there are a few very talented players. We have depth at both those areas, especially at the guard slots, but we’ll take the best available player and if that guy’s as good as we think he can be, then we’ll work the rest of the roster around that.”"
That could include trading Eric Bledsoe for future assets if the Suns draft a new franchise point guard, and the team will also be trying to rid itself of Brandon Knight and the remaining $43.9 million on his contract. That day will be a sad one for the franchise, considering all it had to give up to bring Knight into the fold.
In 2016-17, Suns fans not only had to watch Isaiah Thomas look like a fringe MVP candidate for the best team in the East, but they might also have to stomach that protected Lakers first-rounder go to the Philadelphia 76ers in a loaded draft if L.A. falls outside of the top-three.
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All this is without even mentioning how bad Brandon Knight has played, the Markieff Morris drama brought on by dumping Marcus Morris in a failed effort to land LaMarcus Aldridge, how bad Brandon Knight has played, the underwhelming use of a top-five draft pick on Len and, oh yeah, did we mention how bad Brandon Knight has played?
But that doesn’t mean McDonough has been a failure as a GM either. The Bledsoe trade was a slam dunk, as was drafting Booker. Warren and even Archie Goodwin were solid finds considering where they were selected. It’s too early to give up on Len. Same for Bender and Chriss, who was acquired in a terrific draft-day trade last year. The good simply outweighs the bad here.
If anything, with the Suns mired in a rebuild that’s going to take some time, owner Robert Sarver should consider extending his contract to avoid a lame-duck situation that puts pressure on McDonough to get Phoenix back to the postseason this year rather than continue building something sustainable.
Even during exit interviews, there was a momentarily alarming hint at leaving the door open for the kind of all-in trade McDonough has been searching for, though he was quick to mention the emphasis remains on a more patient approach.
"“That’s the age-old dilemma and I don’t have a perfect answer for you,” McDonough said. “I think the most likely scenario is we continue to draft and develop and be patient, but this year, especially around the draft, we’ll have a lot of options to accelerate our timeline if we want to do that. If we are patient and we get to where we think we can go, that’s more sustainable.”"
People forget this, but it was Ryan McDonough’s overachieving in 2013-14 that got the Phoenix Suns into their current predicament in the first place.
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There’s no question he still has a lot to prove, but the right man to fix this mess may be the same one who tried to tank at the very beginning of his tenure, only this time, by doing it the right way through an increasingly hopeful youth movement. To that end, he needs more time to amend his otherwise ugly track record.