Suns oust McDonough as team GM
Firing comes just nine days before start of NBA season
With just little more than a week before their basketball season begins, the Phoenix Suns fired general manager Ryan McDonough on Monday.
“There’s no perfect time to make a change,” team owner Robert Sarver said in an interview with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM radio.
McDonough had been in Phoenix since 2013 and was under contract through 2020. James Jones and Trevor Bukstein will share GM duties on an interim basis. Jones is the team’s vice president of basketball operations and Bukstein was assistant GM.
In a statement announcing the firing, Sarver said he made the decision “after much thought and a long evaluation of our basketball operations.”
Phoenix has had four straight losing seasons and no playoff berth since 2010.
Phoenix didn’t even wait until the season started to make another major firing.
The Suns fired General Manager Ryan McDonough on Monday, less than two weeks before playing their season opener Oct. 17 against the Dallas Mavericks at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
“After much thought and a long evaluation of our basketball operations, I have decided to relieve Ryan McDonough of his duties as general manager of the Phoenix Suns,” said Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver in a news release Monday morning. “Our focus in the short term is to prepare for the upcoming NBA season and to continue pursuing opportunities to strengthen our roster.”
Last year, Phoenix fired Earl Watson after an 0-3 start. Now McDonough has been let go as he was entering his sixth season as the franchise’s general man-
ager.
Vice President of Basketball Operations James Jones, a former NBA player, and Assistant General Manager Trevor Bukstein will share the GM responsibilities in the interim. Jones will handle basketball operations related to coaches, players and staff, while Bukstein will be the primary contact for player transactions.
The firing comes just nine days before the Suns’ regular season begins. Sarver is regarded as a hands-on owner, but the timing of this move is questionable.
However, he had all offseason after the draft and free agency to evaluate McDonough. “In this business, it’s about winning and/or consistent progress and as with any leader, it’s kind of an ongoing evaluation process,” Sarver said Monday afternoon in a radio interview on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
“But it culminated where we were heading in the summer. We discussed a number of opportunities I felt were realistic in term of what progress would look like and ultimately, for me, the rate of progress wasn’t there where I thought it needed to be.”
If McDonough knew something was amiss, he didn’t let on Sunday, as he talked to rival executives and agents on the phone, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Sarver took to the airwaves to explain his decision.
“I do think we have some great young talent on our roster,” Sarver continued. “There’s a lot to be excited about, but in this hyper competitive Western Conference, I thought we need to make the absolute most of the opportunity we have in front of us and I decided to make a change.”
Sarver understands how the timing of the decision looks, but felt he had to do it.
“With any leader, it’s an ongoing evaluation process, and ultimately, I just decided we needed to make a change,” he said.
Sarver said this was his decision alone, but it puts him back under the microscope.
“Obviously you get feedback from a lot of people over a period of time, but at the end of the day, it’s my decision,” Sarver said.
Sarver bought the team in 2004 and had success with coach Mike D’Antoni and a solid front office that included Steve Kerr and David Griffin. But after D’Antoni left in 2008, Phoenix has made the playoffs just once – in 2010 under Alvin Gentry.
Phoenix spent the offseason looking for a proven point guard. Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker, Terry Rozier, Patrick Beverley and Tyus Jones have been reported targets.
Phoenix didn’t land any of them and went to training camp with four point guards, two of whom are rookies. But McDonough let it be known at media day that the Suns were still looking to address the situation.
“We realize we’re young there, we’re inexperienced,” McDonough said Sept. 24. “We don’t have the proven players there I think we have, at some extent, two through five. We’ll go up to training camp with this group, but throughout the preseason and probably up to the trade deadline, we’ll continue to evaluate trade possibilities as well.”
Two weeks later, McDonough has been fired.
Sarver dodged a direct question about if or how much the point-guard situation led to him firing McDonough.
“I don’t really want to get into specifics,” he said. “We’ve got point guards on our team right now that are competing for spots and I think have a bright future.”
Sarver said the hiring of Igor Kokoskov, the signing of free agent Trevor Ariza and the drafting of No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton, first-rounder Mikal Bridges, whom Phoenix got in a draft-day trade, Elie Okobo and George King were a collaborative team effort, noting McDonough and Jones worked together to lead the coaching search.
“I’m real comfortable with those decisions made this summer and I feel good about them,” Sarver said.
All those decisions happened in the past six months. The only thing left on the table was finding a point guard, something McDonough didn’t do.
And while Sarver didn’t fully address it in the radio interview, it appears to be the final straw that led to the firing.
“I don’t want to get into any particulars and discuss specifics in terms of kind of what we did or didn’t do,” he said, “but I just felt we kind of started to plateau and I wanted to make a change to facilitate our next step and thought we could’ve been farther along than what we were.”
That next step, as far as short term, could be landing a point guard.
McDonough was in Flagstaff for training camp and was seen at a shootaround as recently as last week before Phoenix
played the New Zealand Breakers.
His personal goal was for the Suns to be the most improved team in the NBA after having the league’s worst record last season at 21-61. He nabbed Kokoskov, a former Utah Jazz assistant, to mark his third hire at head coach.
Jay Triano replaced Watson as an interim after three games last season.
Over the summer, Phoenix signed guard Devin Booker to a max contract extension of $158 million. McDonough added Ariza, traded for Richaun Holmes, Ryan Anderson and De’Anthony Melton, but didn’t improve the most glaring weakness of the roster.
“As I said, looking back over the last five years, I felt we did a good job of going into a rebuilding process, the middle of a rebuilding process,” Sarver said. “I think Ryan did a good job in a number of areas, assembling different draft picks and making trades and helping us get into that process, but I just felt we could be a little farther along today in terms of coming out of that process.”
On media day, veteran center Tyson Chandler raved about the roster, but said “it would for sure be a plus” when asked if Phoenix needs a point guard.
“I like some things I’ve seen out of the young guards, but again, they’re young guards,” he said. “It takes a little experience to understand what you’re getting yourself into. I would love it, but if it doesn’t, I like our roster going into the season because, again, this is by far the most talented roster I’ve been on since I’ve been here. I love going in feeling like, all right, we’ve got a shot.”
Phoenix re-signed Isaiah Canaan, a five-year veteran, and Shaquille Harrison returned for his second season, but Kokoskov has been playing what he calls “two and a half point guards” in the preseason.
After a 1-2 start with the win coming in narrow fashion, 91-86, over the New Zealand Breakers, Kokoskov said he’s seen good things out of the point guards, but said they all have “a lot of room for improvement.”
The next day, Phoenix announced its decision to part ways with McDonough, who finished second for NBA Executive of the Year in 2014 when the Suns went from 25 wins to 48 in his first year as general manager with a coach – former Suns player Jeff Hornacek – he hired.
This isn’t to say McDonough was solely fired because he didn’t acquire a proven point guard, but this position, considered the most important in the NBA, has been a lingering issue in Phoenix under his leadership.
At one point, the Suns had Isaiah Thomas, Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe.
They were all traded as Bledsoe tweeted “I Dont wanna be here” the same day Watson was fired. Phoenix traded him to Milwaukee.
Overall, and more importantly, Phoenix didn’t make the playoffs under McDonough. The Suns have won a total of 68 games in their past three seasons.
They drafted Dragan Bender with the fourth overall pick in 2016. The 7footer hasn’t played up to the level of being a lottery pick.
Last month, McDonough said the “three-year rebuilding window” was over. “We’re going to try to win as many games as we can,” he added.
Phoenix has decided to do that without McDonough.
“Over the course of the season, we will explore both internal and external options as we look to restructure our basketball front office leadership,” Sarver said. “On behalf of the entire organization, I want to thank Ryan for his efforts and contributions during his fiveplus years with the Suns. We wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”