Argument to Keep or Not to Keep McDonough is Fake News

Two days ago it was reported that the Phoenix Suns would be keeping Ryan McDonough on has their General Manager. To which my response was, so?

According to ESPN, GM McDonough will be returning. My question? Why WOULDN'T he? Why start the tank in ernest, then change GMs? Not logical.
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) April 18, 2017

Some reporter somewhere got the ‘scoop’ that the Suns had decided to keep General Manager Ryan McDonough (I believe that it was Marc Stein and Chris Haynes of ESPN, but I do not want to state that as fact as I am not 100% sure). A short story was written and published, and fans around the Valley of the Suns discussed and debated whether or not he should have been kept on.

I am seriously at a total loss as to why this is even a topic in the 2017 off-season and would be fascinated to know if there actually were any serious internal discussions about whether or not this position should be his for at least another year?

It should be acknowledged that an argument can be made that Alex Len has been a bust. But look at the 2013 draft overall. It was a joke of a draft proving that even picking in the top-5 is just as giant a crap shoot as picking elsewhere in the draft.

The best player selected that year was Gianni Antetokounmpo and he went 15th overall. Not only does it not make any sense to pin passing up on Antetokounmpo on McDonough as a negative (remember too that the Greek Freak only averaged 6.8 points his rookie year and didn’t begin to light the world on fire until this season, his fourth), but then isn’t there an equally positive argument made in McDonough’s favor when he drafted Devin Booker two seasons later with the 13th pick?

It is also a fair argument that he should not have traded Isaiah Thomas, especially for what basically amounted to a bust in Brandon Knight. But too couldn’t the opposite argument that he hit a homerun in drafting Tyler Ulis (the April Rookie of the Month) and trading for the opportunity to select Marquese Chriss (the January Rookie of the Month)? (I will also always give McDonough 100% credit for admitting publicly that he should have kept Thomas. What General Manager will ever admit their mistake, no matter how obvious it is? I believe that he learned from that situation, that it was of sorts a rookie mistake on his part, and that we will never see himself put the team in that position again). The jury is still of course out on #4 overall pick Dragan Bender, although I do think it is fair to say that the season basically worked against Bender as he never seemed to have been given a set of responsibilities off the bench and his ankle injury came at the absolute worst time in the season for him.

Moreover, the stories about McDonough’s retention imply that this past season was a dismal failure and that the Suns underachieved. Yet weren’t Suns fans in fact rooting for the team to lose, so much so that Devin Booker took it upon himself to stop Russell Westbrook from recording his record breaking triple-double in Phoenix causing home fans to BOO him?

If anything, the Suns’ plan this past season was an absolute success and McDonough handled the navigation of it perfectly. He (and Suns fans) wanted the best chance at the number one overall pick (or at least least top-3 depending on who he actually has his eye on) and needed the team to lose in the process. Success.

He traded P.J. Tucker who will be an unrestricted free agent and could very possibly re-sign with the Suns this off-season, especially if they draft Josh Jackson (Tucker also praised the organization on his way out). Success.

He benched Tyson Chandler at the All-Star Break, to which Chandler actually amped up the way he practiced to give the rest of the team the most competitive and fruitful practices he possibly could. Success.

And he benched Eric Bledsoe with about 20 games left not only keeping Bled’s stats at career-levels across the board but also almost guaranteeing no additional injury to the star point guard keeping his trade value at an absolute maximum. Success.

Further, the benching of the stars allowed the young guns to learn on the job and for a few of them to seriously shine. The brightest stars of course being Devin Booker, who proved he has already developed into the team’s franchise player and number one option on offense, and also Tyler Ulis who showed that he actually might be the best young point guard in the league. Not only did Ulis prove that can lead an offense, but over his 15 games as a starter, he tied Chris Paul, DeMarcus Cousins, Jimmy Butler, and Willie Cauley-Stein with the 7th most double-doubles in the league. Success.

More from Valley of the Suns

Overall, even though the Suns finished with only 24 wins, this season was an unmitigated success. For the first time the franchise has actually had a plan to dig themselves out from the bottom of the league and build over a long-period with young pieces (including at least one probable superstar), plenty of cap space for free agents, extensions, the possible trade for players with large contracts, which all amounts to a vision for long-term growth and success. Regardless of the final record of the 2016-17 season, the Suns are actually in a very good position moving forward – all due to the careful planning and huge risk-taking of Ryan McDonough.

And let’s also be honest with ourselves here: if McDonough is unable to land a superstar through free agency or trade this off-season, and feels secure that the player(s) he drafted in June will develop into the kinds of stars that a franchise can continue to build around, then would Suns fans be all that disappointed if they had to wait one more year for the regular season record to finally turn on it’s head? Heck, if he is just able to jettison Brandon Knight and goes into the 2018 off-season with as many first-round draft picks as they currently have moving forward if not more, is there any reason to argue whether or not the plan was still a success?

This is Ryan McDonough’s team, his plan, and his direction. There was no reason for him to not be brought back for this next season, and there is no reason to believe that this team, under his direction, is not on the right path waiting for him to continue to lead the way.

At least we’re not Orlando.

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