Ryan McDonough New GM

[sunsfan88]

He was there when they drafted Jeff Green and then traded him for Ray Allen. :championship:

And then he was there when traded Perkins for the said Jeff Green.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I know the response has been pretty positive. But, for the doubters, who would have been a better choice?

There is a simple principle I have gone by over the years. Hire the best. If you can't hire the best, hire someone who you think can become the best.

 

[slinslin]

http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story...radley-becoming-one-most-feared-defenders-nba

If not the best, Bradley is easily a top 5 perimeter defender in the NBA right now.

because his GM says so there must be truth to it. Zeller must truly be the best shooter in the world then!

 

[sunsfan88]

because his GM says so there must be truth to it. Zeller must truly be the best shooter in the world then!

No but also because its common sense. Just about angle who watches basketball knows that Bradley is one of the best if not the best perimeter defender in the NBA.

Read the posts above you and that should get you a better perspective if you have trouble believing me.

 

[FArting]

I like this move.

I love this quote by him

“How awesome would that be to help bring the first NBA championship to a franchise like that?” Ryan said.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/sun...manager-ryan-mcdonough-brings-work-ethic.html

 

[Griffin]

It's true, it is more than just the draft, it's how players are traded and free agents signed. No matter how one gets a key player it takes someone to recognize the talent and help make the moves to get these players. It's a combination of all three aspects of acquiring players. Seattle/ OKC drafting players like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook early in the draft makes things a lot easier.

Precisely. I think fans tend to focus so much on the draft because the rewards are potentially much higher than in free agency (unless you're Miami) or trades (unless you're the Lakers). But you have to be prepared to utilize all methods of acquiring talent, because you never know when an opportunity to sign or trade for a major piece might turn up.

So while people are already saying 'no more free agents', I'd say let's see if this new GM can find some undervalued talent or some potential star buried on a bench somewhere among current NBA players too.

 

[Stronso]

All this complaining and/or praising of past drafts means nothing at this point.

I only care about this qualification:

He's not Lance Blanks.

this

 

[Mainstreet]

I just watched the teleconference with new Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough at azcentral. See link below.

I must say I like what he said a lot, especially that he wanted the Suns top scouts to know all potential NBA talent and be able to compare and evaluate players together in real time... not just specialize in a given area like college scouting. For example he wants his scouts to know players wherever they might be, whether it be international, the NBADL, the draft, free agents and other NBA players so whoever becomes available the Suns can compare the talent.

I was impressed by this strategy.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/sun...h-excited-for-opportunity.html?nclick_check=1

 

[ASUCHRIS]

"I'm looking to build a model here where we draft well every year, we're maybe a little conservative with free agents and financially, until we have the opportunity to get a great player."

Glad to hear it. Wonder what he'd think of maxing out Eric Gordon.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

I just watched the teleconference with new Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough at azcentral. See link below.

I must say I like what he said a lot, especially that he wanted the Suns top scouts to know all potential NBA talent and be able to compare and evaluate players together in real time... not just specialize in a given area like college scouting. For example he wants his scouts to know players wherever they might be, whether it be international, the NBADL, the draft, free agents and other NBA players so whoever becomes available the Suns can compare the talent.

I was impressed by this strategy.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/sun...h-excited-for-opportunity.html?nclick_check=1

Crazy to me this isnt common sense

 

[JCSunsfan]

Sarver came into ownership absolutely enthralled by the Spurs and their model. I wonder if Steve Kerr really turned him on to that. Anyway, Blanks was most likely hired because he had a Spurs history.

I am glad to see that the evaluation is now more about the skills of the candidate rather than just past associations. I am hoping that Sarver and Babby are learning how to get this right.

 

[Chaplin]

Apparently Sarver went on the radio after the press conference yesterday and admitted that he made some bad moves because he didn't know what the hell he was doing. Said he has learned a lot and is trusting McDonough and Babby to pretty much run the ship.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Apparently Sarver went on the radio after the press conference yesterday and admitted that he made some bad moves because he didn't know what the hell he was doing. Said he has learned a lot and is trusting McDonough and Babby to pretty much run the ship.

That could be great news for us if he really stands up to it in his actions as well as his words. I'd be a lot more excited about the McDonough hiring if this is really the case.

Steve

 

[slinslin]

More importantly Sarver finally admitted that the top teams in the NBA are build around draft picks and usually high draft picks.

~I thought last year they did research showing that rebuilding through the draft is not working...

 

[Errntknght]

More importantly Sarver finally admitted that the top teams in the NBA are build around draft picks and usually high draft picks.

~I thought last year they did research showing that rebuilding through the draft is not working...

Just about any conclusion Sarver and Babby came to is functionally meaningless because they don't understand the game and probably understand statistics about equally well. On top of that, even if they get it right by sheer luck they can't execute a plan since they can't evaluate talent. Their only hope is to hire a good basketball mind to run the show and then listen closely to what he says. Hopefully, they have done the first part of that in hiring McD as GM but I'm not at all sure they'll listen. (What's the fun of being the boss if you don't get to assert your authority now and then.)

Without doing any research at all I can confidently state that the best basketball teams over the long term are not teams that rely on their own high draft picks. They maneuver and contrive to get other teams picks or buy the players after the fact because they are never bad enough to have high picks of their own. OKC is the one example of a team that was built through the draft and one has to admit they have done a masterful job using their picks. But if Portland had chosen Durant instead of Oden, they wouldn't be in this discussion.

San Antonio is the team that has used its own draft picks to the best advantage and to do that they drafted David Robinson when he was facing two years of active military duty, tanked shamelessly to draft Duncan and then scoured Europe when few others did to get Parker and Manu.

 

[slinslin]

OKC is the one example of a team that was built through the draft and one has to admit they have done a masterful job using their picks. But if Portland had chosen Durant instead of Oden, they wouldn't be in this discussion.

San Antonio is the team that has used its own draft picks to the best advantage and to do that they drafted David Robinson when he was facing two years of active military duty, tanked shamelessly to draft Duncan and then scoured Europe when few others did to get Parker and Manu.

And if Oden and Roy didn't have injuries Portland could have built a dynasty. They were a fantastic team when Oden and Roy were healthy.

Miami - Wade
Dallas - Nowitzki
Lakers - Bryant/Bynum
Celtics - Pierce
OKC - Durant/Harden/Westbrook
Warriors - Curry/Thompson/Barnes
Clippers - Griffin/Jordan/Bledsoe
Pacers - George/Hibbert/Granger

Been there had this discussion before, pretty much every top tier team has built their team by drafting players, wether it was their own pick or acquired on draft day or before.

Thankfully McDonut acknowledged this immediately that the draft is the lifeblood of the franchise.

 

[Errntknght]

It would be folly to disagree that the draft is lifeblood of the league since 99% of the players in it were drafted but sitting back and building with the picks that fall to you is not a great method. The Lakers and Celtics are the teams that have a long history of being top teams and they've done it primarily by acquiring picks and players from other teams. What they are good at is recognizing talent and using every method possible to get it. The Lakers did single out Kobe before anyone else and they traded Divac to another team to have them draft him for them. Shaq and Gasol they acquired via other means. I'll take your word (as suspect as that is) for the Celtics drafting Pierce but they got Garnett and Allen by other means. We know all too well how they came by Rondo.
Most of the other teams you mentioned, except OKC, were bottom dwellers for many years in order to come up with their currently good players via the draft. Miami isn't in that category but then their excellence was not arrived at primarily by drafting. Dallas was dreadful for many years though they didn't draft most of the players that joined Nowitski for their brief time in the sun. (Technically, they didn't draft Nowitski either, but that really is a technicality.)

No one complained louder than I did when the Suns were raffling off their draft picks and I also complained that they were ruining their scouting organization in doing it because it had so little function for those years. Not that the guys we'd have gotten would likely have made us a contender, but we wasted much time and effort bringing players there was no hope of building around. And you have to admit we've drafted like crap ever since then.

 

[Phrazbit]

No one complained louder than I did when the Suns were raffling off their draft picks and I also complained that they were ruining their scouting organization in doing it because it had so little function for those years. Not that the guys we'd have gotten would likely have made us a contender, but we wasted much time and effort bringing players there was no hope of building around. And you have to admit we've drafted like crap ever since then.

I gotta disagree... we could have had Deng or (more likely had we kept the pick) Iguodala in the 04 draft. Obviously Rondo... would have been nice to have. The one of the picks we gave away in the KT trade turned into Serge Ibaka. We also gave away Nate Robinson (though I did despise him as a college player). When Golden State screwed us in the Curry draft by reneging on the Amare/Curry swap it screwed us two-fold. The Suns wanted a PG for the future, if they'd known that Golden State was flaking on the agreed upon trade they supposedly would have taken Jrue Holiday instead of Earl Clark.

But giving away a pick that would have been Iguodala for basically nothing is what really hurts in retrospect. He would have been absurd in the SSOL system. They could have coped with Johnson's injury and potential departure far better. They could have been more proactive about trading Marion because they had a replacement already. Having Iggy here would have made them significantly better and given his defensive prowess and the Suns lack of it... I think he could have swung a few series in our favor.

 

[AzStevenCal]

It would be folly to disagree that the draft is lifeblood of the league since 99% of the players in it were drafted but sitting back and building with the picks that fall to you is not a great method. The Lakers and Celtics are the teams that have a long history of being top teams and they've done it primarily by acquiring picks and players from other teams. What they are good at is recognizing talent and using every method possible to get it. The Lakers did single out Kobe before anyone else and they traded Divac to another team to have them draft him for them. Shaq and Gasol they acquired via other means.

I thought they made that trade to get up in front of us because Jerry West knew we were locked in on Kobe? Regardless, I agree with much of your post. You need a system and you need to be able to identify the players that fit that system and you need to find a way to get them whether it's by draft, trade and/or free agency. One size does not fit all when it comes to building a team but no approach works if you fail at identifying talent.

Steve

 

[Errntknght]

I gotta disagree... we could have had Deng or (more likely had we kept the pick) Iguodala in the 04 draft. Obviously Rondo... would have been nice to have. The one of the picks we gave away in the KT trade turned into Serge Ibaka. We also gave away Nate Robinson (though I did despise him as a college player). When Golden State screwed us in the Curry draft by reneging on the Amare/Curry swap it screwed us two-fold. The Suns wanted a PG for the future, if they'd known that Golden State was flaking on the agreed upon trade they supposedly would have taken Jrue Holiday instead of Earl Clark.

But giving away a pick that would have been Iguodala for basically nothing is what really hurts in retrospect. He would have been absurd in the SSOL system. They could have coped with Johnson's injury and potential departure far better. They could have been more proactive about trading Marion because they had a replacement already. Having Iggy here would have made them significantly better and given his defensive prowess and the Suns lack of it... I think he could have swung a few series in our favor.

Of course we did screw up in that deal with Chicago that netted them Deng but that was not one of the picks we sold or traded away for financial reasons - we were assuming that Iggy wouldn't be available at #7 and also assuming that Chicago's pick the next year (which we did acquire in the trade) would be better. The first assumption seemed somewhat reasonable at the time though it was silly not to hold off making the trade until it was an established fact. The second assumption was totally unwarrented as Chi finished the season strong (compared to the way they started it) and they'd be strengthened by two high picks(their own pick was #3) for the next year. [They improved dramatically so we got #21 from them, setting off the Nate Robinson + QRich for Kurt Thomas deal.]

 

[JCSunsfan]

Of course we did screw up in that deal with Chicago that netted them Deng but that was not one of the picks we sold or traded away for financial reasons - we were assuming that Iggy wouldn't be available at #7 and also assuming that Chicago's pick the next year (which we did acquire in the trade) would be better. The first assumption seemed somewhat reasonable at the time though it was silly not to hold off making the trade until it was an established fact. The second assumption was totally unwarrented as Chi finished the season strong (compared to the way they started it) and they'd be strengthened by two high picks(their own pick was #3) for the next year. [They improved dramatically so we got #21 from them, setting off the Nate Robinson + QRich for Kurt Thomas deal.]

Yep. The problem was not cheapness, it was arrogance. They tried to get too cute. It is much better to play much more sure odds. Wait, make sure, take the best player available. It is much more dangerous to trade back or out of a draft than to stand pat or trade up to get the player you want.

That's why the idea of trading out of this draft in favor of 2014 is fraught with danger. Too many things can happen. Draft sure, draft solid.

 

[Superbone]

Yep. The problem was not cheapness, it was arrogance. They tried to get too cute. It is much better to play much more sure odds. Wait, make sure, take the best player available. It is much more dangerous to trade back or out of a draft than to stand pat or trade up to get the player you want.

That's why the idea of trading out of this draft in favor of 2014 is fraught with danger. Too many things can happen. Draft sure, draft solid.

The Suns slow played their poker hand and it backfired on them.

 

[JCSunsfan]

The Suns slow played their poker hand and it backfired on them.

I am sure McD is not going to approach the draft that way. Ainge was his mentor. I can still hear Ainge shouting over at the draft party that Nash was the "safe" pick and all the Suns fans booing because they wanted John Wallace who was in a free fall it seemed. I am so glad we didn't draft Wallace. That was a remarkable draft. We were trying to get Kobe. I think Ray Allan, Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Iverson, etc were in that draft.

I cannot see him trying to get too cute, or really reaching for a questionable player. Boston has made a habit of just letting the draft fall and taking advantage of other people's mistakes.

But we'll see.

 

[Superbone]

I am sure McD is not going to approach the draft that way. Ainge was his mentor. I can still hear Ainge shouting over the boos at the draft party that Nash was the "safe" pick

I cannot see him trying to get too cute, or really reaching for a questionable player. Boston has made a habit of just letting the draft fall and taking advantage of other people's mistakes.

But we'll see.

Yep. And MickyD also said Ainge is aggressive and he likes to follow that model. It works well in poker too.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Yep. And MickyD also said Ainge is aggressive and he likes to follow that model. It works well in poker too.

Ainge is aggressive. He will spend for a player he really wants to get. I am hoping that McD will be the same. We need to quit considering marginal free agents. If we think that a FA has something that everyone else is missing fine. But save the ammo for the Kevin Garnett's and Ray Allen's of the bball world.