Should the Suns keep Ryan McDonough as GM

sunsfan88

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I saw a tweet last week which said Ryan McDonough will be the 1st GM in NBA history that gets to hire a 4th HC despite having just one winning season over the first 5 years of his tenure as GM.

It basically means that Ryan McDonough has had a longer leash than any other GM in basketball history.
 
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Cheesebeef

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I saw a tweet last week which said Ryan McDonough will be the 1st GM in NBA history that gets to hire a 4th HC despite having just one winning season over the first 5 years of his tenure.

It basically means that Ryan McDonough has had a longer leash than any other GM in basketball history.

dude's Matt Millen of the NBA.
 

BC867

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I'm not sure McD has the cajones to force Sarver to pony up big money for a coach, but I hope I'm wrong.
Force Sarver to pony up big money for a coach?

Sarver hired a mild mannered GM with no GM experience. He specifically did not hire one to challenge his micro managing despite his lack of experience or overseeing an operation as complex as an NBA team.

With all due respect, every time I see the word "hope" being posted as our plan for the future, I lose "hope".

Look where it has gotten us. The history is no mystery. What are the odds?
 

JCSunsfan

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I saw a tweet last week which said Ryan McDonough will be the 1st GM in NBA history that gets to hire a 4th HC despite having just one winning season over the first 5 years of his tenure as GM.

It basically means that Ryan McDonough has had a longer leash than any other GM in basketball history.
Except the next hire won't be his fourth. It will be his third. He has made two head coaching mistakes--Hornacek (who everyone thought was a great hire for a year and a half) and Watson (sorry, that one was just bad). Triano is just an interim after the firing of Watson. Now three is not good, but no need to exaggerated to make a point.
 

Cheesebeef

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Except the next hire won't be his fourth. It will be his third. He has made two head coaching mistakes--Hornacek (who everyone thought was a great hire for a year and a half) and Watson (sorry, that one was just bad). Triano is just an interim after the firing of Watson. Now three is not good, but no need to exaggerated to make a point.

Triano is a hire. They had their choice of assistants at that point and made their decision there. Can’t really say that wasn’t a hire, IMO.

Not saying it was good or bad hire. One definite positive was getting Jackson to slow down out there and he really shifted his game after getting some pine time.
 

Cheesebeef

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So who decides?

I decide for myself. What others do is their prerogative but defending a guy who’s about to hire his third coach in five years and has overseen a team lose more games than the previous season in every year (especially when that wasn’t planned like The zprocess) seems like an exercise in futility to me.
 
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Covert Rain

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How long is enough? I believe I read the average GM tenure in the NBA is 5.5 years or something. There is a reason for that. It appears most owners feel if you have not pushed the team far enough in the right direction it’s time.

It’s not as if he hasn’t gotten a fair shake at it. Should we hold him to a different standard?
 
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Cheesebeef

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How long is enough? I believe I read the average GM tenure in the NBA is 5.5 years or something. There is a reason for that. It appears most owners feel if you have not pushed the team far enough in the right direction it’s time.

It’s not as if he hasn’t gotten a fair shake at it. She we hold him to a different standard?

What confuses me so much about this discussion is that so many people are only willing to give him a couple months or next year to prove to them he should stay... yet with that short of a leash they have confidence in him to make franchise altering moves picking another head coach and making a huge pick.
 

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What confuses me so much about this discussion is that so many people are only willing to give him a couple months or next year to prove to them he should stay... yet with that short of a leash they have confidence in him to make franchise altering moves picking another head coach and making a huge pick.
And if he does indeed get fired halfway into the season, all of a sudden, we have yet ANOTHER year of futility without moving the needle on the team. No GM is going to come in halfway during the season and turn a bottom feeder team into a playoff contender.
 

Cheesebeef

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And if he does indeed get fired halfway into the season, all of a sudden, we have yet ANOTHER year of futility without moving the needle on the team. No GM is going to come in halfway during the season and turn a bottom feeder team into a playoff contender.

Not only that but you immediately put McD’s New Head Coach’s head on the chopping block because any GM who comes in likes to bring in his own program.
 
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Mainstreet

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I decide for myself. What others do is their prerogative but defending a guy who’s about to hire his third coach in five years and has overseen a team lose more games than the previous season in every year (especially when that wasn’t planned like The zprocess) seems like an exercise in futility to me.

The issue I have with firing McDonough now is because the Suns are likely to leap out of the skillet into the fire. I have no confidence they will hire a better GM than McDonough. My hope is McDonough has learned on the job much like Jerry Colangelo did. Colangelo once tried to coach the Suns and even traded Dennis Johnson for Rick Robey. However, Jerry learned from his mistakes.

I can only speak for myself but I enjoy the stability McDonough has brought to the Suns after GMs such as Mike D'Antoni, Steve Kerr, Lance Blanks and Lon Babby. I can even remember when Sarver played GM signing Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick and Hedo Turkoglu.

It can get much worse if Ryan McDonough is fired and I believe it would.
 

pokerface

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The issue I have with firing McDonough now is because the Suns are likely to leap out of the skillet into the fire. I have no confidence they will hire a better GM than McDonough. My hope is McDonough has learned on the job much like Jerry Colangelo did. Colangelo once tried to coach the Suns and even traded Dennis Johnson for Rick Robey. However, Jerry learned from his mistakes.

I can only speak for myself but I enjoy the stability McDonough has brought to the Suns after GMs such as Mike D'Antoni, Steve Kerr, Lance Blanks and Lon Babby. I can even remember when Sarver played GM signing Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick and Hedo Turkoglu.

It can get much worse if Ryan McDonough is fired and I believe it would.

Now would probably be the worst time to change GM's. McD is on a good course right now and I don't want more upheval especially not knowing what GM is even available. Besides, I like McDonough more than the previous GMs mainstreet mentioned.
 

AzStevenCal

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What confuses me so much about this discussion is that so many people are only willing to give him a couple months or next year to prove to them he should stay... yet with that short of a leash they have confidence in him to make franchise altering moves picking another head coach and making a huge pick.

What confuses me so much about this discussion is the timing. Ryan talked Sarver into a full rebuild around the 2017 All Star break and was extended 5 months later. I can see the justification for firing him last February to July but not now? What's he done in the past 9 months that so clearly warrants termination?
 

Covert Rain

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And if he does indeed get fired halfway into the season, all of a sudden, we have yet ANOTHER year of futility without moving the needle on the team. No GM is going to come in halfway during the season and turn a bottom feeder team into a playoff contender.

Yes but the idea that GM who hasn't pushed the team far enough in 5 years but will all of the sudden get it done in year 6 is probably equally futile. I agree that any new GM isn't going to turn things around in that 6 months. However, he can get enough time to evaluate the team during that six months and going into the offseason.
 

Cheesebeef

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What confuses me so much about this discussion is the timing. Ryan talked Sarver into a full rebuild around the 2017 All Star break and was extended 5 months later. I can see the justification for firing him last February to July but not now? What's he done in the past 9 months that so clearly warrants termination?

First, the last 9 months didn’t happen in a vacuum... they happened after years of turmoil, losses and general embarrassment.

Then, he wanted to short-circuit the rebuild going after Blake Griffin according to the paper of record in Arizona which would have not gone by the “Timeline”, then Botched the Bledsoe situation letting it play out to a predictably ugly fall out where not only did he lack to foresight to see that coming but also showed he didn’t learn his lesson airing dirty laundry about players making the same mistake in the press he made with Dragic.

And somehow thought again this year’s team was going to be competitive and was forced to fire his coach after becoming the laughingstock of the league.

Last, his two lotto picks from 2016 showed next to nothing in their second year in the league.
 

JCSunsfan

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Triano is a hire. They had their choice of assistants at that point and made their decision there. Can’t really say that wasn’t a hire, IMO.

Not saying it was good or bad hire. One definite positive was getting Jackson to slow down out there and he really shifted his game after getting some pine time.
Cmon. You have to be kidding me. Interims don’t count as hires in anyone’s book but yours.
 

Cheesebeef

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Cmon. You have to be kidding me. Interims don’t count as hires in anyone’s book but yours.

You do realize that Watson was an interim, right?

Deciding who’s going to be your head coach is a coaching hire, plain and simple... unless McD just literally did no thinking and just went with the next guy on the bench... and if that IS what he did, that’s pathetic also. He could have brought someone else in. He could have gone with another asssistant. He literally had to make a CHOICE with Triano.
 
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Chaplin

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In fairness to McDonough, the 2016 draft was a really weak draft after the 3rd pick.

It's amazing how weak that draft was. Here is a recap at the link below.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16429410/nba-draft-pick-pick-recap
That does not matter. He had 2 lottery picks and both have failed to produce. His previous lottery pick is about to leave the team because he hasn’t produced. How many top 10 picks does he get before you realize how bad at this he is? And don’t throw Booker at me, who if anything should be further reason for McD’s incompetence. If he is good enough to make a pick 13 hit, why not 3 lottery picks?
 

JCSunsfan

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You do realize that Watson was an interim, right?

Deciding who’s going to be your head coach is a coaching hire, plain and simple... unless McD just literally did no thinking and just went with the next guy on the bench... and if that IS what he did, that’s pathetic also. He could have brought someone else in. He could have gone with another asssistant. He literally had to make a CHOICE with Triano.
Cheese. You are smarter than that. Watson was the interim until he was hired as the Head coach. Triano will count if he is hired as the head coach. This is not even worth arguing.
 
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Mainstreet

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That does not matter. He had 2 lottery picks and both have failed to produce. His previous lottery pick is about to leave the team because he hasn’t produced. How many top 10 picks does he get before you realize how bad at this he is? And don’t throw Booker at me, who if anything should be further reason for McD’s incompetence. If he is good enough to make a pick 13 hit, why not 3 lottery picks?

I think you are being premature. Even Len may go on to be a solid center for an NBA team.
 

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