How much goodwill does McD have with you?

[Scutt]

I find it hard to truly evaluate McD because I have a strong belief that Robert Sarver still has his hands in things. For example, I feel like when they traded Dragic and Thomas, it was probably Sarver who was pushing for Knight as we were still in the hunt for the playoffs. I also think Sarver wanted Watson as coach simply because he was cheap and the players liked him. I have nothing to base that on, but that is what my gut tells me.

My gut tells me Sarver caused global warming. And created ISIS. And is the father of Brandon Knight.

I completely understand 7SOL Suns fans having major trust issues with Sarver but it is impossible to mount a case that he has been even a minor factor in moves made in the McD era.

Are you serious? How about the fact that for the past two years, Sarver has come out and said he expected the team to make the playoffs? You really do not think that had any impact in the moves McD has made in free agency? This was the first year where Sarver hasn't put playoff expectations on the team and front office. Seems pretty possible to me...

[GMATCallahan]

I am willing to "support" him for now and give him a chance to build with these young draft picks.

However, the fact that McDonough ultimately chose to build around Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight while jettisoning Ish Smith, Isaiah Thomas, and Goran Dragic does not suggest that he has much of a feel for offensive flow and function.

[GMATCallahan]

I like him. When listening to his interviews, he seems to have smart well thought out ideas. Juggling players is always tough and often it comes down to how well a player works within the system. Since our system has been changing often during his time here, it's tough to gauge his proformance. I don't think we have overspent on any players, and with all the injuries we've had, we haven't had a full healthy roster. I like his draft picks, and I think only Len is overall underperforming at this time. I think he did a great job this last draft.

I would like to see Knight moved as well. At this point, he just isn't efficient enough as sixth man role for me. I think we could get similar results with LB and Ulis for a backup 1 and 2. Plus I would like to see what Bender can do as a point forward.

... agreed. Frankly, the Suns would probably be better with Barbosa taking all of Knight's minutes.

The question is what the Suns can actually receive in exchange for Knight at this point. A late first-round pick which might become the next Archie Goodwin?

[gaspar]

I am willing to "support" him for now and give him a chance to build with these young draft picks.

However, the fact that McDonugh ultimately chose to build around Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight while jettisoning Ish Smith, Isaiah Thomas, and Goran Dragic does not suggest that he has much of a feel for offensive flow and function.

Two of those guys (Dragic and Ish) didn't want to play for the Suns and no one thought IT could be this good.

[GMATCallahan]

The jury is still on hiring Watson although for such a young team I'd have gone with an experienced coach.

... a perspective worth considering. I was thinking of Cotton Fitzsimmons, and recently I have been studying a Phoenix-Detroit game from March 1996. The sixty-four-year old Fitzsimmons started two rookies, Michael Finley and Mario Bennett, but on one possession in the first quarter, when Bennett was not quickly popping out to the perimeter after setting a down-screen, you can hear Fitzsimmons scream, "Mario, get the hell outta there!"

In the past, Fitzsimmons had talked about how he treated a rookie Cedric Ceballos as harshly as anyone, how Ceballos had been a soft player who would just lie on the floor in practice when he got hit, and Fitzsimmons would basically throw him out of practice when he did that. But by the end of his second season in 1992, a twenty-two-year old Ceballos had replaced a veteran Tom Chambers in the Suns' starting lineup, including in the playoffs.

Perhaps today's young players will not be receptive unless they are coddled, but I like the idea of an older coach who can discipline young players and then play them if and when they respond. I am not saying that Watson cannot be that guy, but sometimes players need to be stroked less and inspired to compete more.

[GMATCallahan]

Two of those guys (Dragic and Ish) didn't want to play for the Suns and no one thought IT could be this good.

... maybe not, but while he played for Phoenix, I thought that Thomas constituted the Suns' best half-court penetrator, their best pick-and-roll guard, their best three-point shooter, and their best player at reaching the free throw line (not to mention his ability to hit free throws). That is a lot of "bests." (I felt that Dragic constituted the Suns' best mid-range shooter and that Bledsoe was their most dangerous scorer in the open floor. None of the the three excelled at passing.)

As for Dragic and Smith, they did not want to play for Phoenix because of roster congestion ...

One can debate any of the individual moves (although the Thomas one has clearly looked bad since last season), but overall, McDonough kept the guys with the least offensive feel and the lowest Basketball IQs and shed the guys with the most offensive feel and the highest Basketball IQs.

[Damkac]

It's funny that when IT played for Phoenix he was almost as hated as Knight is now.

[GMATCallahan]

It's funny that when IT played for Phoenix he was almost as hated as Knight is now.

I believe that much of that sentiment stemmed from Thomas' presence changing Dragic's role and fans' loyalty to Dragic at that time. And, sure, Thomas rarely saw a shot that he did not like, but unlike Knight, his game was "tight," meaning that he excelled at changing directions, generating downhill action off the pick-and-roll, and so forth.

And his numbers were much better than Knight's, too. Thomas' .579 True Shooting Percentage with the Suns actually rendered him a highly efficient scorer.

[RunDogGun]

I like him. When listening to his interviews, he seems to have smart well thought out ideas. Juggling players is always tough and often it comes down to how well a player works within the system. Since our system has been changing often during his time here, it's tough to gauge his proformance. I don't think we have overspent on any players, and with all the injuries we've had, we haven't had a full healthy roster. I like his draft picks, and I think only Len is overall underperforming at this time. I think he did a great job this last draft.

I would like to see Knight moved as well. At this point, he just isn't efficient enough as sixth man role for me. I think we could get similar results with LB and Ulis for a backup 1 and 2. Plus I would like to see what Bender can do as a point forward.

... agreed. Frankly, the Suns would probably be better with Barbosa taking all of Knight's minutes.

The question is what the Suns can actually receive in exchange for Knight at this point. A late first-round pick which might become the next Archie Goodwin?

Not sure at this point. I do like a few teams as trading partners, and more than likely teams will wait until trade restrictions are lifted. I like the idea of Philly as a trade partner and my reasoning would be Colangelo and his tendencies to jettison players who have off the court issues. My thought would be Okafor for Knight and a couple of second rounders. But what do I know?

[carey]

I'm the biggest McD supporter at .net & I can say not much. That should give you an idea on where everyone else stands.

[ATTL]

I like MCD, I worry that the next gm would use our young players and picks to trade for an aging "star" to go for it and get us the 8th-10th seed for 4 years until he is fired and replaced with someone else.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Id give him one more year. Need to see what he does at the deadline and this summer.

Im not saying i need to see wins next year but i need to see development and a clear direction.

Sent from my SM-G930V using RealGM mobile app

[lilfishi22]

My biggest issue with McD is that while the team we have has some talent, we don't have an identity whatsoever. We are a roster of assets, literally. And we have been for some time now. I will never give McD grief for inheriting a less than ideal roster but what he's done with it has been fairly pedestrian. Again, he hasn't done anything bad, he's no Vlade or Khan and he does have an eye for young talent but his team building needs to improve.

McD tried to recreate the successful 48 win season with the dual PG line up by adding another PG (IT) and when that didn't work, found a trade that turned into a lost LA pick and Brandon Knight. Essentially, he's chasing the success of his "flukey" first season. He seems to have recognised that and I believe is looking for viable trades for Knight but the rest of the team is similarly disjointed. You have an old Tyson Chandler who is playing in front of Len who has shown he's a productive player (10/10 on +50% shooting) when starting. You have a very raw rookie PF starting on this team with an almost just as green rookie PF playing behind him (sporadically). Basically, you have a position on the team manned almost exclusively by raw rookies and SF's. I'm not a big fan of our coach but that's no secret.

There's a lot I don't like about this team and almost all of it has McD's fingerprints on it. I'm not on the Fire McD bandwagon (not sure if there is even one) and I'm happy to give him another year to give us some direction and identity but I want to see progress, not just hoarding assets.

[GMATCallahan]

My biggest issue with McD is that while the team we have has some talent, we don't have an identity whatsoever. We are a roster of assets, literally. And we have been for some time now. I will never give McD grief for inheriting a less than ideal roster but what he's done with it has been fairly pedestrian. Again, he hasn't done anything bad, he's no Vlade or Khan and he does have an eye for young talent but his team building needs to improve.

McD tried to recreate the successful 48 win season with the dual PG line up by adding another PG (IT) and when that didn't work, found a trade that turned into a lost LA pick and Brandon Knight. Essentially, he's chasing the success of his "flukey" first season. He seems to have recognised that and I believe is looking for viable trades for Knight but the rest of the team is similarly disjointed. You have an old Tyson Chandler who is playing in front of Len who has shown he's a productive player (10/10 on +50% shooting) when starting. You have a very raw rookie PF starting on this team with an almost just as green rookie PF playing behind him (sporadically). Basically, you have a position on the team manned almost exclusively by raw rookies and SF's. I'm not a big fan of our coach but that's no secret.

There's a lot I don't like about this team and almost all of it has McD's fingerprints on it. I'm not on the Fire McD bandwagon (not sure if there is even one) and I'm happy to give him another year to give us some direction and identity but I want to see progress, not just hoarding assets.

The Suns feature some players who can score, but there is no cohesion—the players do not fit together and have not done so for, well, almost three years. McDonough obviously misjudged Brandon Knight, the return for Goran Dragic is questionable, and he gave away Isaiah Thomas for a light asset (a late first-round pick, albeit one that the Suns used to help procure Marquese Chriss, who may or may not become something one day).

The question moving forward, I suppose, is whether McDonough is really a scouting director of amateur talent masquerading as a general manager.

... to be determined ...

[lilfishi22]

It's sad that the interest in this team is at an all-time low. I fear that Sarver is going to ask McDonough to pull the trigger on a trade to shake things up that will ultimately set us back even further in the rebuilding process just to get 500 more butts in seats for the rest of the season. As much as I'd like to see the Suns have a leader and a perennial all-star, I don't see anyone worthwhile being available in a trade that wouldn't absolutely gut any talent we have (and we don't have much, really). As much as I like Booker, he would have been sixth man on the best teams in the Suns past at best. There's no one on this team that cracks the Suns all-time lineup, even with a 15 man roster.

I was going to reply in the trade thread but it's sort of turned out into another post about McD

The only thing exciting about this team is a top pick in the 2017 draft. Booker has made marginal improvements on offense while making zero progress defensively. TJ looked great at the start of the season then has been so achingly inconsistent, my interest in him is at an all-time low. Our young fellas have shown some flashes but so far we still don't have solid proof that they project to be very good players in the future.

I'm in a small minority of fans who see this group of players we have as not having franchise player level potential. Perhaps Fultz/Ball may have that potential but how long are we going to keep playing this draft and hope game? I'm aware we are a young team but let's look at the progress of our draft and hope plan so far:

- the first of McD's pick (Len) passed his extension deadline last year without a new deal and is now an RFA this summer. - - Archie is no longer in the NBA (AFAIK).
- Tyler Ennis hasn't done jack in the NBA.
- TJ will be eligible for an extension this summer and with the way he's playing, you have to wonder what he's truly worth. - Booker's play this season has me questioning whether he'll JUST be a good offensive player with porous defense. He has another season to go before he's eligible for a new deal so he can still improve.

It would be interesting to see if Fultz or Ball can change our fortunes but if we have known quantities potentially available like Cousins or whatever star player becomes available, I don't see why it's such a terrible thing to give McD a different goal because thus far McD's rebuilding process still hasn't bore any fruit. Maybe Cousins and Butler aren't the guys for us but unless we continue to play this tanking game, I don't like our chances at lucking out on a future star. Like it or not, even rebuilding has it's limits. We can't sign every player we draft just because we're rebuilding and we want to see if they are worth it somewhere down the road.

Making a big trade to me isn't about getting butts on seats or creating temporary excitement. Right now, I look at this roster and I'm not inspired, I'm not confident that staying on this path will bear fruit. I'd like to see McD try and build a playoff team through other means. I'm not calling for trade here and now for a difference maker but I wouldn't be so quick to condemn talks to trade youth and assets for this star player as was McD's original plan.

[Christine-In-AZ]

[GotEm]

It's been 4 years, I think he should be on the hot seat by now.

[sleepyvato]

He gained a bit of faith from me today by trading Tucker which I think will help our tank this year but if he still somehow doesn't manage to get at least a top 3 pick out of this terrible season then he should be fired immediately after the draft lottery IMO.

[Damkac]

So you would fire him if Suns won't have luck at the lottery?

[sleepyvato]

So you would fire him if Suns won't have luck at the lottery?

No but a wise man once told me that in this world you make your own luck and that fits perfectly here with McD. He has full control of the tank and could have even improved it even more by shipping out Chandler or Bledsoe along with Tucker who thankfully did get shipped out to Toronto. Now, he can still improve the tank despite the deadline having passed, by resting our vets a lot more often like Bledsoe, which should greatly better our chances for a top 3 pick. McD is the one that controls his future with the Suns and only he can make it so that he's not fired at the end of the season by securing the best odds at getting a top 3 pick. If he fails then he will be one of the first of many GM's to be looking for a job this off-season, there's no doubt about it, because the head honcho can only have so much patience in this project of his.