Suns general manager Ryan McDonough signed Devin Booker to a max contract extension and drafted Deandre Ayton with the No. 1 pick this summer – two HUGE decisions for the franchise.
McDonough won’t even see those moves through for a single game.
Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated:
Suns announce that GM Ryan McDonough has been fired and will he replaced, on interim basis, by James Jones and Trevor Bukstein. pic.twitter.com/J5hvpHSZXx
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) October 8, 2018
The expected-to-be-awful Suns went a shocking 48-34 McDonough’s first year, but then produced straight losing seasons, winning in the mid-to-low 20s the last few years. Phoenix missed the playoffs all five years with McDonough. Nobody saw his job as secure, especially under Suns owner Robert Sarver.
But this timing is shocking, to say the least. Why let McDonough manage the entire offseason then fire him just nine days before the season? Is there something else happening here?
That said, I didn’t love McDonough’s summer. Phoenix made too many win-now moves while leaving a black hole at point guard that would undermine any chance of competing, especially in this brutal Western Conference.
And there was a history of errors. The 2016 draft looks like a particularly black mark on McDonough’s résumé. Phoenix picked Dragan Bender No. 4 then traded up for No. 8 pick Marquese Chriss while surrendering the Nos. 13 and 28 picks and rights to Bogdan Bogdanovic (who’s better than either Bender or Chriss). The Suns have already given up on Chriss, trading him to the Rockets, and Bender has looked lost.
But, again, why now? If Sarver believed in McDonough enough to let him handle all these big decisions earlier in the offseason, what changed?