Suns GM Ryan McDonough: Keep building through draft

SACRAMENTO – General Manager Ryan McDonough admits: This season was a roller coaster. The Suns got off to a slow start, and it didn’t improve much from there, leading to the shutdown of key players after the All-Star break and a seventh season without a postseason appearance.

The Suns entered Tuesday’s final regular-season contest against the Sacramento Kings with a chance to secure the NBA’s second-worst record, which will help in draft positioning. They also had chance to lock up the third-worst season in franchise history.

“Obviously, the record is a little bit disappointing given the expectations we started the year with,” McDonough said. “Recently, we’ve been encouraged with the progress with some of the young players. Since the All-Star break, some of the guys who weren’t getting an opportunity to play much, if at all, got that opportunity and really made the most of it. I think that bodes well for the future.”

For now, the Suns plan to stay the course with their youth movement, building through the draft. This year’s event in June might be the deepest McDonough has seen in 14 or 15 years of NBA work. With the NBA’s second-worst record, the Suns would have a 55.8 percent chance to land a top-three pick and a 19.9 percent chance to land the top overall selection.

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“We’ll have a high pick in the lottery,” McDonough said. “We’ll have two second-round draft picks as well. We have plenty of cap space, so we’ll have some options for this summer. We have a plan in our head right now in terms of continuing to add through the draft and build with youth, but we’ll also look at potential free-agent options. And then, the least predictable part of this, obviously, is the trades and what may swing our way. Those talks usually heat up closer to the draft.”

Out of playoff contention, the Suns shut down veteran center Tyson Chandler and sixth-man Brandon Knight after the All-Star break. On March 15, they sidelined lead playmaker Eric Bledsoe as well. The official plan was to evaluate the roster’s youth, but the move also helped Phoenix’s draft position. McDonough said all three players handled the situation professionally.

“Those guys have been great. Not just good, great,” McDonough said of Chandler and Bledsoe. “It was a difficult situation, but they reacted how we thought they would react. Especially Eric. He really wanted to play, and we get that. He’s a competitor. And those decisions aren’t easy to make. It’s not easy to be patient in the short term for something that will help long term.”

The Suns have a difficult decision to make with Knight. Moved out of the starting lineup for the first time in his career, Knight this season averaged career lows in scoring (11 points per game), assists (2.4) and minutes (21.1.) Complicating matters: Knight is owed nearly $44 million over three years, which means moving him might be difficult.

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“He didn’t have the year that I think he would’ve hoped,” McDonough said. “He’s still 25 years old, I think a lot of people forget that. He’s a talented guy. Our main focus will be trying to figure out a way to put him in position to be more effective next season.”

McDonough, coach Earl Watson and owner Robert Sarver on Wednesday will meet with each player for exit interviews at Talking Stick Resort Arena. They will tell each player what they liked about this season and what they didn’t. They also will develop a player-development plan for the offseason.

“We’re not as far away as it may appear given our record,” McDonough said. “We obviously made a difficult trade (at the deadline) sending P.J. Tucker to Toronto and made some lineup adjustments that affected our win total in the short term. Hopefully, it will help our win total in the long term. The West is brutal, it’s hard to crack that (playoff) group. That’s kind of the way it has been in the Western Conference, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. We’re going to try and win as many games as we can and be as competitive as we can. We’ll see how the dust settles, but we’ll probably set making the playoffs as our goal again next year.”