Suns GM: ‘We thought we had a chance’ at Brad Stevens in 2013
Jun 28, 2016, 10:34 AM | Updated: 12:39 pm
Boston Celtics' Brad Stevens looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016, in Philadelphia. The Celtics won 112-92. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
(AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
In May 2013, the Phoenix Suns hired Jeff Hornacek to be their head coach.
It was a popular move, as Hornacek was a popular player during his tenure with the organization in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and he was seen as an up-and-comer in the coaching world.
The hire seemed to be a home run, at least early, as Hornacek took a team most expected to be among the very worst in the NBA to 48 wins in year one.
However, things started to go south after that, with the team slipping to 39 wins the following campaign, and then, this past season, the Suns fell even further.
On Feb. 1, 2016, with the Suns at 14-35, Hornacek was relieved of his duties.
Since then, assistant Earl Watson was elevated to the role of interim head coach before being given the job on a full-time basis, but as general manager Ryan McDonough told Adrian Wojnarowski on “The Vertical Podcast,” it looks like if he had his first choice, Hornacek never would have been the guy three years ago anyway.
No, back then the newly-minted GM was hoping to land Butler coach Brad Stevens.
“We thought we had a chance,” McDonough said. “Brad and I did not know each other well going into the process; we had a number of conversations over the phone from the time I arrived in Phoenix to when I was in Chicago in May for the pre-draft camp.
“Then, actually the weekend after the Chicago pre-draft Combine, it was close enough where Robert Sarver, our owner, flew in from Phoenix, and my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, Valerie, she was living in Louisville, Kentucky, so I was down visiting her for the weekend, drove up, and the three of us met at Brad’s house in Carmel, Indiana, with his wife, Tracy, there as well.”
McDonough said they were there, at his kitchen table, discussing the possibility of him coaching the Suns.
“Ultimately he decided, at that time, to stay at Butler, and then a month or two later he chose to go to the Celtics,” he said. “As far as how close it was or what his decision-making process was, you’d have to ask him about that, but we were sitting around his kitchen table discussing him potentially coaching the Suns in 2013.”
Given how things have transpired, it’s safe to say Stevens probably made the right choice. While his first season with the Celtics did not go so well, as they finished with a 25-57 record, Boston has seen its win total climb to 40 and then 48 over the subsequent two campaigns.
And while McDonough and the Suns are now on their second coach in the last three years, Stevens — and Celtics GM Danny Ainge — just received contract extensions.
