Workouts ‘important’ but Phoenix Suns won’t be ‘foolish or reckless’ in upcoming draft
Jun 23, 2014, 7:29 PM | Updated: 9:27 pm
PHOENIX — Among the 72 different names the Phoenix Suns worked out in the past month, there were four point guards, seven combo guards and 10 forwards, both at the small and power forward positions, who are projected — according to the many so-called experts — to be drafted in the first round, where the Suns hold three picks.
In other words, general manager Ryan McDonough and his staff have plenty of options with selections 14, 18 and 27.
“We’ve had, what, 70-plus guys in now? So obviously only 60 get drafted. We feel great about the guys we’ve had in,” he said, before adding about players’ visits, “It’s important that we have a lot of information about a player. Having them in for workouts, I think, helps a lot. We get to interview them. We get to spend some time with them. They get to meet our trainer and strength and conditioning coach and go through some of the athletic testing drills. And then obviously we get to see them play for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. So that’s important.”
But what about the names that did not arrive in the Valley?
What about, say Creighton’s Doug McDermott and Michigan’s Nik Stauskas, or even an Aaron Gordon out of UA or Julius Randle out of Kentucky?
What if one of those names, a name that did not work out, unexpectedly drops and is available when the Suns are on the clock?
“If there is a guy who’s good enough we’ll draft them. I mean we prefer to have them in, but we’re not going to sit here and be foolish or reckless about it and say we absolutely won’t take anybody who (doesn’t) come in,” McDonough said.
Every year there’s always at least one player who spends more time in the green room than anticipated.
Of course, no agent believes it will be their player sitting there as the cameras document every nervous moment.
So for now, it appears the only names who are headed to US Airways Center this week are the Ringling Brothers, James Anthony Bailey and P.T. Barnum.
Yes, the circus is coming to town.
“It does help guys, I think, to come in sometimes, like it did with Archie Goodwin last year. I think he really helped himself. There’s a reason we moved up in the draft to get him was, in addition to what he did at Kentucky, the two impressive workouts he had here,” McDonough said.
“It helps, but we’ll take whoever the best players are wherever we’re picking.”
