Once the Western Conference finals runs were over, the hardest part for Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver had been eliminating the emotion and letting go. His franchise had prudently refused to invest long-term into Amar'e Stoudemire's defective knees, but Sarver stayed committed to rearming Steve Nash into his late 30s and resisted the reshaping of a long-term vision.

For all the miscalculations compounding that choice, there been a steep price to pay for the Suns: bad contracts and bad actors, discombobulated parts and no clear path to restoring prominence.

"For all successful people in business, I think that the notion of taking a step back to take a step forward is a foreign concept," Sarver told Yahoo Sports. "You simply don't say, 'We're going to go backward for a couple years,' in business. But pro sports – especially the NBA – is different, and it's set up to do just that.

"I had a hard time stomaching the idea of rebuilding, and spent a couple of years trying to patch together a way that we could still capitalize on Steve's ability. I was a couple of years too late in really facing the music."

Here it was early May, and Sarver sat inside his banking office across the street from U.S. Airways Center and let a 33-year-old Boston Celtics executive deliver him the path for chance in relentless detail. Ryan McDonough had a championship pedigree, a well-regarded draft record and the stomach to ask a prospective owner some tough, probing questions to make sure he even wanted this job.

Sarver needed a top basketball executive, needed a plan and, maybe most of all, someone to restore his franchise's eroding credibility. When no one else had yet to invite McDonough to interview for a general manager job, Suns president Lon Babby had identified him and brought him to Sarver as a finalist. Now, Sarver listened to McDonough lay out everything – his ideas for trades and gathering draft picks, scouting and player development, coaching candidates and player nutrition. Every time Sarver asked a question, there came a crystalized and clear-minded answer. The Suns were a mess, but suddenly Sarver started to see a way out.

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"Given his age, I was really surprised at Ryan's level of knowledge and confidence," Sarver said. "A lot of guys can get wishy-washy about their convictions when it comes to players and coaches, but he had such strong opinions – such conviction – of what he wanted to do. He had an absolute strategic vision for our franchise."

Between his hiring of NBA Coach of the Year candidate Jeff Hornacek and the Suns' improbable 17-10 record to start the season, McDonough has flipped the core of a 25-win team into a promising young point guard and center (Eric Bledsoe and Miles Plumlee), secured two more first-round draft picks and cleared millions in salary-cap space. McDonough hatched the idea for the three-way deal to bring Bledsoe to the Suns and deliver Milwaukee's J.J. Redick in a sign-and-trade to the Clippers. "Ryan made that deal happen," Clippers GM and coach Doc Rivers told Yahoo Sports.

When Indiana was determined to make a deal for Suns forward Luis Scola, McDonough never relented until he had Plumlee and the Pacers' first-round pick. McDonough had long scouted Plumlee, studied him closely in the summer league, and forever believed he was a starting NBA center.

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