McDonough began his tenure in 2013 by hiring Jeff Hornacek as coach, trading Isaiah Thomas to the Celtics, signing twins Markieff and Marcus Morris to long-term extensions, and then adding aging Tyson Chandler to a four-year, $52 million deal.

Two coaches, a questionable trade with the Celtics, and a forgettable free agent signing later, McDonough has attempted to resurrect the franchise with an impressive draft, and along with the signing of former Boston College standout Jared Dudley, take the next step toward respectability.

LAS VEGAS — It’s been an arduous first stint as a general manager for former Celtics executive Ryan McDonough. Plans were to quickly lead the Phoenix Suns back to prosperity, sign premium free agents to the sun-splashed location with below-average state income taxes, and play an up-tempo style of ball in the freestyle Western Conference.


Since then, McDonough has fired Hornacek’s assistants and then eventually Hornacek. He traded both of the Morris twins and then named former NBA point guard Earl Watson as the permanent head coach, and scored big with the development of shooting guard Devin Booker, the 13th overall pick in 2015 who was named to the All-Rookie first team.

Last month, the Suns spun their two lottery picks — getting one from Washington for Markieff Morris — into players that were projected to be drafted in the top five — Croatian Dragan Bender and University of Washington athletic freshman Marquese Chriss.

Those two — along with pint-sized Kentucky point guard Tyler Ulis, a second-round pick — made their summer league debut Saturday at Cox Pavilion against the Trail Blazers, and McDonough gleamed with pride at his roster rejuvenation.

“It’s an exciting time for us,” he said. “We really had about eight players that we really liked [in the draft], and fortunately we’ve accumulated a lot of assets over the years. We had a package of draft picks and were able to get Bender and Chriss, and we were surprised that Tyler Ulis was still available [at 34], so I think in 13, 14 years with the Celtics and Suns, this is as excited as I have been coming out of a draft room.”


The hiring of Hornacek was considered a coup for McDonough, who did not know the former NBA sharpshooter well before the hiring. But the Suns began a disturbing stretch of blowouts last season, and the players were accused of quitting on their coach. McDonough made the difficult move of firing Hornacek after a 14-35 start, replacing him on an interim basis with Watson, who finished the season 9-24.

The development of Booker, who averaged 19.2 points after the All-Star break, and the play of a young roster earned Watson the permanent job.

“He was dropped into an extremely difficult situation,” McDonough said of Watson. “The team had lost a number of games over the previous month. We had a lot of injuries, at the [point guard] position and we were trying to invent on the fly and field a competitive team. That’s hard. Earl really maximized the ability of that roster. He didn’t have a lot of talent available at the time and he figured out creative ways to keep the team competitive, motivated and inspired the group.’’

“The record wasn’t great but [what he accomplished] was remarkable given the talent we had available. It was really a skeleton crew.”


McDonough has refrained from the free agent frenzy and made Dudley (three years, $30 million) his only signing so far. Building a team is challenging in today’s NBA landscape, especially with the $20 million increase in the salary cap and teams throwing major money at midlevel players.

So McDonough said the best route short term is through the draft, building a young foundation with Booker, Bender, Chriss, Ulis, and T.J. Warren along with veterans Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, and Chandler.

“That’s certainly the most sustainable way to do it,” McDonough said. “If you can draft those guys and have them under control for four years on the rookie scale and then have a bunch of advantages in terms of contract extensions and full Bird rights, that really helps.

“The Western Conference is brutal. The top teams are very good. If you look at the Western Conference finalists, Golden State and Oklahoma City, they were built mainly through the draft. Those teams went through some tough times to get to that point but they drafted well and developed well.”

Speaking of the Warriors, Golden State made the biggest free agent catch of the summer and the past several summers in signing former MVP Kevin Durant. The Suns face the Warriors four times a year.

“It really is an embarrassment of riches over there, I think it’s a problem any of us would love to have,” McDonough said. “In our conference, I just think we keep doing what we’re doing and don’t really worry as much about what the other teams are doing. It’s daunting facing a team like that and we’re certainly not near their level yet, but they were patient and deliberate and built it the right way. We’re going to see if we can do something similar in Phoenix.”


Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.