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McDonough on NBA-TV's The Beat: 'We Want to Play Faster'

Expectations for success are vastly different for the Suns this season, and that’s exactly what General Manager Ryan McDonough discussed when he joined NBA-TV’s The Beat recently.

“Last year we were an underdog,” McDonough said. “This year, our expectations have changed. We certainly hope we are a playoff team.”

Indeed, the Suns are right in the mix of things in an incredibly difficult Western Conference. With a 22-18 record, Phoenix is in sole possession of the 8th seed as they open up a franchise-long eight-game home stand against the Cavaliers on Tuesday, January 13.

“It certainly is a challenge,” McDonough acknowledged in regards to staying competitive in the West. “When you win games or go on a long run like we did winning 10 of 12, you only feel like you’re keeping pace. We’re doing what we can. Fortunately we still have salary cap space from previous moves.”

To McDonough’s point, one such offseason move that has already paid off was the acquisition of Isaiah Thomas – the team’s third point guard.

“When all three of them are healthy and play, we’re 19-11 right now,” McDonough said about Dragic, Bledsoe and Thomas. “When they’ve been healthy and productive, we’ve won 2/3 of our games which is what the elite teams do.”

McDonough and the Suns recently made another move that could be hugely significant as the team continues its playoff push – the addition of versatile and athletic big man, Brandan Wright.

���Brandan [Wright] is a guy we’ve admired for a long time,” McDonough said. “Last year, it was the 80th game of our season and we were in Dallas [trying to make the playoffs]. Brandan came up huge for the Mavericks in that game – blocked a few shots, including one that basically ended the game. He’s someone we’ve targeted for a while.”

McDonough hopes that pairing Wright with the surging Alex Len will provided even more rim protection for the Suns.

“Those are two of the top five guys in the league in terms of blocked shots per 48 minutes,” he said. “We think they’ll help in the short and long term.”

Under Jeff Hornacek, the Suns are probably most known for their exciting, up-tempo brand of basketball. In fact, Phoenix ranks 2nd in the NBA this season with 19.3 fast break points per game (ranked 1st with 18.7 per game last season – the highest average for Suns going back to 1996-97).

So if there is one thing McDonough wants the team to do more?

“Coach Hornacek and I would like the guys to play even faster,” he said without skipping a beat.

See McDonough’s entire interview below: