Whatever happened to this guy(Mokeski)?

[arizonatribe]

I remember feeling a bit of tempered enthusiasm when Suns.com reported on hiring Paul Mokeski before the summer league play. It seemed like an admission that while Gentry was a good players coach and endeared himself to the bench, like Doc Rivers he needed to surround himself with basketball minds who specialized in solid defensive principles (Tom Thibideau) and counter-balanced his style with a more analytical and disciplined approach.

Maybe that style is not suitable for a Suns head coach, it seems practical for an assistant coach. All these young defenders we have on this team (Dudley, Amundson, Lopez, Clark, etc) need proper defensive development so we've got some real stoppers by their 4th, 5th or 6th years in the league.

As this season is unfolding it's becoming apparent that Suns defenders are struggling with the basics of good rotations, something I'd hope that keeping Mokeski on throughout the regular season could have helped:

The Suns are employing defensive traps (on Derick Rose the other night) yet not rotating over to cover the ballhandler's nearest (strong side) options. The farthest player on the weak side should be left open on a trap (the way the Nuggets do), not the guys nearest to the trapped ballhandler for the opponent to easily work the ball around the perimeter.

They're also not covering the perimeter shooters all the way out to the 3pt arc, yet keeping Suns defenders inside the arc and off the perimeter shooters is not helping them to block out offensive rebounders (as was apparent against the Bulls the other night when Tyrus Thomas, Taj Gibson and Noah were flying in unblocked into a painted area with four Suns rebounders).

Amare and Channing Frye are also not moving their feet defensively when screened defending the high pick-and-roll the way Lopez, Clark and pros like Varejao do. This is resulting in the opponent's guard not stalled long enough for the screened guard (J-Rich, Dragic or Nash) time to recover and they're just turning on the jets and rounding the corner around Amare/Frye for an open driving lane.

This is not the way to deter penetration away from the middle, yet Amare/Frye failing to move their feet and "stalling" the guard with little more than a lackadaisical hip-bump is giving opponents free reign of the driving lanes. Watching Lopez and Clark against the pick-and-roll they are using their footwork to stall or drive away the guards on the pick-and-roll and yet these things are either not being caught, practiced or corrected in their practice and film sessions.

I really like having Alvin Gentry coaching this team, but I think Phoenix needs to seriously consider bringing Mokeski back or someone else who will drive these fundamentals into our roster better than Gentry and his glorified shooting coaches (exception Bill Cartwright) have done. If Gentry is gonna be fun-loving, stay-relaxed "good cop", they're gonna need somebody to play "bad cop" at least for the sake of not spoiling the crop of young potential defensive stoppers in their first few years in the league.

[Nando88]

steve nash will not have it...

[OrangeNation]

Remember what happen to "Coach Porter" ?

[arizonatribe]

You think it would ruffle their feathers if it's an assistant coach that has no say-so on the offense plays? I got the impression that the meddling with the offense and trying to have Steve Nash come off the ball too much is what doomed Terry Porter.

[toucansma]

Dan Majerle actually teaches many of the defensive fundamentals (which he was very good at). Often some players just don't get it. If they did they would all be allstars. Porter was about being an authoritarian, and not a teacher. Gentry may do more than we think in regards to teaching and discipline.

Additionally I do not know what this Steve Nash being such a prima donna is. The main time he had an issue was Porter, who did not know what he was doing. Nash kept trying no matter what. Not his fault everything changed.

[arizonatribe]

I see what you mean about Dan Majerle being a player who showed a lot of heart on defense and generally knew where to be, but I never got the impression from his color commentator days or the suns.com videos from the practice court that he has translated that into a structured system and an analytical breakdown of opposing offenses.

He was not much of an X's and O's guy in his color commentator days and that's exactly what you'd need in an assistant coach responsible for defensive coordinator duties. Even back then you could always expect more educating commentary and defensive play dissection from an offensive-minded Eddie Johnson than Dan Majerle ever provided. Majerle still ran circles about stuttering Scott Williams, but didn't seem to break down the plays for the listener the way you'd expect a guy like Marc Iavaroni could do back then.

Whenever I've seen the videos on the practice court or the pre-game practice he seems to always be coaching on shooting. Maybe he does that stuff outside the public eye and when the cameras aren't rolling though. I would almost think Kokoskov would have more of an understanding of pick-and-roll dominant basketball, coming from the European leagues that have played that way for years rather than former players like Majerle, Cartwright and Shumate that thrived in the predecessor to this current pick-and-roll dominant league.

In their playing days it was asking a lot for a 6ft guard to be any serious threat to drive the lane off a screen and not come out with a broken bone. Maybe I'm making pick-and-roll basketball out to be tougher to break down than it really is though.

[sunfire0112]

Agreed. We need to bring this guy back.



But seriously, we need to bring in a coach who'll help our prospects develop proper defensive fundamentals. They say that defense is more of a philosophy but our younger guys are more than willing to learn and have shown dedication to that side of the court.

[Qwigglez]

No clue who that guy is, lol.

[sunfire0112]

Lol, that's Paul Mokeski, the "defensive" assistant coach the OP mentions. We brought in for a brief stint during the summer league.