Game 19: Phoenix Suns (8-10) @ Detroit Pistons (9-9)

[Revived]

PLEASE tell me he's been sacked!!!

I've been so angry all day. That game finished at 3:30am here in England so I had 4 hours sleep and been shattered at a conference with work all day.

I don't mind being tired at work when we win.... However that game last night was a travesty and if Sarver/McD have ANYTHING about them they'll already have a replacement lined up as Jeff clearly isn't the way forward!! Ever!!

Ι cant believe Hornacek is still our coach. So many tough looses at the end????
he is too old to remember that this was happening the last year AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN !

You have to look at who the owner is. Sarver would much rather just let this season be ruined and not pick up the team option for next season than pay Hornacek to go away and then pay someone else to coach as well.

It starts at the top.

[RunDogGun]

Didn't our owner eat the Porter contract, the Childress contract, and most of the Beasley contract? Maybe people forget that that came to about $35 million. Throw in $4 million to buy out Carter as well. I don't think he would have difficulty paying the rest of Jeff's salary.

[RaisingArizona]

Los Soles, or alike stat geek, what's our record in close games in Jeff's tenure? My guess is it's horrendous.

Last 5min (ahead or behind for 5 pts)
this year -> 3-7
last year -> 22-25
13-14 -> 26-24

Better than I thought but 3-7 this year is just bad.

[RaisingArizona]

How we didn't ride the hot hands to finish the game is beyond stupid.

Welcome to the "Fire Jeff Club". Glad to have you.

I'm the president and founder of this club (est 2014).

True, but I've been on the campaign trail getting those rich donors on our side.

[Saberestar]

The group of:

Leurer
Teletovic
Warren
Booke
Price

played the best looking basketball that has been played by a Hornacek coached team. The ball moved and found the open man.

I am really tired of watching Bledsoe and Knight force the issue and generally take poor percentage shots. I have no idea why Hornacek puts up with it. Maybe it is because they make $14Mil per. If Booker is on the court with them it seems as though every play is on the opposite side of the court from where Booker is. The one time that I remember that Knight passed to him, a very good pass at that, Booker nailed a three. I see the same thing happening to Warren. If both of those guys became part of the offense I expect we would be a better team and much more friendly to the eye.

My hope is that Jeff takes a long look at the tape from last nights game and the above lineup gets rewarded with more playing time in the future. If Bledsoe and Knight continue to chuck up poor shots they need to be benched.

What would we really lose on the defensive end if Booker shared the minutes at the 3 with Warren and we benched Tucker?

Somehow, someway Booker and Warren must play more minutes. Winning coaches play their best players the most minutes. Booker and Warren are for sure 2 of our best players. Probably 2 of our best four.

Exactly. They played good basketball and every player touched the ball at least one time on every possession. That system is played a ton of times by the Spurs, and they have stars than can be effective in isolation, but this system in more difficult to defend because there are a ton of cuts and movement without the ball and the defeders are always on the move.

Isolation is a really good weapon to have when the opposing team defend well your system and you have only 6-7 seconds to make another play...but on every possession? No way.

Bledsoe needs to be more a PG than a scorer...sometimes I remember Nash and I think that he would make Warren and Booker tremendous players, but Knigt and Bledsoe don't pass enough to Warren on the cut/transition or Booker after screens. Those young players play basketball the right way...please give them the ball more.

[King4Day]

I don't think it'll be much longer before we turn in the season and start playing the kids more.
It'll most likely be around the trade deadline but it should happen before then.
Once (if) we get Kieff's value up, we can punt he and Tucker away and let Warren start and find more minutes for Booker and Goodwin.
We need to see if Goodwin is worth keeping or not.

[jcsunsfan]

The young guys are putting up good numbers against opposing backups.

1. Warren is the closest to moving into the starting role. He is playing extended minutes against both back up and starting caliber players. He is quite effective on offense, but his defense and rebounding are not there yet.

2. Booker is shooting very efficiently but still plays cautiously. He does not shoot as much as he should. Increasing his minutes some, and making them consistent is good. Moving him into a starting role is too much.

3. Goodwin is an enigma to me. There is no room for both Goodwin and Booker together in the Suns future if both Knight and Bledsoe remain. If Goodwin is a career 8 or 9 player in a rotation, fine. But if we expect more than that, I am just not sure what to do with him.

4. Len is necessary. Chandler is not going to be able to play enough minutes for Len to NOT get extended time. Big men take more time to develop and Len is the classic type of player to bloom late. We need to stick with him, unless a player like Cousins become available. We cannot trade him for a small player.