bwgood77 wrote:GMATCallahan wrote:bwgood77 wrote:
So I guess you are in the know, or are you speculating? So you think they want to compete and win as much as possible the rest of the season?
... either that or they had developed a prearranged plan when they fired the assistants: we will give Hornacek one more month.
But how about allowing for the fact that all of Hornacek's veteran guards went down in the interim, basically leaving him with a collegiate back-court, not to mention a total absence of starting-caliber forwards. And what about the fact that Sarver should want to compete for the worst record in the NBA in order to receive the most ping-pong balls possible? Firing Hornacek now, as opposed to either around Christmas time or after the season, really makes no sense.
The other theory that I have read in situations such as this one is that the owner fears that all the losing, and the apparent acceptance of it, will hurt the renewal of season tickets for the following year. Thus, the theory goes, if management fires the coach and sparks the team to a few more wins, or at least shows that losing will not be tolerated, more fans and corporations will sense that ownership is committed to winning and will renew their season tickets. But you are never going to build your team properly if you are trying to calculate commercial matters so narrowly and defensively. It is called, "Penny-wise, pound-foolish."
... except that it may not even be "penny-wise."
Good points. I became neutral on Hornacek staying or going in late December and expected him gone (if he was to be fired) in time for them to potentially turn things around. Clearly that is a far fetched goal, so they should have let him finish out the season. If you fire a coach in the season due to the team playing poorly, it is typically done earlier to try and salvage the season. In the Cavs case, it doesn't matter as much because they are at the top of the conference anyway.
It just makes ownership look even more dysfunctional and classless. It's just amazing Sarver has driven away in a bad manner, Jerry and Brian Colangelo, Kerr, D'Antoni, Gentry, Griffin, etc. I mean no one is ever going to be happy about being fired (though Hornacek is probably relieved since he knew he was gone anyway) but you can at least do so as respectfully as posssible. To let him coach out the contract made the most sense in many respects, and especially if you want to get a high pick.
Yeah, I mean, this situation was not analogous to January 1996, when Jerry Colangelo fired Paul Westphal. You do not have veteran players such as Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Danny Manning, the late John "Hot Rod" Williams (although all four of those guys were in the injured list when Colangelo relieved Westphal), A.C. Green, the late Wayman Tisdale, and Joe Kleine. You do not have major and elite veteran talent that renders the remainder of the season vital and that induces you to change coaches if the incumbent seems to be losing his grip. (And even then, Colangelo fired Westphal after 33 games, not after 49 games.) Nor is the situation even analogous to that from 2009 when Phoenix featured Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, Grant Hill, Shaquille O'Neal, Jason Richardson, and Leandro Barbosa and needed try and win right away. Instead, the 2016 Suns were in the opposite situation by this January: their goal should have been to develop young players, accept losses temporarily, and play for the highest possible draft pick. In essence, Phoenix needed to be functioning like an expansion franchise.
Allowing Hornacek to finish his contract would have been both a sign of respect and a smart strategic move given that the Suns should want to pile up as many losses as possible. In effect, you would killed two birds with one stone and then could have let Hornacek go after the year in a respectful manner that no one would have seriously quibbled with. Also, as I noted earlier, what head coach other than Hornacek would have been better for Devin Booker—a young, slightly undersized shooting guard (forget the 6'6" listed height, which seems way off) with intelligence, a pure shooting stroke, and some passing ability, one who runs off down-screens that he can also turn into pick-and-rolls, and who can run some straight pick-and-rolls as well? For, more or less, that was Hornacek as a player. Booker was progressing nicely, so the Suns should have let Hornacek keep working with him through the remainder of the year.
