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Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:09 am
by Kerrsed
The Phoenix Suns surprised the entire NBA last year by making it all the way to the Western Conference Finals when everyone thought their days as contenders were done. The Suns have every intention of duplicating last year's success, but few are giving them a chance to do so now that All-Star power forward Amar'e Stoudemire is a member of the New York Knicks. Even with Stoudemire gone though Coach Gentry is taking the same approach from last year.
"Last year they picked us anywhere from seventh to ninth or tenth anyway," recalled Gentry in a conversation with XTRA 910. "I tell guys right at the start of the year it doesn't really matter until the end of the season. Either you're in the playoffs or you're not. If you're not than they were right and if you're in then we can go na-na-na-na poo-poo.
"I look at the guys we signed and I think they're going to fit in just fine. You never know. I tell everyone, chemistry is such a strange thing. Everyone talks about the three guys in Miami, and they're great players believe me and they're tremendous athletes. But they're still going to have to come together from a chemistry standpoint in order to be great and win a championship. In our case we're going to have to do that because we're going to be a small team, there are going to be rebounding situations, there's going to be rotation situations because we're about 10 or 11 guys deep. So all of that is going to play into it. As we we go into the season and into training camp those are things that are going to be on our mind."
Gentry has a leg up on most coaches when it comes to forming chemistry because his best player, All-Star point guard Steve Nash, is somebody who makes everyone's lives so much easier. Nash is one of the league's premier playmakers but he now has the luxury of having another creative player by his side in Hedo Turkoglu. The Suns acquired Turkoglu earlier this summer and hope that he and Nash can form a dynamic duo that helps open things up for everyone else like the Nash-Stoudemire combo used to.
"I think for Hedo to have Steve Nash out there and for Nash to have Hedo out there will help," noted Gentry. "You're talking about a guy in Hedo that is really a facilitator. We will put the ball in his hands. For the first time since I've been here we can use Steve as an off the ball shooter which he is great at. He's probably one of the top five shooters in the league, but we just never had an opportunity to use him in that position."
The Phoenix Suns also had some big changes occur in the front office. They brought on former agent Lon Babby as the President of Basketball Operations and Lance Blanks from the Cleveland Cavaliers as their new general manager. Gentry has worked with them in the past and is excited about potentially having a good working relationship with both.
"One thing is I've known Lance for 20 years," revealed Gentry. "Known him as a player and gotten to know him as he's moved up the management ladder in the NBA. I think he's a very bright guy and will do a really good job. Lon I've known for 15 or 16 years and a lot of it has to do with his relationship with Grant Hill. Lon and I got to be extremely close when I was in Detroit and both those guys are very effective, efficient workers. I think they'll do a good job. I think they'll be willing to listen and I think they'll learn and they'll do extremely well because success seems to follow them wherever they go."
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=17205
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:29 am
by lilfishi22
Nice article. I remember when I wrote the Suns off last off-season. They sure showed me.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:32 am
by Calvin Klein
Looks like there will be no more roster moves in the near future.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:34 am
by Frank Lee
Sounds lke Gentry had a say in hiring Blanks and Babby. Didnt know he knew both guys for such a long time. MAy be this cohesion explains the lack of 'scurity leaks' . That and they probably fired IHG
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:35 am
by lilfishi22
Calvin Klein wrote:Looks like there will be no more roster moves in the near future.
What makes you think that?
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:36 am
by SUN
Everyone thought we wouldn't be anything, but we proved them wrong. Hakim gave around 11 points last season, can he be Amar'e-lite with Nash now too? I really hope so. I hope Childress breaks out and I hope Lopez dominates.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:43 am
by raff
I'm glad to see Gentry's confidence, but I mean, obviously, he should be. It's a shame that we keep falling back to being the small team. I'll go skeptical again and say that we probably won't have the success we had this season. But what this season showed is that anything is possible.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:53 am
by DirtyDez
I'll put my money on the 8th seed, there's enough bad teams in this league to run n gun through. Points>rebounds in the reg season against poor competition. A lot depends on Utah/Houston. WWe shall see.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:54 am
by Calvin Klein
lilfishi22 wrote:Calvin Klein wrote:Looks like there will be no more roster moves in the near future.
What makes you think that?
He is saying we'll have a rebounding problem basically. I'm assuming Hedo = PF.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:19 am
by lilfishi22
Calvin Klein wrote:lilfishi22 wrote:Calvin Klein wrote:Looks like there will be no more roster moves in the near future.
What makes you think that?
He is saying we'll have a rebounding problem basically. I'm assuming
Hedo = PF.
Seems likely.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:31 am
by Jdiddy701
You guys are crazy. I still believe we will have homecourt advantage in the 1st round. Don't get me wrong, I know we aint better then a lot of the West teams, but our team is made for the regular season. Our offense will be amazing. Our defense will be as worst as the 04-05 team.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 5:16 am
by Blackification
One of the best things about Gentry is how much respect he has throughout the league, he knows a lot of players and a lot of front office guys all over the league.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 5:32 am
by Jimmy76
im glad he's confident and recognizes the rebounding issue
its possible by a small miracle we become a better defensive team though
that said im still going to be skeptical of this team until I see Nash hasnt declined and the rebounding wont be as big a deal as I think (we seriously need the sickest gang rebounding ever, our wings need to go after the boards like no other)
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 5:35 am
by Mr. Sun
Alvin is basically saying Hedo is going to be the PG.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:07 am
by ma_falaa_50
basically, he said whats he has been saying for a while. Hedo will be a facilitator most of the time. Steve will have an opportunity to be a spot up shooter and the suns will have problems rebounding.
I think the suns have enough talent on the team that can score to fill in for amare. I think the FTs is whats going to be tricky, we got guys on the team that can draw fouls down low and score in the paint but will they do it?
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 1:20 pm
by Nepopop
i agree with Jdiddy701. We should have HCA in the 1st. Almost every year since Nash came back people write the suns off.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:16 pm
by tsherkin
I want to see if the Suns maintain the same volume and efficiency of offense without Amare. They did it in 06 with Diaw replacing him (and Bell swapping for JJ), so it's not unprecedented, though Nash won't be playing the same minutes, I don't think. Hedo is kinda like Diaw, I suppose. Not in the sense that he's a post passing hub or particularly athletic, but an extra ball-handler who can take some of the pressure off of Steve. And if Warrick, Frye and RoLo can contribute some, it should be an interesting season. If the Suns make the WCFs, man, then Nash-haters everywhere will be crying like you've no idea, lol. That WOULD be pretty awesome...
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 6:11 pm
by Sun Scorched
Couple of key points:
1. Nash as a spot-up shooter will be insane.
2. Suns may have to go rebound-by-committee, but as long as your team rebounding is high (think Richardson and Childress crashing the boards) then it doens't matter that you don't have a double-digit rebounder.
3. Suns have not gotten worse defensively. I just don't get why last year, with Amare, we were a WCF team and, now that he's gone, we've fallen out of the top 8. Hahaha. Seriously? People are pretending like we'll have a problem scoring... sigh.
4. This. Happens. Every. Year.
5. A motivated Turkoglu is a scary Turkoglu. He's putting it on the line ladies. His agent is in the FO now, he's in a fun organization and Gentry is a great coach. There isn't a single looming issue.
6. I maintain we still have the best bench in the league. People will forget, for whatever reason, that our bench won games last year against opposing teams' starting units. They'll forget about the air raid that Frye and Dudley conducted in one game of the playoffs, or that Goran single-handedly won game 3 of the San An series. Sure, they'll forget because it's much, MUCH easier to crown the Lakers and Heat... Why? You will never look like an idiot sportswriter at the end of the season for choosing either... That, and (outside of Mr. Sherkin) most sportswriters suck.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:01 pm
by th3matrix1
Nash as a spot-up is very intriguing. Like what you said in point 6, thats whats keeping my hopes up for a long run in the postseason.
And if you think about it, the bench hadn't played upto their potential like they had done in the regular season. That shouldn't be a problem now since they have the postseason experience under the belt.
Re: Gentry's Confidence Is High
Posted: Wed Sep 1, 2010 12:10 am
by RocPHX
We really need to start hakeem at the 4 and hedo at the 3..atleast give him a try I think he'll be great with nash. If Hedos at PF, whose gonna be the main PnR finisher...lopez?