Trade Deadline Countdown....What will we do? What should we do?

[thamadkant]

Hornacek and his 2 PG system needs to go. FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT THING.
Second... DEFENSE. Actually focusing on DEFENSE, as in limiting 100+ point scores from the other teams.
Thirdly... OBSESSION with 3pt shooting... NEEDS to cut down on those and actually make plays rather than hope his players nail 15 3s in a game.

If he cant satisfy ALL of those... then he has to go.... NEXT season. Suns need him currently to manage the tank.

[gaspar]

Why is everyone up in arms that Hornacek hasn't been fired yet? He played Booker/Warren/Archie/Len all over 30 minutes last night, Booker even played 43 minutes. I mean, he kinda had to with only 8 players suited up, but still we're losing games playing our young guns and hopefully land a top pick in the process. What more can you guys ask for?

Maybe we... I don't know... maybe we expect our coach to actually coach the team. Hornacek has no playbook whatsoever. Every offensive possession for the Suns is either a fast break or a pick-and-roll/drive-and-kick. 3rd year in a row the Suns are in the bottom 5 in the league in assist rate (we were #30 in 2014 and 2015). And there's no reason why a team with Bledsoe (before he got injured), Tucker, Chanlder and Len on the roster should be sooo bad on the defensive end.

And please don't blame everything on our lack of talent. Heck, last year the Bucks before Knight was traded to Phoenix were #2 in the league in defensive efficiency. IMO with a good coach the Suns can be successful with Knight playing 30+ minutes per game. Dude has skills but he needs a guidance from his coach to realize his talent. He's not getting it from Hornacek. Knight dribbling aimlessly for 20 seconds on every possession is not all his fault. Some of that is on Jeff.

Hornacek's "I don't care, I'm already fired" coaching isn't helping anyone right now.

[thamadkant]

I think we've all established Hornacek is;
- A nice guy
- Smart guy
- Has not had a stable roster
- Has a hot daughter.
- Somewhat would be a decent coach for the "right" team.


But to deny that he has been terrible as a SUNS coach this season and second half last season is simply defending him as a person rather than a coach.


As gaspar pointed out... No plays... one of the worst passing /assisting teams in the league which is peculiar for a team full of guards.

The fact that he stated DEFENSE was the Suns focus at the start of the season... only to switch that to "3pt BARRAGE type offense and NO defense" 15 games in is a HUGE indication of failure.

[Qwigglez]

Really? Take a look at Book's highlight reel for the last several games. A lot of his shots are designed plays. That's all the coach right there. Take out our supposed ballhandler in Knight and now we gotta run set plays. I remember Alex Len posting up LMA, and guess what, he actually got the ball and scored on em. How many times have you seen Len post someone up and Bledsoe or Knight waive him off or tell him to set a pick. Is that Hornacek telling them to waive Len off the post or is that just Bled/Knight not having the confidence to give the ball to the post? Its all on our guards, they have low basketball IQ's.
And if you're really talking about Knight needing guidance from his coach, he had J-friggin-Kidd as a coach. Dude's a PG legend. If he traded Knight that should tell you enough about how Kidd sees Knight as a PG.

[gaspar]

Knight is not a good PG, but he could be very useful player in today's NBA, like Monta Ellis (previously awful as a PG in Milwaukee and GSW) was in Dallas.

And Kidd is not really the most competent coach/GM I've seen. Dude thinks MCW is a good player.

[Blackification]

Hornacek would be a good coach if he had a real floor general to run his offense. Bledsoe and Knight go rogue and so did IT. Dragic was the best option we had at a point guard who can run a system effectively. (im not saying anything about him other than that, he wanted too much money) Whether Hornacek stays or goes we need a real PG, or else no coach will have real success here.

Hornacek has plays, but this current team doesn't buy into what he is saying firstly, and secondly we do not have the personnel to execute. Our best off ball player is a sophmore and our best play making guard is the youngest player in the nba. Chandler and Tucker might be our "leaders" on defense, but this team needs a chris paul, or steve nash type point guard to execute the plays. (not saying those players are easy to find these days with all the scoring guards out there)

[Frank Lee]

fire the carpenter when the blueprints are bad?

You still end up with bad house.

[thamadkant]

Got to convince Lebron and Cavs to take on Tucker, Morris and Knight.
Give them Leuer if needed.... but get Love from them.

Or maybe a 3 way...
Cavs pick + Love to Lakers
Lakers pick to Suns
Tucker, Morris, Knight to Cavs

Would make McD make up for trading the Lakers pick and Thomas for Knight.

[Frank Lee]

Knight is not a good PG, but he could be very useful player in today's NBA, like Monta Ellis (previously awful as a PG in Milwaukee and GSW) was in Dallas.

And Kidd is not really the most competent coach/GM I've seen. Dude thinks MCW is a good player.

Kidd's coaching talent may be questionable... but there is little doubt he opted for a pass first PG over a pretend one. He knew they were not going to get in a contest to overpay Knight. He gambled on MCW...but it was a sure bet Knight was not going to be the facilitator he wanted.

[Damkac]

Hornacek definitely needs to go. But I'm not sure if firing him now makes any sense. Don't think any good coach would want to join this team now whe it's tanking hard. Let's wait to the offseason and then get the best coach we can.

And can we stop talking about that mythical "pass-first pg"? There are just a few pass-first pg's and most of them are pass-first because they suck at shooting (Rondo, Rubio, Mashall etc.). Spurs, Warriors, Cavaliers all got score-first pg's. Clippers got Chris Paul but 1) There is only one Chris Paul in the league 2) He didn't lead them even to conference finals so far.

Boston has a winning record with IT as pg. This IT who everybody hated here last year. Brainless chucker who was blamed for Suns playing bad.


BTW I don't want Love. We would get stuck in mediocrity again. If we could get him for cheap we should do this but no chances that Cleveland would give him for Chandler, Tucker and Kieff.

[AtheJ415]

The bolded is baseless. Booker was great right out of the gates. He scored the 2nd most points ever by a teenager in a debut in game 1. Jeff then sat him for weeks. Warren has played consistently well with minutes for years. I could just as easily say that Jeff has finally given them minutes due to injury, thus they are finally showing the confidence and ability they had all along, or that they at least would have had if they had been given minutes. Seriously, you think the guy who benches them and only them for lack of hustle and holds them to higher standards than anyone else on the team is mostly concerned with giving them confidence? I'd say that shows the opposite.

Jeff's failed in so many ways as a head coach, and this season he is one of the few that has lost the team. You can continue to have faith in Jeff, but until he learns how to manage people, he will never be able to be an elite coach and will never get a title. Managing personalities and chemistry is hugely important and Jeff is the worst coach at that that I have ever seen. You can blame Brandon Knight for everything, but you shouldn't absolve the guy that is supposedly trying to teach him how to take smart shots and how to be disciplined when he plays him league leading minutes no matter what he does on the court. It's ridiculous to ignore his role in all of this. He's every bit as responsible as anyone for what we're seeing this year.

Great post as usual

How anyone can support Hornacek at this point is really beyond belief.

I guess that makes Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller wrong too.

Are they supposed to be authorities on anything? I mean, I love Chuck. Great guy. Great TV personality. But really, there's a reason he can't get the GM job he really wants. Reggie still thinks Bledsoe got a max and that the Spurs are underrated. That's how little he follows basketball.

[Frank Lee]

fire the carpenter when the blueprints are bad?

You still end up with bad house.

And what happens when the blueprints are good but the carpenter still sucks? Bad analogy for this situation. Jeff has been plenty awful all on his own.

oh I see.... This roster is not the problem..... at all.

Im indifferent about Hornecek.... but to ignore McDithers' role in this is an over site.

IMO, the only reason Hornecek is still coaching is, behind the doors, the blame is shared for this ****show of a season. We'll see come the next/annual roster gutting. Sure, we have a nice young core developing.... but the long term inkings are questionable and have shown more downside than up.

[Qwigglez]

This might sound silly, but if we didn't trade Marcus and instead traded PJ I think we'd be a fringe playoff team right now. Probably 9th place or something. Kieff would probably be getting 17/8. But... I like the team right now. At least the direction we are headed. I can't imagine fighting for an 8th seed again with a sucky roster just to get dismantled by the Warriors or Spurs in the first round.

[thamadkant]

Assuming Suns are going full Youth and rebuild.
If McD can offload Chandler, Knight and Bledsoe.... and get top picks or younger stud players. Then he deserves a medal... another one.

But again... Suns have 2 legit youngish players who are 20ppg types in Knight and Bledsoe... you have to consider that as advantages in terms of assets in comparison to other rebuilding teams like the Lakers and such.

If I was McD I would shop Knight around for a top 10 pick...
Then maybe Bledsoe for a top 6 pick, similar to what Jrue Holiday got.

Suns then rebuild clean.

[Djedefre]

^^^
Totally agree. It's safe to say that McD did the drafting job good, but other than that his moves in free agency and trades did so little if anything in truly upgrading the team. If Horny is to blame for 2PG system and high pace, 3pt shooting oriented offense, whose fault is overwhelming the roster with players who can't answer those demands? Without Book our back court is barely above 30% (career level) behind the line. Even with Mirza, Kieff and Jon it's around 33% And we want to shoot them threes and win games. Yeah, right. Of course, p'n'r & p'n'p do not exist since departing with Gogy. And those so frequent painful breakups are a particular story...

[Mulhollanddrive]

Be a dramatic turnaround if we traded our win now players for future picks.

Can't see the FO doing it.

[bigfoot]

Every morning I wake up hoping to see Kieff traded ... disappointed yet again.

[BobbieL]

Every morning I wake up hoping to see Kieff traded ... disappointed yet again.

I feel you. I have been waiting and waiting. First it was 12/15 and talk of Ryan Anderson. Than 1/15 for Brewer

My guess is SArver is not letting Ryan McD trade him for crappy value. But now that there is talk Cleveland may want him - what about this trade. Its been posted before but this might give Cleveland a better chance at the title than current roster. And they are so far in cap hell - why not.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine

Suns have to do something

[Mulhollanddrive]

Not much from Cleveland worth getting.

[BobbieL]

Not much from Cleveland worth getting.

Well, the Suns are 13-31 with Kieff, Chandler and KNight

Kieff will never be worth a damn in Phoenix

Chandler - well its the cost of business

I take my chances with Love being the guy he was in Minnesota