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Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 1:43 am**

What are your thoughts on Earl Watson? I love how he has unified the team, but I'm not a huge fan of rotations and who is playing how many minutes.

Please elaborate your thoughts with details if you have a lot of thoughts on the matter.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 2:29 am**

Too early to judge for me. His rotations are interesting sometimes, but I like the team atmosphere he's brought and the team seems to buy into him. I don't really like that Bender is getting DNPs, but I'm not at practice to know how he competes, and he hasn't played enough in games to have a real opinion on him as a player yet. I'm surprised he didn't play at all with TJ out too.

He's only a first year coach, I don't mind giving him time to get better just like I don't mind giving our players time to improve.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 2:36 am**

I really hate everything he's doing right now.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 2:54 am**

I think it's far too early to tell. I despise the lineups I've been seeing but for all we know there may be very valid reasons for them. But as a fan, even if there are solid reasons, it still just sucks to see Ulis and Bender wasting away on the sideline, while PJ is out there drawing nothing but air on shot after shot. I'd be a lot happier with Earl if he'd just stop with the "mindfulness" crap and tell us why he's giving Tucker minutes that the rest of the world wants to see used by the young guys.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 3:21 am**

He's got the players ears...

But he's a bad coach.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:37 am**

I think its too early to tell, but from all accounts this team seems to have good off-court chemistry. Lots of cheering and clapping on the bench whenw e make a good play. We had none of that last season. Players look like theyre having fun, which is great.

Rotations and lineupes are puzzling and frustrating to me and many other fans though

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:39 am**

Watson is better than Hornacek. That was not a compliment.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:47 am**

I don't like his rotations or how players are getting time based on their veteran status.
I'm willing to give him time to work out his issues. Its not like top coaches are kicking down the door to coach the suns. Even with a top coach we'd be getting a top pick next summer.

The players love him, maybe not Bender but bender is used to riding the bench. Dragan was a bench player for his team last year too.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 6:11 am**

It's been several years but I remember hearing a conversation about this with a former NBA coach. He said that many coaches think you should spend the early part of the season focused on teaching the young players before giving them much playing time. Apparently the learning process typically hits a dead end too when they reach that rookie wall so they try to get as much teaching in prior to taxing them physically.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 6:13 am**

GoranTragic wrote:Watson is better than Hornacek. That was not a compliment.

In what way? Granted he's only been a coach for about half a season but nothing he's done shows me he's better than Hornacek.

1st year Hornacek >>> Current Watson. Who knows how it will pan out over time though.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 7:38 am**

Every player respects him and wants to play under him so because of that I think he's doing a good job. We are losing and everyone is in good spirits. We will need to revisit this later this season or next.

You might feel like he's playing the vets too much but Booker, Warren, Chriss and Len are playing good minutes.

Ulis and Bender aren't getting any minutes, but coming into the season, none of us expected them to get much playing time.

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Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 7:49 am**

His rotations are suspect, so are the playing time/accountability things. I haven't seen evidence that he is brilliant in X's and O's.
Players have seemed to buy into this "family" thing, which I m not a big fan of at work.
(*disclaimer: I love my family, and I really like my co-workers - but let's not get into this fairytale everebody love everybody sht when u got a job to do - win games... we could start by playing some defense for example.)

It's a bit early to tell, but I'm leaning on the 3rd option.

Posted: **Sat Nov 19, 2016 1:42 pm**

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2016 9:08 am**

I voted for third option. Sure the veterans may love him, but what's there to expect considering how many minutes he's giving them. To start he's selective when preaching accountability. This isn't a method when it's only applied on 1 or 2 players. So far he failed to establish any kind of identity for this team.( bottom 10 in both DEF EFF and OFF EFF). His rotations and lineups are mostly laughable and he doesn't seem to make good in-game decisions. The offense he runs is very predictable and unimaginative, and I won't even comment on team's defense. I'll just say that any team is capable of dropping 110+ points when playing Suns. His only redeeming quality appears to be team's off-court chemistry, but I doubt it will continue if the losing continues and if he continues to overplay veterans.

He obviously has time to improve, but hiring an unexperienced rookie coach on a young and developing team was a mistake from the get go imo. Either way I think he was mostly hired as a transition coach and will likely get canned after the season, when really opportunities occur.

Posted: **Sun Dec 4, 2016 10:31 pm**

From Chris Haynes, ESPN

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr's willingness to speak out in favor of sports leagues permitting medicinal marijuana use to help cope with pain hasn't resonated with everyone.

Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson said he understands where Kerr is coming from but is concerned that Kerr's message about embracing marijuana might be taken the wrong way by youngsters.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he used marijuana for chronic back pain and that while it didn't help him, he hopes professional sports leagues soften their stances on its use.
"I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I'm from that's reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool," Watson told ESPN on Saturday after the Suns' 138-109 loss to the Warriors. "It's not cool. Where I'm from, you don't get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I'm just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric."

Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, Watson grew up surrounded by poverty, violent crimes, drug addicts and gangs. He has a long list of childhood friends who are either incarcerated or dead. From his experience over the years, he said he witnessed many close to him who smoked marijuana, which he believes served as a gateway to hard-core drugs.

Watson said he doesn't feel that the coaching profession is the appropriate line of work for publicly advocating the benefits of consuming marijuana as a pain reliever.

"I think it would have to come from a physician -- not a coach," Watson said. "And for me, I've lived in that other life [of crime and drugs]. I'm from that area, so I've seen a lot of guys go through that experience of using it and doing other things with that were both illegal. And a lot of those times, those guys never make it to the NBA, they never make it to college, and somehow it leads to something else, and they never make it past 18.

"So when we really talk about it and we open up that, I call it that slippery slope. We have to be very careful on the rhetoric and how we speak on it and how we express it and explain it to the youth."

Suns coach Earl Watson said he thinks physicians, not coaches, should be the ones to discuss the use and potential benefits of marijuana as a pain reliever. Jaime Valdez/USA TODAY Sports
Throughout the interview, Watson continually referenced the youth in explaining his stance on marijuana.

"I've never been a fan of the use, but I'm also not a medical doctor," Watson said. "So for the kids who are reading this and they might take the headlines and run with it, don't run anywhere with it. Understand that if you're from an environment or social area where a lot of luck and a lot of blessings is your only way out, you cannot risk that opportunity ever. Ever. It's just the way it is. It's not the same everywhere. I don't know as far as the pain [and how marijuana could help], but I think we have to be careful how we present that to the public."

Kerr acknowledged on a CSN Bay Area podcast that NFL players have it the worst when it comes to Vicodin and other forms of painkillers being distributed to them while they recover from injury. Kerr argued that marijuana would be a safer, healthier alternative.

Watson said he doesn't know whether that's true, but he did praise the NBA for consistently being ahead of the curve in these matters.

"The NBA has always been groundbreaking and trailblazing in the way they educate the player, the way they inform the players as far as seminars, sit-downs, visits from the NBA and the players' union," he said. "I don't think there's a better league, ever, for preparing guys for life after basketball and life beyond basketball. The NBA is just amazing in what they do, and I can't say that enough."

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18199075/earl-watson-phoenix-suns-responds-steve-kerr-stance-marijuana-usage-cope-pain

Posted: **Sun Dec 4, 2016 11:38 pm**

Why is Watson even commenting about marijuana and Steve Kerr... And why is he being asked about it... Why???

Posted: **Mon Dec 5, 2016 12:06 am**

1UPZ wrote:Why is Watson even commenting about marijuana and Steve Kerr... And why is he being asked about it... Why???

Maybe Watson should start smoking marijuana. That way he can become a better coach. It worked for Kerr right?

Posted: **Mon Dec 5, 2016 12:17 am**

Kerr isn't even saying he's smoking up every day for his back. He tried it, it wasn't for him but I feel he's done research and saw all the natural benefits of the drug. And his point about marijuana being more beneficial than the legal commercial alternatives with little to none of the side-effects like addiction and overdose, is 100% correct.

Watson, on the other hand, while I do feel bad that he grew up around the violence and drugs, I feel what he spoke about was purely annecdotal and I don't know he's done the research. I feel every time someone speaks on the topic without having all the facts, it's a step back for marijuana legalisation. I very rarely smoke (twice a year?) so for me, even if it was legalised in Australia (not likely), I probably wouldn't smoke any more. But from the research I've done and from what medical researchers have said, the benefits are real and it's very clearly a much healthier natural alternatives to the legal prescribed pharmaceuticals.

Posted: **Mon Dec 5, 2016 12:49 am**

Just wanted to follow up on my original assessment. Watson is getting worse as the season progresses.

Posted: **Mon Dec 5, 2016 12:55 am**

GoranTragic wrote:Just wanted to follow up on my original assessment. Watson is getting worse as the season progresses.

I've been looking for this thread because I didn't want to start a new thread but I echo your assessment.

Watson has proven nothing to me. To all those who thinks he's some breath of fresh air or that he's somehow better than Hornacek, sorry but he's brought nothing new to the table. The "family" culture is nice but other coaches have done similar things but didn't need to invoke the term family every time someone interviews him. As a coach, he's been subpar. His rotations are questionable, his in game adjustments are nothing innovative and I don't know how good he is as a motivator because I don't see much change in our players.

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