I Still Have Faith In This Team : Perspective

[asubennett]

CURRENT STANDINGS:

- We are in the 7th seed in the Western Conference
- We are only 4.5 games behind the 2nd seed in the Western Conference
- We are only 3 games back from having a home first round playoff series

CURRENT ROSTER:

C- Dominant All Star
PF - Dominant All Star
SF - Crafty Vetaran
SG - Explosive Potential All Star
PG - Crafty Veteran / Futurer HOF'er

Back Up C -Rook who needs to grow
Back Up PF- High energy - needs less PT though -
Back Up SF - Could start on many teams
Back Up SG - Explosive Scorer
Back Up PG - STILL A HUGE PROBLEM

HEAD COACH:

Despite the hatred for this man. I believe he is a very good coach. I believe a massive culture change takes time. More than one season kind of time to be 100% accepted.

END GAME:

This team is going to gel tight right at the end of the season. We will be a force come playoff time. I dont think teams want to draw us in the first round that is for sure.

Remember the Cardinals were left for dead at 9-7 to start the playoffs.
Maybe we can be the Houston Rockets of 94 and win it all with our old veteran team playing solid ball right at the end of the season into the playoffs.

I dont want anyone to touch the tema. Leave it as it is. Find a PG somewhere for the love of god. If we have to sacrifice Barbosa for a PG then do it.

[Gorilla Warfare]

CURRENT STANDINGS:

- We are in the 7th seed in the Western Conference
- We are only 4.5 games behind the 2nd seed in the Western Conference
- We are only 3 games back from having a home first round playoff series

CURRENT ROSTER:

C- Dominant All Star
PF - Dominant All Star
SF - Crafty Vetaran
SG - Explosive Potential All Star
PG - Crafty Veteran / Futurer HOF'er

Back Up C -Rook who needs to grow
Back Up PF- High energy - needs less PT though -
Back Up SF - Could start on many teams
Back Up SG - Explosive Scorer
Back Up PG - STILL A HUGE PROBLEM

HEAD COACH:

Despite the hatred for this man. I believe he is a very good coach. I believe a massive culture change takes time. More than one season kind of time to be 100% accepted.

END GAME:

This team is going to gel tight right at the end of the season. We will be a force come playoff time. I dont think teams want to draw us in the first round that is for sure.

Remember the Cardinals were left for dead at 9-7 to start the playoffs.
Maybe we can be the Houston Rockets of 94 and win it all with our old veteran team playing solid ball right at the end of the season into the playoffs.

I dont want anyone to touch the tema. Leave it as it is. Find a PG somewhere for the love of god. If we have to sacrifice Barbosa for a PG then do it.

This is a good post, but I only have one thought on this. As of right now I dont see us even making the playoffs. I only see us better then about 5 teams in the west.

[NashtyNas]

We are mediocre with that team. Yeah, we have all those pieces, but they aren't being used properly, which is why everyone is so upset, and which is why this "very good" coach is being hated on. Yeah, hes good and I have nothing against him, but, it's just not the right match. Porter needs to go.

[Miklo]

I think this is a good point. Reading through this board, you would think we had a .300 record. Roster-wise, I'd say we are easily top 5 in the entire NBA.

Do I agree that we should make no changes this year? Eh, dunno about that. We need to give the team a bit more time, but with the trade deadline coming up soon we need to make a decision about any necessary trade, or whether we will ride it out with the team and let Porter go if need be. The reason I say this is that I do feel that the explosiveness of our roster is on the decline and we have a narrow window.

I do think that most likely the right move roster-wise is no trades for the remainder of the season. As OPer said, if we can get everyone on board this is a crazy team, easy shot at a title. And if not, then it might be a matter of what coach you put in there who the players can jump on board with in time to get gelling for minimum a few weeks before the playoffs.

[asubennett]

I believe a coaching change this season and you can kiss all hopes of a long post season run goodbye. You might get short term relief and effort, but long term you are teaching the players when the going gets tough, just bitch a little more and it will change.

We want to break this team down. Show them that no defense = embarasment. No effort = reduced perception of individual value from around the league. Show them that these losses are your fault and not the coaches. Porter has not been welcomed from day one by this team because Dantoni was so loose with everything. Now they have a guy that holds them accountable when they were not held accountable for dick the past 4 years.

These things take time but I believe eventually the players will relax a bit and buy into what coach Porter is selling. You watch, come April this team will be rolling and primed to make a run. This is a marathon not a spring, and being 4.5 games out of the 2 seed is not to shabby all things considered.

[mkot]

Porter is not a "very good" coach. A very good coach makes appropriate substitution during quarters. A very good coach plays to his players strengths. A very good coach has a game plan every night. A very good coach calls timeout when needed. A very good coach has his players' trust. Porter is an average coach who has no feel for the game and his players. I'd love to believe that we could be the Miami Heat a few years back where we suck in the regular season and turn it on during playoffs. But we don't have Pat Riley. Porter's going to get out-coached by Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Byron Scott, Rick Adelman, etc etc,. because he's slow at thinking. He's just dumb. The post season is about making adjustments, I don't think he's up to that challenge.

[asubennett]

Porter is not a "very good" coach. A very good coach makes appropriate substitution during quarters. A very good coach plays to his players strengths. A very good coach has a game plan every night. A very good coach calls timeout when needed. A very good coach has his players' trust. Porter is an average coach who has no feel for the game and his players. I'd love to believe that we could be the Miami Heat a few years back where we suck in the regular season and turn it on during playoffs. But we don't have Pat Riley. Porter's going to get out-coached by Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Byron Scott, Rick Adelman, etc etc,. because he's slow at thinking. He's just dumb. The post season is about making adjustments, I don't think he's up to that challenge.

Porter is not dumb. He understand the nuiances of a game extremely well. Can you fault him for not gaining the players buy in? Perhaps. Can you fault him for not getting the team to show defensive improvement? Perhaps.

Bottom line is our team was operating in a country club atmosphere where everything was fun. Candy Canes and Rose Petals. Then come playoff time a bully like the Spurs would come along and bite the top of our candy cane off or pick the proverbial rose petals off our body and let them blow away in the wind.

We were a soft ass pansy team. Porter, I think, has been treading water very carefully to not bruise egos and destroy relationships too much all while attempting to tell the team to grow a sack already. Defense is strictly about effort on the floor. Anyone who has played basketball knows this. If you try hard at defense you will play good defense. And if you try hard on offense to take care of the ball, you will take good care of the ball.

Effort and purpose is the single biggest problem with our team. I dont blame Porter I blame the players. Go ahead and replace Porter. Replace him with Red fing Auerbach and until the players start trying it will be the same result.

[mkot]

I believe a coaching change this season and you can kiss all hopes of a long post season run goodbye.

Keep the coach and get eliminated in the 1st round and what would it leaves us next season? Hill will be gone most likely. Will Shaq be motivated and come into training camp in shape? Will Amare demand a trade? Will Barnes resign with us? We may not make the playoffs, but we need to give this veterans hope that they can come back and make some real noise next season. With Porter, they already knew what they have to work with - a dumb coach that would not bring them far (read: hopeless). But if we bring in Flip and finally play to our potential where guys believe they can go further next season with a full training camp and pre-season, that would make a big difference. It's not all about this season, it's more about what we have left next season.

[mkot]

Porter is not dumb. He understand the nuiances of a game extremely well. Can you fault him for not gaining the players buy in? Perhaps. Can you fault him for not getting the team to show defensive improvement? Perhaps.

Can you explain why he play the starters the entire quarter? No coach in the NBA has done this - playing starters for 15 straight minutes. His thinking is really elementary - let's play Stevie and Shaq the entire 3rd quarter and build the lead up. But guys end up sucking gas at the end of the quarter so Porter had to start them 4th quarter and by the time Nash or Shaq sit, we're already down. LB can play good for the first 6 minutes, and then he won't see the court until the middle of the 4th. There's game where Amundson is a better matchup at the 4/5 than Shaq is but he still rather play Shaq 38 minutes in a losing effort. Dudley has game but he never had seen the floor unless it's garbage time. MikeD was getting all the heat for his short rotation but at least he knows how to spread the minutes around. Why is Kerr giving Porter a pass on this?

Porter's style is no style, really. He thinks he has a style. He wants to play slow but half the season gone we still look like a team that spent no time going over offense in training camp. There's no offense installed except dumping the ball to Shaq and see what happens. That's like Frank Johnson giving the ball to Marbury and see what happens. It almost looks like he has no play in his book so might as well give it to Shaq and let him go to work. Totally ignore the offensive talents of Amare, Nash and LB, and now JRich. He's not calling out any play. No other coach in the league does that. And the best part is, it doesnt even seem to be working! I also have to wonder what are the assistants doing sitting on that bench? Thunder Dan is suppose to provide Xs and Os and toughness but looks like he's still drinking too much beer.

[rsavaj]

Right on mkot

[impulsenine]

I have a certain amount of perspective: that of a 2-decade Suns fan. Believe me, I don't find that reassuring at all.

But if the boys need to have their asses handed to them by Charlotte in order to win the games the Aussies and I see ... that's a good thing.

The championship, though, is not within reach. The second round might be (maybe), but really, at this point I just hope that San Antonio or L.A. don't get the satisfaction of eliminating the Suns (again) in the playoffs this year.

[Classick]

Honestly, the Suns have some of the best talent in their starting line up in the entire league. The only problem with it is the black hole known as Amare. He needs to get shipped out already. Along with that, the Suns needs a back up PG, and possibly some people who can grab rebounds and net allow uncontested put backs. All of which can be achieved through a trade. Amare has high market value. He's an NBA All Star, a ROTY, and one of the most explosive scorers in the league. He's obviously not happy in Phoenix anymore, so why not trade for him and fix some of the Suns other problems? The Suns need a great rebounder like Troy Murphy (who leads forwards in rebounds). I can guarantee you that Indiana will take Amare in seconds, without thinking twice. Murphy, along with maybe TJ Ford to back up Nash and hopefully cut his minutes down to below 30. Or maybe even Rush along with Murphy. The salaries for Murphy/Ford for Amare work out just fine. That's just one very likely possibility.

[TheMoochinator]

Im not going to lie and say I think Porters a great coach but I definitely think he is a good one. The only beef I have with him is his irratic substitution patterns sometimes.

But honestly the fault of this team is NOT Porters. It's the Teams. They flat out are not respecting their coach who unlike them, aside from shaq, has actually been to the finals. They have never given their consent or respect let alone their effort to him which is just pitiful, after the beginning of the season Porter saw his offense wasnt working and gave the players more leeway and freedom on that end which is the mark of an excellent coach to admit a mistake and try to tweak it, all he asks is for effort on D and he rarely gets it and that is just sad to see them not repay Porter for his compromise.

This team is too stuck daydreaming about how easy of a coach Mike D was, coaches like him who have the players who love them are one in a million and thats a stretch considering the role players 8-12 had major beef with him as they were rarely given a chance.

This team still has a chance to do big things in the playoffs but they need to cut the crap and play some consistent ball and quit worrying so much about everyones egos. If they can MIRACULOUSY figure that out we might have one of the better teams we ever had in this era of Suns.

[lilfishi22]

The blame is on both parties. The blame is on the players for not giving 100% to a 1st year coach which is totally understandable. The blame is on the players for not wanting to change their styles for the greater good. However, the blame is on the coach for not communicating with the players effectively. The blame is on the coach for not being able to make the right coaching decisions.

However, in the end, i still have to point the finger squarely at Porter, mainly because of his inability to motivate his players, which is caused by the failure of his system, which in turn causes his players to not believe in their coach.

Amare will NEVER be anywhere close to a candidate for ALL-NBA defensive 8th team, but heck, Porter, with his "system" pretty much took the only thing that Amare had going for him, which was his offense. Likewise Nash never was and never will be a decent defender, and forcing him to guard the Parker's, Paul's and William's one on one is just asking to be burnt.

Now I won't say D'Antoni was the whole package because he evidently was not, but at least he got one thing right and that was our offense. Everyone saw towards the end of the last season Amare was putting up MVP type numbers and was even in the top-10 in some MVP candidate lists, Shaq was quietly putting up a double double while letting Amare abuse the opponents bigs. There was a good balance of Shaq and Amare on offense. Now it's like the focus is more on Shaq than on Amare, which it shouldn't be. Kerr is trying to turn us into the Spurs, which is all fine and good if we had the players to do so, but the fact is we don't. So in the end Porter came in with a vision to make our defense better while keeping our offense solid, what resulted was a broken offensive system and a non-existent defense.

Oh yeah, to the Moochinator, just because Porter has been the finals does not mean he instantly qualifies respect from our players. Respect has to be earned, it's never given. Having a coach who's been to the finals is great when he's coaching a young team in need of a leader, but when we're talking about a veteran team with players who've won MULTIPLE championships, have 3 potential HOF'ers and multiple all-stars, a finals appearance does not mean he gets instant respect.

Yeah no doubt Porter has a hard job trying to teach discipline to a bunch of millionaires who's been living the easy life for the duration of the SSOL era and I don't doubt he'll have a few issues because of that. But it is what it is, you could either trade away all your prima-donnas and get back some solid disciplined players or you could expand on what is working and hope the players buy into it. But no, what Porter did was naively come in with his own Detroit style slow ball in mind and took away one of our most lethal offensive weapons, the Amare/Nash PnR. Quite simply, Porter/Kerr screwed up by trying to force a style to a team that is simply not built for it.

[JohnVancouver]

Thunder Dan is suppose to provide Xs and Os and toughness but looks like he's still drinking too much beer.

--- Given the situation, I think drinking is appropriate. As well, the kline between too much and just enough is a fine one though I would say that I doubt you can get it done on beer. Tequila straight from the bottle would be a better idea.
Or maybe absinthe.

[JohnVancouver]

[quote="lilfishi22"]
Oh yeah, to the Moochinator, just because Porter has been the finals does not mean he instantly qualifies respect from our players. Respect has to be earned, it's never given.


--- Screw it - let's just get Bill Russell.

[TheMoochinator]

Oh yeah, to the Moochinator, just because Porter has been the finals does not mean he instantly qualifies respect from our players. Respect has to be earned, it's never given. Having a coach who's been to the finals is great when he's coaching a young team in need of a leader, but when we're talking about a veteran team with players who've won MULTIPLE championships, have 3 potential HOF'ers and multiple all-stars, a finals appearance does not mean he gets instant respect.

I agree with what you're saying, and you're right I mean Brian Scalabrine has been to three finals but it doesnt make him knowledgeble.

I was just trying to stress that while yes Porter is new and in his first year he DOES have some experience and has a winning mentality.

[mkot]

I was just trying to stress that while yes Porter is new and in his first year he DOES have some experience and has a winning mentality.

I haven''t seen it. He hasn't shown it. He pull starters out when we were down only 12 points with 4 minutes left to play. He didn''t look piss or angry when his team got blown out. He actually looked nervous than anything else. Nash and Shaq looked disgusted at the Boston game and was particularly pissed at that Charlotte game, but Porter just gave us that confused and nervous look of his...did he ever man up and admit he made a mistake by not calling timeout after Hill secured that rebound against Magic (was it against the Magic? I forgot.). Every loss it's the same "guys just not playing with energy" BS. Did he ever show some energy or be a little animated on the sideline?

Isiah Thomas has been to the Finals before and won too. Playing experience has nothing to do with coaching, being a great player doesn't automatically make you a good coach. You need more than that (i.e. a brain).

[TheMoochinator]

I haven''t seen it. He hasn't shown it. He pull starters out when we were down only 12 points with 4 minutes left to play. He didn''t look piss or angry when his team got blown out. He actually looked nervous than anything else. Nash and Shaq looked disgusted at the Boston game and was particularly pissed at that Charlotte game, but Porter just gave us that confused and nervous look of his...did he ever man up and admit he made a mistake by not calling timeout after Hill secured that rebound against Magic (was it against the Magic? I forgot.). Every loss it's the same "guys just not playing with energy" BS. Did he ever show some energy or be a little animated on the sideline?

Isiah Thomas has been to the Finals before and won too. Playing experience has nothing to do with coaching, being a great player doesn't automatically make you a good coach. You need more than that (i.e. a brain).

I never said it translated him into being an excellent coach. I just said he has experience in being with winning teams and that he understands what it takes as a player to be a winner. I agree with you that it doesnt translate to being a coach automatically but I disagree with your assessment that he is a poor coach I think he is very capable of being a competent coach in the league.

And as for the no timeout call it was against the Indiana Pacers and it wasn't Porters fault. I remember screaming at my TV for them to call timeout and read the next day from Paul Coro's blog the Porter was screaming for a timeout but Jason Richardson didnt hear him in the heat of the moment.

[mkot]

And as for the no timeout call it was against the Indiana Pacers and it wasn't Porters fault. I remember screaming at my TV for them to call timeout and read the next day from Paul Coro's blog the Porter was screaming for a timeout but Jason Richardson didnt hear him in the heat of the moment.

Sorry, I got the Wolves game and Pacers game wrong and it has nothing to do with the Magic game, we won that game actually. The loss against the Pacers wasn't so much on not calling timeout, the Wolves game was. But now since we brought that Pacers game up, let's also look back and talk a little bit about how this game ended:

(This is from Coro's blog)

Porter's postgame explanation talked about how Barbosa and Richardson both went with Graham and that they talked about "switching everything" in the huddle. In this case, Barbosa never was screened so he continued to give chase and left the area. Richardson picked up what looked to be a free man but was really just a decoy because he curled to an area that would have made for a difficult pass.
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Nash said there was confusion before the inbound because the huddle plan was to switch on everything. Nash said, "Guys started talking about switching and it confused everyone." Porter said, "We just didn't do a good job communicating int that situation."

"I thought once we got that lead and LB hit that shot (the Suns' first lead at 110-108 with 45.4 seconds to go), we were good," Porter said. "But you've got to keep playing. It's disappointing to lose that game but we have to move on."

He couldn't even coach the last defensive possession, and he's suppose to improve us this season? And this is another evidence of him being a bad coach - he's confused. That's beyond inexcusable for there to be "confusion" after a timeout. Either he has no idea what guys should do after TO or he didn't get his idea across. Coaches simply HAVE to be decent communicators. Porter is not. He might be a good coach with some ideas how to play the game in mind but if he can't sell it to the players, he's a bad coach....He just isn't a good communicator and that will continue to undermine whatever abilities he might have.

The Wolves game was the one I talked about him not calling a TO after we got that offensive rebound. And here's the quote by Nash:

"It was crowded out there," said Suns guard Steve Nash. "Coach had said look and see if you've got something, if not call timeout. So we did that and it didn't really work to our advantage this time but it might have. In hindsight it's easy to second guess."

Less than 5 seconds left and he wanted guys to dribble the ball up court, kill a few more seconds off the clock, "see how it looks", and then make a decision? Really? You can't "see how if there's something" with less than 5 seconds left. 15 seconds? Yes. With this little time left in the game, you either "go make a quick play" with no time remaining or "call a TO" to run a play. Porter SHOULD call a timeout if he wanted one. He didn't call it becuase he has no sense in game management. With MikeD we know he either will have Nash go run for a pull up three, or call a TO and execute a play to give his team a chance. With Porter, you just don't know what's coming. Players are confused because the coach doesn't even know what to do in those situations.