Good Analysis of the demise of the Suns
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:51 pm
http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=1922
interesting excerpt - "No, it was actually the defense that led to Phoenix’s downfall in 2009, as the Suns fell to 26th after hovering around the league average throughout Mike D’Antoni’s tenure as coach. What’s especially ironic is that the mainstream media’s biggest criticism of the D’Antoni Suns was a perceived lack of defense on their part (an illusion of the Suns’ breakneck pace and proof of the fallacy of looking at points allowed per game to assess defensive ability), and that Porter was largely hired by Kerr to “fix” Phoenix defensively. Instead, the Suns declined in literally every defensive metric, save for a slight increase in the % of opponent possessions on which they recorded a steal (and they still ranked just 23rd in that category).
Porter was fired, though it wasn’t exactly his fault that Kerr expected a defensive improvement from a team with no real defenders (shockingly, trading Shawn Marion and Raja Bell in the same calendar year will hurt your D! Who knew?).
interesting excerpt - "No, it was actually the defense that led to Phoenix’s downfall in 2009, as the Suns fell to 26th after hovering around the league average throughout Mike D’Antoni’s tenure as coach. What’s especially ironic is that the mainstream media’s biggest criticism of the D’Antoni Suns was a perceived lack of defense on their part (an illusion of the Suns’ breakneck pace and proof of the fallacy of looking at points allowed per game to assess defensive ability), and that Porter was largely hired by Kerr to “fix” Phoenix defensively. Instead, the Suns declined in literally every defensive metric, save for a slight increase in the % of opponent possessions on which they recorded a steal (and they still ranked just 23rd in that category).
Porter was fired, though it wasn’t exactly his fault that Kerr expected a defensive improvement from a team with no real defenders (shockingly, trading Shawn Marion and Raja Bell in the same calendar year will hurt your D! Who knew?).
