RealGM

With the Suns' season over after 82 games, the question being asked is just what went wrong for a team that had made the playoffs the previous four seasons.

Between a mid-season coaching change, injuries, close losses and a lack of defense, there would appear to be plenty of candidates for why the team won 46 games, its lowest total since the 2003-04 season.

"I think it is a number of things," Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver told Sports 620 KTAR's Jon Bloom Saturday on what went wrong. "The head coaching change didn't go over well with the players, and that was not a successful move - I think that cost us some games.

"I think our team, although in spite of that, probably could have performed better in certain games and could have performed better in certain games and we could have had better leadership that would have led us to some victories against some teams that did not have such a good year."

Sarver said that the team may have been a bit optimistic about changing the team's style of play early in the season, but acknowledged that the team does need to improve defensively.

"It's really become kind of a culture and a system built on trust of everybody, and we just don't quite have that yet," he said.

Whether that means big changes are on the horizon or not, Sarver said that blowing up the team may not be necessary.

"If I go down and look at the players we have coming back, I think by and large we have a very good team," he said. "But what's different about this business is in order to make a change you need another team that wants to make the change you want to make, so you just don't know what opportunities are out there."

But, Sarver cautioned, the team does need to find a way to improve going forward.

"We won one playoff game last year and we're going to win zero this year, so I'm open minded to seeing what opportunities exist to help us become a better team."

Robert Sarver is not hard to find during Suns games.

He’s the uber fan sitting in the front row, shouting his approval when things go right, screaming at officials when they don’t.

But the Suns owner has been in the background since the season ended. General manager Steve Kerr has done most of the talking for the franchise, both in terms of what went wrong this past year and what lies ahead.

On Tuesday, however, Sarver opened up. In a wide-ranging interview with the Tribune, he touched on everything from the future of coach Alvin Gentry to his disappointment in the team’s veterans and his unwillingness to sit through a rebuilding process.

Let’s start with Gentry, because taking the interim tag off his title was supposed to be the first order of business for the Suns. The day before the season ended, Kerr said he expected a fairly quick resolution in talks with Gentry.

Yet two weeks have passed and Gentry still doesn’t have a contract extension.

Sarver said there’s nothing to read into the delay. He learned his lesson with former coach Mike D’Antoni that it’s better to let some time pass after the season rather than talk when emotions might get the better of reason.

“It’s always good to step back for a couple of weeks and approach things with a fresh view,” Sarver said.

Does he still expect Gentry to be the coach moving forward?

“I’m hopeful he will be,” Sarver responded. “But there are no guarantees.”

Interesting.

I still expect Gentry to be the coach, but the longer this goes on without a press conference, the more I wonder if there’s something else going on behind the scenes.

Sarver was more direct in his criticism of the Suns’ veterans, saying their unwillingness to accept coach Terry Porter’s philosophy helped to undermine the season. He didn’t name names, but he didn’t have to. Steve Nash and Amaré Stoudemire know who he’s talking about.

“Our players could have been more supportive of the coach despite the fact they didn’t like playing for him,” Sarver said. “That could have potentially led us to win a few more games and get into the playoffs. The leadership didn’t come through as much as I would have liked it to.”

In terms of going forward, Sarver made it clear he’s willing to pay the luxury tax next year if it’s the only way the Suns can put a playoff team on the floor. Assuming Phoenix picks up the options on Nash and Louis Amundson, it will have approximately $76.1 million committed to 10 players. That doesn’t include Grant Hill, Matt Barnes and the club’s first-round pick in the NBA draft. The luxury tax is expected to kick in at about $67.5 million.

“We’re not going to do something to save us a bunch of money if it causes us problems on the court going forward,” Sarver said. “At this stage I’m prepared to play with what I have. I’d rather pay the luxury tax than make a bad decision. We’ve paid the tax the last two years, so I’m used to it.”

That doesn’t mean the Suns have decided to stand pat with their current roster. Sarver and Kerr will explore the possibility of moving one of their high-salaried players, more than likely either Stoudemire or Shaquille O’Neal.

But Sarver can’t stand the notion of starting over from scratch, even though he agrees with Kerr’s assertion that the Suns aren’t a championship team.