Fans Expectations from Terry Porter and the Coaching Staff

nba_addict · Post #1 » by **nba_addict** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 4:55 am

I have been thinking of starting a thread like these for a long time and prolly have its merits.

Mine are as follows:
1. Improved team defense. Lots of defensive stops. If its not hard to ask, Suns become the the best defensive team in the West.

2. Enough playing time for our rookies to develop particulary Robin Lopez, Goran Drajic, Alado Tucker (at least let him feel he is still a rookie) and Sean Singletary.
3. Cut-off some playing time for Nash, Bell, Shaq and Hill to preserve them in the playoff. Nash, Bell and Hill for about 28-30 minutes per game. Shaq with 24-26 minutes.
4. Amare finally gets feared with his defense. Averaging 15 rebounds and 5 blocks per game. :oops:

5. Diaw at least plays 80 cents for each dollar of worth of his contract. Finally wins another MIP award after underachieving for the last two years.
6. Barbosa to become tougher than Raja Bell. He will eat Manu Ginobilli alive every single seconds they match again.
7. Shaq gets his share of playing time wherein he is the primary scoring option.

Post #2 » by **TASTIC** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:14 am

I expect at the very least, Nash + Bell + Hill playing closer to 30mins than 36mins as you also said. We have youth, overlapping players who cover multiple spots, and NO reason as to why he needs to push these guys in the regular season.

I expect Shaq to be more involved in the offense, and us to utilise his passing from the post with a lineup such as Shaq-Amare-Barnes-Bell-Nash, surround him with shooters.

I want Amare concentrating on D, not picking up stupid brainfart fouls in the first 3 mins of each quarter like he always does.

I think Bell and Nash will slow down considerably this season

Cartwright will have a positive influence on Amare, keeping his ego from blowing up like it could with Shaq's voice in his ear

Barbosa HAS to develop some sort of defensive skill - whether it be drawing charges or hounding his man up court. A guy as quick as him should not be as porous on D as he is

MaryvalesFinest · Post #3 » by **MaryvalesFinest** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:14 am

Shaq-Nash-Hill still can put up solid play for a few more seasons or at least this year anyway, the only thing that would set the Suns back would be injuries. If Shaq or Nash gets injured and Lopez or Dragic has to start at center or point for 20 or so games that would most likely be the worse case scenario. If everyone remains healthy though I think Porter can get them between 45-55 wins this season.

Post #4 » by **TASTIC** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:17 am

I think if Nash or Bell gets hurt, Barbosa starts.

Any of the other 3, Diaw does.

More importantly, does Barnes start ahead of Hill?

I for one hope so

InstantClassic · Post #5 » by **InstantClassic** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:18 am

Obviously a championship. You don't trade Marion unless you're gonna deliver. NOW.

PHXTERROR1987 · Post #6 » by **PHXTERROR1987** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:36 am

At first I wanted us to go for Avery Johnson, But i didnt mind picking up Porter. I think he will develop our team, and create amazing chemistry this season.

Post #7 » by **rsavaj** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 6:17 am

I think that Porter has an unwarranted defensive reputation simply from his Detroit days; if we don't win a chip, than the Kerr Era was a failure.

PHXTERROR1987 · Post #8 » by **PHXTERROR1987** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 6:45 am

kerr is a peace of poop. lol

arizonatribe · Post #9 » by **arizonatribe** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 6:56 am

I think our Mayor put it well when he asked Porter if the Suns will win a championship. There are higher expectations for a coach (Porter) who takes over a winning franchise that can't get over the hump than for a coach who takes over a franchise who can't win (Mike D'Antoni). When Mike D took over the Suns and now that he's taken over the Knicks, the bar is lower; anything is better than bottomfeeding and even the most delusional of fans doesn't seriously expect a championship from him in those situations. The scenario for Terry Porter is different because of what he's walking into requires obvious progress over where we've been.

These guys are just going to have to play the hand they were dealt. The Lakers walked into the season last year probably looking at a seemingly insurmountable task considering how poor they looked finishing the year before, but they were still successful. Even Kobe didn't feel they had the personnel at the beginning of the season to win it all, then they beat Phoenix in their second game and their outlook changed. What the Suns are up against is by no means impossible, and I expect big things from this team and coaches this year.

nba_addict · Post #10 » by **nba_addict** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 8:15 am

InstantClassic wrote:Obviously a championship. You don't trade Marion unless you're gonna deliver. NOW.

+1

PHXTERROR1987 · Post #11 » by **PHXTERROR1987** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 9:10 am

Revised,, you dont trade the Matrix, unless you are a piece of crap.. cough cough KERR.

TXSun · Post #12 » by **TXSun** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 2:49 pm

1 word...CHAMPIONSHIP !! anything less is a failure.

pidi · Post #13 » by **pidi** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 7:16 pm

TXSun wrote:1 word...CHAMPIONSHIP !! anything less is a failure.

+1 - but how many coaches won a ring in theyre first year with a new team???

Post #14 » by **Miklo** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 7:18 pm

That's the problem, this organization has set it up so that the natural expectation of the coaching staff and management is a championship. If we hadn't had so many false promises and hopes, or window-narrowing maneuvers, we would not have the "ring or bust" mentality, but unfortunately the Suns have put many fans on the line in the sense that if they don't bring home a ring this season, nearly everyone will be extremely disenchanted with the club to the extent that we may even see a flock of fans hopping off the bandwagon, etc.

With that said, my expectations of the staff are...yeah, I'm not gonna lie, a championship.

PHXTERROR1987 · Post #15 » by **PHXTERROR1987** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 7:23 pm

listen, your putting a high expectation out there on the management team. We all kno they tried to pull another nash on the team. Tryed to take a risk, and for some of the part it paid off. But in other aspects we went cheap. I believe in our team we have this year. I wouldnt be surprised if porter did win a championship with us in the first year. But i tell you it is going to be a tough one.

Sun Scorched · Post #16 » by **Sun Scorched** » Thu Sep 4, 2008 11:29 pm

PHXTERROR1987 wrote:Revised,, you dont trade the Matrix, unless you are a piece of crap.. cough cough KERR.

Read any one of the billions of threads we have had on the Marion - O'Neal trade. We either traded him or he was going to walk. Get over it.

Every team goes into every season hoping to win the championship. Obviously, I hope we win this year for Nash and Hill's sake. It would be nice for Hill to retire with a ring.

PHXTERROR1987 · Post #17 » by **PHXTERROR1987** » Fri Sep 5, 2008 12:22 am

Trust me I will never get over it. I know marion would of walked, But are you kidding me, we could of gotten so much better then the old O'neal. Marion has been loyal to our team, which means you should show some support to him as well. Which obviously you could careless about him. I know we had to make the move first, but come on now. MATRIX OWNS O'NEAL across the board, at this point. So STFU.

PHXTERROR1987 · Post #18 » by **PHXTERROR1987** » Fri Sep 5, 2008 12:23 am

This trade kind of reminds me of the gay ass Majerle for Hot Rod williams. What a piece of crap.

daveang · Post #19 » by **daveang** » Fri Sep 5, 2008 1:52 am

I think we'll see those minutes lessened for some of the starters (Nash, Bell, Hill), but not to a large degree. I'm interested to see how many minutes Lopez gets backing up Shaq, and if Shaq misses time, just what happens then.....

arizonatribe · Post #20 » by **arizonatribe** » Fri Sep 5, 2008 5:01 am

PHXTERROR1987,
I'm not sure there are really players who would have been better than O'Neal. Shaq averaged 13pts 11rebs and 61 percent field goal shooting during two months with us. He allowed more rebounding and opened up the floor for Amare and Raja to be more effective. We really didn't have the depth or rotation though to make the lineup effective enough.

How many other Centers are there out there we could have traded for who are better than Shaq that would not have required offering more than just Marion? Not a lot of Centers were making close to Marion's salary, so to get one here would require gutting another team of multiple players, and considering how underrated Marion was outside Phoenix, too few teams were willing to do that.

Some trades would have worked in the books (Timberwolves for Kevin Garnett), but it's an understatement to say there would be bad chemistry between Amare and KG (besides, he's a PF and Minnesota wouldn't part with KG for anything less than Amare).

I've heard someone mention Jamison, but that would have required us to offer him a multi-year contract a couple months ago, and risk not having the cap space for Nash and a potential superstar in 2010. Shaq always has an economic impact when he moves too, and just in jersey sales alone Shaq is making it a lot easier for us to pay the luxury tax. Marion was done the moment he decided he was worth 20 million for a multiyear deal that would have made it extremely difficult to re-sign our other guys or even build around him.

Sorry to belabor the off-topic; My biggest expectation for Porter though, is to see this team significantly higher on the scale for defensive teams in the NBA.