Who's to blame for the Suns recent struggles?

[MaryvalesFinest]

The Suns record is 11-9 and if the Spurs win tonight against the Nuggets (which looks likely) that will push the Suns out of the playoffs brackets into 9th place.

So just wondering who do you blame for the Suns struggles? Is it the coach/coaching staff? A certain player? All the players? etc, tell us here...

[The Diesel]

Terry Porter. He's terrible.

I can't believe we hired him.

[pidi]

ok, i was maybe the only one supports t. porter. i give up.
were playing like a piece if crap and terry can´t fix the problems. he couldn´t fix the defense,
he can´t run our offense and haven´t found a rotation,

a also blame the fo.
did they realy believe we´ll win a championship with rookies backing up nash and shaq??
did they realy??? they thought that nash, bell, ghill, shaq will have one good year again, and
that didn´t happen. we´re totally screwed and have to be happy to even make the playoffs.

that´s sad. that sucks, thank you kerr, sarver and porter.

[The Diesel]

Shaq deserves the blame for the loss against Dallas, but Porter deserves the blame for this season overall.

He's done a pathetic job.

[pidi]

you can´t blame a player for one bad game. i can´t hear the talk about the big picture no more, we ain´t going nowhere and noone knows why. screws this team. time for a big trade..

[The Diesel]

I still feel a starting line-up of Nash/Bell/Hill/Amare/Shaq is a contender.

The problem is Porter. He's a horrible coach.

[MaryvalesFinest]

The Spurs win moved the Suns to the 9th seed

http://www.nba.com/standings/team_recor ... d_Cnf.html

[pidi]

problem here is that you ain´t got one lock down defender.
bell used to be, but is no more.

i would start barnes at the two spot.
don´t know what porters plan is? you can´t see what he tries.
i´m already done with this team. i mean this team is done. sorry it sounds stupid and one minded
but i feel realy sad..

[The Diesel]

What did Barkley say after the game on the Post-Game show? I read somewhere that he criticized Kerr.

What did he say?

Thanks.

[rsavaj]

Guess who hired Porter?

Steve Kerr is our problem. He hasn't made a good move save for lucking into Matt Barnes.

[The Diesel]

Signing Grant Hill was also a great move.

But yeah, other than that, he hasn't done too many good things.

[lilfishi22]

Sarver has been the problem since the day he came into the Suns organisation and brought his cheapness with him. I know we could never tell if this or that had happened, but if we did keep our picks and not sell em for peanuts, we would've had Rondo, Rudy, Iggy and Deng. There's probably more, but these are the type of guys we really need right now, a solid backup point, a capable SG who doesn't dribble into brick walls, a lockdown defender and a guy who can get his own shot whenever.

Then he goes off hiring Kerr, who has done nothing noteworthy other than bring in Barnes and Hill at a vet min. Oh and also brought in Shaq, who has played his role well, might I say.

Then Kerr goes off and hires Porter who is a vastly inexperienced coach who would've done fine if he coached a young squad, but considering we're a veteran team of championship-caliber, there's no way he could've commanded the respect of his players.

From there, Porter's inability to get through to his players and get them to buy into their system has caused a lot of issues in the locker-room and on the court, leading to the loss of cohesion of the team. Which in turn leads to the lower production of almost every starter and bench players minus maybe one or two players.

It really is a long line of problems that has caused the struggling in general. As I see it, we should be getting better as time goes by but we seem to be going the other way, which would mean we have to point the finger at either the players or the coach. Considering we were a contender last season and we have kept virtually the same squad, the only person we could blame without much argument is Porter.

Thus, FIRE PORTER!

[garrick]

I have a different take, I blame Mike D'Antoni for quitting on this team.

All I wanted from him was to give the rookies some spot minutes on a consistent basis and to not run the vets into the ground by using the bench consistently.

He didn't want to give in to Kerr and left for NY so he could have free reign he left us with a inexperienced coach with limited offensive schemes and one not ready to handle a veteran team like the Suns.

[667Club]

Yeah it's all Mike D'antonis' fault ...

Obviously it's Sarver + Kerr. Have you guys already forgotten that you refused to trade Stoudemire for KG because of $$ ? Sarver refused to buy a championship or else they were really blind to Stoudemire's shortcomings.

[Frank Lee]

FrankLee speaking,

I believe this is a philosophical problem. Kerr has been involved with Champ teams, he has seen what works...and it all comes back to defense. Now the problem is, he was rushed into the GM position, before the D'Antoni experiment was completed. (I never thought I'd miss BC) Kerr had to take the reigns as D'Ant was imploding as a GM. He had been penciled in for the Job anyways, but I believe he thought he had a couple more yrs before his turn.

His philosophy of winning clashed with MikeyD's. Roster changes were made to accomadate the GMs vision...and not the coach's. Coupled with cost cutting manuevers and salary restrictions, these changes did not really improve the team, but they changed it. The departure of D'Ant sealed the deal and Kerr's vision became the master plan (assuming one exists).

So he began pounding the square peg into the round hole, trying to fasion champ caliber team with parts not suited for the methods he desired. He hired a coach who went along with his thoughts, who had experienced and witnessed the same success. (MDs experiment still is in the theory stage btw)

Now the problem exists because the team our GM wants is not the team he has. He has found it difficult to change the pieces (ie trade), and has instead, tried to change the players. Forced change alsways is met with some resistance, and in this case has been very slow to occur.

At some point , you gotta just throw your hands up and say...Lets start over, with a clean slate. The clean slate WAS to occur in 2010, and that was when Kerr-nel Klink was scheduled to take over. However, as we have seen, the inability of RSArver to get along with BC has excellerated Kerr's career path. (I still believe that wasting Sarver's $$ on Q, Grant-pa, and Burke riled Sarver to the point of direct criticism to BColonjello, who promptly said 'F-off I'm outta here ya arrogant chicken dancing chump') RSarver underestimated the difficulties of being a GM and blindly, with one hand on his wallet, has given us 3+ yrs of trial and error management. On the Job Training. As his new GMs floundered, Sarver retaliated with to the only thing he knew how to do...manage money and he T Boone Pickens us to this point.

So that leaves us here...with our GM, Coach, and Owner pondering WHAT to do...and more so, WHEN to do it. I think the 'what' is obvious, a full blown rebuild. The big question is the WHEN... perhaps we borrow a catch phrase that has brought success else where....


CHANGE IS COMING


To answer the topical question though..... I blame BC...for signing Brian Grant...that move, if examined, had a domino effect that still plagues us now. (Just thought I'd throw that out there, for really there is enough blame to be spread amongst all the players in this soap opera, but that one move irked me to no end)

[realfung]

you

[blackjays]

Before Shaq trade: 34-14
After Shaq trade: 33-26

What the **** does that tell you?

[DaDragicShow]

Whos to blame for the Suns recent struggles: Maryvalesfinest.

[BigDaddyPR]

No Brainer... Porter, hes suppoed to be a "defensive" coah?? BS, not only this team is lost on offense, they are also giving up career highs to scrubs every single night....

Terry Porter needs to be fired asap, I also still think that this team can be a contender with the current players..... but not with this coach!

[eastsidecrossover]

Thats stupid blackjays. The suns had a horrendous record vs playoff teams before the shaq trade. they also had an easy schedule at first too.

Maryvalesfinest has something to do with it. It all started with that great thread about a new arena in Maryvale.

I blame ropert horry. Screwed up out of a championship.

Ok, for real. I would say this. BC, MD, Kerr, Sarver, Porter, and the players!