Fire Steve Kerr

[TXSun]

Kerr is looking more like a moron every day. This team is going no where, he ruined it.

[JohnVancouver]

Kerr has made some really good moves.

- Signing Grant Hill

- Signing Matt Barnes

- Robin Lopez has showed promise when he's played.

But then we all know he's also made some REALLY bad moves like the Shaq trade, letting D'Antoni leave, and replacing him with Terry Porter who's not a good coach.

Hopefully Porter improves (He's still young), but we've all been extremely disappointed in him.

Based on talent, the Suns are a contender, but Porter's horrible coaching so far is the main reason why the team is struggling so much.

+1

Hill, Barnes and Lopez/Admundson, all okay to very good moves, Shaq they didn't have much choice given the Marion situation and we played well after we got him. What's killed this team is the coach - we lost what we were good at and didn't add anything to replace it.
Porter's going to be here collecting his paycheque for reasons of pride (Kerr) and bottom-line (Sarver). Turn the offense over to Nash and let the coaches try improve team defense.
Of course, I Mike D - and I love the guy - had been willing to compromise a little and bring in a defensive coach, this might have been avoided. Then again, how much do we really know about how that was presented to D'ant?
Anyone hear the invu with him where he said he was shocked at how fast his relationship with Kerr went downhill, to the point he was told to print some new copies of his resume?
Kerr painted the situation as he suggested getting an assistant coach to work on defense while Mike ran the team in all other regards, and Mike told him to get stuffed. I have to wonder how it actually went down.
D'ant is a stubborn guy, as we've all heard but I think Kerr may not be that good with interpersonal relationships with his staff.
I'd really like to hear what he and Porter's conversations sound like.
I'm picturing Kerr and Porter on adjoining toilets in the locker room, stricken with fear diarrhea and pouring cold sweat. For some reasons that makes me smile.

[tsherkin]

Its funny how you guys sit here and blame the coaching staff and Kerr.
Im an outsider and I watched the game last night against Dallas and I honestly didnt see anyone other than Amare busting his ass out there.
Your team has lost its heart and its motivation, and its starts by your team Captians.
Nash has not played well at all, maybe his injuries, maybe other things.
Shaq, how many shots did Shaq miss last night, I think Shaq trade was wrong.
He can barley run up and down the court, at times when he was setting plays he seemed like he was getting in the way of Nash and actually cluttering up the middle with his presence.
He couldnt make a shot and he seems lost out there in your lineup.
Anyhow I think when a team starts doing bad you always blame the Coach and then the G.M for the trades and the coaching staff, but this is a team sport.
You guys have a very good squad and they're not clicking togehter at all.

Do you play basketball? I don't mean that in a condescending way, I mean do you regularly play organized basketball with referees?

If you do, then you understand the importance of a really well-defined system that maximizes the strengths of a player. This is an area in which Mike D'Antoni excelled; there's a reason that he's made an immediate improvement in New York's offense and why the Suns were so astonishingly capable offensively under his reign. He had problems of his own, but the point is, you almost never saw the players as a whole have a really bad offensive night unless they were flabbergasted by epic defense.

Porter has fundamentally changed the style of play to which the Phoenix players had grown accustomed over the past 4 years, taking them away from their strengths and common plays and instead implementing plays that worked in Detroit... with totally different personnel. This was always going to cause problems. He came in under the auspice of maintaining the pace, improving the fluidity in the half-court and improving the defense.

He has done NONE of those things.

The pace has dropped, the Suns aren't going to what were previously their offensive strengths and they look as bad on defense as you can possibly imagine... with much the same personnel as they had before. D'Antoni managed to effectively use both Shaq and Amare together on the court at the same time. Porter seems stupefied as to how not to have the two of them fighting for the same spots on the floor. Shaq was comfortably ensconced at 13/11 with the Suns under Coach D, playing good D, looking good on offense mostly... People complained that he was "missing chippies" and what-not but he was shooting over 60% regardless. The Suns were 2nd in the league in offensive efficiency and just about average on defense.

This year, Porter has messed everything up so badly that the Suns don't know where they should be on the floor, aren't going to the pick-and-roll even a third as often as they used to (their BREAD AND BUTTER play!!!) and they look disorganized and useless on defense. This with the same people they had looking decent over the last 30 games of the season... plus Matt Barnes, who is a good defender.

Sarver is responsible for cost-cutting moves that have cost the team Luol Deng (for whom the Suns got Jackson Vroman and a future first), Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez.

Rudy Fernandez was traded for cash and instead, the Suns selected Alando Tucker, who remains on the roster doing nothing, while Rudy is busy doing the 12/3/2 thing in 26 mpg, shooting about 43% 3P and 95%+ FT. Sergio isn't doing badly either.

Then the Suns moved Kurt Thomas and their '08 and '10 first rounders for a trade exception ($8M) and a CONDITIONAL second-rounder. They cut DJ Strawberry for no good reason (except perhaps to make space for Goran Tragic).

They tried to sign Tyronn Lue, but he signed with Milwaukee for more money and then they spent an absurd amount of time, money and effort in acquiring Goran Dragic, who is the worst player on the team and completely useless.

So you want to tell us that the management and ownership aren't a problem? The coaching staff isn't an issue? There is a perceptible difference in the performance of the team, including the same roster that played MUCH better last season under a different coach.

[mkot]

Kerr has made some really good moves.

- Signing Grant Hill

- Signing Matt Barnes

- Robin Lopez has showed promise when he's played.

Hill fell on our lap, he came here to play with Nash and under MikeD. Signing him is a no-brainer so I won't count this signing as one of his good move.

How about the KT trade? It's KT + 2 UNPROTECTED 1st round pick for a mighty CONDITIONAL 2nd rounder. And how about selling the #24? How in hell couldn't he convince Sarver to keep that #24, pick an euro (Splitter) and sell the #29? Did he try? I doubt it.

I still don't blame Kerr as much as I do to $arver. Kerr is just his yes man. $arver doesn't want to pay for depth, so he had his GM sold draft picks for cash. He wanted to stay under the LT so Kerr desperately threw away KT with draft picks. To pour salt on our wounds, not only have we sold draft picks, but in our effort to stay under the LT we've been using them as an incentive for other teams to take our assets. The Brian Grant/Rondo and James Jones/Rudy trades were as damaging to our future as any and they've got $arver written all over them.F $arver. Penny wise and pound foolish. A lesson I hope he has learned at the expense of a contender.

And he'll soon learn another lesson: Once you lose the championship contender status, it can take more than 15 years to get it back.

[rsavaj]

Its funny how you guys sit here and blame the coaching staff and Kerr.
Im an outsider and I watched the game last night against Dallas and I honestly didnt see anyone other than Amare busting his ass out there.
Your team has lost its heart and its motivation, and its starts by your team Captians.
Nash has not played well at all, maybe his injuries, maybe other things.
Shaq, how many shots did Shaq miss last night, I think Shaq trade was wrong.
He can barley run up and down the court, at times when he was setting plays he seemed like he was getting in the way of Nash and actually cluttering up the middle with his presence.
He couldnt make a shot and he seems lost out there in your lineup.
Anyhow I think when a team starts doing bad you always blame the Coach and then the G.M for the trades and the coaching staff, but this is a team sport.
You guys have a very good squad and they're not clicking togehter at all.

Do you play basketball? I don't mean that in a condescending way, I mean do you regularly play organized basketball with referees?

If you do, then you understand the importance of a really well-defined system that maximizes the strengths of a player. This is an area in which Mike D'Antoni excelled; there's a reason that he's made an immediate improvement in New York's offense and why the Suns were so astonishingly capable offensively under his reign. He had problems of his own, but the point is, you almost never saw the players as a whole have a really bad offensive night unless they were flabbergasted by epic defense.

Porter has fundamentally changed the style of play to which the Phoenix players had grown accustomed over the past 4 years, taking them away from their strengths and common plays and instead implementing plays that worked in Detroit... with totally different personnel. This was always going to cause problems. He came in under the auspice of maintaining the pace, improving the fluidity in the half-court and improving the defense.

He has done NONE of those things.

The pace has dropped, the Suns aren't going to what were previously their offensive strengths and they look as bad on defense as you can possibly imagine... with much the same personnel as they had before. D'Antoni managed to effectively use both Shaq and Amare together on the court at the same time. Porter seems stupefied as to how not to have the two of them fighting for the same spots on the floor. Shaq was comfortably ensconced at 13/11 with the Suns under Coach D, playing good D, looking good on offense mostly... People complained that he was "missing chippies" and what-not but he was shooting over 60% regardless. The Suns were 2nd in the league in offensive efficiency and just about average on defense.

This year, Porter has messed everything up so badly that the Suns don't know where they should be on the floor, aren't going to the pick-and-roll even a third as often as they used to (their BREAD AND BUTTER play!!!) and they look disorganized and useless on defense. This with the same people they had looking decent over the last 30 games of the season... plus Matt Barnes, who is a good defender.

Sarver is responsible for cost-cutting moves that have cost the team Luol Deng (for whom the Suns got Jackson Vroman and a future first), Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez.

Rudy Fernandez was traded for cash and instead, the Suns selected Alando Tucker, who remains on the roster doing nothing, while Rudy is busy doing the 12/3/2 thing in 26 mpg, shooting about 43% 3P and 95%+ FT. Sergio isn't doing badly either.

Then the Suns moved Kurt Thomas and their '08 and '10 first rounders for a trade exception ($8M) and a CONDITIONAL second-rounder. They cut DJ Strawberry for no good reason (except perhaps to make space for Goran Tragic).

They tried to sign Tyronn Lue, but he signed with Milwaukee for more money and then they spent an absurd amount of time, money and effort in acquiring Goran Dragic, who is the worst player on the team and completely useless.

So you want to tell us that the management and ownership aren't a problem? The coaching staff isn't an issue? There is a perceptible difference in the performance of the team, including the same roster that played MUCH better last season under a different coach.

I loved Strawberry, but we actually traded him for Singletary, who hasn't sucked as much as I thought he would have.

Your post is right on.

[garrick]

Giving away a unconditional 1st rounder is just unacceptable to me, what did that draft pick end up being by the way?

[Cash]

Brilliant as always, tsherkin. One thing I'd like to add is that I can't stand Porter's inane mantra of, "You can still run, you just have to get a stop first." So if all 5 guys on the opposing team crash the offensive boards, but the shot happens to go in, we're not allowed to take advantage of it and grab an easy bucket? Great thinking, coach. Now we're following bad defense with bad offense. Well done. I say, if you're going to run, you should run every time you have numbers, or a good opportunity. (If the D isn't set, running can still be ruthlessly efficient even if everyone's back. Scottie Pippen was the master of the 1-on-2 break.)

<snip>

Do you play basketball? I don't mean that in a condescending way, I mean do you regularly play organized basketball with referees?

If you do, then you understand the importance of a really well-defined system that maximizes the strengths of a player. This is an area in which Mike D'Antoni excelled; there's a reason that he's made an immediate improvement in New York's offense and why the Suns were so astonishingly capable offensively under his reign. He had problems of his own, but the point is, you almost never saw the players as a whole have a really bad offensive night unless they were flabbergasted by epic defense.

Porter has fundamentally changed the style of play to which the Phoenix players had grown accustomed over the past 4 years, taking them away from their strengths and common plays and instead implementing plays that worked in Detroit... with totally different personnel. This was always going to cause problems. He came in under the auspice of maintaining the pace, improving the fluidity in the half-court and improving the defense.

He has done NONE of those things.

The pace has dropped, the Suns aren't going to what were previously their offensive strengths and they look as bad on defense as you can possibly imagine... with much the same personnel as they had before. D'Antoni managed to effectively use both Shaq and Amare together on the court at the same time. Porter seems stupefied as to how not to have the two of them fighting for the same spots on the floor. Shaq was comfortably ensconced at 13/11 with the Suns under Coach D, playing good D, looking good on offense mostly... People complained that he was "missing chippies" and what-not but he was shooting over 60% regardless. The Suns were 2nd in the league in offensive efficiency and just about average on defense.

This year, Porter has messed everything up so badly that the Suns don't know where they should be on the floor, aren't going to the pick-and-roll even a third as often as they used to (their BREAD AND BUTTER play!!!) and they look disorganized and useless on defense. This with the same people they had looking decent over the last 30 games of the season... plus Matt Barnes, who is a good defender.

Sarver is responsible for cost-cutting moves that have cost the team Luol Deng (for whom the Suns got Jackson Vroman and a future first), Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez.

Rudy Fernandez was traded for cash and instead, the Suns selected Alando Tucker, who remains on the roster doing nothing, while Rudy is busy doing the 12/3/2 thing in 26 mpg, shooting about 43% 3P and 95%+ FT. Sergio isn't doing badly either.

Then the Suns moved Kurt Thomas and their '08 and '10 first rounders for a trade exception ($8M) and a CONDITIONAL second-rounder. They cut DJ Strawberry for no good reason (except perhaps to make space for Goran Tragic).

They tried to sign Tyronn Lue, but he signed with Milwaukee for more money and then they spent an absurd amount of time, money and effort in acquiring Goran Dragic, who is the worst player on the team and completely useless.

So you want to tell us that the management and ownership aren't a problem? The coaching staff isn't an issue? There is a perceptible difference in the performance of the team, including the same roster that played MUCH better last season under a different coach.

[tsherkin]

I loved Strawberry, but we actually traded him for Singletary, who hasn't sucked as much as I thought he would have.

Your post is right on.

Oops, forgot about Singletary. TBH, I'd rather have Strawberry. He was an outstanding athlete, a good defender, had some size and the twits running the team were geared up to spend money on Tragic at the point anyway, so why bother with ANOTHER PG? It was just dumb either way.

And I miss Strawberry and wish he were still in the league...

Brilliant as always, tsherkin. One thing I'd like to add is that I can't stand Porter's inane mantra of, "You can still run, you just have to get a stop first." So if all 5 guys on the opposing team crash the offensive boards, but the shot happens to go in, we're not allowed to take advantage of it and grab an easy bucket? Great thinking, coach. Now we're following bad defense with bad offense. Well done. I say, if you're going to run, you should run every time you have numbers, or a good opportunity. (If the D isn't set, running can still be ruthlessly efficient even if everyone's back. Scottie Pippen was the master of the 1-on-2 break.)

Thanks, Cash. Yes, his mantra misses the point; WHEN you run, you supplement your running game with defensive stops to increase your transition opportunities. It's called "defense feeds offense," but it is not the ONLY time you run.

[nba_addict]

Dragic is a joke especially with all the efforts and resources Suns spent on him. Singletary wont make an impact either. Lopez, as other would say is just a safe pick (didnt Suns considered Rush as another safe pick for that Atlanta pick too and what difference could have it made).

[rsavaj]

I loved Strawberry, but we actually traded him for Singletary, who hasn't sucked as much as I thought he would have.

Your post is right on.

Oops, forgot about Singletary. TBH, I'd rather have Strawberry. He was an outstanding athlete, a good defender, had some size and the twits running the team were geared up to spend money on Tragic at the point anyway, so why bother with ANOTHER PG? It was just dumb either way.

And I miss Strawberry and wish he were still in the league...

Brilliant as always, tsherkin. One thing I'd like to add is that I can't stand Porter's inane mantra of, "You can still run, you just have to get a stop first." So if all 5 guys on the opposing team crash the offensive boards, but the shot happens to go in, we're not allowed to take advantage of it and grab an easy bucket? Great thinking, coach. Now we're following bad defense with bad offense. Well done. I say, if you're going to run, you should run every time you have numbers, or a good opportunity. (If the D isn't set, running can still be ruthlessly efficient even if everyone's back. Scottie Pippen was the master of the 1-on-2 break.)

Thanks, Cash. Yes, his mantra misses the point; WHEN you run, you supplement your running game with defensive stops to increase your transition opportunities. It's called "defense feeds offense," but it is not the ONLY time you run.

I still really wish we had Strawberry, but according to our beat writer and dbdynasty(our insider here on the board), DJ's agent was causing some trouble, saying that if they weren't going to give him major minutes than they should just trade him. I think they wanted to ship him out ASAP so he wouldn't become another distraction, however slight.

[TXSun]

all that excitement for "tragic" dragic? Kerr once said he was the 2nd best PG in the draft. WTF was he thinking? Dragic needs to go to the D-league. he looks like a High School player at best right now. They focused the cameras on Kerr at the Dallas game and he looked terribly puzzled. He knows he messed up what DA had established. YES FIRE KERR!!!

[mkot]

all that excitement for "tragic" dragic? Kerr once said he was the 2nd best PG in the draft. WTF was he thinking?

That's really not the first time he said something stupid in hopes to have the fans buy into his signing. Remember Sean Marks is going to surprise us as well. He had completely lost his credibility from me.

[mkot]

Dragic is a joke especially with all the efforts and resources Suns spent on him. Singletary wont make an impact either. .

Dragic isn't ready now doesn't mean he's a bust in few years down the road. He just isn't ready. We have him locked up for 4 years so we should just take the time to develop him. Send him to the D-League and go from there. Play Singletary at the backup PG spot. He should definitely ahead of Dragic in the rotation now.

[Legend Killer]

Kerr Sucks!!!!

[GaliSun]

I've seen several Dragic games the past year and sure he's not bad.
Hyped in Europe because he is a tall PG, great pentrator and finisher off balance,great lateral quickness,long arms and active hands, above-average court awareness and IQ, and acceptable mid-range stroke.

Reading things like he's Tony Parker with D or crap like that made me cry.
He has the tools to become a starter in the NBA, or maybe more (I don't count on it),but he's really far far away from putting it all together.

Nash' backup right away in his rookie year? Gosh, he was going to be backup or 3d string PG in the spanish league after a good (not great) season in the adriatic league.
How would he hang with the pressure of being the backup of an MVP in a title contender? Not that kind of player or natural talent.

He'll need time to figure it out. Reminds me of Dunleavy Jr when he arrived in the L.