Gentry's post game rant

[harshey1388]

Jeff Van Gundy for new coach

As much as i hate the dude I think I only hate him as a commentator. Aside from that he is as no B.S as it gets.

[RunDogGun]

Actually, I was thinking either Paul Westhead (not Westphal) or Laimbeer.

[Sunsdeuce]

At least gentry has the true Steve Nash.
Not this Lin guy. I finally get to see this kid play tonight. Been wanting to to see all this comparison stuff to Nash. Put aside Lin had a bad game, I just don't see the similarity. I was looking for how Lin's dribble control, vision, shot selection, and passing.
From what I see Lin is a high passer vs Steve is a low passer. Lin dribble control is horrible. Lin is alittle more athletic which helps him with finding a open man where as Nash has to use pure vision along with anticipation for his passes. Nash is a pure natural shooter vs lins average shooting(you can tell by the arm and elbow movement while in shooting motion, his arm is sometimes bent and sometimes straight during the shot. Nash arms are always straight at the end of this shot motion thus making a consistent shooter).

There probably is a thread for Nash vs Lin comparison but oh well

[grumpysaddle]

At least gentry has the true Steve Nash.
Not this Lin guy. I finally get to see this kid play tonight. Been wanting to to see all this comparison stuff to Nash. Put aside Lin had a bad game, I just don't see the similarity. I was looking for how Lin's dribble control, vision, shot selection, and passing.
From what I see Lin is a high passer vs Steve is a low passer. Lin dribble control is horrible. Lin is alittle more athletic which helps him with finding a open man where as Nash has to use pure vision along with anticipation for his passes. Nash is a pure natural shooter vs lins average shooting(you can tell by the arm and elbow movement while in shooting motion, his arm is sometimes bent and sometimes straight during the shot. Nash arms are always straight at the end of this shot motion thus making a consistent shooter).

There probably is a thread for Nash vs Lin comparison but oh well

The parts of the game I was able to watch weren't great from Lin. He looks exhausted. He's been much better than he was tonight. The Mavericks were doubling him hard at the half court line basically... and he figured it out and had a pretty decent game. He's definitely better than he played tonight. I think he was a bit nervous, and doubted himself against the stupid Heat.

[rsavaj]

I don't think Gentry's a great coach but I really don't understand all the blame being placed on him.

The FO essentially tanked this season before it started by refusing to make this team competitive in hopes of "preserving cap space". They signed a few scrubs to 1 year deals and openly admitted that they were just looking forward towards this summer....and you guys don't think that Gentry wasn't completely set up to fail?

Come on.

[harshey1388]

I don't think Gentry's a great coach but I really don't understand all the blame being placed on him.

The FO essentially tanked this season before it started by refusing to make this team competitive in hopes of "preserving cap space". They signed a few scrubs to 1 year deals and openly admitted that they were just looking forward towards this summer....and you guys don't think that Gentry wasn't completely set up to fail?

Come on.

Thanks bud.

[TheMoochinator]

I'm on the "how are on earth can you put all the blame on gentry" side.

Gentry isn't a great coach, but he sure isn't as bad as I think some of you are making him out to be.

This team is horribly constructed. It's a bunch of role players paired with Nash and Gortat, who realistically should be your third best player.

More importantly, if you fire Gentry who are you going to get that's better to replace him? Jeff Van Gundy is one of the most overbearing coaches ever, he calls nearly every offensive play from the sidelines.

The one season we gave Gentry a talented team they overachieved and made the conference finals, I think it's a little too easy to fire him just because the suns management can't field a good team.

[DRK]

I don't think Gentry's a great coach but I really don't understand all the blame being placed on him.

The FO essentially tanked this season before it started by refusing to make this team competitive in hopes of "preserving cap space". They signed a few scrubs to 1 year deals and openly admitted that they were just looking forward towards this summer....and you guys don't think that Gentry wasn't completely set up to fail?

Come on.

+1

[DRK]

My take on this situation:

No. Gentry should not be fired. The man is doing what he can with a crap lineup like we have. It's not the man's fault that we are not winning, because we've seen what he can do with a well balanced lineup.

I like how he has made the move to start Morris, and I like how he's got the balls to bench a guy making 6 million a year because he doesnt fit.

Right now, its easy to blame the coach. The coach is always the scapegoat. Gentry is not the reason for this mess right now. It's the way the team has been constructed by the FO.

This season is irrelevant. half the players on our team will not be here next year, because they were signed with one thing in mind. Short term roster fillers that will preserve our capspace for next season.

Next season is where the real fun starts guys. And I would take Gentry as our coach next season over lets say.... John Keuster.

What does work though? The man is so desperate that he starts Ronnie Price at SG. Ronnie Price. This team is so badly constructed that in the scheme of things, starting Ronnie Price is probably the best option now.

Look. its obvious that the Suns aren't built to contend or win this year. We are built to save money and preserve capsapce for next season. So Gentry is left with a bunch of scrubs and D-Leaguers to work with. The man is trying his best, but its not easy to get lineups that work when your team is comprised of a bunch of stop-gap fillers.

The only reason why Shannon Bean Brown is playing on this team is because we have no one else! The only reason why he has to play Sideshow Bob is because (tragically) is our only other seven footer. The only reason why Channing Frye is on the court when he's colder than the Arctic Circle is because (again, sadly) he's our only other PF.

It's as if the FO has said to Gentry this season. "All right man. We're saving up cap space for next year. We're going to give you 5 NBA- worthy players. The rest are there to make up the extra 8 roster spots. See if you can somehow make it work." You can't help but feel sorry for Alvin here. The players on this team do not fit who our identity is, and about half the roster shouldn’t even be in an NBA rotation.


Go back to 09/10. We are killing the Spurs in the playoffs, and we just miss out on the NBA Finals. A few weeks later, Amare is gone, and is replaced by Turkoglu, Childress and Warrick. I mean, come on Babby. Josh Childress? In a fast paced offence? After coming out of the dead- slow EuroLeague? You gotta be kidding me. That's like selling a Ferrari, and replacing it with 3 Ford Fiesta's. We are getting KILLED in the early part of the season, and we have no interior defender. Earl Barron is our starting PF, and Childress is our starting center. Now, can you blame Gentry for the losses then? Well? Can you?

Again. It's not the coach's fault for the losses, because this team is clearly not BUILT to win this season. And the last time I checked, coaches don’t build teams.

[NiGhtWiSh]

Fire Gentry and shock the team, cutting 2-3 players. Don't tank. Hire a coach with great charisma & reputation. Go for wins. Never tank, tanking is cancer.

[Calvin Klein]

I'm pretty sure neither the players nor Gentry want to tank. You can see it when they play. They get excited and happy when they win.

I just don't understand this rotation thing with gentry. First he benches Childress, then he plays him (and he was pretty good IMO) and benches Brown. Then Brown comes back and he benches Childress again.

Nobody understands why he plays Telfair. He absolutely kills the offense. Brown only shoots contested shots. He is terrible.

[Frank Lee]

Even a great coach would have problems making this a .500 ballclub. We have inferior personnel from #7 on down.

I dont know what to do about GEntry... I imagine he runs another yr. The FO will add some quality players in the off season, and if AG struggles to make it work again... then I can see him being sacked.

I still think there is a bit of spite he displays..... spite for the FO for adding these subpar contributors. You really think he had anything to do with the selection of Telfair ? Brown ? and the likes.....?

[hunterxaz]

I feel totally out of the loop, because the Suns have been so horrible that I can't rationalize wasting my time watching them lose so consistently.

[RunDogGun]

To piggyback what CK said, he barely plays Price, then Price comes in and plays his heart out. He has a few good games with seven and eight assists (when Nash was out) and so he gets the nod to start. But the minutes he gets are so inconsistent. But he starts him as the SG, and he isn't controlling the ball. Not to mention he than still played Telfail as the backup point.

Price is not a SG, so it isn't surprising that he didn't do all that well there. So then he is back to the bench and gets a bunch of DNPs. I still don't know why Chilldress wasn't tried a few time on Kobe. We played them three times already, and three missed opportunities. If anything, thoughts for next season, when we may not have Hill, but will still have Chilldress. In this season, we have to be thinking of possible future situations.

I get the crappy pickups we got this year, but we do have guys that play with heart (Price and Chilldress) and they seem to see so many DNPs when our players are stagnant.

I really hate how Gentry almost always plays the same starting group in the third. Really the only time he makes a change, is when one of those starters gets injured. This happened last season as well. One game last year Dudley played the second quarter (bench player then) and he was on fire, couldn't miss at all. We go into the half on such a high note. Carter was playing terrible, but AG starts the the third right back with VC, instead of seeing if Dudley still was hot. Not only that he waits until the normal six or seven minutes to sub in Dudley. And guess what, after sitting twenty minutes (halftime and start of third) he isn't hot anymore, and we can't regain the lead and lose.

He did this often, taking out the hot hand. I know I said it at least ten times last year. He tried to do it in 2010 as well, but at least the starters questioned him (well except Stat, who only really cared about his numbers) and either went back to the bench themselves, or asked AG if he really wanted to sub out guys that were playing so well. The unselfish play of most of our starters that season made that team so great.

As Frank and others have mentioned, we don't have great players this year, but instead of mixing up his starters with some bench, we see five bench guys for five minutes at least. And I still don't understand Hill and Nash resting at the same time. When the rest together, our offense completely sucks.

Everyone can give AG a pass because of the lack of talent, but his actions is what I am basing this on. If you continue to play players that don't give 100%, and sit ones that do, you'll get halfassed basketball, which is what we are seeing. I don't mind losing games, if the guys played are playing their best and hardest, but are just out talented by the other team.

Telfail should not play for a few games, and Price should get all of those minutes.

[SunsRback4Good]

Ditka couldn't coach this team to a championship.

Our roster sucks besides three players.

Yes, I know Ditka was a football coach

DA BEARS DA BEARS DA BEARS DA BEARS

[Revived]

Ditka couldn't coach this team to a championship.

Our roster sucks besides three players.

Yes, I know Ditka was a football coach

Not sure if Ditka knows Ditka about basketball, so I agree, he couldn't bring us a champion. I don't think anyone expects that from this team. But Gentry complaining about how the team comes out to start, and doesn't make a change until after seven and a half minutes into said game, makes him the moron.

This is the same issue I had with D'Antoni. He would constantly complain about lack of effort, but continue to play the guys that didn't give that effort. Put in your hustle guys, and bam! You get hustle.

Who exactly are the "hustle guys" on this team? Isn't Dudley supposed to be one? But too bad JD was already on the court with all his great hustle and everything.

Only guy that's even NBA worthy of the bench is Morris.

[Moochthemonkey]

Jeff Van Gundy is one of the most overbearing coaches ever, he calls nearly every offensive play from the sidelines.

Haha, Van Gundy would never coach here. Whenever the Suns are playing or are mentioned on ESPN....dude is a total hater.

[Sun Scorched]

Being totally honest, I've noticed times where the team seems obviously flat and uninterested. Don't know why, but I understand Gentry's frustration completely.

And let's not pretend like Telfair is the reason we suck this year.

We would be just as good of a team if we had called up D-leaguers - and that's on the FO, not Gentry.