GT #42: WAS (20-21) in PHX (24-17), Fri Jan 24th 9pm, CSN+

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Is Phoenix that much more talented than the Wizards? They were awful last year and have basically the same roster in place now that Bledsoe is out. The difference is they have a coach that stresses fundamentals, sharing the ball, and plays to his players strengths.

I do think Jeff Hornacek is a superior coach who has improved the Suns. Also, they have several new players who each have improved their talent. Frye and Green are efficient scorers, inside and out. Plumlee is mobile and plays above the rim. It was a good move to add the second Morris twin, who is a good defender and who addd cohesiveness and quality, young depth.

Dragic is underrated. The Suns are rebuilding very intelligently. I think even Alex Len will turn into a decent player sooner than later.

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[stevemcqueen1]

Top notch coaching makes a huge difference, especially winning night to night in the regular season. Look at this Suns team now. Look at how consistently dominant the Spurs have been long after their star players started declining. Look at the Bulls without their best players this year and last year. Look at the Mavs, who won a championship with Dirk and a bunch of has beens and are competitive every year. And then look at us when John Wall was injured last season. Historically bad. The difference is those teams all have great coaches and ours is arguably the worst in the league now.

And it's not a stretch to say Wittman is the worst coach in the league either because his record is one of the worst. He's got the worst record of any coach with more than a season and a half under his belt by a large margin. 9th most games coached in the NBA too, so it's not like he hasn't had a chance to prove himself.

[MikeTheKid]

We need to control the pace of this game and feed our bigs to get the win. Nene and Gortat must be efficient...I don't think the PHX big men can handle Nene or Gortat inside.

They had there way with Hibbert, West and Scola Wednesday night

[MikeTheKid]

Is Phoenix that much more talented than the Wizards? They were awful last year and have basically the same roster in place now that Bledsoe is out. The difference is they have a coach that stresses fundamentals, sharing the ball, and plays to his players strengths.

I do think Jeff Hornacek is a superior coach who has improved the Suns. Also, they have several new players who each have improved their talent. Frye and Green are efficient scorers, inside and out. Plumlee is mobile and plays above the rim. It was a good move to add the second Morris twin, who is a good defender and who addd cohesiveness and quality, young depth.

Dragic is underrated. The Suns are rebuilding very intelligently. I think even Alex Len will turn into a decent player sooner than later.

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CCJ isn't Mcdonough there GM? Was he under Presti or Ainge because hes been brilliant rebuilding. This maybe the fastest rebuild ever with the GOAT training/medical staff. Essentially Hornacek is doing what D'anDummy was trying to do in PHO 10x better than him

[Hypnotizer]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MagicJohnson/status/426466228644098050[/tweet]

[Nivek]

Well, of course Hornacek is coach of the year. Folks expected his team to suck, and it's not bad. The formula for Coach of the Year is well established at this point: Wins - predicted wins. That's it. I mean, Phil Jackson is arguably the greatest coach ever in any sport, and he won COY once. The award was initiated in 1962-63 -- as Red Auerbach was guiding the Celtics through a stretch of 9 championships in 10 seasons (including 8 in a row), and he was chosen once out of four possible chances.

[nate33]

I think Stotts is going to win COTY, Nivek.

[jivelikenice]

I don't know. Phoenix has so far eclipsed what ppl projected and Bledsoe has missed and will miss a ton of time. Portland had talent but just underacheived last seaason.

[Nivek]

I think Stotts is going to win COTY, Nivek.

Which would still fit the formula, I think.

Or, maybe there's a tweak to the formula -- wins + (9 - playoff seed) - expected wins?

[dlts20]

Yup. It matters a lot -- and that's why you must get outstanding players, because otherwise your coaches aren't good. I mean, look at Boston. Doc Rivers was a really good coach in '04-05 when he had some really good players. Then the next year, when he lost a couple of his best guys why he wasn't nearly as good.

Then the year after that when he lost even more of his good players, why he was a *terrible* coach; he went 24-58.

Then the following year, thank goodness, they got Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, and Rivers once again became a terrific coach! I mean it's obvious -- he went 66-16 and they won the title.

I'm telling you: coaching really matters -- the above makes it obvious! wouldn't you agree?

(1) and there are situations where a team has not so much talent but are great because of good coaching just like there are situations where a team has a ton of talent and underachieve because of bad coaching. I dont care what you say; Witt sucks and he sucks bad. (2) We have more talent then you are giving us credit for, especially in the East.

I will say this though, you can get away with it both ways if your coach's system matches with the players talent. In this case its a horrible mismatch. Its designed for a PG like Cassell, Billups, etc... who have no athletic ability and love to shoot jumpers or throw a simple pass back to the big. We have Wall and he would be dynamite in a system that fits him and attacks North & South, not East & West like ours does. I cant believe we are wasting his most explosive years playing in this sideways jump shooting crap. (3) Ted & EG are idiots for not getting a new coach a long time ago. The funny thing is that I have a feeling when we do get a new coach, it will be in another system that doesnt play to Wall's strenghts

I've highlighted 3 statements above --

Can you provide an example of #1 ?? Without an example, it's kind of hard to judge the claim.

#2 -- Really? I projected us to win 44 games this year - look at the thread. How many wins did you project?

#3 -- We agree on the first part!! Our FO is inept to say the least! But I'm more worried about their player choices than their coaching choices! And surely you agree that if you don't optimize your squad using the assets you have, you cripple yourself -- even the best coach has to be better w/ better players.

1 example is a the team we are playing tonight. Thats clear as day. You projected us to 44 wins? Well we are on pace for 40 despite having one of the easiest schedules in the league. Even moreso, no one and I mean no one on this board expected the East to be this bad so you have to add on more wins to your already 44, especially with the weak sked weve had so far so we should be more on pace for 50 plus wins as of now. Witt is horrible and you can try to shade it how you want but a better coach wouldve gotten more than 20 wins out of this roster in this Eastern conference with the schedule we have had so far

[dckingsfan]

I don't know. Phoenix has so far eclipsed what ppl projected and Bledsoe has missed and will miss a ton of time. Portland had talent but just underacheived last seaason.

Agreed but... I don't think Portland underachieved last year - their bench was terrible.

[dckingsfan]

Suns are 3-4 since the Bledsoe injury... let's make it 3-5.

[payitforward]

Top notch coaching makes a huge difference, especially winning night to night in the regular season. Look at this Suns team now...

The Suns have only 4 players on their roster who suited up for them last year. It's a different team. There's no way to know whether Hornacek's coaching is what accounts for their record. Maybe... but also maybe not: there's no way to know.

edit: Of those 4 holdovers, btw, both the Morris brothers are playing somewhat better than last year -- which you'd expect w/ them moving into their 3d year and developing towards their best. P.J. Tucker is playing at the same level as last year. And Dragic is playing better than last year -- mostly because he's shooting a higher %, shooting more, and getting to the line a little more too. His TS% is up from .54 (very good for a PG!) to .58 (even better!).

[dckingsfan]

Well, of course Hornacek is coach of the year. Folks expected his team to suck, and it's not bad. The formula for Coach of the Year is well established at this point: Wins - predicted wins. That's it. I mean, Phil Jackson is arguably the greatest coach ever in any sport, and he won COY once. The award was initiated in 1962-63 -- as Red Auerbach was guiding the Celtics through a stretch of 9 championships in 10 seasons (including 8 in a row), and he was chosen once out of four possible chances.

With the Bledsoe injury, I could see them only winning 15 more games this season and dropping out of the playoffs and with it Hornecek's chances at COY. Thoughts?

[payitforward]

Is Phoenix that much more talented than the Wizards? They were awful last year and have basically the same roster in place now that Bledsoe is out.

They have only 4 holdovers from last year, jive -- by no means the same roster.

[AFM]

Dragic has always been a good PG.

[Upper Decker]

Well, of course Hornacek is coach of the year. Folks expected his team to suck, and it's not bad. The formula for Coach of the Year is well established at this point: Wins - predicted wins. That's it. I mean, Phil Jackson is arguably the greatest coach ever in any sport, and he won COY once. The award was initiated in 1962-63 -- as Red Auerbach was guiding the Celtics through a stretch of 9 championships in 10 seasons (including 8 in a row), and he was chosen once out of four possible chances.

This is why I think Pop deserves the award this year. I'm not sure the Spurs will have an all-star this season, yet amazingly they are out of 1st in the west by .5 a game. He's the best and shouldn't be penalized because everyone expects the Spurs to be a juggernaut.

[jivelikenice]

Bledsoe is the only real difference making talent they acquired and he's missed a ton of time. They lost solid players like Dudley/Gortat and to a lesser extent Scola. They've added Gerald Green/ Plumlee / and now Barbosa on a 10-day deal. The reason the roster is exceeding expectations is because of coaching. Role players are accepting and playing their roles & they're sharing the ball. I've agreed with you that coaching isn't the only reason for our inconsistency but if you can't see that a coach can play a large role with his ability or inability tomaximizing the talent he does have, then we just disagree. While the Suns are playing fun, fundamentally solid basketball we have Nene griping or Beal griping about one on one play when he still took 16 shots. Ariza has played well, but why did we move away from the Wall/Beal/Webster lineup that was effective last year? Why haven't we tried Ariza as a stretch 4 more often?

[Hypnotizer]

Bledsoe is the only real difference making talent they acquired and he's missed a ton of time. They lost solid players like Dudley/Gortat and to a lesser extent Scola.

They also lost Beasley and he was disappointment.

[Hypnotizer]

Martell Webster scored a career-high 34 points against the Suns last season.