Earl Watson named interim head coach

[RunDogGun]

I think is a good move to put a veteran coach next to Watson and the other two young assistants Bjorkgren and Gaines.

I agree.

[Puff]

This whole deal seems pretty creepy at this point.

First of all I have been a proponent for Hornacek to either be fired or step down. I guess you will say that I should be happy, I got what I have been asking for. I just have not liked the type of basketball the team was playing or his rotations but I liked and still like Hornacek as a person. However, at this point I am concerned about the way his departure was handled and specifically his replacement.

This whole thing reminds me of the Lindsey Hunter replacement of Alvin Gentry. Initially I thought it was a good hire and that maybe Lindsey could help out. It soon seemed obvious to me and everyone else that Lance Blanks brought in Lindsey Hunter as one of his boys to spy on Gentry and Lindsey was really brought in as Gentry's replacement.

When we hired Earl Watson this summer I thought it was a good move and that he could help, similar to my initial thought on Hunter. The difference is that Watson has received pretty good press around the league regarding his potential as head coaching material. I never thought Hunter was going to be our head coach until the day it happened.

I still think the Hunter hiring was worse because I really think our roster was far worse than the one Hornacek had this season, especially prior to all of the recent injuries and that the team was underperforming while being undisciplined.

My problem is that I never was a fan of Watson as a player. Whether deserved of not he was always the enemy and seemed to me to be a dirty player that I did not like. I over looked that when he was hired because I thought we needed some toughness and maybe he would help. He was promoted to lead defensive assistant when Longabardi was whacked and we still suck on most night on the defensive end. He now has been promoted to head coach and the first thing we do is hire an assistant, Bob Hill, that has prior coaching experience. I guess Hill has been hired to train Watson to be a head coach. This is after Watson hires an agent that most everyone is not comfortable with.

In addition Watson passed over two other guys which could be considered better candidates with better resumes than he has. This is also similar to Hunter getting the job over Majerle and Elston. While I am not convinced Corey Gaines was the right choice I was actually hoping for Bjorkgren would get the job. He apparently did a very good job in the D league developing players and I think that is what we really need.

I think we all want to be positive about this team but it certainly is hard to be with the moves that are and are not being made by management.

[Donald_Trade]

Bjorkgren does not have better qualification.

What in the world makes you think that?

[Puff]

Bjorkgren does not have better qualification.

What in the world makes you think that?

JMO

What makes Earl Watson such a freaking genius. What team has he actually coached?

I hope he does well, but I really do not like the guy at this point, I have never liked him. He has a lot to prove for me to buy in. Maybe Bob Hill can teach him where the bathroom is. Hell it appears like Bob Hill will do most of the work anyway. Why not just make Hill the interim coach?

It seems like Earl Watson is more concerned about an agent than scheduling a practice. Bob Hill will probably have to train him on how to run a practice as well. At this point his pocket book seems more important than results.

I am not impressed.

[SunsFanSSOL]

Really liking Watson's presser, read Coro's tweets if you can't listen.

McD is also going HAM.

[kennydorglas]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

[Sunsdeuce]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

The last thing Markieff needs is more babying.

I'm actually glad Watson is the coach for the rest of the season. He is going to fail miserably. Which Brings us closer to the #1 pick. Watson is not prepared for this.

His whole presser and what he talked about is exactly opposite of what this team needs. He talked to much about being buddy-buddy with the players. Players don't need that....they need a LEADER.

He keeps quoting all these coaches and GMs that are successfully. He actually quoted RC Buford....come on now, the dude has had Duncan his whole GM career.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. But again let the lottery balls keep adding up. So Watson just helps that goal.

[Donald_Trade]

Very impressed by Watson. Just worried we might actually win games now.

[SunsFanSSOL]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

The last thing Markieff needs is more babying.

I'm actually glad Watson is the coach for the rest of the season. He is going to fail miserably. Which Brings us closer to the #1 pick. Watson is not prepared for this.

His whole presser and what he talked about is exactly opposite of what this team needs. He talked to much about being buddy-buddy with the players. Players don't need that....they need a LEADER.

He keeps quoting all these coaches and GMs that are successfully. He actually quoted RC Buford....come on now, the dude has had Duncan his whole GM career.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. But again let the lottery balls keep adding up. So Watson just helps that goal.

He literally said he isn't trying to be a players coach and that he wants to be a teacher, not a coach.

[Sunsdeuce]

Earl Watson, new interim coach of Phoenix Suns, will hire agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group, league sources inform @clevelanddotcom.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/694296975194333184

.@ChrisBHaynes reports Watson will hire agent Rich Paul, which violates never enforced NBPA rules against player agents repping coaches.

https://mobile.twitter.com/KBergCBS/status/694304688569749505

Just came here to post this. Unbelievable. I guess he knows he has no chance at being the next Suns coach because there is zero chance the Suns will want to deal with Rich Paul again.

Wow, thanks for sharing that. That pretty much puts the nail in his coffin at the end of the year.

But I'm pretty sure everyone already knows he won't be back at the end of the year.

[Sunsdeuce]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

The last thing Markieff needs is more babying.

I'm actually glad Watson is the coach for the rest of the season. He is going to fail miserably. Which Brings us closer to the #1 pick. Watson is not prepared for this.

His whole presser and what he talked about is exactly opposite of what this team needs. He talked to much about being buddy-buddy with the players. Players don't need that....they need a LEADER.

He keeps quoting all these coaches and GMs that are successfully. He actually quoted RC Buford....come on now, the dude has had Duncan his whole GM career.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. But again let the lottery balls keep adding up. So Watson just helps that goal.

He literally said he isn't trying to be a players coach and that he wants to be a teacher, not a coach.

Exactly, that's not what this team needs. As a leader, I'm not here to be your friend, I'm here to coach you. That's Ok, he will find out once he fails.

Matters not, he won't be back at the end of the year.

[kennydorglas]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

The last thing Markieff needs is more babying.

I'm actually glad Watson is the coach for the rest of the season. He is going to fail miserably. Which Brings us closer to the #1 pick. Watson is not prepared for this.

His whole presser and what he talked about is exactly opposite of what this team needs. He talked to much about being buddy-buddy with the players. Players don't need that....they need a LEADER.

He keeps quoting all these coaches and GMs that are successfully. He actually quoted RC Buford....come on now, the dude has had Duncan his whole GM career.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. But again let the lottery balls keep adding up. So Watson just helps that goal.

Completely agree. I'm not concerned with Watson because he's saying such things just to calm down our fanbase.
If he plays our young guys and somehow can create an offense that makes sense, I'd be ok.

Play hard, give serious minutes to our future, but still searching for the best pick possible.

[Sunsdeuce]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

The last thing Markieff needs is more babying.

I'm actually glad Watson is the coach for the rest of the season. He is going to fail miserably. Which Brings us closer to the #1 pick. Watson is not prepared for this.

His whole presser and what he talked about is exactly opposite of what this team needs. He talked to much about being buddy-buddy with the players. Players don't need that....they need a LEADER.

He keeps quoting all these coaches and GMs that are successfully. He actually quoted RC Buford....come on now, the dude has had Duncan his whole GM career.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. But again let the lottery balls keep adding up. So Watson just helps that goal.

Completely agree. I'm not concerned with Watson because he's saying such things just to calm down our fanbase.
If he plays our young guys and somehow can create an offense that makes sense, I'd be ok.

Play hard, give serious minutes to our future, but still searching for the best pick possible.

Exactly, the only thing Watson needs to do between now and the end of the year is playing the young guys. That's literally all he needs to do.

Hopefully Ryan finds a highly experienced coach at the end of the year. That's exactly what this team needs. No more experiment/inexperienced coaches. That's all this team has done for the last 5/6 years and they all have failed miserably. Experience is the most undervalued asset in today's NBA.

Only time inexperienced coaches work (rarely) is when they have an all-star team (Spolstra, Kerr). Suns don't have that luxury.

[Sunsdeuce]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/edcole43/status/694591889853407232[/tweet]

Markieff needs a leader to sit his ass and tell him to shut his month or his ass isn't playing.

Lol, this is going to be an entertaining end of the season (Lindsey Hunter situation all over again).

[dremill24]

Bjorkgren does not have better qualification.

What in the world makes you think that?

JMO

What makes Earl Watson such a freaking genius. What team has he actually coached?

I hope he does well, but I really do not like the guy at this point, I have never liked him. He has a lot to prove for me to buy in. Maybe Bob Hill can teach him where the bathroom is. Hell it appears like Bob Hill will do most of the work anyway. Why not just make Hill the interim coach?

It seems like Earl Watson is more concerned about an agent than scheduling a practice. Bob Hill will probably have to train him on how to run a practice as well. At this point his pocket book seems more important than results.

I am not impressed.

Just because he doesn't have a great long resumé doesn't mean he isn't a good fit. It wouldn't be the first time someone less experience is nevertheless a better candidate for a job than someone with more experience. You've never seen anything like this in the workforce?

Could they just be putting in their guy cause he's who they like? Sure. Could he fall in his face? Likely, even.

But on principle, as management you can work with someone every day and make the determination that he really knows his stuff even tho he hasn't been around as long as the other guys. Should probly happen more often than it does TBH.

[GMATCallahan]

This whole deal seems pretty creepy at this point.

First of all I have been a proponent for Hornacek to either be fired or step down. I guess you will say that I should be happy, I got what I have been asking for. I just have not liked the type of basketball the team was playing or his rotations but I liked and still like Hornacek as a person. However, at this point I am concerned about the way his departure was handled and specifically his replacement.

This whole thing reminds me of the Lindsey Hunter replacement of Alvin Gentry. Initially I thought it was a good hire and that maybe Lindsey could help out. It soon seemed obvious to me and everyone else that Lance Blanks brought in Lindsey Hunter as one of his boys to spy on Gentry and Lindsey was really brought in as Gentry's replacement.

When we hired Earl Watson this summer I thought it was a good move and that he could help, similar to my initial thought on Hunter. The difference is that Watson has received pretty good press around the league regarding his potential as head coaching material. I never thought Hunter was going to be our head coach until the day it happened.

I still think the Hunter hiring was worse because I really think our roster was far worse than the one Hornacek had this season, especially prior to all of the recent injuries and that the team was underperforming while being undisciplined.

My problem is that I never was a fan of Watson as a player. Whether deserved of not he was always the enemy and seemed to me to be a dirty player that I did not like. I over looked that when he was hired because I thought we needed some toughness and maybe he would help. He was promoted to lead defensive assistant when Longabardi was whacked and we still suck on most night on the defensive end. He now has been promoted to head coach and the first thing we do is hire an assistant, Bob Hill, that has prior coaching experience. I guess Hill has been hired to train Watson to be a head coach. This is after Watson hires an agent that most everyone is not comfortable with.

In addition Watson passed over two other guys which could be considered better candidates with better resumes than he has. This is also similar to Hunter getting the job over Majerle and Elston. While I am not convinced Corey Gaines was the right choice I was actually hoping for Bjorkgren would get the job. He apparently did a very good job in the D league developing players and I think that is what we really need.

I think we all want to be positive about this team but it certainly is hard to be with the moves that are and are not being made by management.

The playbook is identical. Construct a dysfunctional roster (the '12-'13 team possessed some decent pieces, but there was no star and the personnel did not fit together at all with Michael Beasley and Luis Scola as the starting forwards), fire the head coach, and replace him not just with an assistant, but a sub-assistant (Hunter) or a guy who was recently a sub-assistant (Watson) and had been on the bench for a very brief period. Hunter served as a sacrificial lamb, and Watson will likely do the same. (The fact that Hunter and Watson were both recently retired black point guards drives the parallel home even further, although I am sure that the racial part is merely coincidence—Watson will be Sarver's fourth black head coach, with all of them coming in the last eight seasons.)

[GMATCallahan]

Bjorkgren does not have better qualification.

What in the world makes you think that?

JMO

What makes Earl Watson such a freaking genius. What team has he actually coached?

I hope he does well, but I really do not like the guy at this point, I have never liked him. He has a lot to prove for me to buy in. Maybe Bob Hill can teach him where the bathroom is. Hell it appears like Bob Hill will do most of the work anyway. Why not just make Hill the interim coach?

It seems like Earl Watson is more concerned about an agent than scheduling a practice. Bob Hill will probably have to train him on how to run a practice as well. At this point his pocket book seems more important than results.

I am not impressed.

Just because he doesn't have a great long resumé doesn't mean he isn't a good fit. It wouldn't be the first time someone less experience is nevertheless a better candidate for a job than someone with more experience. You've never seen anything like this in the workforce?

Could they just be putting in their guy cause he's who they like? Sure. Could he fall in his face? Likely, even.

But on principle, as management you can work with someone every day and make the determination that he really knows his stuff even tho he hasn't been around as long as the other guys. Should probly happen more often than it does TBH.

The problem is that the Suns did the same thing with Hunter three years ago, and Phoenix seems to be using Watson as a sacrificial lamb. What we are seeing seems to be a sort of de facto organizational methodology. When the Suns fail to notably improve, Watson will become the next fall-guy.

[Donald_Trade]

That is how pro sports work.

[GMATCallahan]

Watson: "I'm going to nurture and embrace Markieff Morris." And said he'd leave his kids with Tyson.


hahaha
Good luck, coach.

The last thing Markieff needs is more babying.

I'm actually glad Watson is the coach for the rest of the season. He is going to fail miserably. Which Brings us closer to the #1 pick. Watson is not prepared for this.

His whole presser and what he talked about is exactly opposite of what this team needs. He talked to much about being buddy-buddy with the players. Players don't need that....they need a LEADER.

He keeps quoting all these coaches and GMs that are successfully. He actually quoted RC Buford....come on now, the dude has had Duncan his whole GM career.

Sorry, I'm not impressed. But again let the lottery balls keep adding up. So Watson just helps that goal.

Why not bring back former Suns' assistant (and player) Paul Silas, who has been a head coach in various places? Silas is seventy-two now, but he is still tough. Four years ago, he famously tore into Tyrus Thomas in the locker room.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--paul-silas--tyrus-thomas-have-altercation-in-bobcats--locker-room.html

While the Suns' lead assistant coach twenty years ago, Silas once challenged Charles Barkley to a fight in the team's locker room. On another occasion, when Silas saw Barkley adopt an unusually intense (by Sir Charles' standards) workout regimen after being named to Dream Team III late in the season, Silas told Barkley that he was full of it for having failed to work out that way all along. Imagine what Silas might do with Markieff Morris ...

[GMATCallahan]

That is how pro sports work.

... not quite in this manner. When most teams promote an assistant coach to the role of head coach, they choose a guy with tenure, not a guy who had never served as a full-fledged assistant coach (Hunter) or who had just become a full-fledged assistant coach (Watson).