The Suns announced Earl Watson as their new head coach

[jcsunsfan]

Watson seems laid back and likeable so I understand the player's support for him. Whether the reports were true or not about Watson being "the guy all along" I think it's clear McD simply doesn't have the "clout" to go against the player's emphatic wishes.

I don't think that is clear at all. The players emphatic wishes might have just supported what McD wanted to do anyway. There is no indication anywhere that McD wanted someone else.

[DirtyDez]

You guys act like we had a **** choice

Coach Cal said he'd come to the NBA for a 10 year $120 million dollar contract with the Nets or the Kings. He'd likely take the same with us - Source. I can't imagine he'd turn down the offer with us considering half our roster is his former players.

Is it expensive? Yes.

Does spending that money make us better? Absolutely.

Does spending that money negatively impact our ability to acquire talent in any way? No.

Does spending that money impact Sarver's bottom line? Yes.

This isn't rocket science. How many bargain bin coaches are the Suns going to hire before you realize what Sarver cares about?

Coach Cal would have been a TERRIBLE hire. He should win the title every year in college because of the classes he gets, and still fails much of the time, even when a heavy favorite, or bows out early like this year, or loses in the first year of the NIT with Archie Goodwin. Sure he can win it all with Anthony Davis, but that's about it. Even with Wall, Cousins and Bledsoe, he lost in the Elite 8.

He has proven he sucks at the NBA level already.

He's a GREAT college recruiter and a decent college coach and that's about it.

Cal's teams are mainly made up of 18-19 year olds. I think it's insane to think they should win it all every year based on highly rated raw talent one year removed of HS. Wisconsin took out both Arizona and Kentucky because they were jr and sr's. I mean they go 40-1 and the year is considered a failure? That's nuts.

Only UCONN women should be held to that standard because they get the best talent and they play FOUR years.

Also Cal took a Brandon Knight lead team to the F4 so...

[RunDogGun]

Its not that Watson is a bad hire, its the way that the FO did it that shows gross incompetence:

- Few games before season ends, news came out that Suns interested in D'Antoni and other coaches. I really thought McD ran a tight ship, the leak looks intentional.
- News came out that only very few coaches interested in working for Sarver
- News came out that Suns not willing to pony up salary for top coaches? WTF? Are these guys for real? Talk about being cheap. They coudve just kept their mouths shut.
- Watson is hired before we even start going through the motions of interviewing and bringing in coaching prospects. The move reeks of desperation, kind of like settling for Watson because no one is applying. If they were that happy with Earl, they couldve just extended him two weeks ago lol...

My friends, its these amateurish moves that leaves me despairing about the state of the Suns. How can we move forward, if we cant trust the owner/FO to make the right moves?

News, or rumors? If the whole team came in and said they want Watson (again rumor, not fact), couldn't that explain the hire/ and timing? If that is true, then it isn't settling or desperate.

Oh well, way too early to judge this one. I'd like to see what Watson can do with a full training camp. It would be cool to see him do the summer league like Jeff did his first year. I thought that really helped start us off right.

We don't have to "trust" an owner or mgmt. As fans, you can just root for another team if you want.

[RunSunRun]

Let's be real, no premiere coaches were coming here. That left us with Earl, unknowns, or retreads for coaches.

I like us showing loyalty to a guy, especially a guy that the players love. Sarver has long soured relations with coaches and players, maybe this is finally a sign of a culture shift and building the Suns back into a team that players want to come to. We can hope anyways.

[RunDogGun]

Let's be real, no premiere coaches were coming here. That left us with Earl, unknowns, or retreads for coaches.

I like us showing loyalty to a guy, especially a guy that the players love. Sarver has long soured relations with coaches and players, maybe this is finally a sign of a culture shift and building the Suns back into a team that players want to come to. We can hope anyways.

That's not being real, that's just fueling speculation, which many fans have fired. Real, would be that clearly the last half of the season and the relationship with current personnel gave Watson the job.

What "Premiere" coach did we miss out on?

I do however want to see a better offense, and I want to see plays that bring out the best in our personnel since that is what Watson should know by now. A healthy team will help a lot too.

[letsgosuns]

Watson will only be as good as the players he has to work with. If the Suns come back with a roster similar to this past season, they will suck. If they plan on playing a lineup of Bledsoe, Knight, and Booker at the same time, they will really, really suck.

Dragic and Thomas are both better players than Knight and it did not work out when it was Bledsoe, Dragic, and Thomas in the first place. Just because Booker is a shooting guard does not mean anything. He should be playing shooting guard exclusively so he can have an advantage over other shooting guards. Moving him to small forward where he has to play against bigger players is completely idiotic and will hinder his development and the success of the team.

Suns MUST get rid of Knight and move away from the dual point guard disaster immediately. They will continue to be horrible until that stupid idea goes away. You do not see the Warriors, Spurs, Cavs, Thunder, Clippers, or any other top team play such a dumb lineup or start a backcourt as small as the Suns have.

[Years90Suns]

I do not know what to say. I was not expecting that movement so early. I thought we were going to see different options... probably to end up with Watson anyway.

I do not know whether I like all players saying good things about him.Does Watson make them work hard? Or they like him because they live well with him.

If he is a motivator, then we need to surround him with good assistants. But I do not think any good FA will come to play for him/us, unless a relatively young FA wants to play with Booker, Len, Goodwin and Warren.

Well, we have for good young players. One of them could excel in the L. We have two good players in Knight and Bledsoe who, with the right direction, can offer interesting things for the team, and not just for themselves. They have to offer good turnouts, but also they have to help develop the youth of the team.
Then we have Chandler, who did not want to be part of a rebuilding project, but then it is not understandable why he signed with us.

I hope we keep Teletovic, who enlarges the court, can play SF on offense and PF on defense, combining really well with Warren's game.

[blacksun]

Were not winning anything anyway with this roster. Watson is the perfect hire to build this young team. Sure, its weird that they didnt do their due diligence, but i fully expected them to hire him anyway. Continuity is good. Id like to see an X's and O's assistant coach to replace Bob Hill though.

[carey]

After Coro wrote that the Suns didn't formally interview any other candidates it confirmed my suspicion that they couldn't even get interviews with the top available coaches. I think they had feelers out for a while. McDonough has a relationship with Thibs from Boston, I think they did contact Jay Wright's agent, I think Sarver personally contacted Walton through Kerr, and to a man they all turned the Suns down.

[bwgood77]

Coach Cal said he'd come to the NBA for a 10 year $120 million dollar contract with the Nets or the Kings. He'd likely take the same with us - Source. I can't imagine he'd turn down the offer with us considering half our roster is his former players.

Is it expensive? Yes.

Does spending that money make us better? Absolutely.

Does spending that money negatively impact our ability to acquire talent in any way? No.

Does spending that money impact Sarver's bottom line? Yes.

This isn't rocket science. How many bargain bin coaches are the Suns going to hire before you realize what Sarver cares about?

Coach Cal would have been a TERRIBLE hire. He should win the title every year in college because of the classes he gets, and still fails much of the time, even when a heavy favorite, or bows out early like this year, or loses in the first year of the NIT with Archie Goodwin. Sure he can win it all with Anthony Davis, but that's about it. Even with Wall, Cousins and Bledsoe, he lost in the Elite 8.

He has proven he sucks at the NBA level already.

He's a GREAT college recruiter and a decent college coach and that's about it.

Cal's teams are mainly made up of 18-19 year olds. I think it's insane to think they should win it all every year based on highly rated raw talent one year removed of HS. Wisconsin took out both Arizona and Kentucky because they were jr and sr's. I mean they go 40-1 and the year is considered a failure? That's nuts.

Only UCONN women should be held to that standard because they get the best talent and they play FOUR years.

Also Cal took a Brandon Knight lead team to the F4 so...

I was exaggerating a bit saying he should win it all EVERY year, but the odds are SO much more in his favor in college than in the pros, which is why many big name college coaches who win with superior talent can't cut it in the pros (Calipari, Pitno, Nick Saban, etc) and that team that went 40-1 was SUPER stacked, with not only a frontcourt of Towns, WCS and Lyles, but also Booker with quite a bit of depth behind them. And WCS was at least a JR as well. That Wisconsin team, while good, still only basically had Kaminsky (who was terrible as a frosh and Soph), who we can see already had far less raw talent even as a sr than all those Kentucky guys, and Dekker.

I would have been pissed had we ended up with someone like him though, and I'm glad we didn't. OKC fans are already really upset with Donovan too, who actually won two titles at Florida and was one of the bigger name college coaches.

So he shouldn't win it all every year, and that's tough to do in a one and one tourney, but he ALWAYS will have the best, or one of the top 3 or 4 teams in terms of talent, and still has only won it once and often fails to reach the final four. To come to a team with our talent where we are already at a massive disadvantage, would be an epic failure, and the idea he can recruit big name free agents just because they played one year for him 10 years ago is a bit ridiculous as well.

[bwgood77]

Watson seems laid back and likeable so I understand the player's support for him. Whether the reports were true or not about Watson being "the guy all along" I think it's clear McD simply doesn't have the "clout" to go against the player's emphatic wishes.

I don't think that is clear at all. The players emphatic wishes might have just supported what McD wanted to do anyway. There is no indication anywhere that McD wanted someone else.

Yeah, I sensed this was what McD wanted to do anyway. I'm surprised there are a handful who feel otherwise. Well, maybe surprised isn't the best word. But don't really understand.

[MathiasPW]

It's an odd trend nowadays with HC now wanting official control of personnel and players. Historically they had very little say other than some consultation. Doc Rivers has that, SVG has that, Thibs wants that.

Pops started with that. So you see where they are coming from and why.

[TeamTragic]

Looks like a done deal with the Wolves. Thibodeau gets complete control of the team and they even get the current assistant general manager from San Antonio.

Apparently Wiggins/Towns is what makes the opening attractive #YOUTH

[saintEscaton]

Looks like a done deal with the Wolves. Thibodeau gets complete control of the team and they even get the current assistant general manager from San Antonio.

Apparently Wiggins/Towns is what makes the opening attractive #YOUTH

Pshht I'd take our kids over theirs any day of the week. OVERRATED

[rsavaj]

After a day to think about it, I give it an unenthusiastic thumbs up on the condition that he continues to A)stabilize the team while stomping out any drama, B)instills a professional/disciplined culture, and C)promotes the youth movement

[rsavaj]

get ready for another 82 games of the offense-destroying Len/Chandler frontcourt

Count me as a minority, but I loved the high-low action that Watson instilled in the offence.

Doesnt neccessarily have to be Len/Chandler, but using a 4 or 5 at the top of the key as a distributor is something Ive wanted to see from the Suns for years.

It sounds great in theory, and I think it could work if we had a Diaw-type(SIMMONS!), but our ORTG absolutely plummeted with Len/Chandler on the floor together.

[saintEscaton]

So we are essentially hiring a full time babysitter/motivational speaker for 3 years who will suck up to players and give feel good pressers? Will the inmates run the asylum once again?Hopefully he can get down to the nitty gritty Xs and Os and instill the sense of identity we are sorely lacking, a buyable system that doesn't involve featuring the Twin Towers Front Court that was outscored 15.3 points per 100 possession or Three Headed Hydra Part Deux that will get destroyed by every wing player in the league. This is Watson until he proves otherwise
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EHBlnPUW0c[/youtube]

[bwgood77]

So we are essentially hiring a full time babysitter/motivational speaker for 3 years who will suck up to players and give feel good pressers? Will the inmates run the asylum once again?Hopefully he can get down to the nitty gritty Xs and Os and instill the sense of identity we are sorely lacking, a buyable system that doesn't involve featuring the Twin Towers Front Court that was outscored 15.3 points per 100 possession or Three Headed Hydra Part Deux that will get destroyed by every wing player in the league. This is Watson until he proves otherwise
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EHBlnPUW0c[/youtube]

So are you going to keep regurgitating the same thing everywhere? You're the only one I've seen describe him like this.

You're describing a lineup without a wing. He played everyone's favorite player PJ quite a bit. We were also missing Warren. We also don't really have a starting caliber PF. I don't like the twin towers much, or at least not often, but it's not like we have many options at PF either. I imagine if we don't find a decent PF in FA or trade, or draft one they will want to play immediately, PJ will get some time there as he can guard 4s and as many have said, provides energy and plays TEAM ball, and helps make everyone buy in.

By the way, most great coaches are great motivational speakers.

[bwgood77]

get ready for another 82 games of the offense-destroying Len/Chandler frontcourt

Count me as a minority, but I loved the high-low action that Watson instilled in the offence.

Doesnt neccessarily have to be Len/Chandler, but using a 4 or 5 at the top of the key as a distributor is something Ive wanted to see from the Suns for years.

It sounds great in theory, and I think it could work if we had a Diaw-type(SIMMONS!), but our ORTG absolutely plummeted with Len/Chandler on the floor together.

So good thing they would average 30-40 rebounds when they both played high minutes. Obviously you can't do that against most teams with much success for long anyway. At the end of the year, trying things like that was the time to do it...it's too bad we won a few near the end though.

[bwgood77]

Looks like a done deal with the Wolves. Thibodeau gets complete control of the team and they even get the current assistant general manager from San Antonio.

Apparently Wiggins/Towns is what makes the opening attractive #YOUTH

Pshht I'd take our kids over theirs any day of the week. OVERRATED

I think most everyone here understands there was no "Apparently" about it. I don't see many people around here saying

"Hmph...apparently people think Minnesota has a brighter future than us. What must they be thinking?"

How many people are you figuring, saint, are here liking our young core better than Minnesota's? I must be missing a few threads or something.