Igor Kokoskov isn’t overly concerned about who starts.
He’s more focused on who plays a major part in winning.
To him, much shouldn’t be made of the Phoenix Suns’ starting five for tonight’s preseason opener at 7 against Sacramento at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
“I know fans want to see, but that’s our strength,” the first-year NBA head coach said. “We can start a lot of guys. There’s a term, fake starter. You can start whoever, but what matters is who wins the games.”
Suns.com is streaming the game as it can only be seen within a 75-mile radius of Phoenix. Kokoskov said he expects to play the starters “15 minutes” against the Kings.
“It’s hard to coach a game to lose, but I’d rather see some guys play more minutes to see how they’re going to respond,” he said. “Accepting coaching. Information. Concepts. New terminology. Reaction. When they get tired and fatigued. That’s my thing.”
Kokoskov understands players are “competitors,” and want to win, but he’s looking to play as many players as possible and start to establish some sort of identity.
“Shot selection,” he said. “Floor balance affects our transition defense. We don’t want to look like a bunch of guys just hooping. We want to play basketball. Transition defense kind of reflects discipline on a team because of shot selection, bad shots, turnovers, there’s no transition defense. That’s a first element as a viewer, as a fan, you see how much discipline you have.”