The Suns' general manager officially pushed the reset button on Monday when he jettisoned coach Terry Porter, a scant seven months after hiring him to replace the popular and successful Mike D'Antoni.
D'Antoni's "seven-seconds-or-less-offense" propelled the Suns to an average of 58 wins per season during his final four years in the desert but the team could never get over the hump, losing in the conference finals in both 2004-05 and 2005-06 before taking a step back in each of the coach's last two seasons.
Armed with five rings as a player and the ear of owner Robert Sarver, Kerr took over the Suns' basketball operations in June of 2007 and made the same assessment every armchair GM playing EA Sports' NBA Live had already made.
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Results don't lie. Despite a couple of 60-win seasons under D'Antoni and owning the league's most exciting brand of basketball, Phoenix had little to show for the success of Steve Nash and company.
So Kerr went in a different direction and allowed D'Antoni to flee to New York, while settling on the defensive-minded Porter as his handpicked successor.
A 28-23 start, currently not good enough for a playoff spot in the competitive Western Conference, was all it took for Kerr to press reset on his very own game of NBA Live.
"I hired Terry because I believed he would be able to provide the balance our team needed in order to perform at a very high level," Kerr said while trying to justify his own mistake.
"Unfortunately the transition from last season to this one proved to be very difficult, and we have not played to our potential. It's imperative that we move forward and do what's best for our team. (Interim coach) Alvin (Gentry) has been an integral part of our successes the previous four years and knows our talent as well as anyone."
It's hard to play to your potential when you are asking your best players to ignore their strengths and play a totally different brand of basketball.
The Suns possess the generation's best playmaker in Nash, one of the league's most athletic power forwards (Amare Stoudemire) and a swingman that can run the floor like few others (Jason Richardson). Last I looked, Sidney Moncrief, Bobby Jones and Paul Pressey weren't suiting up in the Valley of the Sun. Yet, Kerr still hired Porter to pound the square peg in the round hole.
Normally, I wouldn't have a problem with that. I can respect any general manger who formulates a plan with the ultimate goal, an NBA championship, in mind.
The Suns failed to get it done with D'Antoni's high-octane system, so maybe it was time to take a step back in the hopes of taking two forward in a year or two, when Kerr could acquire the type of players Porter coveted.
Instead, like some teenager upset with the way his video game season was playing out, Kerr pulled the plug on his "vision" 51 games in. By all accounts, Gentry, a 20-year NBA coaching veteran and the only holdover from D'Antoni's staff, will go back to running-and-gunning.
Nash is likely ecstatic, Stoudemire is probably off the trading block, and up-tempo basketball will be back in Phoenix.
Wouldn't it be nice if they had D'Antoni to run it?
1 comment:
hi John- Porter got the shaft for sure when Kerr is the one needing to be fired. As you say, run and gunners don't become defensive aces overnight or ever for that matter. What was wrong with 58 wins a season and the most entertaining team in the league? Nash looks positively bored out there and why shouldn't he be bored. He no longer runs a Ferrari, now it's a creeping Shaq diesel. All the jettisoned players, Diaw, Bell, Marion are doing well on other teams. It was dumb to break up the team and let D'Antoni go. What they needed was a big quick defender like Tyson Chandler to guard the hoop a bit more. That would have slowed the Spurs a bit. Besides the whole western division is not as strong now. The high octane Suns would be even more competitive. Now, they are just plain mediocre and won't beat any of the good teams. It's the Steinbrenner syndrome. I don't win the title and I fire everyone. I would boycott the present management if I was a Suns fan and turn off the tube as well. Next they will trade Stottlemyre and Nash for Ben Wallace and Wally Szerbiak. Nothing Kerr does would be too shocking to consider! Enjoy your column and take care.....Paul
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