It Might Be Time For the Suns to Start From Scratch
October 22, 2009 – 9:50 am by Zach Krantz
The Phoenix Suns were a Western Conference powerhouse for years under Mike D’Antoni’s “seven-seconds-or-less-offense”. It 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. In June 2007 Steve Kerr took over the Suns’ basketball operations and let D’Antoni flee to New York and brought in defensive minded Terry Porter. Kerr’s hiring of Porter was the start to the end of his reign in Phoenix. The run and gun that had them winning was gone and the defensive mindset was brought in. This isn’t the style that fits guys like Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Jason Richardson.
Kerr also brought in Shaquille O’Neal; that didn’t work out so well and he was dumped to the Cavs for a bag of chips and some cash. Porter didn’t last and in came Alvin Gentry and the run and gun again. A tornado swirled into Phoenix (Kerr) and they are back to where they started but lost the master of that offense in D’Antoni. If only he was still there and Kerr wasn’t, maybe they would still be a powerhouse instead of a possible eight seed in the West. Kerr needs to win this year and make sure he can keep the core guys around. Nash signed an extension and Amare backed out his trade demands when Gentry brought back the run and gun. If it’s not the coach that’s get canned this season, maybe the man wearing five championship rings takes a ride out of Phoenix.
Steve Kerr joined KTAR in Phoenix talking about the upcoming season, where his injured players are and how close they are to playing at a high level again, and the team’s expectations for 09-10 season.
Asked about the team’s objectives were during preseason:
“The objectives coming in really were to prove defensively and to make sure everybody knew exactly what we were doing scheme-wise, develop our young guys and have them understanding what we are trying to do. Which is obviously an ongoing process; it’s not something that happens in three or four weeks. And to re-establish Amare, get his legs underneath him, and I think we have done those things for the most part. We are getting better, we are getting there, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
Asked about the rehab and timetable for Robin Lopez:
“He is doing great, he is ahead of schedule. We are obviously going to be cautious, you don’t want to mess around and bring him back to fast. He is doing well, we have kind of targeted December 1st as a date for him to come back and obviously we need him. We are getting out rebounded in all these (preseason) games and you can see last night we just didn’t have the length inside to deal with the offensive boards. So I think Robin is going to be a real help to us and he is a big part of our plans moving forward.”
Asked if he thought the Suns were ready to start the 2009-2010 season:
“I think we are almost there, I think we need another good week of practice. I think we took a step back defensively last night, to many offensive boards and it would be great to have Robin out there and Amare probably needs another week. So I guess to answer the question, No we are not ready, but we are close.”
Listen to Steve Kerr on KTAR in Phoenix with Doug and Wolf
Tags: Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr
