Kekai

I don't mean to bring the Mavs into this, but I think they need to get rid of Josh Howard. To me, he doesn't fit well with Dirk. Avery Johnson did seem like a good coach when he first started though. Wasn't he the quickest coach ever to a certain amount of wins and everybody was praising him?? I wouldn't mind him I guess.

Tiz

I'm still going with Sir Charles.

Seuss

That would at least be comical.

Are you saying bring Charles to coach this current team?

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The Best Damn Babe Thread

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. ---John Wooden

Sunsfan81

Hopefully it's true. He's a good guy and hopefully he does well somewhere else but it's time for a change. I don't know who would be the next coach. I wouldn't be too thrilled with guys like Van Gundy, Rick Carlisle, or Avery Johnson, although the defense would certainly improve.

Regardless, without some major roster changes which will be very difficult to make, the window has probably closed on this group of players. Too many good teams in the West. The Spurs will still be excellent. The Lakers, Hornets, and Jazz might all be even better next season. The Rockets should be very good if Yao stays healthy. The Mavericks, Nuggets, and Warriors will still be solid, and the Blazers will greatly improve with Oden.

Tiz

Mainly for entertainment purposes.

But hey the guy is part of the ownership group, although I think like Kerr at a very small percentage.

Plus he is always so rough on the team and Amare in particular. Like to see what one of the "50-greatest" and shortest player ever to win rebounding title could do for Amare defensive growth.

At the least bring him in as an assistant since I would assume that if Mike D' goes, Dan D' will be leaving with him.

nffl

Avery!

I truly believe that if Avery came to Phoenix then Diaw would become an allstar. Avery would toughen him up.

Avery understands how Nash plays, he would not bring the same system from Dallas. Remember, Avery played behind Nash in Dallas for a little over a year. It's hard to have a good, motion offense with Dirk. Give it to him 18 ft out, post up and turn around fade away. That was their system. Avery could easily learn Nash and Amare's pick and roll, which I thought was lacking in the SA series. It used to set up 90% of our offense. Under Avery, we'd do probably 60% pick-and-rolls with Amare/Diaw and Nash (because remember that also sets up 3 point shooters so its not strictly to set up Amare/Diaw and Nash's game) and the rest would be post iso's and Barbosa iso's.

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Favorite Players- Steve Nash, Raja Bell, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, Michael Finley, Monta Ellis, Dwight Howard

IceMan23and3

Avery doesn't like Nash. Avery is a terrible offensive coach. Avery is a mediocre defensive coach.

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nffl

I don't believe any of those statements. Avery took a talented team to the finals a couple years ago. Then you give Avery a decent roster and expect him to beat a very good Hornets team?

The Mavs became a predictable halfcourt iso team against NO because that is what they are best at. He would not develop a halfcourt iso offense if the coach of the Suns.

Offensively, Avery had Dirk, J-Ho, J-Kidd, Jet Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, and Brandon Bass (talk about throwing a bunch of players that don't flow together. J-Ho and Dirk just don't mesh). A few years ago, that would've been a great team, getting them to the Finals. In this stacked West it just doesn't cut it. Give him Nash, Amare, Diaw, Bell, Barbosa, Shaq, Hill, etc. and that is alot more talent.

You argue for D'Antoni, saying that he can't play defense for the Suns and is too busy yelling at them for rebounding, etc. But thats the thing, if that statement was true, then you could use that excuse for every coach of a struggling team. "It's not Isiah's fault the Knicks sucked... he couldn't play for them." I know Isiah is different because that situation there was just awful. But the principle is the same.

But the point is that if you can't get your team to live up to its potential, then you are out. D'Antoni had 4 years to just make the Finals with arguably the most talented roster in the NBA (and a trio of Nash/Amare/Marion and other guys like Diaw and Joe Johnson). If you don't get the team where it should be, then you are out. Simple as that. I love Mike D but tough ****.

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Favorite Players- Steve Nash, Raja Bell, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, Michael Finley, Monta Ellis, Dwight Howard

IceMan23and3

So how was Dallas different from the one that got bounced in the first round twice from the one that went to the finals? They weren't. The team just got worse and worse as they went away from Nellie's offense, it got more and more stagnant until they just collapsed like a soufle. The offense wasn't the only problem, they played mediocre defense at best while he coached.
he didn't have any quality system in place as Dallas was last in the league in assists year after year.

Isiah is a mediocre coach with a bad roster. He made the roster so whatever happens is his doing. I think you can argue that Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili are better than Nash/Amare/Marion. Not to mention key injuries and suspensions changed their future in every post season. Would they have beaten Dallas with a healthy Amare, KT, and or Bell? Probably. Could they have forced a game 7 at home against SA last year had it not been for the suspensions? probably. Would they have had their asses kicked as bad this year with a healthy Hill? probably not.

You can blame the coach for bad usage of timeouts or substitutions. You can blame him for not having an offensive or defensive system. But you can't blame him for losing to the eventual NBA champs or his players missing open shots, or making stupid passes, or missing fts, or forgetting defensive assignments. He did his job by preparing them but many of the mistakes made on defense are fundamental errors (Amare) or lack of hustle (every long rebound). Many of the mistakes on offense are because the player tries to be Jordan on the court and take the defense 1 on 5 or misses an open shot or makes a bad pass. The fact of the matter is that the players stunk it up in this series. You can't blame a blowout on anything other than lack of hustle. That's it plain and simple. Games 2 and 3 were a total lack of energy and enthusiasm. They deserved to be booed.

As for him not developing his bench..... HE HASN'T HAD A BENCH TO DEVELOP!!! You can't develop a 33 year old who can't play defense, dribble or make plays. You can't develop anyone unless they can be developed! That means that they have to have raw potential (Barbosa?) However, the Suns haven't drafted anyone to be developed for the past 4 years other than Barbosa, Strawberry, and Tucker. So who has he not developed? 30 year old Pat Burke? 30 year old Sean Marks? 38 year old Piatkowski? 32 year old Skinner?

So if you're going to blame anyone, blame Management for screwing up for 4 years in a row for not drafting new talent but rather thinking that they could take another team's scraps and turn it into gold.

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nffl

I have been on Mike D's side of this every year but when the team doesn't live up to its potential after 4 years, it is hard to argue for him. I love the guy, but he just didn't get it done. You said he did his job preparing them, but doesn't that also mean mentally preparing them? Something seems to happen to us every year. On a year to year case, it does not look like D'Antoni's fault. But once all four years are combined, it is obvious that his team was not mentally ready. Sure Joe Johnson was hurt in 04, Nash had to pull out of game 1 last yr vs the Spurs, and then the Amare/Diaw suspensions latter in the series reduced our chances significantly at winning a title... But a championship team would have withered each storm. All championship teams are mentally tough, we just did not fit that mix.

I blame the coach as well as the management. I know he just wanted to save money because that is what any owner of a NBA franchise would do, but if he had just gone over it a little bit we could've made a Championship. Loul Deng, or Igoudola is my main focus, and then Rondo.

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Favorite Players- Steve Nash, Raja Bell, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, Michael Finley, Monta Ellis, Dwight Howard

Bartholomew Hunt

You don't have the personnel to field a great defensive team. Another words, your best bet is to outscore everybody. If you bring in a halfcourt coach, Nash's game regresses to the level he was at in Dallas. Very good, but hardly all-NBA caliber. Amare and Shaq begin to get in each others way and O'Neal does what he always does. Rips his teammates and throws everybody else under the bus for his own shortcomings. Changing coaches would be making the same mistake as the Shaq trade. You can't expect to make drastic changes and assume that you're improving a weak point while magically maintaining your previous identity. It just doesn't work that way. Part of why you are able to outscore everybody is because you dont play defense. Other teams are baited into taking jumpshots early in the shotclock and off to the races you go with the fastbreak. Move to a halfcourt style and it takes your three point shooters out of rhythm, meaning a nice drop in their shooting percentages. I think you have already witnessed a small dose of this. Fire D'Antoni and you may as well blow up the entire team, save Amare. With your personnel, there is no better fit than the pringles man.

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Purple and Gold forever..

bircan

You make a great point! It will be very challenging for this team to find within them what they could not the previous years. However we have seen that outscoring teams does not ultimately work. Our defense will not instantly or ever become Celtics-like, even with a new coach, but I hope that we field much more heart and willpower - new coach or not.

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Bircan