REACHING: The Phoenix Suns have a new coach and one missing superstar in Amare Stoudamire (left). Time will tell if they’ve made progress. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The team is used to winning division titles, controlling its own playoff destiny, and over the past four seasons, has averaged 58 regular season wins.
Winning is the bottom line in pro sports and while the Suns have been doing plenty of that, they haven’t won the ultimate prize—an NBA title.
The team made it to the conference finals in 2005 and 2006, losing to the San Antonio Spurs in five games and the Dallas Mavericks in six games respectively, but has been eliminated in earlier rounds the last two seasons. They lost to the Spurs in the conference semifinals in 2007 and again in the first-round last year.
Tired of playoff losses to the Spurs and lack of finals appearances, the team decided to make some major changes to the team, starting last February before the trading deadline.
The team made, what it thought was, a statement trading All-Star forward Shawn Marion and guard Marcus Banks to the Miami Heat for star center Shaquille O’Neal. But the deal didn’t help and the results were the same.
After last year’s first-round loss to the Spurs, the organization decided to part ways with head coach Mike D’Antoni, giving him permission to interview with the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks. D’Antoni ultimately decided on the latter.
Terry Porter, who is known as a defensive coach, succeeded D’Antoni as Suns bench boss but didn’t seem to have the same rapport with the team.
Under D’Antoni, the Suns were offensive-minded but there have been suggestions that GM Steve Kerr wanted the team to play better at their own end of the court, which accounts for why Porter and O’Neal were brought in.
Star point guard Steve Nash didn’t like the change in philosophy as witnessed by the team’s ninth place standing at the All-Star break and Porter was fired and replaced by Alvin Gentry right after All-Star weekend.
“Porter’s fate was sealed the day on national TV earlier this season when Nash threw him and his slow-down-on-green offensive philosophy under the psychedelic bus,” reported veteran hoops and New York Post writer Peter Vecsey.
Was all the change really necessary though? While the team didn’t win any conference or NBA championships with D’Antoni and Marion in tow, they did average close to 60 wins a season and they came close to making the finals twice.
Owners and management are often too impatient, making rash decisions to the detriment of the team.
There is nothing to suggest that the Suns would have made the finals had D’Antoni and Marion stayed, but by the same token there is nothing to suggest they weren’t on the verge of a trip to the finals either.
D’Antoni’s style was successful; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it—as the saying goes.
The rival Spurs have been amongst the league’s best in recent memory and while the team does make changes to its roster, the core players, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, have been there for at least six-years. San Antonio has two NBA titles in the last four years.
In five games under Gentry, as of Tuesday, the team has gone 4–1 and returned to a more up-tempo style averaging 128 points a game despite missing star power forward Amare Stoudamire, who is out for at least eight weeks with a detached retina.
A return to the up-tempo game will help the Suns rise in the Western standings but it might not be enough for the playoffs. Currently the Suns sit in ninth place—on the outside looking in.
