The Phoenix Suns have gone through a monumental series of changes in the last year, starting from the blockbuster trade that sent Shawn Marion to Miami for Shaquille O’Neal to the departure of long-time coach Mike D’Antoni to the New York Knicks.
There also have been years of disappointing playoff performances for the team.
When Coach D’Antoni first came to town, he adopted a style of basketball that changed the game that we see today. The years of the slow, methodical center who dominated the game disappeared. This ushered a new style of play that had point guards racing up the court, allowing only the players that could keep up to have a chance to score.
The Phoenix Suns became notorious for this style of basketball. The main philosophy depended on outscoring the opponent rather than playing strong defense and relying on stops.
The Suns became very popular around the league, but were never able to win a championship. D'Atoni started coaching the Suns in the 2003-2004 season through the end of this year. Throughout his career, the Suns lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs four out of his five seasons. The other year, they lost to the Dallas Mavericks.
Under his command, the Suns always had great regular-season records, but were repeatedly defeated in the playoffs. After this year’s first-round loss to the Spurs, D’Antoni decided to leave the Suns and now coaches for the New York Knicks.
It was always rumored in Phoenix that D’Antoni and Suns general manager Steve Kerr differed on how to coach the team, which inevitably added to his departure.
After D’Antoni left, Steve Kerr and the Suns took their time interviewing candidates for his job. They interviewed internal candidates that worked for the organization, including Eddie Johnson, Tom Chambers, and Vinny Del Negro (Vinny recently took the Chicago Bulls head coaching position).
The Suns also interviewed experienced assistant coaches that included Elston Turner, Tyrone Corbin, Brian Shaw, Jeff Hornacek, and Mike Budenholzer. They even interviewed Mark Jackson, who had no coaching experience.
Eventually, they interviewed only one candidate that had previous head coaching experience—Terry Porter.
We're going to send you the most entertaining Phoenix Suns articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete