Robin Lopez's Arrival and Recent Win Are Just Covering Alvin Gentry's Ineptitude

Anyone who breathes a sigh of relief over the Suns' win over the hapless New Jersey Nets is fooling his/herself.

Sure, the Suns needed a win, but not as much as they need to be honest with themselves. This is a team in disarray, both on the court and on the sideline.

The Suns' staff may hope Robin Lopez's flashes of relevancy remain, but that only highlights Frye as a one-dimensional player off the bench. If he isn't hitting from deep (which he hasn't done recently), he's a void of futility in every other facet of the game. In fact, coming off the bench only seemed to freeze Frye's already cold shot and swagger.

Jason Richardson scored an impressive 26 points off the bench, but it wasn't nearly impressive if you saw the game in person (which I did). He racked up 15 of those 26 in garbage time against the worst team in the league. On his birthday. That's not super-sub scoring; it's self-indulgence.

Right now, the only guy who should breathe a sigh of relief is head coach Alvin Gentry. Any coach who changes two-fifths of his starters halfway through the season is waving a red flag that says "Help!" Instead of being in control of the team, Gentry showed he'd lost control of them.

Of course, when Lopez surprises with a career night and J-Rich's numbers look good off the bench, suddenly his panic-driven move looks pretty savvy. This Suns fan isn't buying it.

Gentry's recent slew of novice coaching decisions is mind-boggling.

Exhibit A: Gentry's obsession with zone defense cost the Suns against Atlanta and Indiana, and it could have again if the opponent had been anyone except New Jersey.

The Suns were up by nine and pulling away early in the third quarter when Gentry inexplicably called for a zone. The lead was back to five (that happens when Stoudemire is supposed to be a rotating defender in your zone) before New Jersey played like New Jersey. Any other team, and that lead probably goes away completely.

In the losses against Atlanta and Indiana, Gentry stubbornly stuck to the zone despite their barrage of made threes. Any NBA perimeter player will usually make a wide-open three. Phoenix doesn't have players like Raja Bell or Shawn Marion to extend the zone, making it ineffective in closing out shooters.

Apparently Gentry doesn't know his personnel yet, which leads to:

Exhibit B: Gentry's lack of awareness as to who's on the floor.

Early in the second quarter, with all non-starters on the floor, the Suns offense had come to a complete stand-still. Normally this wouldn't be surprising, except that now, "non-starters" include Jason Richardson.

With such a potent scorer among his subs, Gentry would be wise to run the offense through Richardson, an effective low-post and wing scorer. Instead, the Suns ran the most ineffective two-man game with Goran Dragic and Jared Dudley. The result? Four points in the first six minutes of the second quarter.

At the beginning of the season, Gentry seemed firmly in command, knowing exactly what the team needed both in terms of both Xs and Os and motivation.

Now? Gentry seems to have lost a handle both on his players and his game plan. For one night, he (rather, Lopez and the regulars) staved off the hot seat.

Things could be different come games against Chicago, Golden State, Utah, and Dallas. Those games may give a more honest view of where the Suns are than New Jersey.

And some honest losses that incur change for good might be better than Band-Aid wins that hide what needs to change.