How Steve Kerr Ruined the Phoenix Suns

Remember the days when the Phoenix Suns were the most exciting team in the league and perennial contenders? I don’t either. There’s a laundry list of bad Steve Kerr decisions: traded away Kurt Thomas to save money, made an awful trade of Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’Neal that didn’t make any basketball sense, traded valuable assets Boris Diaw and Raja Bell for Jason Richardson, didn’t try to convince Mike D’Antoni to come back, and traded away good draft picks like Rudy Fernandez, Rajon Rondo, and Marcin Gortat.

Where to start. Kurt Thomas was their best low post defender and the only guy on the roster who could do a reasonable job guarding archrival Tim Duncan. Ironically enough, he ended up landing in San Antonio, adding insult to injury. He acquired Shaquille O’Neal, who didn’t fit in Phoenix’s up-tempo style at all. 7 seconds or Shaq? Completely ineffective. They lost their identity. How could Kerr not know this? It was such an unnecessary risk. Marion was the perfect wingman for Nash to get the ball to. Super athletic, a great slasher, alley-oop extraordinaire, and solid shooter. Marion will never be as good now as he was with Nash. The Nash-Marion combination was a match made in basketball heaven. They brought out the best in each other. Now, Marion was essentially turned into expiring contracts. That trio of Nash, Marion and Stoudemire was one of the best in the league. Kerr flushed it down the toilet. [Read more...]