Porter's Not The Problem

In an otherwise plum perfect weekend for the city of Phoenix, a coach was fired.  Suns head coach Terry Porter was let go four months into his first season with Phoenix.  Word out of the Valley is that assistant coach Alvin Gentry will take over.

Whoop-di-do!

Really though, is it Porter's fault?  I don't know if he's a good coach.  I must admit, I somehow managed to miss a lot of Milwaukee Bucks games during his tenure there a few years back.  Something with my DVR not working, various public events I had to attend...

The real issue isn't the coaching here.  Porter's style, a slower, half-court style, isn't the problem.  It's that Steve Kerr, GM, decided to force it on this team, this once revolutionarily fast team.

7 seconds or less, that was the motto of the Mike D'Antoni Suns.  Now, it appears that Steve Kerr has gone as far away from that strategy as is humanly possible.  I'll be the first one to say that D'Antoni's system will only take a team so far, as is evidenced by the fact that they could never make it to the Finals.

But, at least (to most people not named Scott Spinelli) they were entertaining, and they were winning.  It's impossible to imagine them sustaining that level of play forever, with Steve Nash getting older especially (check out his "injury" note on his player page for a laugh).  But you might expect them to make the change a bit more fluidly.

Now, with shrewd moves to drop off athletic talent in that system (Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw) for aging, past-their-prime superstars (Shaquille O'Neal, Jason Richardson) the Suns and Kerr have attempted to completely change the image of the franchise.  Talks have even heated up to get rid of that Amar'e character.  Phew, what a load off that would be!

The Suns of 2009, no longer even fun, or good.  

Maybe instead of Porter getting the axe, Kerr should be the one being relieved of his duties.  Just a thought.