Suns of Anarchy

The most depressing thing in sports right now is the plight of my beloved Phoenix Suns. They got into the news this week the only way they can, by firing their head coach Jeff Hornacek. The cute story of an old-time, classy, and quiet Suns player coming back post retirement to coach the team came to a sad and horrible end in the middle of his third season. There is a saying in business, "don't let your success kill you." To some extent, thats exactly what happened to Hornacek. He started his coaching career with a 48-34 record in 2013-14 when nobody expected anything out of the team. The Suns at that time were coming off a disastrous 25 win season and had a joke for a coach in Lindsey Hunter. They were barely one season into the post-Nash era which was one challenging and horrible season as expected and they had fired Alvin Gentry mid-season to replace him with Hunter. 

Horny was not expected to do much in year one, but he turned the team around overnight behind 2 exciting guards. Suns continued to play an entertaining brand of fast-ball similar to the previous regime and Horny was also surprisingly winning games. But unfortunately, 48 wins in the wild west gets you nothing except a few less ping-pongs in the draft lottery. In retrospect, this unexpected early success screwed everything up. Instead of debating Andrew Wiggins versus Jabari Parker in the summer of 2014, Suns fans and the front office was now dreaming about playoffs and free agents like LeBron James and championships. And then GM Ryan McDonough did something that to this day makes no sense to me. He went out and signed 5'9" point guard Isaiah Thomas to go with the other two PGs he already had on his roster - Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic, who were both actually good and were the engine behind the 48-win team. 

That was the beginning of the end. Why in the world did he need a 3rd small guard? There are a lot of legitimate rationalizations of this decision including the messy contract situation of Bledsoe and Goran, but the IT signing is the singular reason I believe McDonough will and should lose his job. I trace all of the current problems to that one decision. It went south fast from there and I hate Isaiah Thomas to this day for that. Poor guy, none of this was his fault and all he did for the Suns was play hard. But McDonough bringing him in was a big mistake. Not only did the Suns not have enough shots to go around, they didn't even have enough dribbles to go around with these 3 guards. This pissed Dragic off and he wanted out. They were not winning enough games either to even match the previous year's 48. They had to trade the Dragon and that was a bummer. Not only was the dragon a good baller, he also provided us an emotional connection to the Nash era of the Suns. 

McDonough also traded IT and brought in Brandon Knight. We were in the midst of another reload and all these moves were neither here nor there. The team was a mess. We can't blame owner Robert Sarver either because they have been willing to spend the last 2 season and have been chasing big name free agents. But stars like LaMarcus Aldridge are not biting. Signing the aging Tyson Chandler in the hopes of landing LaMarcus was another huge gamble that looks bad now. This season started with a lot of hope and went downhill in a hurry. We then had towel-gate-2 as another mediocre power forward threw a towel on the face of a Suns ex-player and current head coach in the midst of a horrible season. Unfortunately, Kieff is still with the team and it's the coach who is gone. Not quite the Anige-Horry ending yet. I hope they get rid off Kieff soon despite his great game under coach Watson tonight. 

Now we are in this mess with Earl Watson coaching the team. Part of me thinks he is Lindsey Hunter redux, but part of me also thinks he looks like a classy and smart man and hope he succeeds. There are rumors of the team wanting Nash coaching the team next year, but I think this idea is a non-starter. Nash doesn't look ready to tie himself down with a coaching gig. The Suns are 14-36 right now after starting the season 7-5. They may not win 25 games this year and this feels like the Suns' worst season in my memory. The 2012-13 disaster will always give a tough fight for the worst season award and the one silver lining we got this season is Devin Booker. This 19 year-old gives us some hope. The upcoming off-season will be very interesting - high draft pick and lots of cap money that stars may or may not take. McDonough is considered a smart, young GM, but I wouldn't be too sad if he loses his job. Much like Hornacek, McDonough has earned his firing with everything that has happened in the last year and a half. Bring on the off-season already!

Suns are a hot mess.

The Phoenix Suns don't have any championships banners in their rafters, but they have always been a reputed, classy franchise. A lot of that credit goes to their long-time, now ex-owner Jerry Colangelo, who tried his best to field a winner most of the years. They have had some impressive, albeit futile, playoff runs including a 13-year playoff streak between 1989 and 2001. And who can forget the 7-seconds or less teams with Nash and Mike D'Antoni that kept us wildly entertained until a couple of years back. Of course, the committed fan base and the weather in Phoenix were also definitely instrumental in establishing the Suns as one of the top franchises because the free agents always wanted to play for the Suns.  But their current owner Robert Sarver is single-handedly making the Suns a laughing stock of the NBA. After decades of chasing the Lakers and their championships, Sarver has decided that the Suns are better off chasing the ghost of the other LA team, the Clippers. Now that the Clippers seem to be headed to sustained excellence with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, Sarver is working on making the Suns the new Clippers and is making tremendous progress. 

To be fair to the Clippers, I don't think even they have had a week quite like last week for the Suns. Sarver and the front office decided to part ways with coach Alvin Gentry - like it was his fault this roster is not competing with the LeBrons and Durants of the world. After removing the only thing (in their minds) between Michael Beasley and the MVP honors, namely Alvin Gentry's coaching, they decided to  achieve the impossible and make this Sun's season even worse that it already was. They hired Lindsey Hunter out of nowhere and made him the head coach passing on a couple of viable and practical options on their bench - fan favorite Dan Majerle and old timer Elston Turner. I was surprised Lindsey Hunter was even available to coach. I thought he was still a backup point guard at Cleveland or Toronto or somewhere. But all kidding aside, Hunter might become the next great coach in the NBA, but the way the Suns GM Lance Blanks handled this was horrible. It was so unexpected and offensive that both Majerle and Turner walked away from their jobs. The Turner situation got even worse as he wanted to come back later and now the team is paying him to stay away from the team the rest of the year. 

Forget drafting top talent and attracting great free agents, the Suns can't even hire interim head coaches without messing things up. As if this drama was not enough, there are also reports of Blanks and Jermaine O'Neal getting into a profanity laden argument in the locker room. To borrow from ex-Suns great Charles Barkley, "Cotton Fitzsimmons is rolling in his grave." The good news is, the Suns are just 4.5 games behind the Lakers. But the bad news is, both teams are horrible and the Suns have the worst record in the west. I don't even remember the last time I saw the Suns this far down the NBA standings.  They are 15-30 and Sarver didn't open the wallets even when Nash was winning him 55 games a year. What can we expect him to do in free agency with this team? Their rookie Kendall Marshall doesn't look anything like a high lottery pick and their new head coach doesn't have any coaching credentials, at least not yet.  This situation looks like it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. There are no quick fixes in sight. The Suns will be hosting Steve Nash and the Los Angeles Lakers tomorrow. Nash has not added much to the Lakers or their record, but the Suns definitely miss him badly. The most interesting part of the remainder of this Suns season might be seeing the Suns fans respond to Nash when he visits them. This is how far the once proud franchise has fallen.

Sarver, please sell the team and save the franchise. Take your millions and give back our team.