Suns News: The Offseason

[Indy]

I am with Shel on this. I hope Watson succeeds here, but giving him a pass on his poor job to date (worst coaching record in Suns history after expansion year--lower than Lindsay Hunter and twice as bad as Hornacek) based on lack of experience is like saying, "no wonder the bus driver went off the cliff... he hadn't learned to drive yet. Give him a chance"! (Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch)

[O_Gardino]

NBA coaches don't stay with team more than 3 or 4 years. Even if Watson improves, he wont be with us when he is better.

[Split T]

I am with Shel on this. I hope Watson succeeds here, but giving him a pass on his poor job to date (worst coaching record in Suns history after expansion year--lower than Lindsay Hunter and twice as bad as Hornacek) based on lack of experience is like saying, "no wonder the bus driver went off the cliff... he hadn't learned to drive yet. Give him a chance"! (Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch)

Hard to grade Watson on wins when the front office has been trying to lose games.

Watson impresses me as a person and does a lot of things right, but I'm not sold on him as a strategist. I'm not really sure what our offensive philosophy even is. We score a lot in transition and we run pick n roll to get our guards shots in the paint. That's about all I know. We're bottom 3 in the league in both assists and spot up 3's.

[Superbone]

Sorry, I'm not in the group that thinks Watson should be given a pass because of his inexperience. That's why you work as an assistant coach for a number of years until you grow into a head coach (or not). If you have a group of 18-19-20 year olds who, by and large, don't really know how to play at the professional level, I want a coach who has a proven track record teaching them what to do and how to play from Day 1. Why waste 2-3-4 key developmental years of the young players' careers seeing if a rookie head coach will himself improve. And if Watson doesn't work out, now you scrap what he's taught them just to bring in someone else to start over?

Remember: Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

In that case, that's all on ownership and McD for selecting him in the first place. You can't blame Watson for being thrust into the spotlight early. What was he supposed to say? "Nah, I don't want to be a head coach in the NBA. I'm not ready yet. I'll pass. Thanks anyway."

[Indy]

And I may have sounded harsh, but I really like his attitude and (at least how he talks about) his philosophy. I haven't seen it translate to the court, though.

[Indy]

Sorry, I'm not in the group that thinks Watson should be given a pass because of his inexperience. That's why you work as an assistant coach for a number of years until you grow into a head coach (or not). If you have a group of 18-19-20 year olds who, by and large, don't really know how to play at the professional level, I want a coach who has a proven track record teaching them what to do and how to play from Day 1. Why waste 2-3-4 key developmental years of the young players' careers seeing if a rookie head coach will himself improve. And if Watson doesn't work out, now you scrap what he's taught them just to bring in someone else to start over?

Remember: Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

In that case, that's all on ownership and McD for selecting him in the first place. You can't blame Watson for being thrust into the spotlight early. What was he supposed to say? "Nah, I don't want to be a head coach in the NBA. I'm not ready yet. I'll pass. Thanks anyway."

I don't think this is about assigning blame. It doesn't matter why we have a coach that isn't delivering on the court. We do. And we would be better off with a competent, experienced coach. But I am not sure we had a chance with one of those.

[Superbone]

I am with Shel on this. I hope Watson succeeds here, but giving him a pass on his poor job to date (worst coaching record in Suns history after expansion year--lower than Lindsay Hunter and twice as bad as Hornacek) based on lack of experience is like saying, "no wonder the bus driver went off the cliff... he hadn't learned to drive yet. Give him a chance"! (Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch)

Hard to grade Watson on wins when the front office has been trying to lose games.

Watson impresses me as a person and does a lot of things right, but I'm not sold on him as a strategist. I'm not really sure what our offensive philosophy even is. We score a lot in transition and we run pick n roll to get our guards shots in the paint. That's about all I know. We're bottom 3 in the league in both assists and spot up 3's.

Exactly. See, now this is a balanced take. He's a great communicator and mentor but he has a long way to go as a strategist. Will he get there is anybody's guess but he's not lacking for effort. You can't blame Watson for taking the head coaching gig when offered. I hope he becomes a great head coach on our watch but if not, he'll have had great experience which will help him down the road. I for one am not going to continue to harp on him for not being a great coach from the jump. There are very few in this world that display greatness without practice and time.

[Superbone]

And I may have sounded harsh, but I really like his attitude and (at least how he talks about) his philosophy. I haven't seen it translate to the court, though.

You're right. It hasn't yet except for the fact that the guys always play hard and for each other. Let's hope it comes together at some point and they start winning some games. Just not this season. You guys want it both ways. You want to win but at the same time you want to lose to get a high draft pick.

[Indy]

And I may have sounded harsh, but I really like his attitude and (at least how he talks about) his philosophy. I haven't seen it translate to the court, though.

You're right. It hasn't yet except for the fact that the guys always play hard and for each other. Let's hope it comes together at some point and they start winning some games. Just not this season. You guys want it both ways. You want to win but at the same time you want to lose to get a high draft pick.

If we can win a championship with this team and coach next year, let's do it. Even if we can be a top 4 playoff team, let's do it. But if we can't, there is no benefit to being #8. Middle of the road is the death of a team.

I want to trust the timeline. But I also don't want to waste the formative years for guys like Booker where he needs to be taught the Xs and Os of winning basketball. I don't think Watson is the guy to teach him that when he is still learning himself. Watson has been around the game (high school through pros and into coaching) longer than Booker has been alive. If he were going to be a great coach, or at least a great teacher of Xs and Os, he would be that by now. I really hope we bring in a guy like to that to be on his staff that the players can look up to.

[ShelC]

Playing hard only wins you so many games. And I get that our GM and owner probably wanted to cheap out on a coach because we're rebuilding. Lots of teams do that - why pay top dollar for a winning coach when you're dumping, right? But you're still laying a foundation with the young guys. Even if we got a young coach from a veteran/winning coaching staff who was an Xs and Os guy, I feel like it'd be more helpful in grooming these guys on NBA defense, offensive situations, etc.

[In2ition]

I like the idea of a young coach growing with the team. I like that Watson is working on culture first, and taking slowly. I just really hope that he's sandbagging in his coaching style right now, but I doubt we are that quite devious right now.

[Split T]

Wasn't the main reason we hired Watson was because the players unanimously supported him and said we shouldn't let him get away? Or something like that.

[Cap]

Wasn't the main reason we hired Watson was because the players unanimously supported him and said we shouldn't let him get away? Or something like that.

The players love him. That counts for a lot, but it's not everything. If we're going to stick with him, we need to bring in someone to help with the X's and O's.

[Superbone]

Wasn't the main reason we hired Watson was because the players unanimously supported him and said we shouldn't let him get away? Or something like that.

The players love him. That counts for a lot, but it's not everything. If we're going to stick with him, we need to bring in someone to help with the X's and O's.

That's exactly it. The current staff isn't getting it done. Watson needs a strong X and O guy. Is Tex Winter available? Minus the triangle?

[carey]

I was going over the schedule and the Suns only play the Pelicans once in NOLA and it's not until Feb 26th. That's post All-Star break and trade deadline. Might be sitting half the team by then.

[O_Gardino]

I was going over the schedule and the Suns only play the Pelicans once in NOLA and it's not until Feb 26th. That's post All-Star break and trade deadline. Might be sitting half the team by then.

Suns, or Pels.

The Pelicans _should_ be fighting for a playoff spot, but that org seems to always find a way to be bad.

[carey]

Suns, or Pels.

The Pelicans _should_ be fighting for a playoff spot, but that org seems to always find a way to be bad.

Del Demps is the worst. Who knows what the Pelicans will do this year but you can bet they will make a stupid trade at some point.

[In2ition]

Suns, or Pels.

The Pelicans _should_ be fighting for a playoff spot, but that org seems to always find a way to be bad.

Del Demps is the worst. Who knows what the Pelicans will do this year but you can bet they will make a stupid trade at some point.

It always felt like through AD's time there that they had different conflicting visions of a team that they wanted to build around AD. I think that's going to be their downfall, as not having a clear long term vision, and then not having a viable short term vision that works with the long term vision just destroys the Pelicans and wastes AD's talent.

[bajanguy008]

Wow , I don't know what the statistic is for Consecutive days with a basketball post on the forum but I was surprised to see there hasn't been a single post today
Well here's my post , May the Streak live on
https://twitter.com/Suns/status/898628538202439681 This seems to be the guys at the facility today
https://twitter.com/balldontstop/status/898961146954137601

[Mori Chu]

Thanks for posting, bajanguy. We need more posts during these dog days of the offseason!