• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

2013 NBA Offseason |OT| Already Planning for the 2014 Offseason

Did you read up on how it happened?

Even outside of all of the absolutely horrendous dealings from the ownership and FO, Gentry proved to be a damned good coach given he had nothing to work with and an entire culture of nodefense/fuckitoffense to change.

I guess I didn't read the details but I know Blanks had a design to make Hunter our coach and he was brought into the staff specifically for that purpose. It was retarded when Gentry was let go because no coach would have succeeded with this team and he should have been given more time to see what he'd do with better talent. He's a great player coach and I'd have liked to have kept him on the team until a better option opened up to help the young players we'll be bringing in over these next few years along, but by no means is he a great coach. There aren't great options out there right now though which is another reason I'd have kept him for a few more years.

I guess if I think about it, it could be rough if we don't have good developmental coaches on staff for these kids... makes losing Gentry feel worse. I've kind of resigned to us not really making noise until Sarver sells the team and the new owner hires a real FO. Babby is garbage unless he's confined to only crunching contract numbers but who knows how much he will really influence whatever GM we hire behind the scenes. The only bright spots are that Blanks is gone and there are decent GM candidates out there and that we seem to have embraced rebuilding (or suck enough to do it regardless) but acquiring all those picks is a sign that we're going for it. I'm just not overly confident we'll make the right decisions...we'll see.
 

DY_nasty

NeoGAF's official "was this shooting justified" consultant
I guess I didn't read the details but I know Blanks had a design to make Hunter our coach and he was brought into the staff specifically for that purpose. It was retarded when Gentry was let go because no coach would have succeeded with this team and he should have been given more time to see what he'd do with better talent. He's a great player coach and I'd have liked to have kept him on the team until a better option opened up to help the young players we'll be bringing in over these next few years along, but by no means is he a great coach. There aren't great options out there right now though which is another reason I'd have kept him for a few more years.

I guess if I think about it, it could be rough if we don't have good developmental coaches on staff for these kids... I've kind of resigned to us not really making noise until Sarver sells the team and the new owner hires a real FO. Babby is garbage unless he's confined to only crunching contract numbers but who knows how much he will really influence whatever GM we hire behind the scenes. The only bright spots are that Blanks is gone and there are decent GM candidates out there and that we seem to have embraced rebuilding (or suck enough to do it regardless) but acquiring all those picks is a sign that we're going for it. I'm just not overly confident we'll make the right decisions...we'll see.
Gentry made the playoffs when he had no business doing so with players that had no business being there either. That's a big deal in the West. Also, he had a lot of unfucking to do when he took over after the previous coaches...

Hunter was given the job with no experience, no oversight, no planning for a handoff and it was just a slap in the face to all parties who'd committed to showing up to work this year. It was such a farce that many who were a part of the organization either took their talents elsewhere or stopped returning phone calls to that franchise.

Either way, I don't think many teams will be able to find a better 'young'/newish coach than Gentry on the market.
 
Pelicans will take the biggest leap forward.

Want to pick the Jazz, but I'm not sure Kanter and Favors can start together yet (neither guy is that comfortable away from the basket defensively, both can have issues scoring) and I don't know if we'll have NBA guards next year so :/
 

giri

Member
I guess I didn't read the details but I know Blanks had a design to make Hunter our coach and he was brought into the staff specifically for that purpose. It was retarded when Gentry was let go because no coach would have succeeded with this team and he should have been given more time to see what he'd do with better talent. He's a great player coach and I'd have liked to have kept him on the team until a better option opened up to help the young players we'll be bringing in over these next few years along, but by no means is he a great coach. There aren't great options out there right now though which is another reason I'd have kept him for a few more years.

I guess if I think about it, it could be rough if we don't have good developmental coaches on staff for these kids... makes losing Gentry feel worse. I've kind of resigned to us not really making noise until Sarver sells the team and the new owner hires a real FO. Babby is garbage unless he's confined to only crunching contract numbers but who knows how much he will really influence whatever GM we hire behind the scenes. The only bright spots are that Blanks is gone and there are decent GM candidates out there and that we seem to have embraced rebuilding (or suck enough to do it regardless) but acquiring all those picks is a sign that we're going for it. I'm just not overly confident we'll make the right decisions...we'll see.

Gentry made the playoffs when he had no business doing so with players that had no business being there either. That's a big deal in the West. Also, he had a lot of unfucking to do when he took over after the previous coaches...

Hunter was given the job with no experience, no oversight, no planning for a handoff and it was just a slap in the face to all parties who'd committed to showing up to work this year. It was such a farce that many who were a part of the organization either took their talents elsewhere or stopped returning phone calls to that franchise.

Either way, I don't think many teams will be able to find a better 'young'/newish coach than Gentry on the market.


Actually, it was worse than that. Gentry had decided the season was done, and so was playing the young guys and developing combinations / experimenting with sets and you know, just generally starting a rebuild. Banks/Babby didn't like that as "they don't believe in rebuilding", what ever the fuck that means. And sarver was pissy cause the team was losing. Which it was anyway despite what gentry was doing, cause the roster was fucking terrible.

They also fought regularly over the role Beasley should have. Gentry thought beas was best served (if he had to be at all, he really disliked his lack of effort and failure to follow the game plan) as a 6th man role. They wanted him to start and get bucketsssssssssss.

Gentry's firing also cost the suns Thunder Dan, who would have been a solid coach, but more importantly, was extremely important to keep around for development or players. But thats lost to the suns now.

It was a really fucking disgraceful move, really.

Suns need to focus on youth, and culture. Keep a strong culture of cotninued development and expectations and you can rebuild relatively fast. Gentry was committed to that, the suns weren't.

Suns are pretty much fucked.
 
there was a rumor floating around that LA was interested in hiring Gentry as a defesnive coach (a longshot considering he'll probably get head coach offers) but that'd be cool cause Mike D is bound to get tossed eventually and then Gentry could just slide into the head coach job.
 
Actually, it was worse than that. Gentry had decided the season was done, and so was playing the young guys and developing combinations / experimenting with sets and you know, just generally starting a rebuild. Banks/Babby didn't like that as "they don't believe in rebuilding", what ever the fuck that means. And sarver was pissy cause the team was losing. Which it was anyway despite what gentry was doing, cause the roster was fucking terrible.

They also fought regularly over the role Beasley should have. Gentry thought beas was best served (if he had to be at all, he really disliked his lack of effort and failure to follow the game plan) as a 6th man role. They wanted him to start and get bucketsssssssssss.

Gentry's firing also cost the suns Thunder Dan, who would have been a solid coach, but more importantly, was extremely important to keep around for development or players. But thats lost to the suns now.

It was a really fucking disgraceful move, really.

Suns need to focus on youth, and culture. Keep a strong culture of cotninued development and expectations and you can rebuild relatively fast. Gentry was committed to that, the suns weren't.

Suns are pretty much fucked.

Wow I thought Gentry left because he didn't want to rebuild. Turns out he wanted to save the Suns from mediocrity and the ownership wanted no part of it...amazing..
 
Actually, it was worse than that. Gentry had decided the season was done, and so was playing the young guys and developing combinations / experimenting with sets and you know, just generally starting a rebuild. Banks/Babby didn't like that as "they don't believe in rebuilding", what ever the fuck that means. And sarver was pissy cause the team was losing. Which it was anyway despite what gentry was doing, cause the roster was fucking terrible.

They also fought regularly over the role Beasley should have. Gentry thought beas was best served (if he had to be at all, he really disliked his lack of effort and failure to follow the game plan) as a 6th man role. They wanted him to start and get bucketsssssssssss.

Gentry's firing also cost the suns Thunder Dan, who would have been a solid coach, but more importantly, was extremely important to keep around for development or players. But thats lost to the suns now.

It was a really fucking disgraceful move, really.

Suns need to focus on youth, and culture. Keep a strong culture of cotninued development and expectations and you can rebuild relatively fast. Gentry was committed to that, the suns weren't.

Suns are pretty much fucked.

No doubt, it was a terrible move and when Gentry was let go I was really hoping Thunder Dan would become interim and then I heard about Blanks' scheme to get Hunter in there all along. All the more reason to be pleased when Blanks was fired. I'm just saying Gentry isn't a great coach, but he is a good player coach and that's what we need right now with all youth. We desperately need a good GM to start with and go from there but I'm always nervous about FO choices by Sarver. He likes too much control despite not knowing shit about basketball.

I guess it's not complete gloom and doom right now for me because 1. We'd suck regardless with what we have on the roster right now so it's going to take a few years of rebuilding to have any sort of relevancy again and 2. I resigned myself a long time ago that Sarver has to go before we really do shit anyway (still surprised we made it to the conference finals not so long ago). I'm hoping he sticks to that original 10 year plan of ownership. That all said, the one thing that really worries me is fucking up draft picks and not rebuilding properly. Indeed, it's awfully difficult to feel confident about this organization but then again, that's how it's been for a long time with Nash masking much of it from more casual fans.

Is there anyone you like in this draft? We just might pick early enough to take anyone we want.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
there was a rumor floating around that LA was interested in hiring Gentry as a defesnive coach (a longshot considering he'll probably get head coach offers) but that'd be cool cause Mike D is bound to get tossed eventually and then Gentry could just slide into the head coach job.

Seems familiar...
 
Seems familiar...

gentryvomit_20100528104618_0_0.GIF
 

giri

Member
Is there anyone you like in this draft? We just might pick early enough to take anyone we want.

Essentially agree, sarver has to go before it turns around.

Suns need to draft a really good big. Noel is the only constant mentioned in that regard, but i don't follow college ball at all (not broad cast here) and i know he has his detractors.

But with no LBJ/KD in the draft, the suns need to try and fix up their biggest need, a 4/5. And not just another earl clarke type either. A legit 4. With legit size. Who can and does play physically.

I mean, the suns desperately need a SF too, but, thats less of a need than our front court.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
Essentially agree, sarver has to go before it turns around.

Suns need to draft a really good big. Noel is the only constant mentioned in that regard, but i don't follow college ball at all (not broad cast here) and i know he has his detractors.

But with no LBJ/KD in the draft, the suns need to try and fix up their biggest need, a 4/5. And not just another earl clarke type either. A legit 4. With legit size. Who can and does play physically.

I mean, the suns desperately need a SF too, but, thats less of a need than our front court.

Suns might be the 2nd or 3rd ugliest roster in the NBA after the Cats and maybe the Magic
 
Stein said:
Rumblings persist Suns haven't hired GM yet because they remain hopeful Clips' Grant Hill, out of playoffs now, returns to PHX to take job

What? Not really sure about Hill immediately becoming a GM after retiring.
 

giri

Member
Suns might be the 2nd or 3rd ugliest roster in the NBA after the Cats and maybe the Magic

I dunno, Toronto is all sorts of a mess too. And detroit.

Certainly top 5 though.

There's just no plan, no real scouting, mismatch of parts, and over rating of guys who have proven (even before they signed with the suns) they are over rated.

I don't get it at all.

I'd cut/trade for even 2nd round picks or just salary cap
Wes Johnson, Marcus Morris, Hamed Haddadi, Beasley, Diante Garett

I'd Re-Sign on short term deals (no more than 2 years) and trade on a moments notice
Markieff Morris, J.Oneal, Gortat, Frye, Shannon Brown, Marshall,

Only 3 i'd really have figured in the suns future are Dragic, Dudley, Tucker. And i'd trade the last 2 in the right deal.

But the suns need to start by figuring out a starting unit, hopefully with some sort of future, and working on building that.

Brutal spot to be in at the moment.
 
Lakers hired Mike D.

fair enough lol.

I'm just curious to what Grant Hill's job as a player has done to prepare him to be a general manager? Is he experienced with the salary cap? Scouting? Dealing with agents and other GMs? I don't get it why teams do this. Is there really noone else qualified for the job who maybe spend the last few years as a scout or **gasp** an assistant GM somewhere?
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
I dunno, Toronto is all sorts of a mess too. And detroit.

Certainly top 5 though.

There's just no plan, no real scouting, mismatch of parts, and over rating of guys who have proven (even before they signed with the suns) they are over rated.

I don't get it at all.

I'd cut/trade for even 2nd round picks or just salary cap
Wes Johnson, Marcus Morris, Hamed Haddadi, Beasley, Diante Garett

I'd Re-Sign on short term deals (no more than 2 years) and trade on a moments notice
Markieff Morris, J.Oneal, Gortat, Frye, Shannon Brown, Marshall,

Only 3 i'd really have figured in the suns future are Dragic, Dudley, Tucker. And i'd trade the last 2 in the right deal.

But the suns need to start by figuring out a starting unit, hopefully with some sort of future, and working on building that.

Brutal spot to be in at the moment.


Detroit has two young big men

They are a talented wing or PG away from having a decent core

Yeah Tor is a hot mess too give you that

But det isn't in a bad bad spot at all
 

giri

Member
fair enough lol.

I'm just curious to what Grant Hill's job as a player has done to prepare him to be a general manager? Is he experienced with the salary cap? Scouting? Dealing with agents and other GMs? I don't get it why teams do this. Is there really noone else qualified for the job who maybe spend the last few years as a scout or **gasp** an assistant GM somewhere?

Grants major qualification is that he's smart, connected, and knows how to put together an actual bball team/roster, and can generally be considered, a really smart bball player. He should be able to spot talented but under used guys.

Besides, whats the credentials a lot of other GM's have? eh. Some have FO experience, but not a lot of them. And he's more qualified than the last suns GM.

And Smart. I can't re-iterate that enough.

He's been talking about doing it for a long time actually, but as i said, he always talked about orlando.

Which makes me wonder if he talked to sarver about it on his exit from PHX.

For Suns fans, it's more.... this isn't the worst pick sarver could make. It could be SO much worse.

Detroit has two young big men

They are a talented wing or PG away from having a decent core

Yeah Tor is a hot mess too give you that

But det isn't in a bad bad spot at all

Detroits cap is still bit of a hot mess, but it's getting better just through natural expiration. I'm just not sure i have faith that their FO won't stuff it all up again.

I don't disagree about the rest. But they've got some learning to do, some smart trades to make, and some serious player evaluation to be had. Not their strong suit recently.
 
The Raps have one of most incoherent rosters in the league. at least some of the shit teams have some semblance of structure with the guys they have, (even if they do have lots of bad or underperforming players) the Raptors dont make any fucking sense, cause the players dont compliment each others games..at all. I guess the common denominator is good athletes and high flyers...black holes chuckers too.
 
I don't want to hear anybody complain about how bad their team has it....

Most of yall teams are closer to the light than the Sixers...we will be mediocre for the next decade or so. That's worse than being simply awful..at least then you have a shot at getting the guy and gathering youth...if you fuck up it's your own damn fault. we don't even have that...we have to keep hoping for steals and only get more mediocre talent....or trade them away (the soul still burns with Vucevic...)..so fuck dat noise...


except Toronto...that shit is fucked.
 
The Pistons, Raptors, Bobcats, and Magic all have young players that are really good, the Suns don't. I think they have the worst situation in the NBA right now even with BC trying to surround Valanciunas with every shitty chucker in the league.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
The Pistons, Raptors, Bobcats, and Magic all have young players that are really good, the Suns don't. I think they have the worst situation in the NBA right now even with BC trying to surround Valanciunas with every shitty chucker in the league.

I think I agree. Although at least the Suns will be terrible enough to draft high in the coming years. Raptors may be turning into some sort of treadmill team that might occasionally make the 8th seed, or always just miss out on the playoffs. Not as if the Raptors have any cap flexibility either, with all the stupid contracts BC has handed out.

And BC is now talking openingly about trading Bargs. Too bad he's about two years late on that. Is a contender really going to want to absorb his contract now? Probably not, so at best we'd trade him for an equally terrible one.
 
UNLV draft prospect Anthony Bennett will have rotator cuff surgery on his left shoulder Wednesday, agent Jeff Schwartz told ESPN.com.

Bennett will miss all NBA pre-draft workouts, the NBA draft combine and summer league, Schwartz said. The surgery could keep Bennett out of commission up to four months.

Meh.

I don't think he's going to be particularly good regardless of this injury (which probably doesn't matter much at all), kind of shocked at the top 5 projections.
 

Jarlaxle

Member
Gentry made the playoffs when he had no business doing so with players that had no business being there either. That's a big deal in the West.

Are you talking about 2010? A team of Nash, Amare, J-Rich, Grant Hill and Lopez (before he became Lowpez) with the best bench in the league that year had no business making the playoffs? Am I missing some other year you're talking about?
 
Essentially agree, sarver has to go before it turns around.

Suns need to draft a really good big. Noel is the only constant mentioned in that regard, but i don't follow college ball at all (not broad cast here) and i know he has his detractors.

But with no LBJ/KD in the draft, the suns need to try and fix up their biggest need, a 4/5. And not just another earl clarke type either. A legit 4. With legit size. Who can and does play physically.

I mean, the suns desperately need a SF too, but, thats less of a need than our front court.

Suns need everything but PG so we just need to focus on BPA. As badly as we need a 4/5, I think 2 is easily our biggest need as our biggest problem was lack of consistant scoring and we don't even have a single decent SG on the roster. Dudley is not a SG, I don't care what anyone says. That said, if Gortat goes, 5 gets a big bump in need. It certainly has been frustrating not having a solid 4 since Amare left and in fact, there have been plenty of drafts having the Suns taking Anthony Bennett. Supposed to be pretty talented and explosive inside but the problem is he's only 6'7 so probably another tweener. You can read up on him. I don't watch college ball either so all I have to go on is online research when the time comes. That's why I'm curious to see what all you guys think about the players this draft but no one responded. I know everyone thinks it's weak over all, but I'd like to hear what few players you guys DO like. Surely a few between Noels, McLemore, Bennett, Oladipo, Porter, maybe Shabazz

If you can get an all star Center or PG prospect, you make that pick regardless because they are by far the most difficult positions in the game to get high talent at. So despite wanting McLemore, I could understand Noels but he scares me a bit. Big boys tend to have medical problems and the kid coming into the draft injured already makes me nervous about his future prospects. I know that sounds stupid, but think of how many centers had their career derailed by constant injuries.
 
Top Bottom