SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – You know you’re old when you can remember when, once a player was traded, he packed his valise without offering a Sermon on the Mount.
By now you’ve all gotten at least a whiff of Boris Diaw’s departing denunciation of Suns coach Terry Porter, so there’s no use wasting additional space on such recycled waste.
Think Porter’s job is easy?
Six weeks into the season, the Suns continue to search for their identity as GM Steve Kerr, who hired the former Bucks head coach and Pistons assistant to replace Mike D’Antoni, gently prods Porter to give the horse its head and let the hands follow as opposed to hanging on the reins.
As Friday night’s feverish 113-112 victory against 17-6 Orlando (second best road team at 8-3 to Boston’s 9-1) attests, it’s happening more often, especially when Shaquille O’Neal is off duty. But, Kerr cautions, it’s something that must unfold gradually and develop over time.
“Terry is learning about his team, making adjustments and figuring things out,” a Porter supporter e-mails. “I’ve got to believe he has the hardest job in the leagueatrying to fit Shaq into the equation while maintaining an up-tempo style and continuing to win.
The chances of that happening increased dramatically as much by the subtraction of Diaw and Raja Bell (now Bobcats) as the addition of Jason Richardson, whose 18.7 points per game is but one-tenth off his career mark despite missing seven games due to knee surgery; he notched 21 points (8-16 FG) off the bench in Friday’s debut.
By all accounts, there was plenty to be ironed out in terms of chemistry and style of play. Still, this trade went a long way toward resolving both issues.
Diaw felt worthless at power forward – confirmed by his nightly patchiness – where his vaunted versatility may indeed have been under-utilized. Still, it’s not like the cerebral forward’s ineffectiveness is an outsized step down from his last two season’s downscaled production.
Prior to re-signing for $54 million over six years, Diaw enjoyed his most fruitful season – 13.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists. Overweight (at the outset), seemingly out of sorts (blasé, blasé?) and overindulged by D’Antoni, Diaw’s stats drooped to 9.7, 4.3 and 4.8 in ’06-07 and 8.8, 4.6 and 3.9 in ’07-08. This season (8.3, 3.8, 2.1 assists) is simply more of the same.
One prolonged long at Diaw’s casual manner at practice and I predict Larry Brown will look to trade him for George McGinnis.
Bell, to his discredit, became downright belligerent.
“Raja refused to listen to Terry during practice,” a source contends, “and when the two did communicate it wasn’t pretty. Raja also bad mouthed Terry’s system to the media, and he isn’t the only one not fond of Porter’s system.”
Apparently several players still in place feel Porter came in thinking he was coaching the Pistons, who choose relatively unprocessed assistant Michael Curry over his more trained bench counterpart. Nash went so far as to disapprove of Porter’s run-off-turnovers-only edict during an impromptu, TV interview during a recent game break. If he did that in public, think how bad things must’ve been behind the screens.
“Considering the players on hand, I think Kerr made a big mistake bringing in Porter,” the same source submits. “Terry had been with the defensive-oriented, slower-paced Pistons the last couple seasons. Kerr should have taken a closer look at Dan Majerle, Eddie Johnson and Tom Chambers, who know the team’s personnel intimately, expressly since he already had a coach on the floor in Nash.”
One of the unspoken reasons the Suns traded for Shaq was to improve karma, it needs to be underlined. Marion’s moanin’ about not receiving a satisfactory contract extension and supposedly being unappreciated depleted team energy. Nash, in particular, was tired of constantly having to pull him along emotionally.
Clearly, the Suns have been suffering from a chemical imbalance, but anyone “in the know” will tell you the team had very little fun last year, too, the Porter-supporter stresses. By the end of last season, everyone was frustrated by the loss to the Spurs but also by the inability to break through over the previous three seasons.
D’Antoni openly admits the pressure got to him to some degree. The more he majored in the minors (lashing out at Phil Jackson for calling an unnecessary late game time out . . . taking on hecklers in the home crowd . . . jousting with jaundiced journalists) the more his smile ran away from his face.
Accordingly, unfilled expectations made it almost impossible for management, the coaches and the players to enjoy anything.
D’Antoni also openly admits tomorrow night’s return to Phoenix, his home for six seasons, is a “big deal” to him. “There’s a lot of emotion involved. They were good years. Too bad it ended on a bad note,” he said. “We set out to win a championship and didn’t do it [note: first you must win a conference title]. But I still feel real close to the fans and the players.”
I’ll be particularly interested to see Amare Stoudemire’s salutation; will he sincerely welcome back D’Antoni, give him a perfunctory hug, or outright snub him?
Shortly after the Suns were snuffed, Stoudemire voiced some uncomplimentary sentiments about his out-going coach’s alleged lack of defensive preparation. At the same time, D’Antoni has let it be known, no matter how well he prepped or implored Stoudemire, he couldn’t get him to understand his orders regarding help defense.
“I’m fine with Amare,” D’Antoni claims. “I thought we accomplished a lot together. He became All-NBA First Team during that time and we won a lot of games. He may not have always done what I asked, but I can’t deny he did a lot of good things. I do not take his criticism personal. We had just lost a series and we all were feeling pain and frustration. I understand players. I’ve always tried to hear their gripes and then try to work it out. Had I stayed, that’s what Amare and I would’ve done. And I’m not being Pollyanna.”