Fire Alvin Gentry

[sunsfan88]

I would like to start off by saying that I know this team doesn't have a ton of talent. I know that.

That's not what this is about. This is about Gentry's decisions during games. I'll start listing them to make it more clear.

5 reasons I think we should fire Gentry:

1. He has no offensive system of his own. All he does is copy Mike D'Antoni even though we don't have athletic players or shooters for that system.

2. His rotations are horrible. He sometimes takes out a player who's starting to get hot, he leaves someone in that's having a bad game, he leaves the bench in for too long or he tires the hell out of a player who may have been playing good but needs rest. Oh and his substitutions are INCONSISTENT AS HELL.

3. He never calls time outs when we're losing momentum. Its almost as if Gentry thinks that he's being charged $$ for each timeout he takes. A team can be going on a 10-2 run and our guys can be looking lost and tired and Gentry will continue without calling a break. He waits far too long to call timeouts. This is also one of the main reasons our guys get so damn tried fast.

4. Our starters are not playing enough mins in the 4th quarter. Dragic did not come to PHX to play the same amount of mins as the 40 year old Nash did for us last year. Dragic is 26. He's capable and should be playing way more minutes. Even if its alongside Telfair.

5. His contract is about to be up anyways and our FO would have renewed it a while back if they really wanted him back. Might as well give someone already on our staff a try to see what they can do for the rest of this season with this team.

Truth be told, Gentry is a great assistant coach who works well with players and can help them develop (Dragic) but he is not capable to handle the responsibilities of a HC. He's still living off that fluke season of 2010 when A'mare and our bench player AMAZING AND PERFECT. Best scenario would be for him to accept a demotion and stay on our staff as an assistant HC. But either way he shouldn't be any team's HC.

[king4day]

1. His system isn't the same as D'Antoni's. He actually does preach defense. He doesn't have a go-to scorer though. That's what is killing us.

2. With all the new players we brought in, any coach would struggle to get the rotations right. I do think he shouldn't wait as long as he does to make changes, but he has made them. The subs are inconsistent because he's still going with the hot hands.

3. I didn't notice the timeout situation. With D'Antoni he waited a while and I noticed it without thinking. I haven't with Gentry but will look for it.

4. Agreed with this one 100%

5. This is probably going to be the reason we DON'T fire him. Ride out this season and then find out what direction we will want to go in. I could see Majerle getting a shot since he'd come cheap. Turner might as well if we decide to change the Phoenix Suns identity to a defensive team.

I don't know that making changes midseason would help though. If we continue to flounder, better to deal pieces like Gortat, O'Neal, Dudley, Telfair, etc and get who we can. Then with the pieces we get back, decide what to do. The personnel should allow us to make a smart coaching decision.

[thephoenixson28]

Give this man talent and let him shine. He took a team to the western conference finals, when everyone thought they wouldn't even make the playoffs. You can't blame the coach when he has little bit of talent. C'mon now

[rocky4104]

ever hear the adage -- "players win games, coaches lose them". sad but true. 8-)

[Bishnoff]

I would like to start off by saying that I know this team doesn't have a ton of talent. I know that.

That's not what this is about. This is about Gentry's decisions during games. I'll start listing them to make it more clear.

5 reasons I think we should fire Gentry:

1. He has no offensive system of his own. All he does is copy Mike D'Antoni even though we don't have athletic players or shooters for that system.

2. His rotations are horrible. He sometimes takes out a player who's starting to get hot, he leaves someone in that's having a bad game, he leaves the bench in for too long or he tires the hell out of a player who may have been playing good but needs rest. Oh and his substitutions are INCONSISTENT AS HELL.

3. He never calls time outs when we're losing momentum. Its almost as if Gentry thinks that he's being charged $$ for each timeout he takes. A team can be going on a 10-2 run and our guys can be looking lost and tired and Gentry will continue without calling a break. He waits far too long to call timeouts. This is also one of the main reasons our guys get so damn tried fast.

4. Our starters are not playing enough mins in the 4th quarter. Dragic did not come to PHX to play the same amount of mins as the 40 year old Nash did for us last year. Dragic is 26. He's capable and should be playing way more minutes. Even if its alongside Telfair.

5. His contract is about to be up anyways and our FO would have renewed it a while back if they really wanted him back. Might as well give someone already on our staff a try to see what they can do for the rest of this season with this team.

Truth be told, Gentry is a great assistant coach who works well with players and can help them develop (Dragic) but he is not capable to handle the responsibilities of a HC. He's still living off that fluke season of 2010 when A'mare and our bench player AMAZING AND PERFECT. Best scenario would be for him to accept a demotion and stay on our staff as an assistant HC. But either way he shouldn't be any team's HC.

Although I agree with some of what you've said, there’s nothing to be gained by firing Gentry (aside from tanking, which I don’t think is Sarver’s intention). We’re extremely unlikely to attract a better coach with our current roster, and a better coach isn’t going to turn this roster into a contender (but they may win another 5-10 games, resulting in a worst Draft pick). “Better the devil you know” as they say.

[bagaongpit]

I dont know who is to blame for the bad defense. Gentry? Turner or the team is just that bad? I'd rather let Gentry play out his contract and just not renew. If we are going to lose-then keep going and aim for a high pick.

[PHX2daDEATH]

I think he deserves to stay around for his contract, Suns need some high draft picks..i don't know why Sarver wouldn't tank when he looks at a team like Oklahoma City, if he keeps putting out the grade C product he's not going to sell tickets, and the team is going to end up in Seattle or some BS..... you could blame Gentry for not getting more out of Wes and Beasley two guys the Suns were counting on to be the leading scorers on this team..

[Phrazbit]

I think he deserves to stay around for his contract, Suns need some high draft picks..i don't know why Sarver wouldn't tank when he looks at a team like Oklahoma City, if he keeps putting out the grade C product he's not going to sell tickets, and the team is going to end up in Seattle or some BS..... you could blame Gentry for not getting more out of Wes and Beasley two guys the Suns were counting on to be the leading scorers on this team..

I dont think much was ever expected from Wes. He was a salary dump for Minnesota and the Suns declining his option before the year was a pretty strong sign the Suns think little of him too.

[thephoenixson28]

Gentry is making this lack of talent team compete. Wether if they are up, or down they still compete. There is a reason why some people picked us to have the worst record in the NBA. I say Phoenix is making a mistake by not extending him.

[Indi23]

Let him finish the season And hope for good pick ... If we get a good guranteed young talent too build around just dont resign gentry. New face of franchise new coach new system. Simple

[sunsfan88]

Its starting to become more and more apparent that Gentry needs to leave. His rotations again, are simply stupid. He first benches Dudley, then returns Dudley to the starting lineup and benches Beasley then in the 4th QTR he benches Dudley and lets Beasley play the entire 4th QTR minutes scoring 0 points.

WTF?

Also, Robin Lopez under better coaching in New Orleans is putting up better numbers than Gortat here (except rebounding)

[sunsfan88]

This is a post from another person on a different Suns forum but it explains a lot of my feelings and thoughts on Gentry as well...

We have been up and down on defense. Some nights we look great and other nights pitiful. So we can get it done at times, we just have figure it out. Putting Brown in the same lineup as Beas was a horrible move. We now have two of our weaker wing defenders not only playing together, but also starting, which has allowed other opposing wings to get hot early. Tucker needs to be inserted into the starting lineup if for defensive purposes only.

Goran does fine distributing, but I think he plays better with Scola, although I do like Morris starting because of his contribution being higher than coming off the bench. The only problem is he is still getting bench minutes. If we are going to run ten guys every game, have Beas come off the bench in more of a point forward situation, that way we can have Telfair focus almost all of his energy on the defensive end and Beas loves dominating the ball. Dudley and Johnson can be used interchangeably, because both can really only catch and shoot, but both can be solid on the defensive end.

JO has been pretty decent off the bench, but now that he is injured (not sureif he will miss any games), but we could go smaller in the second unit and run the opposing team out of the gym like DRK suggested. We have a younger team, and I don't mind a two lineup team, but if we are going to do that, we need to run like crazy to be effective. But if we aren't going to run then we need to shorten the rotation and play the guys Gentry trusts until guys step up.

I still like our team, just not how and when they are used.

Denver didn't have an incredible group of guys, and they can get things going. GS is the same way, even if guys are injured, others step up.

[Bishnoff]

Its starting to become more and more apparent that Gentry needs to leave. His rotations again, are simply stupid. He first benches Dudley, then returns Dudley to the starting lineup and benches Beasley then in the 4th QTR he benches Dudley and lets Beasley play the entire 4th QTR minutes scoring 0 points.

WTF?

Also, Robin Lopez under better coaching in New Orleans is putting up better numbers than Gortat here (except rebounding)

RoLo has started every game this season for NOH and is averaging 27.2 MPG (almost double what he averaged in Phoenix). Being healthy and getting an opportunity should result in better statistics.

I'm not sure who is responsible for not given rookies/young players a chance in Phoenix but I see this as a much bigger issue long term than in-game rotations/subs and play calling.

[rocky4104]

There's a coach in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association ) his philosophy is to finish every game with your best players (starters) , i know NBA is different and here, being a bench player does not necessarily mean you're not one of the top players on the team (see Crawford and ginobili) but that particular Filipino coach was one of the winningest coach in PBA history.

Im not saying always play the starters but a coach should give the starters significant playing time esp in the 4th or else they lose consistency and confidence. But to bench starters in the whole of the 4th is i think counterproductive

[Phrazbit]

There's a coach in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association ) his philosophy is to finish every game with your best players (starters) , i know NBA is different and here, being a bench player does not necessarily mean you're not one of the top players on the team (see Crawford and ginobili) but that particular Filipino coach was one of the winningest coach in PBA history.

Im not saying always play the starters but a coach should give the starters significant playing time esp in the 4th or else they lose consistency and confidence. But to bench starters in the whole of the 4th is i think counterproductive

But who are our best 5 players? No one on this team is distinguishing themselves from the players behind or ahead of them on the roster... except Beasley who clearly stands out as the worst.

Its a tough team to coach, you have no idea who is going to play at a capable level from night to night, there is no star or go to player to lean on, the scorers are all wildly inconsistent and have been their entire careers, some of the guys who were supposed to be big contributors clearly cannot function in the same lineups... its a mess and the vast majority of the problem is the talent, not the coaching.