On Monday, The Phoenix Suns fired head coach Terry Porter after only giving him a half season to prove himself. The Suns had a 29-23 record, but the kicker was when the team lost five of eight games going into the All-Star break.
Although some sports fans may applaud this move by Phoenix, it is obvious that Porter was not given much of a chance. Fifty-one games is not enough time to allow a head coach to get comfortable with a new set of players, nor is it enough time for a franchise to decide to write him off.
At the time of Porter's removal, the Suns trailed the Utah Jazz by only one game for the final playoff spot in the Western Division. This is definitely not a horrible position; the team does have a winning record.
So why try to fix something that isn't entirely broken in the first place? Sometimes it takes a while for the glue to set in, and Porter was that glue. Once the team had started winning and his ideas had started to stick, the Suns could have started building on their program.
There is no doubt that Porter has outstanding basketball knowledge. He used to be an excellent NBA player and made two All-Star Game appearances during his 17 years in the league.
After ending his career on the court, Porter became a coach. He was an assistant coach for a few professional teams, but got his big coaching break with his hometown team, the Milwaukee Bucks.
After two years, he was released when the Bucks fell short of the playoffs at the end of their 2005 season. It wasn't until this past summer that he had held a head-coaching job.
Porter will be replaced by assistant coach Alvin Gentry, who plans on returning Phoenix to its former style of basketball. According to ESPN.com, with a starting lineup of Steve Nash, Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, Amar'e Stoudemire and Shaquille O'Neal, he feels that former Phoenix head coach Mike D'Antoni's offensive approach will push the team in the winning direction.
We are who we are, and I think we have to go back to trying to establish a breakneck pace like we've had in the past,"" Gentry said. ""We have enough talent that we should not be on the outside looking in right now.""
Yes, the Suns do seem to have a very talented team with some big names.
However, that does not necessarily mean it was Porter's fault they are not on top. Porter's coaching style puts a lot of emphasis on defensive effort, though the Phoenix ball club seems to be more offensive-minded. Several NBA teams do focus most of their attention on the offensive attack, but defense is important. A lot of professional teams and players forget that defense can win games, especially when the season starts coming to an end and teams fight for playoff spots.
A slow-paced, defensive-orientated team was what Suns general manager Steve Kerr was looking to build when he hired Porter in June 2008.
""I knew this team had a difficult transition,"" Kerr told ESPN. ""But frankly, I probably underestimated the difficulty of the transition.""
Kerr said he still believes in Porter's coaching ability, but that he just stepped into one of the most difficult positions in the league. With that being said, why fire Porter now?
Wouldn't that make things more difficult for the team that is finally becoming accustomed to playing his style of basketball? One would think another transition, especially mid-season, could only lead to more problems.
With Gentry stepping in, I can't see him getting more out of the players than Porter. In this case, taking a step backward and running D'Antoni's former offensive push is probably not the best approach for the Suns. Phoenix may have made a huge mistake by letting Porter go, but unfortunately, we will never know what the outcome could have been if the Suns did not give up on him so quickly.
Even though basketball is a business, you have to put a little bit of faith in your coach to pull the team out of a rut before cutting the strings.
Do you think Terry Porter could have turned the Suns program around if he was given more time as the head coach? E-mail your thoughts to Crystal at crowns@wisc.edu.
