Blame D'Antoni

[Covert Rain]

First off I want to thank the team for a great season. I also appreciate what the coach has done this year. However, that won't stop me from blasting him when he screws up.

The team went into the tank offensively. When that happens, rebounding is so important. Yet Kurt Thomas never left the bench. Most of his other guys were in foul trouble... yet Kurt never left the bench.

Nobody is asking Kurt to start. Nobody is asking anything but to fill in a few minutes and get some rebounds. Which the suns could have used. When this team doesn't score.. they need more rebounds.

I don't want to hear... he couldn't run. That's bull. He didn't need to run for 30 minutes. He has already proven he can run with a team. For 5 minutes here and there?!?!?

I don't want to hear he is rusty when all reports are that he has been playing well in practice. If he can practice he can play.

Plus add in the fact that Raja was obviously not himself. Now your already down and you expect to beat a team like Dallas with a deep bench without going to your bench?!?!?!?!?

The Team gave it their all. I appreciate that. They gave it everything they had and considering no Amare... they accomplished alot not having him. Like I said I will give credit where credit is do.

However, I called it earlier. I said if they don't find a way to get Kurt involved they will lose this series and that's what happened. I blame D'Antoni for the loss in this game.

I am not saying they would win this series but they should be at least playing in a game 7. No excuses. As good a coach as I think he is, they Suns would not be going home tonight if it wasn't for him.

 

[Chaplin]

If we have no offense, it doesn't help to substitute a guy who is almost GUARANTEED to give you no offense. This has nothing to do with the coaching. The 2nd half of this game was a joke. Same personnel out there, but they were like a different team than they were in the 1st half.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

DiAntonio?

 

[Treesquid PhD]

DiAntonio?

I think it's pretty clear he means San Antonio or Antonio Banderas. where "di" is gansta for the

 

[HooverDam]

I saw Kurt play in person the other day, he was too out of shape to run w/ the reserves. You cant just throw a guy into the fire in that situation. In the playoffs coaches ALWAYS shorten their bench to players they know they can count on (thats why we didnt see House).

How anyone can be mad at this team is beyond me. They played incredibly in the first two series' while undermanned. When Amare went down people were calling the Suns a 5-8 seed, but they won their division again! The Suns went farther than they did last year, and next year, with a little more health, the Suns should be in the finals.

 

[Ryanwb]

Diantonio?

If you're going to bash the guy atleast come close to his correct name... ****

 

[TucsonDevil]

Steel - No offense, but you don't know what you are talking about. There was only way we could beat the Mavs - by Speed. KT wasn't able to give us that. Let it go. We lost because we ran out of time...

Props to Mike and his coaching staff. IF Bell wasn't injured... IF James Jones could hit an open jumper... IF... we could have advanced. But let's be real. This team has been playing on borrowed time since Oct. They played like champions, just ran out of that borrowed time.

 

[az1965]

I will blame DiAntonio also...

 

[Chaplin]

Maybe someone should start a thread on The Goonies, just to lighten the mood a little bit.

 

[BleedRed]

How anyone can be mad at this team is beyond me. They played incredibly in the first two series' while undermanned. When Amare went down people were calling the Suns a 5-8 seed, but they won their division again! The Suns went farther than they did last year, and next year, with a little more health, the Suns should be in the finals.

I agree completely. To be honest when STAT went down I was just hoping we'd make the playoffs. But this team fought and made it to the conference finals. Dallas was a better team and I give them that. However, IF Amare returns @ 100% with the additions of Diaw, Bell, and Thomas we will be alot better next year. Coach D'antoni deserves alot of credit for this teams success. I can't wait for next season. Go Suns!!!!

 

[Covert Rain]

lol, sorry corrected the name. This is not a spelling bee and has no bearing on my point. I didn't realize how bad I messed up his name. lol.

In terms of Kurt. We already had guys on the court who were not scoring. If you pulled one of them for Kurt, it would be a push....but wait..... you would get the extra benifit of REBOUNDING.

There is always someone not scoring and replacing him for one of them could have been easily done. AGAIN nobody was asking him to play for 10 to 15 minutes stretches. Just 4 to 5 minutes here and there.

One...your starters would have gotten more rest. Two more rebounding when your starters go to the bench. Three... if your not scoring, defensive rebounding keeps you in the game.

You can't beat a team like the Mavs with Speed alone. You also need rebounding.

Let me make this clear. I am not mad at the team. I am mad because I think they should still be playing on Monday if not for the coaches decision not to play Kurt.

 

[slinslin]

D'Antoni never made adjustments it seemed like. The 2nd halfs were horrible.

 

[Covert Rain]

D'Antoni never made adjustments it seemed like. The 2nd halfs were horrible.

Not only that. D'Antoni was blasted last year for not making adjustments quick enough during games. He seems to need an entire game to make adjustments. Even then, he didn't seem to make them in this series. Not playing Kurt or letting some other guys off the bench was evidence of that.

I give coach alot of credit for making this far. However, he could have done some things to make it go further. The team was still a success in my mind..I just think they could have made it to game 7.. no question if the right adjustments were made.

 

[Chaplin]

I give coach alot of credit for making this far. However, he could have done some things to make it go further. The team was still a success in my mind..I just think they could have made it to game 7.. no question if the right adjustments were made.

This team overachieved ALL SEASON. Not just the playoffs. The way we fought back in elimination games was simply amazing. What more could he do? Kurt Thomas was not a viable option. What else was there? He did everything he could possibly do.

Don't blame the loss and the fact that we were 2 games away from the NBA FINALS on the coach. If you're going to blame anything, blame Amare's injury. Blame KT's injury. But don't blame Robert Sarver, the coaching staff or the players.

 

[JCSunsfan]

D'Antoni never made adjustments it seemed like. The 2nd halfs were horrible.

I think DAntoni is a great coach. I like the style he plays, and I like the fact that he doesn't always play matchup games--he makes the opposition adjust to us.

He does need to learn that his style of play demands a longer bench than most in the playoffs.

All in all, great season. But I still think we could have beat the Heat.

Another year as a Sunsfan. Hopefully we'll win it some day before I die.

 

[cly2tw]

That was a dilemma we couldn't solve. An inertia that drove us to the ground, but we just could not do better this late in the playoffs. As he said, he could not experiment in this series now. For the next season, we should try to experiment a lot more variations of plays to be better prepared for this kind of situation. Winning the regular season games with one simple style of run run run has the drawback that you are not good enough if the opponent could stop your runs with better preparations in playoffs. We gotta stop being too myopic in this regard as we have been these past two years.

 

[Covert Rain]

This team overachieved ALL SEASON. Not just the playoffs. The way we fought back in elimination games was simply amazing. What more could he do? Kurt Thomas was not a viable option. What else was there? He did everything he could possibly do.

Don't blame the loss and the fact that we were 2 games away from the NBA FINALS on the coach. If you're going to blame anything, blame Amare's injury. Blame KT's injury. But don't blame Robert Sarver, the coaching staff or the players.

Why shouldn't I blame the loss of lack of adjustment? Why shouldn't I blame the loss on not using the bench? When you have guys not scoring, what do you have to lose by using your bench to give your starters some rest for one last run????

We were 2 games away. That's great considering...I agree. However, we should have been 1 game away. That doesn't take anything away from what they accomplished. However, that doesn't change the fact they could have gone further.

I also agree that too many times in the playoffs this team got bogged down. It appeared we didn't have that many scripted plays or it was just lack of adjustments during games. That's all on the coach.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

How can a coach make adjustments when 4 of your key players have 4+ fouls by early 4th qt... Your limited bench (IE Jones and House) are struggling, and your other reserves are rather horrid......


Also... D'Antoni has no control whatsoever on Nash being fatigued and becoming quite tentative (it seemed he kept on passing-up some shots) and Bell is still restricted on what he can do......

The only question I have though.. is why didnt D'Antoni not bring in KT for some mins? True.. KT is slow.. but he could have punished Diop somewhat and might have bought some time so TT and Diaw didnt commit their 4th fouls respectively so early.....

Oh well.. cannot fault D'Antoni whatsoever... it's just that Dallas had a deeper team (especially with Bell being injured) and knew how to exploit the Suns because of that..... But.. just hope the Heat win the Finals...

 

[Chaplin]

Why shouldn't I blame the loss of lack of adjustment. Why shouldn't I blame the loss on not using the bench. When you have guys not scoring, what do you have to lose by using your bench to give your starters some rest for one last run????

What adjustments? The only adjustment you mentioned was Kurt Thomas and that was a lost cause. D'Antoni did the only thing he could do--tell the guys to run and trust Steve Nash with the team. WHich is what he's done all season long.

 

[Mainstreet]

D'Antoni never made adjustments it seemed like. The 2nd halfs were horrible.

The Suns just simply did not have the depth and size to take the relentless pounding inside. Like a boxer getting wore down by punches, the Suns lost their legs in the second half. A healthy Raja might have helped, however, their was no backup PG to help keep Nash fresh nor a dominant inside presence to pass the ball too. Diaw did his best to provide the Suns this inside presence and he should be extended at all cost.

D'Antoni deserves high praise for getting this team to the WCF supposedly without their franchise player in Amare Stoudemire.

I am very proud of this Suns team and the heart their players displayed. However, so to speak, it's hard always being a bridesmaid and never the bride concerning the Suns never having won a Championship.

 

[Covert Rain]

What adjustments? The only adjustment you mentioned was Kurt Thomas and that was a lost cause. D'Antoni did the only thing he could do--tell the guys to run and trust Steve Nash with the team. WHich is what he's done all season long.

How can you say Kurt was a lost cause when he didn't play. Wasn't playing a guard with a torn calf muscle a lost cause? Raja still played. Give me a break. All reports were that Kurt looked good in practice.

Bringing Kurt in to give some relief and get some rebounding is probably all this team needed tonight. The other adjustments that I am talking about is coming up with some plays when the offense can't run. That happened a bunch in this series. There are other things he could have done but didn't try. Why not take a chance when the opposing team is on a 30-12 run???? Like I said, that's all on the coach.

 

[Chaplin]

How can you say Kurt was a lost cause when he didn't play. Wasn't playing a guard with a torn calf muscle a lost cause? Raja still played. Give me a break. All reports were that Kurt looked good in practice.

Bringing Kurt in to give some relief and get some rebounding is probably all this team needed tonight. The other adjustments that I am talking about is coming up with some plays when the offense can't run. That happened a bunch in this series. There are other things he could have done but didn't try. Why not take a chance when the opposing team is on a 30-12 run???? Like I said, that's all on the coach.

Kurt Thomas played in garbage time 2 games ago and stunk. In garbage time. Doesn't that tell you ANYTHING?

 

[cly2tw]

How can a coach make adjustments when 4 of your key players have 4+ fouls by early 4th qt... Your limited bench (IE Jones and House) are struggling, and your other reserves are rather horrid......


Also... D'Antoni has no control whatsoever on Nash being fatigued and becoming quite tentative (it seemed he kept on passing-up some shots) and Bell is still restricted on what he can do......

Let's see. Averaging 40 min. a game running non-stop for 20 games in 40 days maybe a factor for fatigue even for Marion, not to mention Nash.

You might say DA had no choice but playing these guys the way he did. I'd agree. But how did we get into this dilemma in the first place?

 

[Covert Rain]

Kurt Thomas played in garbage time 2 games ago and stunk. In garbage time. Doesn't that tell you ANYTHING?

Yeah, that tells me the coach didn't want any last minute injuries. Not that he couldn't play. The coach was scared to make the needed adjustments and that's why they Suns went home tonight.

That tells me that it's OK to stick a guy in with a torn calf muscle but not a guy is healed but just winded. I will take a healthy guy winded over a hurt guy for minutes any day of the week.

 

[Chaplin]

Yeah, that tells me the coach didn't want any last minute injuries. Not that he couldn't play. The coach was scared to make the needed adjustments and that's why they Suns went home tonight.

That tells me that it's OK to stick a guy in with a torn calf muscle but not a guy is healed but just winded. I will take a healthy guy winded over a hurt guy for minutes any day of the week.

I think you're absolutely wrong and just trying to find a scapegoat to make you feel better. But, to each his own.