Hornacek agrees to terms and will be new Suns coach

[Azlen]

http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/p...nacek-agrees-to-terms-will-be-suns-new-coach/

Jeff Hornacek agreed to terms with the Suns to become their new head coach and will sign the three-year contract by Monday morning. The Suns quickly acted after impressive interviews from Hornacek, the popular former Suns player who has been an assistant coach for Utah. He was interviewed in Charlotte for its head coaching job and Philadelphia also was interested in him.

 

[az jam]

Good hire, but hope he can handle losing for awhile.

 

[Mainstreet]

Good hire, but hope he can handle losing for awhile.

I think Jeff is expected to grow with the team. The same with the new GM as they put the pieces together.

 

[az jam]

I think Jeff is expected to grow with the team. The same with the new GM as they put the pieces together.

Agree, it may take at least 2 full seasons of losing.

 

[Sleepy]

I like this hire and hope he does well here.

Coach Horny!

 

[BC867]

I like this hire and hope he does well here.

Coach Horny!

The "newspaper boy" will now be "editor of the sports department".

 

[Superbone]

Kendall Marshall ‏@KButter5
Excited to work with Coach Hornacek. #Suns

Jeff, please work with Marshall on his "jump" shot. Pronto!

 

[SweetD]

Not sure how I feel about this signing. My hope is Jeff will be more like Slone than Westfall. I would have preferred Hollins from Memphis, but maybe his extended time in the playoffs was an issue.

 

[frdbtr]

I love Hornacek but I have mixed feelings about him coming to Phoenix. I am afraid he will be another in a long line of coaches that fail under sarver's horrible management.

 

[Mainstreet]

Kendall Marshall ‏@KButter5
Excited to work with Coach Hornacek. #Suns

Jeff, please work with Marshall on his "jump" shot. Pronto!

I can't think of a better person to help him. Jeff made himself a good NBA shooter with the help of proper coaching. It can be done.

 

[Errntknght]

I love Hornacek but I have mixed feelings about him coming to Phoenix. I am afraid he will be another in a long line of coaches that fail under sarver's horrible management.

Sarver's management has taken a turn for the better - make that two turns... no, wait three turns. 1) Firing Blanks, 2) Hiring McD, 3) Hiring Hornacek. We could make it four if we included not continuing Hunter. Cause for jubilation in my book.

I'm not even too concerned about Babby at this point - he did negotiate some pretty good deals in spite of Blanks poor talent evaluation. (Trading a nice, low 2nd round pick for bro Marcus was not one of them but my guess is that Blanks was the main culprit in that deal.)

 

[Superbone]

I can't think of a better person to help him. Jeff made himself a good NBA shooter with the help of proper coaching. It can be done.

He was a great shooter.

 

[Superbone]

Sarver's management has taken a turn for the better - make that two turns... no, wait three turns. 1) Firing Blanks, 2) Hiring McD, 3) Hiring Hornacek. We could make it four if we included not continuing Hunter.

That makes for good riddle. When is it a good thing to be "firing Blanks"?

 

[AzStevenCal]

That makes for good riddle. When is it a good thing to be "firing Blanks"?

Well, for my generation that's when you're 16 years old in the back seat of your dad's Chevy with Mary Sue. For us the idea of protection was almost unheard of.

Steve

 

[Chaplin]

I love Hornacek but I have mixed feelings about him coming to Phoenix. I am afraid he will be another in a long line of coaches that fail under sarver's horrible management.

Let's look at that "long line of coaches" that fail because of Sarver's horrible management.

D'Antoni - He failed simply because he was a bad coach that didn't know how to coach defense. An arguement could be made that Sarver should have let him go sooner, but D'Antoni failed because of D'Antoni, not Sarver.

Porter - Porter was godawful as a coach because he wanted to go all defense on a group that could not operate that way. Kerr had more of a hand in that then Sarver did.

Gentry - Gentry was fairly successful in the role, but again, he was not a good in-game coach and while he was good with players, he wasn't very good at adapting. Again, not Sarver's fault.

Hunter - Hunter was a disaster from day one, which is Lance Blanks' fault, which was Babby's fault, which could be traced back to Sarver. But that's pretty indirect.

None of our coaches failed directly because of Sarver's horrible mismanagement.

 

[Griffin]

Jeff, please work with Marshall on his "jump" shot. Pronto!

I can't think of a better person to help him. Jeff made himself a good NBA shooter with the help of proper coaching. It can be done.

Here's the thing, though. The Suns hired him to be their head coach, not their shooting coach. I don't think that NBA head coaches have that much time to work with individual players on their skill sets. That's usually what assistants and shooting coaches are for.

 

[Superbone]

Well, for my generation that's when you're 16 years old in the back seat of your dad's Chevy with Mary Sue. For us the idea of protection was almost unheard of.

Steve

 

[BC867]

Well, for my generation that's when you're 16 years old in the back seat of your dad's Chevy with Mary Sue. For us the idea of protection was almost unheard of.

Steve

If you knew Mar.... Oh, that was Peggy Sue. Did you really make out with a girl named Mary Sue or was that poetic license?

 

[Mainstreet]

Well, for my generation that's when you're 16 years old in the back seat of your dad's Chevy with Mary Sue. For us the idea of protection was almost unheard of.

Steve

So you were the originator of SSOL.

And I was giving DA credit.

 

[Superbone]

You guys are in rare form today.

 

[AzStevenCal]

If you knew Mar.... Oh, that was Peggy Sue. Did you really make out with a girl named Mary Sue or was that poetic license?

It was poetic license but it was still Mary Sue. I substituted a Ford Econoline Van for the more traditional Chevy.

Steve

 

[AzStevenCal]

So you were the originator of SSOL.

And I was giving DA credit.

Life is short, why waste time?

Steve

 

[Chaplin]

Here's an idea--kind of out there, but it's an idea:

Jerry Sloan wants back in--how about assistant to Hornacek??

 

[Chaz]

Hopefully we can end the "we only hired him because he is a fan favorite" thing.

McDonough:The primary reason we hired Jeff is because we think he is an exceptional basketball mind, who had a terrific playing career, a very good assistant coaching career, and we just felt like he was at the right age and right experience to take that next step to be a head coach.

The fact that he does have that rich history with the Suns, that he played here, that he lives here, that he is so beloved by the fans in this community, that was all an extra bonus and really helped us solidify his candidacy. But again, he didn’t need a whole lot of help. If Jeff had no ties at all to the Phoenix Suns, just on his own merits, he is still the guy we would have hired.

 

[Superbone]

Hopefully we can end the "we only hired him because he is a fan favorite" thing.

Link please?