Doing something more than NOTHING on defense is hardly setting a standard for growth and success in the NBA. That is a play on words.
Are you really satisfied that he's done more than nothing? That ain't gonna cut it in the best professional basketball league in the world.
Now you're just nitpicking. Sarver isn't the GM or the coach, he signs the checks. He put basketball people in charge of the basketball decisions. I'm sure he still has his input and ultimately has the final say as owner but do you really think he's handcuffing either McD or Hornacek and forcing them to ignore defense? The whole time Hornacek has been coach he's talked about the sort of offense he wants to run with some mention of defense but it's usually about 80% talk about offensive system. Is that how the team practices or because that's what Sarver requires? I would be no. Will he fire him if he focuses more on defense? Should he be fired because they aren't a top defensive team right now? If you want to blame someone for the defensive shortcomings then blame the coaches and GM's of the team while Sarver has been owner. Right now 3 players out of the starting 5 are better defensively than offensively, Tucker, Len, and Bledsoe. Those 3 are also locked up with the team for the next couple of seasons. Is that all that will be done defensively during that time is wait for those 3 to develop more and carry the team? I highly doubt it. The team is in the 2nd year of a rebuild and the 3rd youngest team in the league. Maybe 3 or 4 of the players on the team this year are either in their prime or past it, Dragic, Tucker, Green, and Wright. 3 of those 4 are expiring at years end, the one who is a good defender is the only 1 on a long term deal. I'd say let the team grow together and develop. If they don't then blame Hornacek first, McD second, and Sarver last. It's the coaches job to develop players, the GM's job to give the coach good players to fit their system, it's the owners job to make sure the checks don't bounce.
I think I already covered things done previously for the defensively. Again I'd put Sarver last when it comes to handing out blame for the team being weak defensively. D'Antoni, Kerr, Blanks, and Babby were all GM's under Sarver. D'Antoni, Porter, and Gentry were all coaches under those GM's. All of those people are gone now, McD seems to be acquiring and retaining capable defenders. Bledsoe, Len, Tucker, Goodwin, Wright, Ennis, Bullock, Plumlee, Green, and Warren are players brought in by McD. Out of those players Green is the only one who is awful defensively. Wright is a capable defender but he was brought in for next to nothing and is only here for 1/2 of the season. If he doesn't work out then we didn't lose anything by trying to add veteran depth to the frontcourt. (2nd rounders in 2017 & 18 because the Minnesota pick will not be a 1st rounder, they got those picks as a throw in years ago anyways so it won't even cost the team their own 2nd rounders) The rest of the players are all really young and need to develop, time will tell ultimately but none of them are defensive liabilities. Only Bledsoe is a significant cost to the team and he's our best defender as well as one of the top 5 in the league at his position. He's only 25 and is still developing, right now he's pretty good on both ends but should only get better.
Should Sarver force them to do more or let the basketball people do their jobs? If he forces them to do anything he'll be blasted for not stepping back and letting the GM and/or coach do their jobs and if he continues to just sign checks then you're not happy because he's doing slightly more than nothing. It's a no-win situation.
