Kings' Paul Westphal fired

[JCSunsfan]

I never connected the two. Sports talk radio and message boards did and eventually it was used against Ainge but IMO it was BS. McDyess had no idea how to play positional defense and he picked up a lot of stupid fouls early. Eventually, in no small part thanks to Danny, Dice figured it out, learned to play defense better and his minutes went up accordingly. He trailed only Kidd in playing time during the second half of that season. I blame it mostly on Lucas who schemed his way back onto a bench with his offseason maneuvering under the guise of being a friendly neighbor.

Steve

Ainge really made some demands and developed Dice as a player. But during the lockout, Dice worked out in Houston with Lucas. Denver knew they were going to hire Lucas, but did not officially do so until after the lockout, so he could spend the whole time recruiting Dice without officially breaking the rules. I have no doubt that "Ainge disrespected you as a player and did not put you in games at crunch time" was a line Lucas used to turn him.

It was a combination of three things that made everything go the way it did: the lockout rules that restricted any Suns official from having contact with Dice, the unethical recruiting of Lucas and Denver, and that Dice was dumber than a box of rocks. He would have had so much more of a career had he remained.

 

[Errntknght]

Ainge sucked as a game time coach, running up and down the sidelines gesticulating and screaming like crazy - pretty solid evidence that he didn't coach well in practice either. (If you didn't see him coach, think D'Antoni but more frenetic.) His substitutions weren't good either as he tried to micromanage the game. But the dumbest thing he ever did as a coach was sit McDyess in the latter stages of games - it turned my stomach to watch. A month into the season I was predicting McDyess would hike if Danny didn't get his head out of his you-know-what - and I was not alone. (And Dice was not in foul trouble or I'd not have thought anything of it.)

Ainge was not a lunkhead like Frank Johnson but he did do some stupid things. Like his last (partial) season, he suddenly trots out a motion offense which was painful to watch - now if he'd taken a flier on a new defense it would have made some sense but the offense was quite good the way it was. Worst of all he bequeathed the mess to Scotty Skiles... (yeah, I know, BC was going to install Skiles with or without Danny recommendation, but he could have spared us the fulsome praise for a headcase. Another possibility was that the MO was Skiles and BC's idea and to get even with the franchise, Danny touted Skiles as his successor.)

 

[leclerc]

It would be cruel to trade Steve + 1-2 to the Kings but for two talented youngsters its stupid to not consider....

It was stinking Horry stinker throwing the towel on Ainge in a period the Suns really sucked... like these days. Go Moe-keef!