Preseason: Suns @ Nuggets

[Phrazbit]

D'Antoni has a MUCH longer track record to allow for definitive statements to be made.

In 10 years I'm sure we will no longer need "benefit of the doubt" to judge if Hornacek is good, bad or somewhere in between.

 

[JCSunsfan]

MDA never gets the benefit of the doubt you give to your boy, Hornacek.

I hope we have a great season and are fun to watch. I have my doubts just like most of the experts.

I guess if the team loses it falls on the GM or the players for not doing their job.

If the team wins then it is great coaching by Hornacek.

He is not even close to earning that respect from me at this point.

Are you kidding? I gave MDA plenty of benefit over the years he was here--and he had runs with three other teams to show what he had as well. MDA has coached 940 NBA games and had some of the leagues best talent on his rosters. Hornacek has coached all of 164 games and has never had even one all-star.

MDA revolutionized the NBA, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. The problem with DAntoni is that he could not perfect his own system. Steve Kerr was smart enought to see the strengths and weaknesses when he was MDA's GM. He made the suggestions for improvement, but instead of listening to a GM that he obviously considered beneath him, he bolted for the Knicks. I am not sure what, if any, of this is even debatable.

Horny clearly overachieved in his first year as a head coach. Last year, the locker room was a mess and they still managed to win 39 games even though they pulled the plug after the all-star break and finished the season 1-10.

Could Horny prove to be a poor coach in the end? Sure. But so far, he has overachieved. He is far from "my boy."

 

[Hoop Head]

The pick we got for IT is Cleveland's 1st rounder this year. Unless Lebron misses 20+ games in the regular season the pick will be in the late 20's, most likely 25-30. I don't think that's such a positive. Sure we got an expiring deal, so cap wise the IT signing made no difference but the value the team received for him was hardly a plus.

As for Hornacek as a coach I think he overachieved the first year and then underachieved his second year. With a deep team I worry he won't be able to be successful keeping players happy, developing the younger players, and winning. It could easily be argued that with more talent on the team the more Hornacek is exposed as being too soft to coach a team of NBA millionaires. The team chemistry was way off last year due to players not having defined roles and I'm afraid this season we'll see more of that since I think we're deeper and more talented at virtually every position than we were in Jeff's first two seasons. I think having a locker room leader like Chandler will help, provided he buys into Hornacek's system and leadership 100%, if he doesn't though things could get ugly quick since he's a passionate player and racks up a lot of techs like the Morrii. Ditching Marcus and just having Markieff should be a plus be we all know they have their weird twin bond and Kieff didn't take the trade well at all. Sure he's said all the right things to the media during camp but his attitude and future still being a big question mark I think the locker room may implode early again if things don't start out well. Which is both McD and Hornacek's fault but Jeff will be on a hotter seat if he can't keep the locker room under control in consecutive seasons.

Can anyone see Hornacek sticking around if the team finishes 9th or worse in the West again?