I don't think there is a big distinction between the two options, mostly because neither is a real option. The Suns can "try" to win all they want, but it won't work with this roster regardless of who plays and who sits. That has been already shown. And they can also play "youth", but the Suns entire roster is relatively young and yet there are no players that are truly worth developing with an eye towards the future. Marshall is the only young player on the roster who has not gotten any playing time, but his stint in the D-League showed that he may not belong in this league at all.
But beyond those two options, there's also the "let's play Beasley a whole lot so that Lance Blanks doesn't look like a complete idiot" option, which I'm guessing, he might have been going for when making the coaching change. I am predicting we'll see Beasley back in regular rotation soon enough, maybe even starting. But not because the Suns are "developing youth" (I don't even think he qualifies, being in his 5th season), but rather, so that he can get his scoring average up to a respectable number (by virtue of number of shots taken) so that Blanks can save some face, everything else be damned.
See I'm guessing that all of $arver's smartest guys in the rooms are using their moneyball numbers to tell $arver who to sign and how good we should expect to be. That it was $arver who wants us to try to keep winning, because he believes our roster has far more talent than anyone with eyes does. Because certain numbers are telling him so. He's a banker. They make decisions based on things like this.
No basketball knowledge needed to run the team, just follow the computer, and success will follow. Like the banks.
Because no one who actually knows basketball could legitimately expect this team to be a playoff team. One that thinks...maybe it might be possible...with a fan's bias? Sure. Why not.
But real front office people beyond their 'hopes', would realize that it could easily get this bad because the talent was lacking.
I personally GUESS, that $arver thinks we should be winning. That if we make a change, we might turn things around. That we might get close to the playoffs. That he could then sell a turnaround to keep season ticket numbers up. He wants to win because his ego and pocketbook will suffer if we don't win. But his forward vision is shorter than an HFT algorithm on Wall Street.
I think it was Gentry who wanted to play the young guys. He was trying to tell front office that we need to find out what we have for going forward, and in the process probably have a better pick.
I think $arver is scared to bottom out. So they fired the coach that wanted to let that happen.
I may be wrong, but that's how I feel. That $arver would rather in the short term win meaningless games then do what's best for the franchise long term. That he needed a coach would try to continue to win. That his 'numbers' are telling them that we should be winning, and those numbers can't be wrong (yeah right). If Gentry couldn't and/or wouldn't do it, he'd find someone that would be stupid enough to try. Because his metrics are right....or so he thinks. Doesn't anyone remember all that talk about them becoming the morons with idiot equations? How they were looking forward to being a better team using these things? Forget basketball knowledge, follow the BCS computers!
Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a totally different reason. But all the background is there for this type of decision. Banker. Idiots' metrics. Gentry talking about playing young guys in the media.
I just don't see Gentry talking about playing young guys if it was something he didn't want to do. He simply wouldn't bring it up.
It will be obvious if it was Gentry's lack of playing young guys, since all we'd see would be the likes of Marshall, Morris, Wes Johnson, etc starting going forward. If it's the same sort of lineups as before, I think we'll have our answers. Obviously a couple of tweaks will happen, but that 1st game will be telling.
