Return of the Run and Gun

Alvin Gentry's debut as a Phoenix Suns coach was about as good as you can draw it up, historically good as it was the largest margin of victory in league history for a coaching debut. Granted, it was against a banged up Clippers team. The Clippers are comically bad, and it is beyond me that Dunleavy is still allowed into their building. Their team looks insanely good on paper. When healthy, their starting 5 would be Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Al Thornton, Camby, and Kaman. They have decent role players in Mardy Collins, Skinner and could have Randolph coming off the bench. There is no reason that they couldnt be more competitive. Clippers fans better be praying they get that #1 and the rights to Blake Griffin. That would be huge and I think it would change that team. They HAVE to move Randolph. Buy him out or something, hes a cancer.

Back to the Suns. They go back to running and looked really good. I'm excited to see how J-Rich will fit in when he plays tonight. Looking back, when Steve Kerr labeled Nash as "untouchable," that was a very telling sign that Terry Porter was on his way out. Nash had struggled with Porter's system and was fairly vocal about these struggles. By saying he wants to ink Nash to an extension in the summer, Kerr was going to have to keep him happy, goodbye Porter.

I can't blame Steve Kerr for trying to institute a defensive-oriented, half-court offense. Defense obviously wins championships. The problem was the personnel and the timing. The only player on the Suns roster you could try to label as defense-first would be Amundson and maybe Shaq. Kerr wanted to follow the Spurs model, the only problem was that the Suns don't have anyone that resembles Tim Duncan, possibly the greatest power forward of all time and they dont have Popovich, one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. The second problem was that they didn't have time. The recession has thrown all long-term plans out the window that don't involve cutting costs. Kerr and Sarver need to put people in the seats during this time. A move back to the run-and-gun offense is brilliant from a financial point of view. It will energize the fan base and the games will start selling out again. On top of that, it will get new fans and increase jersey and merchandise sales. Making the playoffs is a large financial incentive so they can sell expensive playoff tickets. Finally, getting the season ticket holders back next year is incredibly important. Trading Stoudemire wont matter if you're not bringing fans back and making guaranteed revenue.

This weeks schedule is a breeze with another game in LA against the Clippers and a game against the Thunder. After that things ratchet up with 9 of 11 games against playoff contenders: Boston, home and home vs. Lakers, @ Orlando, @ Miami, @ Houston, @ San Antonio, Dallas, and Cleveland. We will definitely know if the Suns are going to be back and competitive by the end of this stretch.

Photo from AP Photo/Matt York