Thank Kerr for the Sun-set

As the NBA regular season winds down, the once proud Phoenix Suns are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. Fans in the desert can place the blame squarely on general manager Steve Kerr. Phoenix currently sits ninth in the top heavy Western Conference. After the top nine, there isn't a team out West sniffing any hope of making the playoffs. The problem for the Suns, however, is that only eight teams per conference make it into the league's second season. Phoenix will be hard pressed to sneak into the eighth spot with power forward Amare Stoudamire out the rest of the season with an eye injury. Even with a healthy Stoudamire, the Suns would of had an uphill battle because the franchise's problems began much earlier.

The Suns problems began when Robert Sarver took over ownership of the team in 2004. The saving grace at this point in time was that chairman Jerry Colangelo remained in charge of the franchise. This allowed Phoenix to sign Steve Nash and to ascend to one of the elite teams in the NBA under head coach Mike D'Antoni. D'Antoni's system and ':07 Seconds or Less' philosophy allowed players like Nash, Joe Johnson, Quinton Richardson, and Shawn Marion to flourish and turned Amare Stoudmire into an unstoppable force. In his four full seasons at the helm, D'Antoni churned out 232 regular season victories. This despite losing Stoudamire for the '05-'06 season and still guiding the Suns to the Western Conference Finals.

The Suns success during those years overshadowed the questionable moves being made behind the scenes. Despite still overseeing the franchise, Jerry Colangelo's hands were tied in improving the roster due to Robert Sarver's reluctance to add payroll. The Suns under Sarver have been notorious for essentially selling off first round draft picks for cash in order for Sarver to save a few bucks. Those discarded draft picks resulted in talented players like Luol Deng and Nate Robinson playing elsewhere in the league. In addition, Phoenix had to trade away both Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson due to financial considerations. The bottom line is that the Suns were always paper thin and missing one last piece that could get have put them over the top.

The downfall in Phoenix began when Jerry Colangelo left the franchise and Steve Kerr was hired as GM in 2007. Kerr and Sarver were longtime friends going back to college at Arizona, however, Kerr had no prior management experience. Kerr believed that the D'Antoni's style wasn't condusive to winning a championship and decided to turn the Suns into a more conventional team. The first step in this process was to trade for Shawn Marion for Shaquille O'Neal last season. The move immediately made Amare Stoudamire less effective inside with Shaq clogging up the paint and stifled the Suns' run and gun offense. The end result was a first round exit to the Spurs in the playoffs.

After the season, D'Antoni and the Suns parted ways as Kerr's actions made it clear than D'Antoni's style of play was no longer welcome under the new regime's watch. Kerr wanted to implement a more defensive oriented approach and hired Terry Porter as head coach. Suns fans know how that decision played out as the team never looked comfortable playing in Porter's system. Kerr's experiment lasted all of half a season before having to fire Porter and put the one assistant coach remaining from D'Antoni's staff, Alvin Gentry, at the helm of the team. Kerr and Porter couldn't produce the results on the court that D'Antoni did year after year and both the players and fans were frustrated. To say that Kerr's moves so far have been an utter failure is a huge understatement.

Kerr has felt compelled to allow the Suns to revert back to their old tricks for time being. Too little, too late. He comes out of this looking bad regardless of what the Suns do going forward. Kerr tried to force a culture onto a team that just didn't fit the personnel. The Suns had become highly successful and popular around the league playing their uptempo style. Kerr was convinced the Suns couldn't win the championship playing that way. By playing his way, Kerr has the Suns out of championship contention all together and back in the lottery. Maybe this time Mr. Sarver will feel compelled to actually keep that draft pick.