Almost two days after parting ways with Alvin Gentry, Suns name Lindsey Hunter interim head coach
Jan 20, 2013, 8:00 AM EDT
Getty Images UPDATE 11:17 a.m. ET: The Suns have named player development coordinator Lindesy Hunter as interim head coach, the team announced this morning. We’ll have more on Hunter following this afternoon’s press conference.
PHOENIX — In case you weren’t sure of what the plan was in Phoenix to right the sinking Suns ship, we have some good news to pass along: You’re not alone; the organization doesn’t seem to have any idea, either.
Well over 24 hours after the Suns parted ways with head coach Alvin Gentry, the team has yet to name an interim head coach. It’s hard to imagine that the search will last beyond Sunday, considering that the team is exclusively looking at internal candidates. But the fact that this all wasn’t worked out ahead of time tells at least part of the story of this Suns team that finds itself at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby said at a press conference on Friday that he’d prefer to wait until a coach is named to describe the qualities he’s looking for in the person who will guide the team the rest of the season.
“Let’s wait until we pick the guy and then we can describe why we picked him; maybe that would be easier,” Babby said. “There are so many characterisitics that a good coach should have. Not everyone is going to have all of them. There is a tendency when you pick someone to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative and that’s what we’ll do. We’ll pick the right person internally for where we are and where to go but let’s wait until we pick that person. I’d rather describe the reasons or have [GM Lance Blanks] describe the rerasons or have the person describe why they are the right fit rather than do it hypothetically.”
This deflection was pretty much par for the course during Babby’s presser, where he essentially refused to get into the details surrounding the reasons for Gentry’s dismissal, other than to say that management felt that the team was regressing.
“I don’t want to get into the details of evaluating what led to the decision,” Babby said. “This is not something we planned for. As short as a month ago, Robert Sarver was direct and blunt in saying Alvin would be here for the rest of the year. That was our intent all along. That was a commitment that we had made. But sometimes in this business, you get to a point where it just doesn’t feel right and we just reached that point.
“How you get to that point is something that we look at closely and try to learn from, but I don’t think it serves anybody’s purpsoe to share all of the details and all of the reason, either from his side or from our side.”
Assistant coaches Elston Turner, Igor Kokoskov, and Dan Majerle are all believed to be in the running to ride out the lost season with the interim tag, as is player development coach Lindsey Hunter.
Gentry ended up taking the fall for poor front office personnel decisions, plain and simple. Babby said at one point during the press conference that the change at the head coaching spot doesn’t change the team’s plan from a personnel or player development standpoint, and that management’s plan was “intact.”
That would imply that a plan was in fact in place to begin with, which is hard to imagine considering how long it’s taking to simply appoint a current member of the staff to run the team the rest of the way.
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Spurs execution fails them when it matters most. Can they get it back for Game 7?
Jun 19, 2013, 2:24 AM EDT
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For three quarters, as it has been for much of the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs execution was just too much for the Heat to handle — the Spurs shot 50 percent, they played smart defense, they moved the ball, Tim Duncan was playing like a man possessed with 30 points and 14 rebounds,…
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Ray Allen giving Heat exactly what they expected this season, including his clutch 3-pointer in Game 6
Jun 19, 2013, 2:06 AM EDT
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Ray Allen faced a potentially awkward moment before he even played his first game with the Miami Heat. Not only were the Heat facing his old team, the Boston Celtics, his new teammates were receiving their 2012 championship rings. Miami had won a hard-fought seven-game series over Allen’s Celtics on its way to the title,…
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Heat force a Finals Game 7 with thrilling overtime win over Spurs
Jun 19, 2013, 1:53 AM EDT
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MIAMI — The Spurs were on the brink of winning a championship. With 28 seconds remaining in the fourth, they held a five-point lead, were on a 10-2 run over the last four minutes, and fans were heading for the exits while arena staffers lined the court to rope off the crowd in preparation for…
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Chris Bosh, the Heat’s center, was the Miami player who took the necessary step of declaring Danny Green was done getting open looks. When push came to shove, Bosh – the Heat’s center (!) – backed up his words, which really should have come from one of the perimeter players who kept leaving Green open.…
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Tony Parker makes step-back 3-pointer, steals ball, makes spinning jumper (video)
Jun 18, 2013, 11:43 PM EDT
Tony Parker, who made the defining play of the series, his twisting, shot-clock beating clincher in Game 1, is at it again. He stepped back to create space for a game-tying 3-pointer, got a steal on the other end and then drove into the paint for a short jumper to put San Antonio up by…
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NBA Finals Game 6: Heat comeback in fourth, win in overtime to force Game 7
Jun 18, 2013, 10:27 PM EDT
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That was a great game. And Game 7 sets up to be something special. For three quarters San Antonio’s execution was too much for Miami and the Spurs entered the fourth up 10 (75-65) and just 12 minutes away from a title. Tim Duncan had been a force, with countermoves spinning Chris Bosh around and…
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MIAMI — The Spurs lead the Heat 50-44 at halftime of Game 6 of the Finals, and if Miami is to prevent a championship celebration tonight on its home floor, they must find an answer from what is developing into an all-time great performance from Tim Duncan. Duncan has been unstoppable thus far, and has…
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Mike Miller remained in the starting lineup, but that merely made him the guy in the way of Kawhi Leonard. This ferocious dunk gave Leonard eight early points after he made a three-point play and a 3-pointer.
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LeBron would like to see Mike Miller more involved for Heat in Game 6
Jun 18, 2013, 8:39 PM EDT
MIAMI — Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra hinted that a lineup change might be possible in advance of Game 6, but wasn’t going to reveal it until absolutely necessary. “I’ll turn in my card at 45 minutes,” he said. There was no lineup change to be found when the time came, however, as three-point specialist…
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Miami has gone very small against the Spurs — and it worked at first, the Heat won a game and forced the Spurs to adjust to them. However a consequence of that has been Chris Andersen has slid out of the rotation. The Birdman’s size was key against the large Pacers front line last series,…
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Kansas’ Ben McLemore was pretty much a top three pick on everybody’s board a month ago, but he may be sliding down some boards right now. In part that is because the smooth-shooting guard out of Kansas didn’t help his cause in some recent workouts, reports Chad Ford at ESPN.com (Insider). Multiple sources told me…
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I know, there’s some irony to Chris Bosh talking about physical play. But the thing is, he’s right — the Miami Heat have to come out with their best defensive effort they are not going on to a Game 7. They need to stick with shooters on the perimeter, make crisp rotations and stop cheating…
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Chris Paul, not Celtics trade, will make or break Clippers’ offseason
Jun 18, 2013, 3:24 PM EDT
Although the Celtics would be in a tough spot if they don’t trade with the Clippers, Los Angeles doesn’t face the same pressure. Acquiring Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett and maybe Paul Pierce is one option of many. The Clippers will continue interviewing Lionel Hollins, Brian Shaw and Byron Scott, and if they choose the best…
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While the NCAA and its ridiculous rules force American college players to make their draft decisions much earlier, international players and those not in college have longer to make their decision. That deadline was today and 18 players pulled out the league announced. The biggest one we already knew, Dario Saric of Croatia. DraftExpress had…
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If the Celtics-Clippers trade is indeed dead – and like Kurt, I have my doubts – the offseason doesn’t get any easier for the Celtics. Boston is obviously ready to move on from Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers, at least if it nets a certain combination of DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe and first-round picks and…
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Legacies are always on the line in the NBA Finals. I wrote about that earlier and Kay Adams and I talk about the impact of legacy if the San Antonio Spurs win Game 6 Tuesday night. She also calls me out for that Heat is 6 prediction. As she should.



