Hope in the Sky

The Suns are looking good 21 days before the season starts

By Tara Sadat-Tehrani

Image from Brighsideofthesun.com

The skies have been grey in Phoenix since 2010—the last time the Phoenix Suns have had a winning record.  The Shawn Marion, Steve Nash, and Amar’e Stoudemire days are long over, and Phoenix hasn’t done anything to prove that they can be that team again. 

Alvin Gentry had this team under his control since 2009, where they placed second in the Pacific Division, but it all went downhill after that.  Sure Gentry led them to the Western Conference Finals, and defensively, the Suns actually played well on defense, but who is there really to blame for this decline? 

Alvin Gentry is now gone to the Los Angeles Clippers as an assistant coach and Jeff Hornacek, a former Phoenix Sun in 1986 is now taking the reigns.  Could these mean sunny skies and more wins in Phoenix? Or is it another slow season with young and talented players?

The Phoenix Suns have a young roster this year, and, with preseason starting and training camp ending, there has been optimism from the players with their new coach, Jeff Hornacek. 

Players like P.J. Tucker and Goran Dragic enjoy how Hornacek has treated them as players and have taught them new skills every day.  They are impressed with the way he has pushed the team in a passive way and getting positive results. 

Hornacek brought the team to the highest part of Arizona, with 7,000 feet of elevation, and, in these five days, the players learned more than they could have imagined from their new coach.  

Although he had not been as intense with the players, results were shown in Summer League and the young players debuts in Vegas.  The fact that Jeff Hornacek can bring such confidence to a younger team can help them strive in becoming a better team as a whole, as they face older and much more experienced teams in the West like the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder. 

           

Wouldn’t we all want a coach who gives us direct attention, even when we may be the rookies of the team?  This is exactly what Coach Hornacek is doing for the Phoenix Suns and rebuilding them to become the team they were four years ago.

Due to their sub par performance and the dwindling of national television games, the Suns have been under the radar, but, with the help of Coach Hornacek and the rest of the coaching staff, maybe this young team can shine and prove not only us, but also the rest of the league, wrong.