What's Next? Pt 2

So, in my previous entry I had only referred to the Mavericks and had mentioned both the Mavericks and Suns as having embarrassing first round exits. So for the 2 readers out there wondering, "Well, what about the Suns?" here it is.

Steve Kerr in essence summed up the reason the Suns can't win, they don't play defense. Kerr wants D'Antoni to coach both ends of the floor and work on accountability, two things that D'Antoni doesn't like or want to do. Thus D'Antoni is looking at a very lucrative offer from the New York Knicks' Donnie Walsh to be their head coach. Now regardless of whether or not I think D'Antoni can work with the Knicks (even if they do get rid of Curry, Randolph, and Marbury somehow), the Suns are in something of a dilemma.

They have a 36 year old Shaquille O'Neal, a 36 year old Grant Hill who hasn't played a healthy season in the NBA for the past 10 years, and a 34 year old Steve Nash. Add onto that a frustrated Amare Stoudamire and an apathetic Boris Diaw, and you get a team that has some serious issues. It doesn't matter that the locker room atmosphere is better, less abrasive, the fact is that the team is getting old, and there's nothing to show for it. The Suns have to eat Shaq's monstrous contract and now Steve Kerr has to find them a new coach that they'll be willing to work with. Likely, it's not going to be someone the players like, simply because it's going to be a coach that will preach what Kerr wants to hear; defense. Maybe it'll be Kerr's former teammate and fellow Spur Avery Johnson walking the sidelines, how he gets Shaq, Nash, and Stoudamire to focus on the defensive game will be a wonder.

The fact of the matter remains also that Shaq, Nash, and Amare, in addition to being defensively lax, are something of a cap killer. It makes it really hard to rebuild around them, and the only real legitimate piece that they have to trade remains Boris Diaw and possibly Leandro Barbosa. In fact, if they weren't so worried about moving to Oklahoma City, I'm sure that the first round exit, and the ending run of D'Antoni's run-'n-gun offense, has the Sonics celebrating. Their two first round, unqualified picks for 2009 are looking nicer and nicer as Phoenix begins to look more and more likely to head to the lottery. In essence, the Suns have to start over again, and even that looks fairly distant unless Shaq decides to retire before his contract is up.