Suns “Air-Out” Differences At Closed-Door Meeting
AmareThis is what losing to the Bulls can do to you.
Following their 122-111 loss on Saturday night, the Suns got together on Sunday to work out the issues at hand in a closed-door meeting.
“I’ve been on teams where guys don’t like each other at all,” Porter said. “But when we stepped on the floor, I respected that guy, and I knew he had my back. Some of that’s not present right now. . . . At times it looks like we’re not together on the floor.”
Obviously no one is naming names, and saying that two specific players don’t like each other. But from an outsider’s perspective it seems as though Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Shaquille O’Neal are all going to make sure that these issues are put to bed as quickly as possible. In a three-and-a-half minute interview, the Diesel said the phrase “man-up” twelve times after the meeting. Nash said that the team needs to find its confidence so that they won’t have any more “sleepless nights.”
In our post this morning about Chris Bosh‘s status in Toronto, Stephen A. Smith also mentions that Shaq has been asking around as to whether or not his name is popping up in trade conversation.
But as we can see with this closed-door meeting, a trade might not be the answer. First, the Suns’ problems need to be fixed in-house.
Source: AZ Central
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February 2nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Big Sia says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qyRYkvvSz4
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 am
Big Sia says:
thats a Greezy pic of amare
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
Celts Fan says:
Porters the problem here
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
rlf says:
shaq in a team that has problems, say it ain’t so?
what else is new with shaq and his teams
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:23 am
Coop says:
What a bunch of babies. If you’re playing a game you love for millions and millions of pounds you need to shut the hell up and be your best not squabble like girls
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
JA says:
Amare for Bosh.
Stat is better in an uptempo, and Bosh would be suited for a half court team.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
Kermit the Washington says:
Do they think this is all gonna be resolved in 3.5 minutes? You would think they’d put a lil’ more time into that meeting….
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:38 am
Kermit the Washington says:
Perhaps I read that wrong….Shaq was in a 3.5 minute interview AFTER the meeting.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 am
doug says:
They don’t respect Porter as a coach. I can’t say I blame them. I don’t think that he was ready to take on head coaching job. He and the Pistons coach Curry are real unprepared and has anyone ever heard these cats speak to reporters. Put it like this these cats(Porter & Curry) make Ron Harper look like a Toastmasters standout and you know how poor in speech this cat is.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 am
rlf says:
i’m surprise none of you get it, what did shaq do in miami(everywhere, but talking about the coach here) he didn’t have a coach he approved of so he made the team fire him.
he’s doing the same thing here, expect he’s not waiting because he doesn’t have time.
i’ve never seen a player like shaq, so malicious
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
rlf says:
* except, not expect
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
its not porter….what is with everyone blaming coaches when guys don’t step up..coaches aren’t missin shots, ccoaches aren’t droppin passes. I said it before, nash, the 2 time mvp, has to take some heat since NONE OF HIS TEAMS DEVELOP. Amare has to take some blame since his defense sucks for a guy his size and as athletic as he is.
Shaq has to take blame just for not bein a vocal leader (to my knowledge) that a guy with his rep should be. same goes for grant hill. Stop hatin on porter like hes wearin a jersey out there and gordon on rose were dropin 25 a piece on him. Its just like mike brown/role players and the cavs..if the cavs win its solely lebron’s doin with all this hype “oh hes so great, hes playing with scrubs” etc..but if they lose, brown and the role players get the heat while people let lebron go and his weak ass 29% 3 point shooting and what not.
p.s: didn’t i say 2 days ago, it seems like guys on the team aren’t helpin eachother to prove a point? like when amare did’t step in to block a shot after nash got toasted on defense?
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
@rlf, what did shaq do wrong? if anything porters system has helped him and made him not look old. If anything he should be happy. He should be yellin at nash and amare for not “manning up” like he though when they came to the team. Both need to quit bein divas and play some D
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Diego says:
The Suns are an unimpressive squad these days, with basically everybody on the downslide: Nash (big time), Shaq, Grant Hill, Jason Richardson too, even Amare is not his prior dominating self.
Porter will be gone before season’s end, with Dan Marle (sic?), a Phoenix favorite, taking over as interim coach.
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Chaos says:
its funny cuz on paper, the suns have a talented team, but there is no motivation. Hill and Shaq seem to be the only ones motivated to win. Hill proved he still had what it takes when he went to the hole on Chi-Town. Amare keeps bitchin about being the man but he doesnt play D or seems like he is really trying. Nash needs to stop complaining abotu the system and play in the damn system,
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Heckler says:
the problem in phoenix is steve kerr and the players. terry porter aint the problem. alls he asked them to do is play better defense.
and since phoenix suns is a team of bitch-ass players, alls they are doing are crying. mike d’antoni never asked any of them (except maybe raja and marion) to play D, and so now these biotch ass players (yes…nash and co) can’t cope.
trade steve nash now. he is the single biggest reason this team sucks. every point guard in the nba LIGHTS up the suns on the scoreboard. gee….wonder why…
steve kerr needs to trade steve nash now while he still has value. they should be able to get a good young poiint guard and some draft picks
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
nash to torontoooooooo
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
GEE..."Phelps hittin that bong is what makes him so fast!" says:
Hmmm didn’t hear as much complaining outside of Amare, who is a young punk anyway, when D’Anthony was there.
Now Porter and his new system, supposedly based off the old system, which isn’t workin at all gets complaints and a fair amount of losing.
Yea if you speaking about man up I have to think its Amare and Porter needs to cut his losses and roll now.
I would get rid of Porter and prolly trade Amare and get the Suns to where they need to be.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
so you trade amare, your only young guy with any potential left, and stick with a bunch of old guys and nash still gets lit up… is that where they need to be?
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
trade nash to the knicks for their protected pic and some conventional pieces, say nate, or lee, or chandler…nash gets to look good back in the only system he shined in, while the suns get younger and can transition into somewhat of a half court team around shaq and amare with young shooters.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
dmitry of jersey says:
YES!!
because the suns needs a big guy who can help when guards get by Nash. Shaq is too slow and Stat is abysmal on defense. Get someone in there to protect the paint and the team gets better instantly. I’m not a fan of either team but hoping they can work out a Bosh-Amare flip.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
doug says:
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water, it has everything to do with there coaches in this situation because there game plans are poor. I’ve seen both the suns and detroit play and the effort is there it’s mostly poor coaching. By the way part of being a good coach is motivating your players every now and than. Even the best of teams grow weary over an 82 game season, these cats have to earn there money during luls in the season when guys are playing less than inspired basketball.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
doug says:
Shaq is toxic, we’ve(laker fans)been saying that for sometime now. He did it in Orlando with Penny, L.A with Kobe, Miami with D.Wade. He always has ugly departures from these franchises in terms of the respect the fans,management and players have for him in those respective organizations. He’s definitely good for verbally slaying a franchise as a parting shot anytime he gets traded.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
doug have you played sports? this is the beginning of the season, not the end where their all beatten up…and as a pro athlete, you can only blame the coach so much. Everyone hyped nash’s basketball IQ right? and as a pg, aren’t you supposed to be a extension of the coach? so the SIMPLE fact that nash can’t adapt to a slow down game, or a game that relies on defense isn’t porters fault, it just shows how system made or even one dimensional nash is. porter could make the greatest play ever, we don’t know that, its up to the players to excecute. teams scout, watch tape, practice etc…its only so much in the coaches hands, meanwhile if devin harris or parker light up nash (more reason u can’t blame porter since nash routinly gets killed on D even before porter was coach) thats more on nash not being able to recognize what the offensive player is doing and stop it than it is porters being a bad coach. why do u think guys like raja and marion were so important? only differnce now is their not there and the cracks in the suns defense is really showing.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
GEE..."Phelps hittin that bong is what makes him so fast!" says:
yep I sure do trade him for another young guy and a new coach. I mean not like you gotta trade him for an old guy lol.
I might trade Nash, but even still I get a new coach and yea I think that would be better for all involved.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
its like football man, ur coach could draw the best play and if your guy cuts a route short, or drops the ball or the play gets broken up, its the players job to recognize that and adjust, not the coach suddenly being a dumbass.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Dennis Castro says:
Is Amar’e one of the more overrated big men? He only plays on one side of the court. He might as well cherry pick every defensive possession, cause he damn sure isn’t playing any D in a half court set.
For someone to be that athletic and strong to not care about D to the point of being a non-factor would be really concerning for me as a coach, GM, or owner.
I think Amar’e is the key here, his D isn’t up to par, Porter realizes it and tries to correct it, but Amar’e doesn’t want any part of that ish.
Porter should also carry some of the blame. It’s obvious that Nash and Amar’e play well off the pick and roll, pick and pop. Porter’s got to put some more of those plays in the half court set to get Nash and Stoudamire rolling again.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
GEE..."Phelps hittin that bong is what makes him so fast!" says:
LOL but it isn’t like Porter is drawing up the best plays. Dude is befuddled and clearly isn’t making the most out of the talent he has.
I do agree a lot goes towards the players but it ain’t like these same successful players went dumb overnight. It ain’t like these same successful players can’t adjust to different systems and still be very good.
Sure it’s like football and the player should catch it, but the coach has to motivate, teach, respond correctly, scrutinize and even find ways modeling what is right in order for the player to get it.
It ain’t like the whole team is just against dude, and he is doing a great job. Naw. He goes and Amare and Nash, or just Amare or just Nash.
Porter does get blame to me and in my percentage book it’s 70/30 blame. Porter gets the 70.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
GEE..."Phelps hittin that bong is what makes him so fast!" says:
I think they all take blame from the head down to the last guy on the bench. I just feel changes need to be made with the coach and perhaps 1 to 2 players.
They all are part of it though.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
they players don’t get dumbover night either, thats tru BUT nash was never a defensive player EVER and only suddenly turned into “the greatest pg ever” in d’antoni’s system. So now his tru level of game is just showing once again like it did as a mav where he was maybe a top 20 point in the league. Then you trade marion your best defensive player, and you trade raja your second best defensive player..so its not about them getting dumb, its about trading your glue guys and then put too much faith in areas of guys games that was never their strong point. no raja to cover nash’s ass means a)nash gets lit up b)people suddenly expect amare to cover nash’s ass which he NEVER was good at. No marion to cover the teams best player means amare and shaq get in more foul trouble etc…thats not just coaching, thats players not improving or stepping up.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
BROGDEN says:
Hahahahahahahahaha….this is an easy one!
NASH and AMARE give up MAD BUCKETS.
THEY SULK. THEY HANG THIER HEADS WHEN THINGS DON’T GO RIGHT.
Have anyone of you EVER seen Nash and Amare TRY to LOCK SOMEONE DOWN. Granted, you can’t lock someone down, all the times. Especially, if they’re great players.
But you can at least make an attempt on the defensive end.
I, personally, think the Suns are gonna be alright. It’s not farfetched to think that Amare and Shaq can take this team to the next level.
And, I agree with a couple of you – IT’S NOT PORTER.
IT’S THE PERSONNEL. A change is NOT really needed.
Just an ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
the reason I don’t eat up amare as much as other people do (and put alot of the blame on nash) cuz the majority of the time, outside of guys like duncan, the suns don’t get killed by alot of big men. They get killed by pgs. So yes, amare should be blocking more shots and having help D, but even more so, nash should stop getting blown by or at least slow people down. I kno, if i’m in the post and my pg is habitually getting beat, causing me to step in and risk foul after foul, i’ma stop doing i eventually. I might not completely leave him hangin like amare does but eventually me and him are having words cuz hes leavin me hanging just as much when I foul out the game by constantly having to step in.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Diego says:
Fyi, for what it’s worth, this is not Terry Porter’s first head NBA coaching gig.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
suns aint the bucks lol
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
venus says:
its the coach at least Curry can use the Iverson trade to hide how ill-equipped he is for the coaching job what’s Porter’s excuse his best defensive strategy for a tie game 3rd quarter at home is to hack bowen because “he’s shooting 28%” nuff said
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
doug says:
Well it seems like it is Porters first coaching gig. That’s even more embarassing. Your right, that cat coached the Milwaukee Sucks and went into hiding after that. He’s a terrible coach. Just like one of the bloggers said the talent pool the suns have is good, they went from being contenders to nothing. Some of that has to go to the coach, most of that has to go to the coach. Like I said I’ve heard him and Curry(Pistons coach)speak before and they don’t necessarily ooze confidence when they speak. They both studder over there words and look down when they speak, I can just imagine what the team meetings are like. Lots of studdering, spiting, made up words and looks of bewilderment from the whole team. Those cats are putting there best foot forward when the cameras are on them and they sound bad on T.V.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Vinny says:
The reason they brought Porter in was to change the mindset of the team-or attitude as Brodgen called it. But you cant make guys play defense better but u can improve team defense- that has not happened-because they dont have each other’s back-it’s obvious when u watch them- Shaq has never been a good help center, Amare is horrible on rotations-which makes nash indivdual defense look even worse-he’s terrible(and as a knick fan -we dont need his ass!!!!)Hill tries-but he’s a step slow and Richardson never has been a good team defender. They need to make a change-and it needs to be a change that has Porter’s back-he’s not that bad a coach(watch there plays coming out of timeouts-they usually work) u can teach team defense-but the players have to have the desire to play it-they dont!!
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Jeffco says:
my guess is that stat or the diesel are gonna get traded to LA
bynum is out so the lakers need a big man
both shaq and amare want to win a chip and they know they can do win it in LA
sounds crazy but just wait til the deadline!!
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
GEE..."Phelps hittin that bong is what makes him so fast!" says:
Again Porter might as well bounce now and cut them losses and save what little rep. he has if any.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
@doug, just cuz someone isn’t good on camera doesn’t mean much lol sure doesn’t mean u can’t be brilliant behind close doors. not sayin their brilliant but being camera shy doesn’t mean much.
@vinny, I agree. like i said, playing defense is more about “want” than it is skill and things like that. which is why most great offensive plays get a free pass on defense and why jordan was the shit.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
doug says:
You are a bad coach if your players don’t respect you man. All those cats you mentioned have for the most part been winners there whole career with exception to J-Rich(only thing he has won was a dunk contest). If your players don’t respect you they won’t play for you because that believe in your system. They’ve given his system a chance and they’ve been losing since D’antoni left. He’s not the right dude.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
doug says:
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water, so be ignorant on camera and James A. Naismith behind close doors, just doesn’t seem logical. He’s no brain and most importantly he’s not respected by the players.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Drink the Haterade (KB24 Chip 09) says:
You know how many times this year Amare Stoudemire has had more then ten rebounds, and less than 20 points? Zero. Black Jesus Disciples suggests that’s a player who rebounds more when he’s involved in the offense. There’s also, interestingly, not a lot of correlation between Stoudemire’s rebounding and the Suns’ winning.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Drink the Haterade (KB24 Chip 09) says:
^^^ it came from True hoop I didn’t write it
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
the cynic says:
didn’t Porter do a poor job with the Bucks too?
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
doc (i like kobe AND bron) says:
I hope they told Amare to D up.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
doug says:
yes he did Cynic, Porter is a poor coach.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
doug says:
I’m not saying this cat has to have the elegance and charisma of Obama when he’s speaking to the media but don’t be stammering and studdering over one sylable words.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
heartbreaker85 says:
sounds silly but id trade amare for bosh and another piece, then ship nash out to chi-town and get kirk and noce.
they’re not better offensively, but they sure as hell will play some D.
at this rate, grant hill and his brittle ankles is the best defender on that roster.