Dont-toni & kerr G.M. tenures

but in retrospect, the picks the Suns gave Seattle/OKS were low anyway (26th and 25th I believe) so protection was not a factor, unless you take the stance that Kerr would have been more inclined to throw 2009-2010 away if he’d had a protected lottery pick at the end of the rainbow. Still, I wouldn’t trade 2009-2010 for anything.

Also, look at selling draft picks this way. On this very board, fans are throwing out “future draft picks” and Earl Clark like candy to make a trade to make the 2010-2011 team a contender. That’s basically the philosophy that Sarver/D’Antoni/BC/Kerr used during “the run” to spend the money on the “7 starters” instead.

I don’t think Alando Tucker was a bad choice. If he had had enough playing time to develop (which he wasn’t getting even with Alvin Gentry) and if the team had really needed him (which it never did), he might now be a good enough player. I think one of the problems was actually his height. He didn’t seem to shoot well enough to fit in at shooting guard, but was pretty small as a forward.

He always put the lineup that he thought would win on the floor – same as Phil Jackson did this last year. And Kerr didn’t do such a bad job – the Shaq move was valid, even though it didn’t work out like planned. A lot of the moves both Kerr and Mike made worked out – we did make it to the WCF last year, so it’s hard to call them ‘failures’.
    We made it through some bad decisions by dumping salary and making some wise choices, and we’re in really good shape now, so what’s to bitch about?

There had to have been more conservative and cautious trades out there than Marion for O’Neal. I don’t remember anymore whether there was anyone available fitting this criterion, but the obvious thing to hope for was trading Marion for someone similar to him.

The problem was that, on whole the B.B.I.Q for the team was “challenged” at best. Coach Mike did an awesome job while he was here; unfortunately it was only a regular season Tarzan but a Playoffs Jane. Every year the playoffs become a: nasty, physical, hard fouling slugfest and the 7SOL Suns could only get so far. I hate the style of playoff basketball with a passion, love the playoffs mind you. Kerr was finally about to change the culture here on Planet Orange with the acquisition/migration to players with the smarts and savvy geared for the playoffs (most anyway). For as much excitement and entertainment that the 7SOL provided there just wasn’t enough nastiness to make it to the finals. Thanks for reading my opinion/take/rant.

We were pushing for Marion to be traded but he wouldn’t allow it and the T-Wolves wanted Amar’e. I wonder how things would’ve turned out if we traded Amar’e for KG.

The refusal to raise his pay might have been the immediate catalyst for Steve Kerr to leave, but without any insider knowledge, I suspect that Kerr wanted to go home to San Diego, and the refused raise simply gave him an excuse. Remember how the last one (or was it two?) training camps were in San Diego? I always assumed that was to please Kerr.

D’Antoni’s brief stint as GM was really terrible. Bad, bad free agent signings — Jumaine Jones? Eric Piatkowski? Sean Marks? Marcus-FREAKIN’-Banks?! — and a bunch of sold draft picks are all he has to show for himself. Other than that, he should have just kept his “Coach” hat on and left that “GM” hat on the shelf.

As for Kerr? He is the most underrated, over-scrutinized GM the Suns have ever had in my opinion. When you think about it, the only truly bad move he made was hiring Terry Porter, which actually proved to be a blessing in disguise because Porter’s failure led to the hiring of Alvin Gentry. The trade for Shaq had to be done. It wasn’t a bad idea at first and I truly believe that ‘08 team was poised to make noise before Duncan hit that miracle 3-ball.
Other than Porter, all of Kerr’s moves have turned out great: turning malcontents into J-Rich/Dudley, resigning Hill and Nash, solid (not “sold”) draft picks, NOT trading Amar’e, and good free agent signings (G-Hill, Lou, and I still like Matt Barnes.) So when you reflect on the wildly successful 09-10 season, you have to remember one thing: the moves that got the Suns to that point, the ones that gave the Suns their coach, their bench, their chemistry, and their future (Dragic/Lopez), were all done through Kerr’s decisions. If anything, I’m disappointed that they couldn’t reach an agreement to bring him back because I think he was on to something. No more hating on Steve Kerr, folks. He gave us the Suns as we knew them in 09-10.

All this being said, I am impressed by the moves they’ve made in the wake of his departure and look forward to seeing how the new players and front office do this coming season.