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Jeff Hornacek Not To Blame For Suns’ Struggles

By Gerald Bourguet

Apr 10, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek looks on against the New Orleans Pelicans during the second half of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans won 90-75. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 10, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek looks on against the New Orleans Pelicans during the second half of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans won 90-75. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jeff Hornacek
Mar 9, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Brandon Knight reacts on the court after suffering an injury in the second quarter against the Golden State Warriors at US Airways Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

Injuries

It’s honestly a wonder Hornacek got anything relatively similar to last year’s team out of this year’s version. Sending away two of the team’s four best players hurts, but when the guy you get in return only plays 11 games, struggles to adjust and then goes down with an ankle injury, of course it’s going to look bad. The problem is, none of that is Hornacek’s fault.

With Knight out, the Suns have had to resort to an offensively inept starting lineup of Bledsoe, Tucker, the Morri and Len. Only that’s not entirely accurate, since Len has missed significant time over the last few weeks, either with ankle problems or a broken nose.

Brandan Wright has filled in admirably for Len, but he’s really more of a backup center. Marcus Morris is a backup small forward. Tucker should be a backup wing. Deep down, we’d probably all prefer for the Suns to nab some stud power forward and let Markieff Morris terrorize opponents off the bench in a sixth man role.

Take a look at that again. That means that over the last few weeks, only Eric Bledsoe has been a starting-caliber player in Phoenix’s starting lineup. No wonder the Suns have sucked lately! When four of your five starters are better off coming off the bench (and to be honest, Len qualifies for that category too), of course it’s going to be hard to keep playoff hopes alive.

I’m not naive enough to suggest that injuries ruined the Suns’ playoff chances. Those were trending downhill ever since the All-Star break, teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets or Portland Trail Blazers deserve more sympathy in that regard.

But those nagging injuries over the last few weeks have prevented this young core from exploring what they can do together. It prevented the new pieces — especially Knight — from developing chemistry with the players who had already been here — most of whom were taking on new roles as well.

Throw in the chemistry problems in the locker room that stemmed from the whole Thomas-Dragic dilemma and it’s no wonder the team has struggled this year.

Things like the Marcus Morris blowing up at him can be taken as a lack of respect, but isn’t it possible some of these players wouldn’t respect their head coach no matter who it was? That assertion isn’t much of a stretch considering that Markieff Moris is one technical foul away from a one-game suspension.

It’s a coach’s job to get the most out of what he’s got on the floor, but how’s he supposed to do that when what he’s got on the floor has been in a constant state of flux?

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