Have the Right Head Coach
Step Five is the final step: HAVE THE RIGHT COACH IN PLACE TO DEAL WITH AND PROPERLY COACH UP A SUPERTEAM.
The Chicago Bulls had both Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and yet didn’t win until they had Phil Jackson.
The Los Angeles Lakers had both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal and yet didn’t win until they had…well, Phil Jackson.
But you get the point.
Sometimes coaching means everything, even in the NBA when stars and the continued accumulation thereof are the only way for teams to win with any level of sustained success.
A great head coach can make a mediocre team good and a good team great.
But even a bad head coach can keep a great team from winning.
Right now it is impossible to know just how good of a head coach Igor Kokoskov is because the Suns just do not have the talent on the roster to be a winner (so we presume), most specifically, they do not have a point guard or power forward worthy of starting at either of those positions.
Whether or not Kokoskov is a head coach that can both control and guide a group of players to the status of superteam is impossible to know now, but if there is any indication at any point that he is not, then a change must be made in order to facilitate such success – especially if the roster is otherwise put together in a manner that appears to be superteam-ish.
Fortunately the head coach is probably the last box that needs to be checked as the roster itself needs to be completely overhauled and molded before any thoughts of whether or not Igor is the right man for the job or not should be entertained.
But if the Suns do keep their players happy, they draft well again this summer, make the right trades in the interim and beyond, and entice just one additional star through free agency, then maybe, just maybe the Phoenix Suns can be that superteam that Devin Booker so desires.
The crazy thing is, if they do all of that right this season, and sign that star player this summer, in the NBA, superteams can be built fairly quickly.