The Phoenix Suns have fired Igor Kokoskov after only one year

General incompetence. Those two words truly encapsulate Robert Sarver’s tenure with the Phoenix Suns.

Robert Sarver has been embarrassed by Phoenix citizens.

He has indirectly coated a general manager’s office with goat poop, insight into his inability to understand the unexpected consequences his actions might elicit.

He’s gone through countless coaches, general managers, presidents as a means to an end – an end that is consistent losing, and hasn’t been able to figure out what the common denominator is.

The most recent victim of this incompetence is Igor Kokoskov, the now former Suns head coach who finished the season with a grand total of 19 wins. His record isn’t great, but the franchise didn’t do him any favors; like having a terrible professor for your first year of calculus.

Phoenix Suns

Kokoskov should’ve always been graded on a curve, or at least given multiple years to prove his worth.

He joined a young team only experienced in the art of tanking. He was gifted Deandre Ayton, the number one pick at a position that is becoming more and more irrelevant, if not detrimental, to a team’s success. He was denied the opportunity to work with the player he coached to a EuroBasket championship, the teenage phenom Luka Doncic.

Doncic is now favored to win the Rookie of the Year while Ayton still lacks what every franchise center drafted first overall possesses: defensive ability.

These are a few of the injustices that Kokoskov endured while in Phoenix. He was never given a clean slate. At times, he was fighting an uphill battle, having to fit his coaching style to his players.

The Suns had the chance at harmony in pairing Doncic and Kokoskov, a move that had logic behind it.

Instead, management ignored the coach’s wishes and went with a 7-foot big man without a fit in this era of the NBA.

Now, Phoenix is staring at their fifth coach in five years, and seventh this decade, seeking a new result as they make the same mistakes.

The Phoenix Suns aren’t just a laughing stock in the NBA, they are a black mark on a league growing ever brighter.

They can’t create a plan for the future, and if they do, they abandon it within the year. The front office isn’t connected with the coaching staff, passing on the player that was the ideal fit for Kokoskov’s system.

The front office barely seems connected themselves, employing two general managers, one for mingling with players and coaches and the other for…actual, general manager duties?

The incompetence within this organization is unbelievable. There are awful teams out there, dominated by questionable trades or bad hires or free agency mistakes.

However, not too many franchises can hold a candle to what Phoenix has carved in the cellar of the NBA. A team surrounded by negativity at every turn, even with new faces strolling through the doors each season.

One face remains the same, and its one that must go sooner or later.

The NBA should step in if it wants to save whatever is left of the skeleton of this once respectable franchise. But until that happens, don’t expect much more than the normal impatience and ineptness that has plagued this organization this decade.

Kokoskov, as do many of those formerly connected with Phoenix, deserved better.

The coach should’ve been given more time with a young and inexperienced team. He should’ve been given time to develop these players, as was believed when the front office backed him for a second season earlier this year. He should’ve been given the piece that he needed to succeed. Instead, he was provided an escape from this purgatory, a precious parting gift in itself.