Suns Hire Ott as New Coach

[BooksOrangePlanet]

Ott deserves all the criticism for the last half of the season and especially the playoffs, starting with the Play-In. But that doesn't mean we toss him away, like we are wont to do in this city.

Our roster isn't great from top to bottom, but it's at least solid. There is still A LOT to work with right now and I know we'll see some changes, just don't want to see changes for changing's sake.

I SERIOUSLY doubt we are going to trade Book, but I guess we have to be prepared for 75% of this board to complain about it for the next 4 months ad nauseum.

hi chap - long time listener long time caller

i just have one question - don't worry it's not booker related

i still believe in jordan ott - i think he still has the team and that a lot of the vets might even agree with the rookie free lineups

but should we be worried? are you getting mike d'antoni flashbacks yet? will ott finally utilize size once it has matured? is this all just one question

 

[Chaplin]

And I guess those people are going to have to be prepared to be attacked for daring to say it.

Probably.

 

[Raindog]

The Suns simply cannot come back with the same roster, just hoping the rookies improve. To do so would only guarantee the same diminishing returns we saw the second half of the season. The roster as it is is not built to be successful over an entire season and a playoff.

The major issue is needing more size, athleticism, and guys who stay off IR for extended periods. And what we need far less of is undersized wing/guard types who overlap roles.

 

[Chaplin]

hi chap - long time listener long time caller

i just have one question - don't worry it's not booker related

i still believe in jordan ott - i think he still has the team and that a lot of the vets might even agree with the rookie free lineups

but should we be worried? are you getting mike d'antoni flashbacks yet? will ott finally utilize size once it has matured? is this all just one question

No, not worried.

What he did the first half of the season worked, but a season is 82 games long. And whatever broke during the all-star break didn't get fixed. It's not like we're hopeless, we're not the Brooklyn Nets, after all. The main thing we had in the 2nd half of the season that we didn't in the first, I'm sad to say, is Jalen Green. I like Green, he's a freak athlete and he can put the ball in the basket. But he still played like a rookie at times, my question for him is, "Is he coachable?" I hope so, because I'd like for him to stick around.

As much as I hate to say it, and my 10 year old son would kill me for saying it, we should try to sell high on Book. Green's prime is still to come, Book's is still in progress, but his window is a lot shorter, and his play during the playoffs has been perplexing.

 

[Chaplin]

The Suns simply cannot come back with the same roster, just hoping the rookies improve. To do so would only guarantee the same diminishing returns we saw the second half of the season. The roster as it is is not built to be successful over an entire season and a playoff.

The major issue is needing more size, athleticism, and guys who stay off IR for extended periods. And what we need far less of is undersized wing/guard types who overlap roles.

I think you're overestimating what we can do in the offseason. I hope Ishbia can pull a rabbit out of a hat, because I'm not so sure lightning can strike twice.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

No, not worried.

What he did the first half of the season worked, but a season is 82 games long. And whatever broke during the all-star break didn't get fixed. It's not like we're hopeless, we're not the Brooklyn Nets, after all. The main thing we had in the 2nd half of the season that we didn't in the first, I'm sad to say, is Jalen Green. I like Green, he's a freak athlete and he can put the ball in the basket. But he still played like a rookie at times, my question for him is, "Is he coachable?" I hope so, because I'd like for him to stick around.

As much as I hate to say it, and my 10 year old son would kill me for saying it, we should try to sell high on Book. Green's prime is still to come, Book's is still in progress, but his window is a lot shorter, and his play during the playoffs has been perplexing.

right on - but do you think ott will play size or be locked in with small ball

 

[Chaplin]

right on - but do you think ott will play size or be locked in with small ball

That I don't know. He seemed pretty adaptable at the start of the season, and he did seem to play Mark Williams selectively, leading to the most games he's ever played in a season. That's something. Not dependable by any means, but he at least showed some skill at managing bigs. I wonder if come the playoffs if Nick Richards would have been some help. I like Oso, but he's no starter in this league.

Fleming for all his potential, is still a rookie. I kind of get not playing him during the play in and even game 1, but I don't think there is much excuse for him to get zero minutes until tonight in the playoffs. Especially with Grayson on the sideline as well. We're playing the consensus #1 team in the entire league, why not play the younger guys a bit more? Dunn didn't even get in the game at all tonight.

 

[Phrazbit]

Williams' health falling apart during the 2nd half of the season really put Ott in a bind. We're trying to do everything we can to make the playoffs, he tightened up his rotations and he stopped playing some guys who I think really earned minutes (like Bo0-yeah and Fleming) and he played Man man with the shortest leash imaginable.

I think he needed to give those young guys a bit more leash, even if it's only like 8 minutes a game, get them somewhat involved.

Allen's health falling apart didn't help either but at least we had a ton of depth there. Also, it took a looooong time for Green to stop dribbling away half the clock and then settling for a 20 foot 2 pointer.

Green looked a lot better the last month, I will give him that, although he still shoots too much.

But, overall it was a good season. Had a ton of injuries (what's new?) but we won nearly 20 games more than we were expected to and were a significant improvement in every way imaginable over the previous season.

I give Ott an A- on the year. First half of the season, I'd have given him coach of the year but he struggled to integrate players as the year went on and the team got away from what was working so well.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

i'd concur with the A-

 

[Evil Ash]

While emotions are running high right now, we do have to remind ourselves about what happened this season. We won 45 games with a team that was supposed to win 30. That was done with a team that had a TON of games lost due to injury (we had our first game with our projected starting lineup with 6 games left in the season for crying out loud).

We actually have the start of a young core (green,Fleming, Man man, Gillespie) that this board thought was impossible. While I wish we would've gotten more playing time for our rookies, I can somewhat see where ott was coming from (both Fleming and ManMan are developmental rookies.)

This was not a wasted season - far from it. Now we have to decide where we go from here

 

[clyde2tw]

Ott is not the problem, he is part of the solution towards building a contender. The roster lacks talent, period. And our star Booker is only a tier-2 star far below the likes of SGA, Edwards, Doncic. And Dunn disappointed with his growth.
The positives are to find out Brooks and Green are very nice pieces out of KD trade, and Gillespie, Goodwin and MW are worth keeping, and Fleming, Maluach and Oso are all on the right track.

 

[Raindog]

I think you're overestimating what we can do in the offseason. I hope Ishbia can pull a rabbit out of a hat, because I'm not so sure lightning can strike twice.

Well I'm not saying they're going to do it, just that it's what they need to strive towards. I just hope they don't believe they can recatch lightning in a bottle again, like the first half season, with the exact same roster. I can't see that possibly working.

 

[95pro]

Well I'm not saying they're going to do it, just that it's what they need to strive towards. I just hope they don't believe they can recatch lightning in a bottle again, like the first half season, with the exact same roster. I can't see that possibly working.

I do not think the Suns FO anticipated the season going this well. It was a well season considering injuries. Possibly could have even been a better seed for a better matchup leading to the second round.

I think the first half of the season was and audition for players 6-6 to establish a base/core of interchangeable players to build around, but somehow "we messed around and got a triple double". Meaning, things went surprisingly too well.

What puzzles me is the development of ManMan and Flem. G-league games, leading to garbage minutes, leading to some game minutes. And then just completely forgetting about Flem until game 4 LOL. What is that all about? Why did we go with Highsmith and the other guy? Just baffling.

I think we look for more second rounders and the g-league to develop some forwards this coming season, as we probably have to loose at least one of Allen, Oneale, Gillespie, Wililams.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

it was a really weird year - far as establishing your starting unit goes ott never got a chance - after knowing what we know now do we even know who would start if everybody was healthy? because i don't and ive been paying close attention to the rotations all year

we know book jalen brooks and williams would start

i think goody recently took gillespie's job who took oneale's job who took grayson's job but it doesn't even matter now - the book jalen brooks trio got very little time together - the trio got even less time with williams - every team has injuries but it was a weird season

which leads us to the next obvious question- durability

jalen missed the most time but it was a hammy and jalen has like zero injury history

book - groin - hammies - ankle here and there - but durable for the most part

brooks - durable - not holding the hand against him - idk if he's missed a lot of time else where

williams

grayson's always banged up and let's be honest - teams get physical with him because he's always banged up

gillespie - durable imo so far - played through the back and hand injuries - played really well last night

idk if goody's calf is a thing but we need goody - goody embodies the new identity

oneale is durable af - or atleast that's what my pothead short term memory remembers

idk about highsmith - i know he just missed a bunch of time - idk about coffey - kinda hoping we move on from him

oso dunn are good - fleming and maluach are good so far

in review - for those whom we depend on it's grayson and williams that i'd be worried about

 

[Chaplin]

Highsmith was always a "next season" acquisition. And that certainly hasn't changed all that much.

Our "key contributors" missed over 167 games this season, that is crazy. Jalen missed the whole first half of the season, and our issues in the 2nd half closely coincided with Dylan's broken hand.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

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[BooksOrangePlanet]

everybody begs ott to play the big flemingo all post season long and what does he do - waits until the last game of a sweep and then puts my man in at center

not because ott had anything against size but because maluach wasn't effective aside from his god given height detouring okc from driving inside

if maluach had been playing better i doubt we would have seen fleming when we did - but i wish he had done this a lot sooner - having the rookies fight for playoff minutes might have gotten the best out of manman as well

 

[95pro]

Does Bronny have more playoff minutes than Flem?

 

[Covert Rain]

Ott gets a B- (just including the regular season) and C+ (including the playoffs) for me. It was the tale of two halves. Lights out coaching the first half but brutal the 2nd half and the lack of flexibility in the playoffs was shocking. What I hope is that the 2nd half of the season was the anomaly and not the first.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

öttley crew 2026-27

book jalen brooks fleming maluach

gillespie goody oneale dunn oso

45 wins

 

[Bada0Bing]

"ottley crew"...I love it! I'm stealing that lol

What are you doing with allen? Williams walks and highsmith and the youngsters fill out the roster...sounds good to me.

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

"ottley crew"...I love it! I'm stealing that lol

What are you doing with allen? Williams walks and highsmith and the youngsters fill out the roster...sounds good to me.

i don't know if grayson's around next year

 

[BooksOrangePlanet]

i was surprised to see oso played over 1,000 minutes his rookie year - felt like he was banned half the time but 1,000 is quite a bit (dunn played 1,400)

im curious about this because i wonder who plays next year and if minutes logged are even in the equation - and i don't think they are

jordan ott doesn't care how tall you are - where you were drafted - how many minutes you've played or how much money you make

from what i gather ott plays players who are where they're supposed to be - on defense - ott has a vision and knows how it's supposed to go

jalen green is the only person ive seen ott bench for taking too many shots and that was because he bricked like 5 step back 3s lol other than that the benchings primarily come off of defensive mistakes

me thinks nick richards gave us all the data we needed - he drove ott nuts - not getting down court in time - leaving early to help on some plays - not helping at all on others - just lost - ott couldn't stand it so he went with the far less experienced far less played/paid oso ighodaro (who knew where to be)

all of this was the long way home just to say i think jordan ott will play fleming and maluach when they are ready

difference between them and richards is they were rookies - extremely coachable rookies who got better with time - now both fleming and maluach know what they're walking into next year

they got all the tape they need on themselves and ott's defense - if they play well enough they will play - ott's going to put his best players out there and honey mama that's just the way it is

this is also to say i don't think ott is stuck on small ball - i think he wants size too - cleveland utilizes their bigs but their bigs know the system

fleming is from a small school - maluach is from another country but thanks to the g-league both might be ready next year instead of shoved further down the bench - and if they're ready ott will play that ass

 

[leclerc]

Looking forward to summer league. Begging the higher powers that Flemingo and Maluach shows some one on one stuff in addition to pick and roll and cuts to the basket. If they only shoot from deep then they won't be very useful next year. Cannot just watch Point Book get doubled and hoist the three with little time left on the clock.

Can, but ott not to.

 

[oaken1]

Been a Suns fan a long time.
But it has been from a distance for the past twenty years. so I am kinda coming from an "Outsider" position.

But I like this coach. was watching those twitter clips and he focus on putting the onus on the players for what happens on the court. Thats right where it should be.
The coach calls plays in crunch time..gives a little feed back... but your vets on the hardwood need to run the game..they determine how it ends.

I would have played the rookies... that little taste of playoff intensity would have helped them next year during tough stretches of the season.

But I like the coach... from what I have seen I hope he sticks around for a while. consistency and continuity are important from leadership.

and who the hell was expecting playoffs from this group in game 1 of the season??
The coach was...and the team was.