I was ready to turn off the TV last night; after all, I was expecting the young Hornets to lose in San Antonio. And then Horry set the screen, West fell on the floor in pain and was taken to the locker room as the crowd in the AT&T Center chanted Horry, Horry, Horry!!

This is playoff basketball, I get that, but is this a coincidence? In another second round, in another potentially series-changing moment, Horry had bumped into another guy with a bad back. Again, the guy with the bad back was an All Star on the opposite team.

I was watching the game on ESPN Deportes and Carlos Morales said the following:

“Somewhere in the World, Steve Nash is watching this game and he’s shaking his head. I’ve seen enough basketball in my life to tell that this is a dirty play. Robert Horry knows that David West has back problems, it has been well documented by the media, and there was no reason for him to set that screen in that specific situation. He leaned forward hitting West in the back, with his head and forearms. I can bet my job that the league will not do anything about this”

And my question is…What if they do? It will not mean anything, Horry is done. This is the only way he can have an impact in the game, he is useless on the defensive and offensive end. If they suspend him, it will not make a difference.

Horry said last year that he is an Old School player, he takes pride in that, he said that in the playoffs, there will be hard fouls and people shouldn’t complain about this. I agree with him, but what happened last year and what happened last night were not hard fouls…they were dirty.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 05/16/08 1:36 PM PDT ]

Phoenix radio is now reporting that Jackson is a LONG shot candidate but another very serious candidate is a guy named Elston Turner. If you knew that name before you heard it in context of this job you have way too much time on your hands (or happened to live next to Mr. Turner at some point in your life).

His wikipedia entry is about three sentences which pretty much sums up my reaction to this name....who???

Elston Howard Turner (born June 10, 1959 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American former professional basketball player who was selected in the 2nd round (43rd overall) of the 1981 NBA Draft. A 6'5" guard-forward the University of Mississippi, Turner played in 8 NBA seasons from 1981–1989. He played for the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Chicago Bulls.

In his NBA career, Turner played in 505 games and scored a total of 2,397 points.

Turner was a former assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings and is now an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets under Rick Adelman.

Suns flagship radio station host Gambo who typically has very good sources within the Suns is reporting that Terry Porter was interviewed yesterday in Detroit and that he's the leading candidate.

Here's a look at his coaching resume :

On August 6, 2003, the Milwaukee native was hired as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. He was the eighth head coach in franchise history. Porter spent the 2002-03 season as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings, his first season in coaching. He coached the Bucks for two years, leading a team which was expected to wind up in the NBA draft lottery into the playoffs. However, the Bucks failed to make the playoffs the next season, and Porter was let go in the 2005 offseason.

Porter is an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons since the 2006-2007 NBA Season.

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Here is a wikipedia link to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  Basically, it says that when you observe something, you change it; therefore, what you're observing is no longer an accurate reflection of what that something is.  A good example is that when you're taking the temperature of a hot beverage (coffee) the thermometer absorbs the some heat to make the mercury move; therefore, the coffee is now cooler and the reading is inaccurate (however slightly).

Does this apply to basketball?

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Now that Mike D is going to the Knicks, I'm wondering if perhaps we should just start from scratch. The current team was built to beat the Spurs, and to do so primarily with offense. Unfortunately, the team STILL couldn't beat the Spurs, and the Spurs (right now, anyway) aren't looking like the team of the future in any case.

So I'm wondering...out loud; I don't have any answers...whether fans believe that the Suns with a new coach and some minor personnel changes can be a contender in the next two years...or whether it's time to start over, to start building a much younger team, stockpiling draft picks, and so on.

NOTE: I know that some will say, "Well, there's no way we're getting rid of Shaq or Nash...the former because of his contract, the latter because he's beloved, and because he's the straw that stirs the drink on this team."

Okay, but that doesn't mean you can't start rebuilding anyway. Start assembling the core of the team that you want three years from now, when both Nash and Shaq will almost certainly be gone.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 05/15/08 8:01 AM PDT ]

Over the last few days of coaching conundrums, this is the question I keep coming back to so I am "stealing" Beatcal's post to have some more conversation on the topic.

We've heard Sarver and Kerr both claim that the Sun's window is still open and that the plan is to win now. One would assume that means Nash, Amare, Shaq, Diaw, Bell, LB and Hill are all coming back.

I am still on the fence. I can definitely see the appeal of moving our movable pieces while they are most movable. That means Nash who's trade value depreciates each year; LB who's production / salary is fantastic; and maybe Diaw who despite his higher salary and inconsistency is a very talented player. Bell would also be a movable piece. Amare is untouchable and Shaq is unmovable.

I just don't see what you can get back that's going to move the team from what will likely be a 50 win, 3 to 6 seed team next year to a top number 1 contender - unless you can pry LeBron out of Cleveland's cold dead hands.

One move I don't like is the idea of Barbosa and the Suns' 15th pick for a 3 - 7 pick. If you look at LB's current production value, there's NO WAY a rookie beyond the top 2 or 3 is going to come in and match what he brings sooner then two or three years.

I still think that LB's value alone is enough to get back a legit backup PG or a backup Center which are our two biggest needs. A move like that is big but not a "blow it up" trade.

Would Mike D'Antoni like to see Boris Diaw or Leandro Barboas in New York?

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Since the Phoenix Sun's first season in 1968 the franchise has been a model of success with the fourth best franchise winning percentage in the NBA.  The one constant during that entire period has been Jerry Colangelo - first as GM and then as the owner. Now the new ownership group is facing its first real test. How they perform will say a lot about our team for the next few decades.

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Let’s not forget that Coach D was here before the fun started. To be specific, his record was 21-40 after he took over in the 2003-04 season. We all know what happened afterwards, Nash came and we were witnesses of a great style of basketball, fun, entertaining, successful.

How much of this can be credited to Coach D?

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