The Phoenix Suns came into this season with expectations that they would compete for a playoff spot in the Western Conference and they started off well as they were 7-5. 20 games later and the Suns are now 12-20 and near the bottom of the West and the team seems to be in shambles as they are coming off a loss to the putrid Philadelphia 76ers and will be without their best player, Eric Bledsoe, for about two months as he recovers from knee surgery. Head coach Jeff Hornacek is reportedly on the hot seat but the Suns made other changes first that might save his job for now, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
The Suns decided after the loss to the Sixers that enough was enough and made some changes. Top assistant coach Mike Longabardi and Jerry Sichting were fired while Earl Watson and Nate Bjorkman were promoted. Hornacek is safe for now but these firings were likely a warning to Hornacek that he better turn things around or he won't have this job for much longer. The Suns wonder whether Hornacek has lost the team and despite these changes his job is still "teetering on the brink," according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
The Suns have been reluctant to fire Hornacek and have given him every opportunity to get this team through their struggles but at some point a change needs to be made. Hornacek was a very popular player for the Suns back in his playing days and has strong relationships with ownership but the Suns are reportedly losing patience with their team moving in the wrong direction.
Hornacek won 48 games in his first season as head coach in 2013-14 but that dropped last season to 39 wins and so far this season they are on pace for even less than that. Hornacek is in the final year of his contract but does have a team option for the 2016-17 season which the Suns have yet to pick up. Hornacek is being given a long leash here to turn things around but he may be in a no win situation as he will be without his best player for a while and the Suns next three games are against championship contenders.
This isn't all Hornacek's fault obviously as some of the players have underperformed in a big way, namely Tyson Chandler and Markieff Morris, but the coach is the one that usually takes the fall in these cases. At this point it doesn't seem like Hornacek has a very good chance of staying with this team for much longer as the deck is stacked against him but it seems like he will at least be afforded the opportunity to work some magic.
