Prior to NOLA, Gentry had a .475 winning % as a head coach

To think that David Griffin wanted to commit to this guy when he became GM.

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I'm pretty sure that I could coach the Bucks to a winning season next year.

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Historically there have been coaches like Dell Harris, Mike Brown, and David Blatt that have underachieved with talent.

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I'm also sure that Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, John Wooden, and Pat Riley put together couldn't get Cleveland to a winning record.

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When coaches like Nick Nurse exist, this type of argument within this particular context can only hold up for so long.

Is this the last year of his contract?

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how about how he took over a Suns team that had previously won 62, 54, 61, 55 games.

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Who essentially fired their coach because he couldn’t beat the Spurs, ridiculous suspensions or not. Then Gentry did.

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2nd year as head coach and they lost Stoudemire and he leads them to a 40-42 record. Barbosa was traded for Turkaglu, who was then traded mid season with Richardson for Vince Carter, Gortat, Pietrus. Steve Nash and Grant Hill missed hardly any games, so they were a healthy team. I guess Amare Stoudemire is a sure fire hall of famer if he makes that big of a difference. I mean he took the Knicks to great places right? And i'm sure you'll say, he did, they won 54 games in 2013, and Stoudemire played in 29 of the 82, and the Knicks haven't had a winning record since then. After leading a healthy perennial 50 win suns team to 40-42, he led them to 33-33 the next year, with again, a healthy Steven Nash and Grant Hill. Then he led the Nashless Suns to their worst start in 28 years and was fired.

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So they lost a perennial All NBA guy, who was an MVP candidate his first season in New York- when he played in 78 games his first year (before his knees gave out because New York didn’t have Aaron Nelson) then had MAJOR overhaul of the roster with the majority them of well past 30 and you’re complaining about what exactly?

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Then he led the Nashless Suns to their worst start in 28 years and was fired

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The Suns lost their franchise player with no suitable replacement (to this day, 8 years later even with the “great” Monty Williams as coach) and the Cliff this franchise fell off is Alvins fault, how?


Most of Alvins early coaching gigs was as an interim coach on bad franchises (like the Pre-Riley Heat) filling out after coaching flameouts (like Doug Collins in Detroit) or being one of the dozens of fall guys for the worst owner-GM combo in the history of the NBA (Sterling - Baylor).

When given a roster that is healthy and somewhat balanced, he’s passable.

To lay the blame at Alvin Gentrys feet for bad rosters-too young & dumb, too old, bad fit, etc. is illogical.

The Jimmys and Joes mostly determines winning percentage (Ty Lue .607)

Coaching CAN be a factor in winning.
They typically aren’t THE factor in getting a team to playoff level.
Both things are true.

If you want to talk Gentry, his substitution pattern, his teams coming out flat in the 3rd are probably his biggest flaw, as well as play calling at the end of games are what can be discussed as justifications for firing.


The recent Utah loss is an example, but even then a 1 possession game where our best player didn’t make the right pass to our best shooter and missed the go ahead bucket.

The Clippers game is inexcusable for effort.

Gentrys biggest strength is keeping a locker room together, as he’s proven over and over.

He was a terrible hire from the beginning. At least with young Monty, there was hope of growth and development. Hiring a 60ish year old Gentry with a subpar career record was not a wise choice.