Earl Watson still growing as he enters second season as Suns coach

PHOENIX — As a man who knows the business from playing in the league to quickly working his way up the NBA coaching ranks, Earl Watson doesn’t need a reminder about how quickly things change.

There he was more than two years ago calling the man who’d hired him, Jeff Hornacek, to ask if he should take an interview to become Phoenix’s interim head coach and replace Hornacek.

A half-season later, he ripped the interim tag off his title, and Wednesday when the Suns face the Portland Trail Blazers to open the 2017-18 season, he begins his second year as head coach.

“I think for the first time since I’ve been here, we have a clear vision,” Watson said Tuesday. “Our vision is the future. But also, we have to compete in the present. For us, we have to continue to push forward, build quick but don’t hurry. We don’t want to miss any details. But we also want to make sure we find purpose in everything we do. Getting these guys ready to play, explaining the details, teaching — and letting them grow.

“I haven’t had a lot of time to reflect on myself, to be honest with you,” he added. “But I can tell the change, the preparation is different, the expectation of knowing what to expect through a season. For me, I kind of have experience. ”

Ask his players, and there is belief and a buy-in. No matter how much Watson must prove as an NBA coach, he has that.

For a team that boasts eight players under 23 years old and three more who are just 24, the process toward improvement isn’t about pressing the right buttons so much as teaching the basics.

Watson’s growth is just as big of a storyline as that of his young team.

“Just like if a player gets more experience, he gets better. I think Coach is the same,” guard Devin Booker said. “I think he’s more hands on. He explains things more in depth this year because we are a young team, that’s what we need. A lot of us only did one year in college.

“Breaking things down, NBA coverages. Things that we’re supposed to know in the NBA but we’re still learning ’cause we’re such a young team,” Booker added. “I think we all have a lot of experience now, including coach. We all got thrown into the fire and got that experience.”

Watson might be most well-known as a connector.

From his first summer after being named head coach, it was about yoga sessions and spin classes to bring a young team together and make it a family.

That bond was easy to see last season. Individuals who took very direct messages from Watson succeeded. Alan Williams’ infamous tryout cut short a year prior and Watson’s message to get in shape was the ultimate example. So was Derrick Jones Jr. embracing his role as defensive specialist to fight his way onto the roster.

It’s about tiny steps for Phoenix after an offseason without any major additions after first-round pick Josh Jackson.

Judging Watson as an Xs-and-Os coach isn’t easy because of the context. Before anything more than his clever after-timeout sets flash for the Suns, the player development (or any lack of it) will be one of the few ways for a casual basketball fan to examine him.

Regardless of wins and losses and expectations, Watson will be evaluated in direct terms of how his young team improves.

The one Suns player who knows him best can see the growth in his coach.

“I see his confidence growing,” said center Tyson Chandler, who as a high schooler met Watson when his future coach was playing at UCLA. “He’s always been a leader — he was a leader when he was a player. That comes natural for him. I think understand day-in, day-out of how to move the team, how to motivate the team, how to teach the team; I see growth everyday, to be honest.”

FREE THROWS

— Center Alex Len worked out on the side in the Tuesday practice session open to media but is questionable to play Wednesday due to a left ankle sprain.

— Jared Dudley, who is on the comeback from left foot surgery, is listed as questionable and hasn’t played in the preseason.

— The Blazers will be without starting guard C.J. McCollum, who is suspended a game for leaving the bench during a scuffle between Len and Caleb Swanigan in the teams’ last preseason meeting. Asked if the Suns were at a disadvantage not knowing how Portland will operate with McCollum out, Booker said, “We’ll deal with that problem rather than have C.J. out there.”

— Eric Bledsoe will play for the first time since the Suns shut him down to rest after a loss to Portland on March 12. He missed the final 15 games of the year. “It’s been a long time for me,” he said.

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