Turner a good hire for Suns, though he won’t make a difference

“Basketball is a flowing game,” Tim Kempton said. “I understand you have your principles. Last time I checked, stay in between your man and the ball, if you want to deny him, and stay in between your man and the basket.”

Kempton said those words on Sports 620 KTAR’s Doug and Wolf show while talking about the Phoenix Suns’ newest coach, Elston Turner, who was hired as the team’s defensive coordinator.

While a qualified coach who nearly got the top job in Phoenix a few years ago, the hire may not make much of a difference.

“I have always said defense is simply heart and hustle,” Doug Franz said on the show. “Obviously there’s principles, but really, how bad do you want to stop your guy and how bad do you want the rebound?”

If that’s the case, the hire, while symbolic, is not likely to change much on the court.

“It’s just one of those things that, I think it’s a catch phrase, ‘see, we hired a defensive coordinator, we’re concentrating on defense, we’ve got a D-coordinator on our basketball staff now,'” Kempton said.

If talk translated to on-court results, Amare Stoudemire would have been one of the best defenders in the game. But, as Suns fans know, that is not the case.

So, while the Suns didn’t make a bad hire in Turner, odds are the Suns won’t remind anyone of the 2008 Boston Celtics anytime soon.

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