If you thought 48 wins and defying outside expectations would give egos some room to grow, think again.
The message entering Jeff Hornacek’s second training camp as the Suns’ head coach is unchanged since Year One.
“It’s the same thing. No spots are guaranteed,” he said. “If somebody came back from the summer and is a better player, they could take your spot.”
A brief glance at the various positional matchups is enough to see that. Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas will be a three-headed monster, though they will hold each other accountable before the opponents. That doesn’t include rookies Tyler Ennis and Zoran Dragic, and second-year man Archie Goodwin.
“I’ve never been on a team with this many talented guards,” Thomas said.
Other competitions exist. The pickup game battles between former college scoring machine T.J. Warren and defensive ace P.J. Tucker have already received rave reviews. A bulked-up and healed Alex Len has given just as much as he’s taken from Miles Plumlee, which means Phoenix has pair of hungry young big men to hold down the fort in the middle.
“No spots are guaranteed. If somebody came back from the summer and is a better player, they could take your spot.”
— Jeff Hornacek
The Suns were in a similar situation of young surplus last season. A willing attitude form the players and a masterful juggling act from the coaching staff – based on non-biased accountability - helped make internal competition an uplifting experience rather than one of unease.
“If you’re not going to play well, you need to battle for the spot,” Dragic said. “It’s nothing on paper as far as how many minutes you’re going to get. That’s a good thing. We have a lot of guys that play the same position. That’s a competition.”
Credit the Suns’ front office for providing this atmosphere. McDonough said on Monday’s media day that he and his team had accumulated “the best 15 players we could find,” regardless of position.
The players themselves know as much. The argument still holds that none of them have made an All-Star team (yet). Nearly all of them boast an elite skill that could be of use on a particular night or in a specific matchup. Forget to use your own skill to the utmost one day, and another player will be ready and waiting to step in.
As Dragic pointed out, that attitude is a positive one. Players know that their teammates have their back.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a little motivation from those same teammates either.
“It’s open and these guys know it,” Hornacek said. “That’s what makes them compete.”