Burnsy can’t help but to wonder if Terry Porter is a rebound coach. And by that he doesn’t mean teaching rebounding. Like a guy who gets a girlfriend after a long marriage breaks up and, as everybody knows, she’s the rebound girl. This team is clearly trending down, and is probably a couple of years away from a rebuilding effort. Depending on how bad it gets, will Porter be around when the Suns cycle back up? How far out is that? 4 years, 5 years? How have some other “rebound” coaches faired in (somewhat) recent NBA history:

Bulls Phil Jackson - 545-193, 9 playoff appearances in 9 years, 6 NBA championships, lowest win total- 47, earliest playoff exit- Eastern Conference Semifinals.

*replaced by Tim Floyd in 1999. Floyd - 49-190, 0 playoff appearances in 3 ¼ seasons.

Pistons Chuck Daly - 467-271, 9 playoff appearances in 9 years, 3 Finals trips, 2 titles.

*replaced by Ron Rothstein in 1992. Rothstein - 40-42, 0 playoff appearance in 1 season.

Trailblazers Rick Adelman - 291-154. Adelman - 6 playoff appearances in 6 years, 2 NBA Finals trips.

*replaced by P.J. Carlesimo in 1994. Carlesimo - 137-109, 3 first round playoff losses in 3 seasons.

Lakers Pat Riley - 533-194. Riley - 9 playoff appearances in 9 seasons, 4 NBA championships, 7 NBA Finals trips, lowest win total- 54, earliest playoff exit – Western Conference Seminfinals.

*replaced by Mike Dunleavy in 1990. Dunleavy - 101-63, 1 NBA Finals appearance, 1 first round exit in 2 seasons.

Does time really heal all wounds? If you were you to tell me in 1992 (when the Portland Trailblazers eliminated the Phoenix Suns from the playoffs for the 2^nd time in the last 4 years), that Terry friggin’ Porter would be head coach of the team someday, I would’ve told you that you were nuts. So, if Terry Porter can coach in Phoenix, who else may be on list in 10 years or sooner:

Clyde Drexler (possibly)

Robert Horry (NEVER)

Manu Ginobili (NO)

Tim Duncan (Probably not)

Bruce Bowen (NO)

Kobe Bryant (Probably not)

John Paxon (possibly)

Mario Elie (actually was mentioned by some as a potential D’Antoni replacement)

Jerome Kersey (I really hope not- still hate that guy)

Suns GM Steve Kerr joined Burnsy to talk about his choice to replace Mike D’Antoni has head coach of the Phoenix Suns. “Balance” is Kerr’s favorite word when describing Porter’s philosophy and what he will bring to the Suns. Not too surprising since Kerr and Co. wanted his predecessor to embrace that very concept. Moreover, Kerr thinks the current group of Suns will have no problem embracing Porter and his system:

“I think our players are ready for a little bit of a change philosophically. I believe there’s a balance. I think instead of averaging 110 points we can average 105.”

Once again Kerr played up Porter’s head coaching experience, albeit a brief one in Milwaukee- an organization’s that’s seemingly perpetual struggles may have skewed Porter’s win-loss record:

“There aren’t any great coaches who didn’t get some talent. I can only imagine how many good coaches there are out there who just got lost in the shuffle because they took dead-end jobs.”

Kerr wasn’t calling Milwaukee a “dead-end” job, but the inference is pretty clear: He thinks Terry Porter would have and will succeed with better talent around him.

Kerr also thinks Vinny Del Negro will succeed if he gets the Chicago Bulls job, as ESPN’s Ric Bucher is now reporting: