Like a puppy, the Suns need to be trained properly

If you have ever read my pieces, you know I tend to like to connect normal life occurrences to the happenings in sports. Recently my wife and I brought home a 10-week old puppy (the puppy is so young that it wasn’t alive during the Suns’ “Shaq Era”). Bringing any dog home is a challenge. Bringing home a puppy who isn’t house trained is a true test of patience, determination and sanity.

You’re probably wondering what a puppy who thinks seven seconds or less is the amount of time she has to pee on the carpet before I notice, has to do with the Suns. Instead of burying my face in the hundreds of sports blogs and news sites that I usually do, I’ve spent a majority of my time reading numerous books on how to train puppies. As I flip through page after page of instructions, I began to notice something odd. The Suns lack of defense is similar to some of the bad habits a person has to correct in a young dog.

According to the books, puppies’ actions are a byproduct of the methods used to teach them what to do and not to do by their owner/teacher. The longer they are taught poor habits the tougher they are to break and the tougher it is to teach new habits.

The Suns as a team, just like a puppy, haven’t been taught the right behaviors on defense.

There are three general types of puppy owners. The ones that ignore the poor behaviors and only focus on the positive behaviors. The ones that choose to take positive reinforcement and treats away from their dog until the desired behavior is changed and the ones who find a happy medium of positive reinforcement, stern discipline and habit forming activities.

The Suns’ poor defensive habits are a direct result of the former coaches’ methods.

Mike D’Antoni is like the puppy owner who chooses to ignore the bad habits and focuses only on the dog’s strengths. Instead of appropriately correcting the Suns bad defensive habits, he just let it continue with no consequences. He openly praised the Suns offensive prowess and rewarded his offensive weapons with playing time and career-altering numbers. Defense was never a focus or a concern. Due to his lack of action the Suns progressively grew more lax on defense.

In an effort to correct the behavior the Suns brought in Terry Porter. Porter’s methods were in stark contrast to those of D’Antoni. Instead of ignoring the habits and letting them occur without punishment, he took away the thing his players were praised for, their fast-paced offense. He instead chose to focus purely on the negative, their defense. Porter would rub his team’s nose in their bad deeds (or missed assignments), a no-no in puppy training, in hopes of getting getting his desired outcome, solid team defense.

Instead of changing the way the team thought and acted on defense, he caused such a negative reaction that it created a team that had no respect for him, a similar result as giving no praise and only punishment to a puppy.

The team not only had been taught bad habits but then had them reinforced by a poor attempt to recondition them.

Even though things have looked bleak, there is hope. Like the dog that has never learned appropriate behaviors, the Suns, with the right teacher, can still learn. It just will take longer than if it had been an original focus.

Alvin Gentry is that teacher. Gentry seems to have the right mix of discipline, praise, strategy and patience to improve their habits. From everything we’ve seen and heard, the players love Gentry. He’s returned their “toy”, a fast-paced offense, but he’s also decided to focus on a simpler defense.

During training camp he was meticulous in correcting his players poor defensive habits and, although it may not be completely evident on the scoreboard this preseason, some around the NBA are saying it’s the best defensive effort the Suns have put in in the last six years.

Like a puppy with an effective owner, the Suns will try hard for someone they like and respect. They liked Mike D’Antoni but knew he didn’t care about defense so they didn’t seem to respect anything he had to say about it (if he ever actually did say anything about it). Terry Porter didn’t seem to be liked or respected, thus the team never responded to anything he wanted done. The Suns both like Gentry and respect his efforts to correct their defensive shortcomings.

Now before you comment with “but Greg, these are complex human beings not dogs”, I realize that. I realize that tapping Amare Stoudemire on the nose when he doesn’t get a rebound or giving him a steak when he does won’t work the same way it would for a puppy. Let’s face it though, human beings want to please those in charge of them and want to be rewarded for “good behavior”. You don’t think Amare would respond well to praise for his defense and a large contract extension if he improves defensively under Gentry? You don’t think Earl Clark or Goran Dragic wouldn’t continue to do what Gentry asks defensively if it gets them more playing time? People like to show respect and work hard for people that motivate and teach them in an appropriate way, just like dogs.

Gentry is asserting himself as the new “alpha dog” in Phoenix. The only question is does he have the patience and determination to change six years of bad habits.

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