Although Suns’ resident shot doctor, Phil Weber, is under contract, reports suggest that if allowed, he will follow unCoach Mike D’Antoni.  As much as I love “Coach Positivity,” I look at the options should he be allowed to walk (the Suns have shown an enormous propensity for letting talent walk).  For this segment, I rip off Jack McCallum’s Choosing Sides series (Sorry Jack!) to answer, Should the Suns next Shot Doctor be Eddie Johnson or Jeff Hornacek?

Both Eddie Johnson and Jeff Hornacek have put their names in for the Suns head coaching gig.  Please.  No really, please for their sakes and their legacies.  I would hate for either one of these guys to be put into that hailstorm without even having a day as an assistant NBA coach between them.  As such, let’s consider one of them for the potentially vacating assistant coaching position of “Shot Doctor”. 

Eddie and Jeff share the same ignominous honor of being on the team that finally felled the Showtime era, but failed to be apart of the 1993 NBA Finals squad.

Both Eddie and Jeff are known for their sharp-shooting, although Johnson is considered more streaky.  Although a player’s own shooting performance doesn’t translate into the ability to pass it on to others, Hornacek was clearly the better shooter from the free throw line (0.877 to 0.840) and from 3 (0.403 to 0..335).  In fact, Eddie’s three point shooting could be considered on the low end.  Jeff’s overall career FG% is also slightly better at 0.496 to 0.472.  On the other hand, Eddie played 3 more years than Jeff and scored an additional 3500 points.

Since retiring, both have dabbled in shot-doctor voodoo without actually dipping their toes in the coaching waters.  Eddie released an instructional DVD called Eddie Johnson’s Jumpshot and Offensive Skills and Jeff spent the year as a shooting consultant working with Andrei Kirilenko’s confidence and shot.  This year, Kirilenko’s free throw shooting was about at his career average of 0.770 but his 3 point shooting was up at 0.379 on 116 attempts compared to 0.213 on 75 last year.  His career average is 0.311 from 3 and his prior best year was 2003-04 when he shot 0.338 on 201 attempts.

In the end, while Jeff Hornacek was the better shooter and has demonstrated NBA shot-doctoring success, Eddie Johnson ought to be the Suns next shot doctor. 

Johnson has the potential to be the better shot doctor because a lot of it is about simply getting the players in the gym and through reps.  Johnson is a tough guy that will challenge players and motivate them to improve.  Also, an assistant coach has many other responsibilities besides shot-doctoring.  Johnson has been closer to the team and organization.  He knows the players better, so that continuity is important for the team right now.  It’s not clear to me that Hornacek is the smarter X’s and O’s guy, there’s just no evidence to say that he is.  He survived 14 years in the NBA not by athletic ability, but also not necessarily by “smarts” either, in my opinion.  He survived because he could shoot the ball on the run.

I also think Johnson will deal more effectively with players, and think he can push them.  Every time he opens his mouth, you can hear, “I’m better than you, and I dare you to prove otherwise.”  I think that’s good for the team.