Dan Bickley

azcentral sports

The Valley is full of breathtaking views. The Cardinals have the very best.

They finish off one of the greatest regular seasons in our history Sunday against the Seahawks. A New York Times headline calls them the NFL’s “Most Dominant Team.” Bookmakers in Las Vegas place them as the favorites to win the Super Bowl.

The juxtaposition is staggering.

The Cardinals have reached unprecedented altitude just as the Suns have hit rock bottom. The distance between the two has never been greater, representing a dramatic overhaul in the personality of an adolescent sports market.

The Suns will likely miss the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season, setting a new franchise low. The organization is mocked by former players and condemned by general perception. One year after shipping out unhappy players in a failed chemistry experiment, the Suns have already fired two of Jeff Hornacek’s handpicked assistants, further undermining his shallow base of authority.

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Meanwhile, owner Robert Sarver is off buying a soccer team in Spain, having failed at two previous purchases. The optics are not good.

Reached overseas, Sarver took full responsibility. He said the Suns lack championship culture. He said that organizational leadership is to blame, and it all starts with him.

Clearly, the head coach is not the only one on the hot seat in Phoenix.

“The reality is, there’s only a half dozen championship-caliber organizations in the NBA over the last 25 years,” Sarver said. “My job is to find the right people and the right culture to eventually be one of those organizations, and it starts with me. I’m not shirking responsibility.

“The blame is to be shared from the top down. Our leadership needs to communicate better. It needs to provide a better culture that provides for more accountability and more motivation. We have a lot of good, young players. They need to be playing hard, aggressively and on the same page whether we win or lose. That’s what I expect going forward.”

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With a clean slate, the Suns might look different. Some of their young players speak to a bright future. Most notably, they are Brandon Knight (24), T.J. Warren (22) and Devin Booker (19).

The other night against Cleveland, Booker received a rare start. On the very first play of the game, his pocket was picked by Kyrie Irving, who stole the ball for an uncontested layup. It was the kind of embarrassing moment that could make a teenager shrink, especially with LeBron James in town. Instead, Booker showed remarkable poise.

We all know our NBA team is stuck in the middle, where franchises can wither for years without relief. If nothing else, General Manager Ryan McDonough has shown a knack for drafting the right players. If we can just get through one or two truly awful seasons … if the team can luck into a franchise player the way Carson Palmer fell into the Cardinals’ lap … maybe the Suns can finally stage a revival.

Except there’s no patience in the Valley for losers, and little faith in this organization. And Sarver is right. It starts at the top.

Last year, the Suns allowed Marcus and Markieff Morris to act like fools without fear of repercussion. While Jerry Colangelo would’ve shipped both of them out of town on the very next flight, Sarver did the opposite. He was extraordinarily patient with the twins.

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Sarver also refused to pick up Hornacek’s option, which allowed him to enter the current season as a lame-duck coach. The ensuing chaos should not surprise anyone. And when Colangelo and former head coach Mike D’Antoni rolled into town together, with a one-win 76ers team that somehow beat the Suns on their home court, the outrage was palpable.

McDonough is partially to blame for the culture problem. Too many ex-players and coaches have lashed out at the Suns on their way out of the Valley, expecting a little more connectivity and honesty from above. The 2014-15 team was left suspiciously void of veteran leadership, a mistake you might expect from a general manager lost in the numbers, playing fantasy basketball.

Yet Sarver’s actions might also be unspoken confirmation of what we all feared when Hornacek took over as head coach. When hired, he was one of the most popular figures in team history, and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. But could he communicate hard truths on a daily basis, like Bruce Arians? Could he be tough enough to command respect from today’s NBA players?

The handling of Hornacek leads to one conclusion: The team thinks he needs to get better at reaching the jagged personalities and dealing with the everyday dysfunction of an NBA locker room.

“I’m not sure it’s just the NBA,” Sarver said. “My whole view of the millennial culture is that they have a tough time dealing with setbacks, and Markieff Morris is the perfect example. He had a setback with his brother in the offseason and he can’t seem to recover from it.

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“I’m not sure if it’s the technology or the instant gratification of being online. But the other thing is, I’m not a fan of social media. I tell my kids it’s like Fantasy Land. The only thing people put online are good things that happen to them, or things they make up. And it creates unrealistic expectations. We’ve had a number of setbacks this year that have taken their toll on us, and we haven’t been resilient. Therefore, it’s up to our entire organization to step up their game.”

Hard to believe now, but the Suns once owned the Valley. They posted two of the best regular seasons we’ve ever enjoyed, Charles Barkley’s 62-win team during his desert debut, and Steve Nash’s 62-win juggernaut in 2004-05.

Win or lose on Sunday, the Cardinals will best both of those teams in winning percentage, if not popularity. They seem to have taken a lot from the Suns recently.

In a Valley known for vistas and summits, the Cardinals now live in the house on the hill. The Suns have the flat facing a parking lot. And their current tenants have just been put on notice.

Reach Bickley at dan.bickley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8253. Follow him at twitter.com/danbickley. Listen to “Bickley and Marotta,” weekdays from 12-2 p.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.