Reeling Phoenix Suns fire coach Jeff Hornacek

The Phoenix Suns have fired their head coach, Jeff Hornacek, after a horrid first half of the 2015-2016 season, a season in which Phoenix was expected to compete for a playoff berth after narrowly missing the post-season last spring.

A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Hornacek was dismissed after the team’s 91-78 loss at Dallas on Sunday night. Phoenix is now 14-35. The loss was also the team’s 14th consecutive loss on the road.

General manager Ryan McDonough on Tuesday is to discuss developments and has said he expects the team to be active leading to the NBA’s February 18 trade deadline.

Hornacek survived a staff shakeup last month when Mike Longabardi and Jerry Sichting were fired, but the lack of improvement since doomed the former Suns player.

The sputtering Suns are in 13th place out of 15 in the West.

Hornacek was named the 16th head coach in franchise history on May 28, 2013. Yahoo! Sports first reported Hornacek’s ouster. Phoenix won 48 games in 2013-14, 23 more than the previous season, and just missed making the postseason. He finished runner-up to San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich for Coach of the Year that season. With Hornacek’s top assistants gone, the writing was on the wall for him and the Suns were never able to get any semblance of anything going on either end of the ball.