A lot has changed with the Phoenix Suns since we saw them last April, trudging off the court in San Antonio with a first-round playoff exit at the hands of their perennial nemesis.
The roster boasts five new players. The bench has four new coaches. The team's style of play is in for an overhaul, and the days of scoring 110 points and hoisting up three-pointers at will have come and gone.
Matt Barnes joins the rotation as a free agent. Goran Dragic, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard from Slovenia, and Robin Lopez give the Suns their first possible impact rookies since Amare Stoudemire. Terry Porter takes over for Mike D'Antoni and promises a tougher, scrappier team with more commitment on the defensive end.
But the top seven players from last season are back, including four who will be at least 32 years old (Raja Bell, Grant Hill, Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal). And while management says there is at least one good run left in the nucleus, basketball pundits are predicting anywhere from another first-round exit to missing the playoffs entirely for the first time since 2003-04.
Even the most ardent Suns fan has questions about this team. We tried to come up with the 10 most important, and tackle them all:
1. Will Steve Nash be rested more this year? Can the Suns do that with a rookie (Goran Dragic) as his backup and a tougher-than-ever Western Conference?
This is a desire the Suns have expressed for years but have never been able to do because (1) Nash has been so good and (2) the backups have been ill-suited for the job (Leandro Barbosa, Eddie House) or just plan awful (Marcus Banks). But Nash will be 35 in February and was obviously exhausted before the playoffs last year, so now it has become a necessity.
In July, general manager Steve Kerr expressed the idea of resting Nash for 10 to 12 games during the season, healthy or not. But the Suns were poised to sign a veteran point guard (Tyronn Lue, etc.) and bring in Goran Dragic to learn. But that never happened, and now Dragic is the backup, so the idea has morphed more into limiting Nash to 30 to 32 minutes a game and sitting him with minor injuries before they worsen.
With the Suns running a more structured offense under Terry Porter, the wear-and-tear reduction on Nash should also help.
2. Is Shaquille O'Neal ready to play? Is he still motivated to win, or is he just counting down the days to retirement?
O'Neal set the bar of expectation himself by saying he would be in town working with the training staff this summer. That didn't happen, save a few cameo appearances. When you are rapping about Kobe Bryant, walking around Belmont Park and Churchill Downs in a jockey suit, building a high-rise condo in New Jersey, promising help for families with upside-down mortgages in Orlando, Fla., patching up a marriage and dealing with restraining orders ... well, the summer can really fly by. (There is also talk that Shaq wasn't too fond of our 110-degree weather.)
But those who have seen him scrimmage this month report his weight is within 10 pounds of where he finished last year. He continued workouts with Royce Gracie (Ultimate Fighting legend) religiously, and videos show a trim physique. For some reason, his "730 days to retirement" pronouncement made big headlines, but it is the same mantra he's been using for more than a year, and one he worked into almost every interview session since becoming a Sun. No news there.
3. Amare Stoudemire has been the first to criticize Phoenix's lack of defensive desire but is often a bigger part of the problem than the solution. Is he ready to walk his talk on the other end?
The opportunity is certainly there for him. From Kerr to Porter, the emphasis on defense is the highest it has ever been during Stoudemire's tenure in Phoenix. The addition of Bill Cartwright to the coaching staff is tailor-made for Stoudemire, and will fill the void created when Marc Iavaroni left for Memphis. With no big-man coach last year, the post-practice defensive workouts disappeared.
But more than anyone else, Amare has to put in the time. He has shown that with work and desire he can make tremendous strides in his offensive game.
With O'Neal here, Stoudemire is a power forward most of the time, so the excuse for defending out of position is eliminated. He has praised Porter's commitment to defense and jabbed at the lack of the same by former coach Mike D'Antoni and his staff. His teammates, who tired of hearing him calling out the group for defensive lapses when he was often the culprit on bad switches or poor positioning, will be watching.
4. What is the personality of the Suns under new coach Terry Porter? How will they be different?
While they have almost an entirely new coaching staff and several additions to the roster, the top seven players from last year return intact.
So a complete transformation of how the team operates would not only be difficult, but it's not expected. The front office knows Suns fans remain partial to an up-tempo style, and with Nash, Stoudemire and their friends leading the way, playing in the 80s isn't going to happen.
But in bringing in O'Neal last spring and adding Dragic, Robin Lopez and Matt Barnes over the summer, the management has introduced more of an edge and more of a defensive mindset. Raja Bell has some company.
More depth (nine to 10 players) means shorter minutes and more of an emphasis on working harder with those minutes. With a seven- or eight-man rotation, taking a breather on defense was accepted. Now, it will likely result in a substitution.
5. What impact will the newcomers have?
Too early to tell, but the opportunities will be there. Not only are the Suns hoping to monitor the minutes of their aging stars (Bell, Grant Hill, Nash, O'Neal), but they want to tighten up the minutes that Barbosa and Boris Diaw have logged. They were playing starters' minutes because D'Antoni felt he had few other bench options.
Barnes, Lopez and Dragic are all backing up players the Suns want to rest, but Barnes is the only one with an NBA track record. The rookies' impact will be determined by how quickly they adapt. These are two, mid-level, first-round picks (if you buy Phoenix's take on Dragic), which history has shown are 50-50 propositions.
Some break out and become mainstays. Some don't. Dragic has European experience. Lopez is extremely bright. Both appear very coachable. But so is Alando Tucker, and he didn't get on the floor last year.
6. Have we seen the best of Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw?
They are both 26 and have five years in the league, so maybe. But given that Diaw was the NBA's Most Improved Player three years ago and Barbosa was the Sixth Man of the Year two years ago — Diaw was a triple-threat and Barbosa was a scoring machine — the best of those guys is pretty good.
But neither reached that level last year, and only time will tell if a diminished role will be a positive step. If Dragic plays well, Barbosa can focus on being a two-guard and get more time on the floor with Nash — where he thrives. Diaw now backs up Stoudemire, but given O'Neal's track record for foul trouble and missing games, he figures to see time in the post. Diaw played really well in the playoffs last year, something that can't be said about a lot of Suns. But defense is a weakness for both, and the leash will be shorter.
7. Will Matt Barnes or Grant Hill start at small forward?
Starting Barnes makes a lot of sense. He is an energy guy and a rebounder who will give a good, hard, first six minutes with the starters. He can shoot the 3-pointer, help spread the floor for Nash and give him a Shawn Marion-like target on the break. Bringing Hill off the bench gives the Suns another ball-handler and scoring option when Nash is resting.
The concerns are that Barnes is foul-prone and could get into early trouble, and that it made more sense for Hill, as with the other elder statesmen, to go from warm-ups to playing right away. But Hill's mantra seems to be "don't worry about what happens early, worry about what happens late," and that can be used for both individual games and the season as a whole.
8. Will Raja Bell or Barbosa start at shooting guard?
It's another question worth debating, but not as difficult to answer. You could make the argument for starting Barbosa because he brings the same energy and boost as Barnes, at least on the offensive end. It would mean more time with Nash and the possibility of some quick starts.
But if Porter is serious about bringing a defensive mindset to the team, your top defender isn't starting the game on the bench. And after working his whole career to become a starter, Bell would see such a move as a clear demotion, and it would play with his all-important psyche. He endured an injury-plagued season last year (mostly ankles) and was truly healthy for only a handful of games. But he has come into camp in great shape and perhaps to prove that at 32 he has a lot of miles left in his tank.
9. What do Porter and his staff bring to the table?
Porter is more hands-on on the practice floor than D'Antoni. Even in the voluntary workouts, he was constantly calling players over for instruction. He will joke and laugh at times, but he is much more serious with the players and the media. Like D'Antoni, he will rely on a veteran team to self-police but expects the right thing to be done.
His staff is a nice mix. Alvin Gentry has experience, both around the league and with this team, and is a great sounding board. Cartwright is known around the league as a good teacher and has rings to prove he knows what he's talking about. Dan Majerle is close to Porter and is the drill sergeant. He put in a long summer with Alando Tucker and D.J. Strawberry (before he was traded) and gets his hands dirty on the floor. He knows how to give a pat on the butt, but he knows how to kick it, too. Igor Kokoskov has a lot of experience in both the NBA and Europe and is a good X's and O's guy.
10. Can the Suns improve on their fifth-place finish in the rugged West?
When you consider they lost the division to the Los Angeles Lakers by two games even with all the problems associated with bringing in Shaq, the Suns are still a threat in the Pacific.
But the Lakers will be better with Andrew Bynum back. Utah is strong. New Orleans (James Posey) and Houston (Ron Artest) both improved their already formidable cores a lot. The Spurs always have hiccups during the season but finish strong. And then there is Dallas and all that talent up in Portland, now anchored by Greg Oden. If the Suns finish better than fifth in that group, they will have had quite a season.
Kerr is reading all the naysayers who have buried the Suns, and he likes it. The Suns had a lot of expectations on their shoulders over the last few years and have been going backward (third round, second round, first round). Now, for the first time since 2004, there is room to surprise, and the pressure is somewhat lifted.