The Suns held Amare Stoudemire to 7-of-22 shooting on Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

It’s no surprise to see Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have inefficient shooting nights.

Even Spike Lee would admit that STAT (40.8 FG%) and Melo (41.1 FG%) are high-volume chuckers with awful shot selection.

But it was somewhat shocking to see a Phoenix Suns team that just allowed 118 points to the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls hold Amare and Carmelo to a combined 35 points on 12-of-44 shooting and seven turnovers in Wednesday night’s win.

Yes, the Suns team that let Carlos Boozer and C.J. Watson combine for 54 points on 22-of-33 shooting on Tuesday essentially shut down Carmelo and STAT, on the tail end of a back-to-back nonetheless.

And Anthony and Stoudemire are the type of players who usually give the Suns problems.

Amare averaged 32.0 points in two games against the Suns last season, while Carmelo posted 16.7 points and 11.7 boards in three contests. They would take advantage of Phoenix’s lack of an interior presence and minimal perimeter defenders. But not this time around.

So how were the Suns able to stonewall Amare and Melo and regain the defensive form they had earlier in the season? Here’s an in-depth look at how the Suns handled each player:

Amare Stoudemire

Marcin Gortat and the Suns’ weak-side defense made Stoudemire look like a shell of the player who barreled down the lane for highlight dunks in US Airways Center for eight seasons.

Gortat, Robin Lopez and Channing Frye combined to block four of Amare’s shot attempts as they anchored the paint and turned STAT into a jump shooter. The Suns’ bigs held Amare to 2-of-5 shooting at the rim, where he shoots 64.1 percent on the season, and 2-of-8 shooting from 3-to-9 feet.

Phoenix turned away both of Amare’s dunk attempts and forced him to shoot seven shots between 16 and 23 feet, where he made only two. The Suns took Amare completely out of the game in crunch time as the explosive power forward didn’t attempt a shot in the final 4:48. Here’s a look at Gortat and the Suns’ defensive performance against STAT:

The Suns forced Stoudemire into six turnovers, mostly because of help defense and Gortat’s ability to stay in front. Here Markieff Morris is on Amare but gets caught in the pick and roll. Gortat rotates over to pick up STAT, giving Morris time to recover and trap.

With Nash dropping down to take Chandler, a new wrinkle in the Suns’ defense with Elston Turner, Stoudemire has to drive baseline where Gortat holds his ground and forces STAT to step out of bounds.

Although the play above isn’t out of the pick and roll, Gortat does the same thing here as he keeps Stoudemire from turning the corner along the baseline. STAT gets caught in mid-air and turns it over. Great individual effort by Gortat.

After proving he can stay in front of Amare, Stoudemire opted to run through Gortat on the two plays above. But Gortat does a great job stepping in to take the charge, one play in help position and one playing on-the-ball defense.

More great help defense here as Gortat sends away STAT’s layup attempt. Frye does a poor job recovering to Stoudemire out of the pick and roll, which gives Amare an open lane to attack. But Gortat steps over and meets STAT on the other side of the rim to pick up the block.

Chalk this up to stellar man-to-man post defense by Gortat. He doesn’t bite on the spin, stays with Stoudemire and contests Amare’s airball. Gortat’s footwork and physicality allowed him to best Amare in one-on-one situations.

Here Amare tries to take Gortat at the end of the first half. Gortat keeps Amare in front until Frye does a great job stepping over to double STAT as he gets his shot blocked to close out the half.

This is where the Suns have been lacking in the past. Usually, Amare would blow by Hakim Warrick — as he does above — and throw it down along the baseline. But Lopez is in perfect position to slide over and meet Amare at the rim. The Suns have been hurting for weak-side defense and shot-blocking, but they flaunted exactly that against the Knicks.

This was Stoudemire’s last shot of the game, a runner to his left that didn’t draw iron as Gortat and Frye were in his face. STAT took a few questionable shots on Wednesday night, but to hold him to 0.68 PPP after Boozer torched the Suns gives Phoenix and its interior defense hope moving forward.

Carmelo Anthony

Locking Stoudemire down was impressive, but the number Hill and company did on Anthony was even more admirable. The 39-year-old forced Melo into 12 points on 5-of-22 shooting, his worst clip of the young season.

Hill contested every one of Carmelo’s patented mid-range jumpers and often pushed him off of his spot, forcing him to operate from unfamiliar areas. The Suns also did a great job swarming Anthony on the block or out of the pick and roll.

Anthony made only 3-of-8 shots at the rim, his second-worst percentage all season as he shoots at a 67.2 percent clip at the hoop. Melo also missed all four of his attempts from 3-to-9 feet, forcing him into a jump shooter. But with Hill in his grill, Anthony shot a porous 1-of-7 between 16 and 23 feet and made one of his two triples. Here’s a look at Hill and the Suns’ defense on Melo:

The Suns did a great job forcing Melo out of rhythm, which they did here as Gortat and Hill trap Anthony out of the pick and roll, moving him near halfcourt before he can go into his offense. He beats Hill off off the dribble but Gortat steps over and helps as Anthony’s shot isn’t close. Driving floaters definitely aren’t Carmelo’s bread and butter, so that’s a win for the Suns.

This time Hill forces Melo out of position by himself. Anthony tries to post up at the left elbow and go to work against the 39-year-old. But Hill fronts Carmelo and eventually pushes him off of his spot, forcing Anthony to operate just inside the three-point line. Melo jacks up a contested jumper with Hill right in his face and misses short.

Hill battles Carmelo in the post again above. Gortat shadows Anthony as Hill gives up no ground, forcing Melo into a bad shot that misses short. Another great individual effort by Hill.

On this play Melo has good post position against Hill. But Frye realizes that and comes down to help. With Frye on the high side Hill cuts off the baseline, giving Anthony nowhere to go but down. He falls and the Suns take over possession.

Carmelo finally gets into the lane here out of the pick and roll. But Frye, who’s laying back in help position as he plays both Melo and Chandler, blocks Anthony’s shot at the rim. Anthony is able to grab the ball and put it home eventually, but this play shows how nothing came easily for Anthony and the Suns swarmed him early and often.

The Suns’ offense and defense have stalled late in games so often this season, but not against the Knicks. With New York needing a bucket down five, Hill again gives Melo no daylight as he has to double-pump on his jump shot that misses well short.

It’s one thing to take away STAT’s post game, but to also limit Melo to 0.5 PPP is a testament to Hill and the Suns’ defensive potential when they’re right. The Suns may never be the Celtics or Heat on the defensive end, but to shut down both Carmelo and Amare is encouraging moving forward.

Steve Nash, Grant Hill, and Shannon Brown celebrate Brown's late 3-pointer. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Steve Nash outdueled ex-teammate Amare Stoudemire and the Phoenix Suns got a hard-fought victory Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, 91-88. Nash scored 26 points, dished out 11 assists, and hit six free throws down the stretch to seal the game, which was tight all the way to the final buzzer.

After taking the night off defensively against Chicago, the Suns team defense came roaring back in New York. Carmelo Anthony was held to just five points through the first three quarters and ended with just 12 for the game. All the credit for Anthony’s struggles from the field goes to Grant Hill who spent all of his team-high 38 minutes attached to Carmelo’s hip.

Hill said on the Suns’ postgame show about his defense on Carmelo, “I just tried to make him work…We really just defensively tried to make it difficult for him.”

“We won ugly,” Hill added. “That’s not normal for the Phoenix Suns historically. The main thing is we got the win.”

The Suns double-teamed Carmelo several times with Gortat. Their defensive rotation looked great as there was always a defender near the otherwise open Tyson Chandler. The Knicks were not able to skip or swing the ball for perimeter jumpers effectively, shooting only 4-for-15 from beyond the arc.

Stoudemire also struggled from the field due in large part to the Suns extremely physical play inside. Stoudemire was held to 7-for-22 from the floor, but did convert 9-of-10 from the free throw line.

At times, the Suns’ interior defense looked like the Knicks teams of old with Anthony Mason and Patrick Ewing bludgeoning anyone who came into the lane. The tone was set early by Channing Frye who took Tyson Chandler to the floor with a hard foul eight minutes into the first quarter. The 7-footer trio of Frye, Gortat, and Robin Lopez handed out 10 personal fouls and had all eight of the Suns’ blocks. No surprise, New York had 14 more free throw attempts than Phoenix.

Marcin Gortat played well on the offensive end of the floor as well, recording his 6th straight double-double with 11 points and 12 boards on 5-for-13 shooting. Nash and the Suns looked for Gortat early and often with mixed results. Gortat had five turnovers in the game and at least two of Nash’s three turnovers were the result of a pass intended for the big man from Poland.

Gortat’s scoring confidence is still building as the season progresses. Thus far in the year, two things are clear. First, his jump shot is much better from the center of the floor than it is from the baseline. Second, he needs to learn to attack away from double teams or attack quickly before the double can arrive if he wants to be an efficient low-post scorer. Because head coach Alvin Gentry has shown so much confidence in the center, it is likely he will be able to make these adjustments and continue to improve.

One of the reasons the Suns were able to find Gortat open so much was because of the Knicks’ defense on screens. On both pick-and-rolls and off-the-ball screens, the Knicks switched, allowing the Suns to attack mismatches. The Suns were able to convert many of these chances into points, although Knicks’ rookie point guard Iman Shumpert did have four steals, most of them stripping Phoenix big men he had switched on to because of a screen.

Shumpert had a great night offensively as well, scoring 20 points in the game and 12 in the fourth quarter alone including a pair of threes late that kept the Knicks close. Shumpert showed his speed early in the game, so Nash played well off of him, allowing Iman to shoot over the outstretched arms of the Suns’ point guard.

Shumpert’s backcourt partner, Landry Fields, also had a great night. He scored 17 points, including nine in the third quarter. Fields was able to use his size to and speed to score pretty much at will against the not-so-great defense of Shannon Brown and Ronnie Price. Price got the start at shooting guard in place of Jared Dudley.

Markieff Morris also got his first start as a pro in place of Channing Frye. Coach Gentry told Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic about the lineup moves, “It’s not really a demotion. We went back and looked and right now we’re No. 27 in the NBA in second-quarter points. We’ve got to get that unit to the point where we’re at least playing even and not playing from behind.”

Morris logged only five minutes in the game. He picked up two early fouls guarding Amare and did not return because of illness. Frye was the power forward on the floor to start the second half.

Frye’s shooting stroke looked great as he connected on 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

The Suns were able to keep pace in the tightly-contested fourth quarter thanks in large part to Shannon Brown scoring nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Brown got an incredible shooter’s bounce on a corner three which put the Suns up 85-80 with 35 seconds left. From there Nash’s free throws sealed the win despite long threes by Anthony and Shumpert on the other end.

Hill contributed offensively for the Suns in addition to his stout defense. After struggling mightily in the first half with his shot, Hill ended the game with 14 points on 6-for-15 shooting.

The final score seems quite odd when you consider that both teams were among the league leaders in offensive efficiency last season. Former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni certainly has some work to do as the Knicks have lost four straight games. The Suns, on the other hand, snapped a five-game losing streak and got a much-needed win on this incredibly taxing five-game road trip against five of last season’s playoff teams.

If the Suns can bring this level of physicality and defense to Boston on Friday, they could easily pull out another win. If not, it won’t matter if Steve Nash goes for 20-plus points for the fourth game in a row, the Suns will still come up wanting.

And 1

•  Carmelo Anthony started the game just six points away from 15,000 for his career. He didn’t eclipse that plateau until the 1:47 mark of the fourth quarter.

• Michael Redd did not see any action in the game. It was his first DNP-CD since his season debut against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Marcin Gortat could not have been pleased with the Suns' defensive effort. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The Phoenix Suns shot better than 50 percent, stayed close on the boards and received a superstar offensive performance from Steve Nash yet the Chicago Bulls still found a way to wallop them even with their All-Star point guard in street clothes.

The Suns managed to score 30 more points than the Bulls were allowing on their home floor, yet the defense broke down in their 118-97 loss, Phoenix’s fifth consecutive defeat.

Even without Derrick Rose, the Bulls throttled the Suns’ defense to the tune of a 126.9 efficiency and that’s counting a fourth quarter of garbage time. For the season previously with Rose missing just two games the Bulls scored 101.8 per 100.

During their five-game losing streak, the Suns’ defense has suddenly reverted to old form, yielding offensive ratings of 120.9, 111.2, 108.6 and 104.1 before this horrific 126.9. By comparison, Orlando’s league-leading offense entered the day with an efficiency of 107.1.

The Phoenix defense’s stay in the top 10 was all too short, as it entered the day ranked tied for 21st before continuing to free fall Tuesday night in the United Center.

“The big difference was we just didn’t slow them down,” said Suns head coach Alvin Gentry. “We are not the Phoenix Suns of old. We need to slow down and guard them more closely. We just need to play closer to players like Boozer. We just can’t go out and say on their jump shots ‘make them and beat us.’ We need to defend better, we need to be more physical especially on our rebounding. We also need to communicate better on our defensive rotations.”

Carlos Boozer was the main perpetrator on this night as he got hot from the perimeter and torched the Suns for a season-high 31 points on 14-for-21 shooting, including 26 in the first half alone. C.J. Watson was superb in relief of Rose by contributing 23 on 8-of-12 shooting and all the Chicago starters scored in double digits.

On the bright side the Suns’ offense was actually quite good as well in the early going, scoring 31 points in the first quarter alone, which is about half of what the Bulls had been given up during home games all game … yet they still found themselves trailing by eight due to the porous defensive effort.

Their offense slowed a bit in the second quarter but the Bulls kept right on clicking and the Suns were buried from there.

“We just played catch up all night,” said Gentry, whose team still managed to score 23 more points than any other United Center visitor despite 19 turnovers. “That is really tough to do against a good team like this. They just had control of the game from halftime on.”

Nash played about as good an offensive game as a point guard can, exploding for 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting while dishing nine assists in 30 minutes of play before sitting out the fourth. However, he did turn the ball over five times and somehow left with a team-worst -26.

Aside from Nash, the Suns received superlative performances from their centers, and that’s about it. Marcin Gortat and Robin Lopez split the center spot’s 48 minutes and produced 30 points and 21 rebounds, including all but 17 of Phoenix’s total rebounds (no other player grabbed more than four), with Gortat going for 14 and 15 and Lopez 16 and six on 6-for-7 shooting in 17 active minutes.

Nash and Gortat playing excellent ball without getting much help has become the story of the losing streak, but Lopez scored more than five points for the first time since the season’s opening week in his best game of the season since the opener.

Ronnie Price fed him an early layup, and from there his activity level was off the charts. During one fourth quarter sequence he blocked a Taj Gibson shot and then ran down to nail an open jumper of his own as the trail guy, and another time he darted through the lane to tip in a teammate’s miss as he so seldom did last season. Lopez was a true difference maker during both of his stints on the floor tonight.

Usually a Suns loss in Chicago would be chalked up to nothing other than the Bulls’ elite status, but a confluence of circumstances seemed to give Phoenix a chance.

Most importantly, the Bulls ran without the reigning MVP of the league, and they were playing on consecutive days after getting routed by Memphis the day before without Rose while the Suns enjoyed a day off in Chicago. Yet the Bulls played like the well-rested team.

“For a team missing their best player and a team that played yesterday they sure came out with a lot of energy,” Grant Hill said. “They played harder than us. They played like the team in the Eastern Conference with the best record. We didn’t come out with that same intensity level. If you’re not going to play that hard, you’re going to get embarrassed like we did tonight.”

If Elston Turner cannot fix what’s ailed the Suns’ defense during their now five-game losing streak, there could be many more embarrassing nights ahead of them.

And 1

• Steve Nash earned votes in a wide variety of categories in the annual NBA GM survey that came out today. He was voted the player with the best basketball IQ and also ranked second for best passer behind Chris Paul and for best international player behind Dirk Nowitzki (although the German won in a landslide). He ranked third for does the most with the least (Jared Dudley also got votes) and tied for third for best leader. Nash and Hill tied for fourth for active player that will make the best head coach as well. Markieff Morris was the only other Sun to receive a vote, ranking fifth for Rookie of the Year.
• Former Sun Zabian Dowdell failed his medical tests and thus his contract to play for Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes Istanbul has been voided, according to Sportando. This is just another piece of misfortune for Dowdell, the Suns’ former backup point guard, who has experienced more than his share of tough luck in his professional basketball career.

The Suns' defense limited the Hornets to 28.9 percent shooting. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

It came against a New Orleans Hornets squad missing its leading scorer that won’t remind anybody of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns even at full strength following the Chris Paul trade.

But for the Phoenix Suns – the Phoenix Suns – to hold an NBA opponent to 28.9 percent shooting for an entire game is quite the accomplishment, and that’s exactly how the Suns won their first game of the season, 93-78 over the Hornets.

It’s a bit early to start crowning Elston Turner as a defensive savant, but it’s impressive nonetheless that the Suns’ defense recorded its second-lowest defensive field goal percentage since 1985-86 and the best in the NBA since the start of the 2010-11 season. The Hornets made just 26-of-90 shots, including 3-of-14 from long distance, as the Suns posted a defensive efficiency of 86.7, 10 points per 100 possessions better than what the Bulls’ NBA-leading defense averaged last season.

“More than anything, I liked the defensive part of it,” head coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. “I think we did a great job of challenging everything at the rim, and we did a good job for the most part controlling dribble penetration. The only thing that we have to get better in is that we can’t give up 24 offensive rebounds, but we’re not a great rebounding team and we’re not a team with great size. I thought we fought for some of them (rebounds) but we just didn’t come up with them. To hold a team to under 30 percent shooting is something that’s really good for us. It wasn’t our offense, it was our defense that won the game.”

The Suns weren’t fantastic offensively on this night, shooting just 42.3 percent from the floor, but they weren’t bad either, scoring a season-high 103.3 points per 100 possessions. They pushed the tempo just enough to run out to 17 fast-break points and played with more rhythm than they did in their previous pair of losses.

Perhaps this game signals a shift in how Phoenix must win games. If the offense does not return to its formerly elite levels, the Suns may need their defense to be better than the mediocre unit they required in previous years to be a playoff team. On this night it was exactly that.

Last year one of the Suns defense’s biggest weaknesses was securing offensive rebounds, and that was the case tonight as well as Phoenix yielded 24 offensive boards, more than the Hornets pulled down in any game last season. Of course, there were many missed shots to rebound, but on most nights such a high offensive rebound total would likely thwart Phoenix’s chances of victory.

The Suns received a huge shot in the arm off the bench from both Hakim Warrick and Shannon Brown. Warrick, the team’s leading scorer entering the night, scored a game-high 18 points and pulled down seven boards in 25 minutes of play, eight minutes more than any other reserve. Brown gave the team a burst of energy with 11 points in 16 minutes, providing an electric scoring presence off the pine for the first time this season.

It’s interesting that Warrick went from a DNP-CD to 57 minutes the last two games during which time he has averaged 16.0 ppg, more than five points better than the next closest Sun. With Phoenix struggling to score so badly his ability to put the ball in the basket is a big boon to the bench.

Meanwhile, Markieff Morris picked up two fouls in one minute in the first half and never returned and Josh Childress played only 11 minutes. Considering how well Morris played in the opener against the Hornets, I would have liked to have seen him out there longer, and I only wonder if Childress will ever leave the bench once Michael Redd arrives. As I wrote last night, I don’t envy Alvin Gentry one bit for the rotational issues on his hands.

Channing Frye also played an interesting game as he was an absolute bear on the boards with a whopping 16 but continue to struggle badly with his shot on a 4-for-15 performance that includes 2-for-9 shooting on threes. He wasn’t bashful at all, taking any good look that came his way and some that weren’t great looks, and thus it was clear to me the coaching staff directed him to shoot and shoot with confidence at any decent look. Eventually the shot will come and that will open up the Suns’ offense quite a bit, so at this point I guess all Channing can do is try to shoot his way out of the slump.

“I think we’ll just continue to shoot and it’s going to come,” Frye said. “I think the biggest thing I need to do for this team is get on the glass and just continue to play. I cannot be a single-faceted player. Shots come and go, and this team has done a great job in just continuing to believe in me.”

Perhaps it will one day seem common for the Suns to win games with defense, but it’s still awful strange  to see the Suns complement a superb defensive effort with an improved offensive performance that saw the Suns get into the open court for more easy buckets than they did in their first two losses.

The Suns believe with time that offensive execution will come, but for now they are happy just to escape New Orleans with their first victory of the season to help erase some of the memories of their ugly opening homestand.

And 1

The Suns’ starters were fantastic tonight in terms of +/-. Every starter had a positive double-digit rating, led by Gortat and Frye, both plus 18. … Nash still struggled with his shot on a 2-for-8 night but dished 12 assists. … The 76ers scored 25 points per 100 possessions more on Wednesday than the Hornets did tonight. … Lopez and Trevor Ariza exchanged words during an early fourth quarter exchange to earn themselves double technicals. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Robin that mad, which I take as a positive sign because it was good to see that kind of fire out of him. … Gortat recorded at least three charges by my count, as he was a help defense menace.

In fact, there weren’t any schools at all.

The Friendswood, Texas native graduated high school at 5-foot-7, 140 pounds soaking wet. Coaches didn’t like his prospects at the next level, leaving Price with a basketball future full of uncertainty.

Fast forward 10 years and Price’s body of work has disproved the naysayers who doubted the undersized 18-year-old.

“They’ve all motivated me to be the type of competitor that I am,” Price said.

That motivation has shined through in his accomplishments. At Utah Valley University, where he transferred after walking on at Nicholls State, Price won Division I Independent Player of the Year and earned a spot in the UVU Hall of Fame.

At the NBA level he’s played for two of the league’s most accomplished coaches in Rick Adelman and Jerry Sloan, while developing a reputation as a relentless competitor along the way.

And now, a decade after being told he had no future, Price has the opportunity to play in a wide-open system for a head coach that enhances his player’s strengths. He’ll no longer be limited by the flex offense that Sloan — and now Tyrone Corbin — employed in Utah as he fights to back up one of the top floor generals in recent history.

“I look at this opportunity as a blessing in many ways,” Price said. “Coming into this offense, it’s allowing me to sharpen up on some of the skills that I maybe missed out on in the past four years, being able to get up and down the floor, do some of the things I’ve done in the past and have fun playing the game again.”

If his track record of overcoming obstacles is any indication, Price will do everything in his power to make the most of his opportunity as he battles Sebastian Telfair for Phoenix’s backup point guard spot — a competition Price leads, according to Paul Coro.

“He’s always hungry,” said Suns assistant Elston Turner, who coached Price in Sacramento. “He plays like he’s hungry. He was a good pickup for us. “

Ever since his days as a walk-on at Nicholls State, or his emergence into a star at UVU, Price was never given a free pass. As he put it, “Everything wasn’t handed to me and I’ve always had to prove myself and compete for a job.”

It’s those experiences that have shaped Price into the player is today. The physicality, the never-back-down mentality is deeply engrained in the play of the 28-year-old guard. Whether he’s dunking over Carlos Boozer or meeting James Harden at the rim in transition, Price’s character  – and athleticism — is evident on the court.

“He’s a pitbull. He’ll run through a wall for you,” Turner said. “He doesn’t have any quit. He plays tough basketball, he’s smart, he listens, and he’s coachable.”

By Turner’s evaluation, Price sounds like the NBA’s perfect player. So what’s missing? Offense.

Price was one of the league’s worst offensive guards last season. As John Hollinger pointed out in his Phoenix Suns profiles, Price finished last season with a -2.48 pure point guard rating that Hollinger called “unspeakably awful.” Price also finished second-to-last among point guards in assist rate, and fourth-to-last in turnover rate.

He also turned in the worst field goal percentage among point guards, as he shot 35.2 percent from the field. To put it lightly, offense isn’t Price’s strong suit. But if there’s one team where pure athletes can thrive, it’s Phoenix.

Price also brings a defensive mentality the Suns have lacked at the point guard position since Nash arrived. He knows Turner’s system, giving him a leg up on Telair in their positional battle.

“I understand his principles and what he wants defensively, so hopefully I can be an example the best way I can,” Price said. “I take a lot of pride in playing defense.”

Price most likely won’t become the heir to Nash’s throne. He may not even beat out Telfair for the backup point guard spot. But given his character and determination to succeed, Price won’t go down without a fight. He’ll bring intensity, defense, and professionalism to Phoenix, and for a basketball journeyman with limited talent, that’s all you can ask for.

“I take this game very serious. I love to compete and I’m very loyal,” Price said. “I look at this as my family. This is my new family now. You’d do anything for your family, so I’d do anything for these guys as if they were my own family. That’s the way I’ve always approached it and I’ll never, ever change that mentality.”

And 1

• Price on his relationship with Turner: “You never know how many times your paths will cross with different people in the NBA. The NBA is just a tight knit group of people. I started smiling when I found out he was on the staff and get a chance to mess around with him a little bit. … I remember his son was in high school, now he’s playing on national TV in college. It’s just crazy how fast time passes by. Now I’m considered a veteran, I guess. It’s just weird, it really is. I still feel like a rookie in my heart and still get excited about the game of basketball.”
• Price on the toughest player he’s had to guard: “I would say Allen Iverson when I first got in the league because he would attack you every possession and you couldn’t touch him. He was so good at drawing fouls. Then Baron Davis when I first got into the league because he was so strong and explosive. Chauncey Billups was very tough.”
• Price on playing for Adleman and Sloan: “Coach Adelman my rookie year, being around Mike Bibby and those guys and watching that corner offense that they ran. Of course coach Sloan. Wow. I’ve had a chance to play for Adelman and coach Sloan, who are two Hall of Fame coaches who have  a long history of success. Sloan taught you about the principles of life and how you bring the principles of life into the game of basketball. I’ve been fortunate.”

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns couldn’t sign Dwight Howard to patrol the paint. They didn’t have the assets to bring on Rajon Rondo to lock up opposing point guards, or Tony Allen to be the Kobe Stopper.

So the Suns did the next best thing – hired a touted defensive coordinator to make the most out of Phoenix’s limited personnel.

Since joining the Suns in mid-July, Elston Turner has been working toward erasing Phoenix’s reputation as a defensive doormat. With the 14-year NBA assistant and respected defensive mind in place, the 2011-12 Suns have a new commitment to the defensive end after ranking 25th in the NBA in defensive field goal percentage a season ago.

“In order to put yourself in a position to win a championship you’ve got to be able to guard and you’ve got to be able to do it consistently,” said head coach Alvin Gentry. “I don’t know that we’ll ever be the Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics or the San Antonio Spurs, but I don’t think those teams will ever be us offensively.

“We have to get to the point where consistently we know what we’re going to get night in and night out defensively and I think between Elston Turner and Dan Majerle I think we can get that accomplished.”

Turner arrived in Phoenix with a long list of defensive accomplishments. He coached under Rick Adleman in both Houston and Sacramento, and churned out some of the association’s top defenses as the 2003-04 Kings led the NBA in defensive field goal percentage, while the 2007-08 and 2008-09 Rockets ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

But when Turner arrived in Phoenix and took a look at what he had to work with, it became clear the Suns were lightyears from becoming a defensive juggernaut.

“The rim protection didn’t seem to be as strong as it needed to be in this league,” Turner said. “Some of the scouting reports that all the scouts had said not being a physical team. There’s some teams when you see them on the schedule, you know you’re in for a tough night. That’s what we’re trying to do get to and eventually we’ll get there.”

Turner also noted that a huge part of the Suns’ defensive struggles came from their turnovers and poor defensive rebounding. Phoenix gave up the fourth-most offensive rebounds in the NBA last season. Combine that with the 12th-most turnovers in the NBA and defensive greatness becomes nearly impossible.

“When you give up points off of turnovers, 90 percent of the time it will lead to layups,” said Grant Hill. “Defensive rebounding, if you don’t complete the exchange 80 percent of the time those end up being putbacks or dunks. If we can limit our offensive turnovers and complete the possession, that’ll improve our defense tremendously.”

While the Suns aren’t exactly equipped with defensive experts on their roster, Turner said Phoenix has more than the right pieces to be a solid defensive team. From his perspective, defense is all about continuity and trust.

“No matter what system you put in place, the way the league is and the way the rules are, which is geared toward scoring, you’re going to need help,” Turner said. “The main thing is to develop chemistry where everybody’s helping each other, everybody’s responsible for everything.”

Josh Childress said Turner’s schemes are more simplified, which should lead to more consistency on the defensive end. Shannon Brown said with Phoenix’s new defense the Suns could be able to “scare a lot of people.”

The Suns have a long way to go in order to undo nearly a decade of porous defense, but with Turner’s new defense and Phoenix’s commitment to both sides of the ball, the Suns could be on their way to changing the longtime perception of Phoenix Suns defense.

“If we stick to it as a team and all trust each other as a team defensively, then people won’t be talking about the Phoenix Suns defense anymore,” said Ronnie Price, who Turner coached in Sacramento. “They’ll be saying nothing but good things about it.”

The Xs and Os

Under Turner’s direction the Suns will be more aggressive with ball pressure and traps, as well as changing up pick and roll coverages and rotations.

“There will be a lot more pressure and a lot of guys helping others as far as rotations, guys coming out of traps, rotating to other guys and everybody protecting each other,” Price explained. “That’s the biggest thing. We have our principles we just have to communicate it through.”

Turner said the ultimate goal is to “contain the basketball and trying to make guys shoot shots in the mid-range area with a hand in their face.”

Phoenix is hoping that the easy buckets at the rim, uncontested dribble penetration and wide-open threes that have characterized the Suns for so long will be a thing of the past.

And 1

• The Suns ranked 25th in defensive efficiency last season.
• They ranked 26th in defensive effective field goal percentage.
• They allowed opponents to shoot 68.3 percent at the rim, good for 28th in the NBA.

Hype, though, is often a product of significant change. With a roster composed of nine returning players from last year’s 40-42 squad, there’s relatively not a whole lot to talk about compared to teams like the Los Angeles Clippers or Dallas Mavericks, who are wheeling and dealing this offseason.

That means there’s roster continuity. And with a lockout-shortened training camp, continuity means the Suns may have a leg up on other NBA teams that have gone through more roster turnover.

Forward Grant Hill, who re-signed this offseason, is both a testament and a believer to that continuity being reason for optimism.

“We don’t have as many new faces,”  Hill said during Friday’s team media day. “We have guys that have been here a while. I think we have guys that are more comfortable.”

So regardless of how this Suns team is viewed by the pundits in a league-wide perspective, the belief inside the locker room hasn’t wavered.

Point guard Steve Nash said that there’s no doubt Phoenix has the players to make the playoffs, and he thinks that in limited camp time, the Suns have made progress.

“This is a playoff team,” Nash said. “Our mindset has to be making the playoffs. It’s all out there to be proven and to be played for, and we got a lot of work to do, but our goal is to make the playoffs.”

And Hill’s return to the Suns after flirting with teams like the San Antonio Spurs is evidence that there’s belief in the locker room that Phoenix can make a run, head coach Alvin Gentry said. After all, the 39-year-old could have bolted for the Spurs to chase a championship.

Instead, he returned as a sidekick to Nash, a veteran leader and all-around glue guy.

“I said I felt like he did the right think by looking around and seeing what was out there … he felt like this was the best place for him,” Gentry said. “I think that speaks volumes about what we have going here and stuff. A guy that had options — he could have gone to any team, or probably that’s in a much better position to win a championship than where we are.”

Getting defensive

The Suns gave up the 29th most points to opponents in the 2010-11 season. While part of that is thanks to the high number of possessions Phoenix gives its opponents, there’s no denying defensive improvements will be a priority.

Bringing in Elston Turner as a defensive assistant, along with the signings of Shannon Brown, Sebastian Telfair and Ronnie Price, show that Phoenix isn’t ignoring one of its bigger deficiencies.

In a practice session open to the media on Friday, Turner led a defense-oriented walkthrough that covered trapping philosophies and the rotations to cover the ensuing passes out of those traps. That followed a frenzied three-on-three drill that looked part basketball, part-cardio workout.

Overall, there weren’t any complaints with a shortened training camp. The Suns players said they were ready to roll, and most importantly, making strides in gelling on the court.

“I think it’s been a good camp,” Nash said. “We’ve gotten ourselves to a point where we can play a game of basketball. Everyone’s playing the uphill battle against the clock.”

Nash on his future

Of course, Media Day couldn’t have gone by without reporters asking Nash about his future with the Suns. And obviously, he wasn’t going to say anything but the following:

“This stage in my career I’m not thinking about tomorrow,” Nash said. “I’m thinking about today.”

Nash’s 2011-12 season is the last on his current deal.

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The Suns are hosting an open practice Saturday free of charge.  Doors open at US Airways Center at 4 p.m., and there will be a scrimmage at 5. Then from 6-8 fans are invited to shoot hoops on the main arena floor. The organization is encouraging fans to donate a new toy upon arrival. … Suns assistant Igor Kokoskov will travel to the Republic of Georgia this week to earn one of the nation’s highest civilian awards, the Order of Honour, for his efforts as head coach of Georgia’s national team this summer. He departed Friday and will return for the Suns’ preseason game on Tuesday in Denver. Kokoskov has coached the national team since 2008 and led them to a top-12 finish at EuroBasket this summer.

Synergy rates the Suns’ offense so high in large part due to plays ending with the roll man shooting or a spot-up shooter getting the shot as Phoenix ranked second in the league in both those departments, rankings that are clearly indicative of the still elite playmaking abilities of Steve Nash.

The Suns’ roll men scored 1.19 ppp and shot 56.3 percent. Hakim Warrick (1.28 ppp, seventh in the league) and Marcin Gortat (1.23 ppp, 10th) were both top-10 roll men last season playing next to Nash. So much for all those questions about who the Suns’ roll man will be that we were posing last year at this time as both Warrick and Gortat surpassed the 1.21 ppp that Amare Stoudemire recorded in 2009-10 as a roll man.

The Suns’ spot-up shooters scored 1.08 points per play while knocking down 42.7 percent of their shots overall and a healthy 41.6 percent of their treys. It’s about all he did, but Hedo Turkoglu was a superb spot-up shooter before the Orlando trade, ranking fourth in the NBA by scoring 1.55 ppp while shooting 58.3 percent from two and 57.9 percent from three in spot-up situations. Channing Frye (1.13) and Jared Dudley (1.12) were very solid spot-up shooters as well while taking a good chunk of Phoenix’s spot-up attempts.

Not surprisingly the Suns also ranked in the top 10 when the ball handler shoots off the pick-and-roll but somehow they ranked in top 10 in post-ups as well despite lacking a true post-up threat.

Perhaps the biggest offense shock is that the Suns ranked just 26th in transition efficiency by scoring just 1.11 points per play and converting on just over 52.1 percent of their transition opportunities. That stat in itself shows how far the Suns have gone from their Seven Seconds or Less days to the pick-and-roll dominated offense they run today.

That can be seen even further through the fact that 21.7 percent of their offense came directly from a pick-and-roll and another 22.7 percent came from spot-up shooting that often results from a pick-and-roll.

The Suns also ranked 24th in isolations by scoring 0.8 points on such plays, not a huge surprise considering their lack of a true one-on-one player. Phoenix also struggled off screens, scoring 0.81 ppp to rank 25th.

Defensively, the Suns ranked 21st in points per play by yielding 0.92. That also compares favorably to Phoenix’s 25th defensive efficiency ranking in the league.

The Suns were best at defending handoffs, ranking seventh and allowing 0.86 ppp.  That’s in large part thanks to the exploits of Grant Hill, who defended almost a quarter of those plays and ranked seventh in the NBA by yielding 0.6 ppp.

Post-up defense proved to be Phoenix’s biggest problem this year as the Suns allowed 0.94 ppp to rank 29th in that category. Nobody who watched this basketball team will argue with that conclusion.

One thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense is that Steve Nash (0.77 points per play) ranked better on isolations than Josh Childress (0.81), Mickael Pietrus (0.84), Grant Hill (0.88) and Dudley (0.93). Perhaps that’s just because the Suns prevented Nash from defending quality isolation players as much as possible whereas a guy like Hill defended every elite iso guy in the league, but even then this doesn’t make sense.

Big picture Synergy says the 2010-11 Suns were an elite pick-and-roll and spot-up shooting team and that made them a top offense overall although their defense, particularly in the post, left much to be desired.

In other words, last year was your typical Phoenix Suns season.

Hill defended everyone from Derrick Rose to Blake Griffin, but didn't earn an All-Defensive honor for his efforts. Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

Grant Hill may not have led the league in steals like Chris Paul, patrolled the paint like Dwight Howard or cracked SportsCenter’s Top 10 with transition swats like LeBron James, but the 38-year-old at least deserved a spot on the 2010-11 All-Defensive second team.

Whether he was locking down Kevin Durant or Manu Ginobili, Hill proved to be without a doubt one of the premier on-the-ball defenders in the NBA.

He led the league in charges taken and despite playing for a Suns team that ranked 26th in opponent’s field goal percentage, the 15-year vet consistently held superstars well under their scoring averages and shooting percentages.

But when the NBA’s 30 coaches put their heads together to vote on the best 10 defenders in the NBA — restricted by position — Hill was left on the outside looking in, falling four points shy of both Andre Iguodala and Joakim Noah.

His teammates were dumbfounded as Hakim Warrick Tweeted, “How did @realgranthill33 not make 1st or 2nd team all defensive?”

Steve Nash replied, “Seriously! Every night. Different positions. Deserved it.”

But no one was more disappointed than Hill’s longtime coach and All-Defensive spokesman Alvin Gentry.

The Suns head coach told The Arizona Republic, “No one did more defensively for their team than him. He got punished for what we did as a team. I’d like to know who else guarded Amar’e Stoudemire, Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose, Manu Ginobili, Kevin Durant and everything but a five.”

The coaches got the majority of the two teams correct as it’s hard to argue against Rajon Rondo, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard on the first team and Chris Paul, Tony Allen and Tyson Chandler on the second team.

But Hill outperformed Kobe Bryant — a first-team selection — on the defensive end, while rivaling both Iguoudala and Noah. In fact, if it weren’t for Noah being listed as both a forward and center, Hill would have made the second team as the squad’s second forward.

Both Noah and Iguodala finished with 15 total points (a first-team vote is worth two points and a second-team vote is worth one), while Hill ended up with 11 total points. Hill did, however, finish with four first-team votes, which was one more than Noah (three) and the most among players on the bubble.

What’s most mind-boggling is that Hill finished seventh in the NBA in Defensive Player of the Year voting, ahead of Bryant, Iguodala and Noah. Hill was also one of only five players not named Dwight Howard to finish with at least one first-place vote.

Kobe’s reputation landed him on the first team, as it’s tough to look past eight previous All-Defensive selections. But Hill, who has never made an All-Defensive team, did a better job defensively than Bryant this season.

According to Synergy Sports Technology, Hill held opponents to 0.83 points per possession, while Kobe yielded 0.89 PPP. Kobe did trump Hill in isolation defense, allowing only 0.76 PPP to Hill’s 0.87, but he played on a team surrounded by defensive talent.

Ron Artest more often than not took the opposing team’s best player, and the versatile Lamar Odom allowed Kobe to defend strictly shooting guards. Hill, on the other hand, guarded everyone from Derrick Rose (whom he held to an average of 10-for-24 shooting in two games) to Dirk Nowitzki and Blake Griffin.

Based on the numbers and defensive value to their respective team, Hill deserved the nod over Kobe. The only problem is that Hill didn’t qualify as a shooting guard, so first-team honors was out of the question.

But he still should have earned a spot over either Iguodala or Noah. While Iguodala edged Hill in PPP (0.81), the Suns’ SF held opponents to a lower FG% overall (36.8 compared to 37.9) and in isolation situations (36.6 compared to 42.3).

There’s no hiding Iguodala’s defensive prowess, but Hill shut down a wider range of players while playing stellar team defense. It’s hard to compare Hill and Noah because they play different positions, so the defensive numbers don’t have as much value.

But Noah played only 48 games, compared to Hill’s 80. How can a player that competed in just over half of the games make second-team All-Defense?  With all of that said, Hill deserved a spot over Bryant, Iguodala and Noah, yet his outstanding defensive season goes unnoticed.

Here’s a look at whom he locked down over the course of the regular season:

The Phoenix Suns' defensive efficiency dropped to 25th in the NBA this season. The team has not reached the postseason in the Nash era when below 20th. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

PHOENIX — In what seems like an annual offseason ritual, improving defensively ranks right atop the Phoenix Suns’ list of summer goals.

Although the Suns did play a solid stretch of defensive basketball in the middle of the season, for the most part they were pretty horrid on that end of the floor.

The Suns got torched during the first leg of their season featuring Hedo Turkoglu at the power forward spot and they were very bad down the stretch as well, culminating in an effort that saw Phoenix yield 107.4 points per 100 possessions, 25th in the NBA just ahead of such defensive juggernauts as Golden State and Minnesota.

“We have to continue to get better defensively,” said head coach Alvin Gentry. “I was a little bit disappointed this year because I thought we took a step back from where we were last year defensively, and we’ve just got to get better in this area.”

Defense has been Phoenix’s Achilles’ heel throughout the Nash era, but there’s been a distinct difference in this team’s defensive efficiency during the five seasons of the last seven in which the squad reached the playoffs and the two it sat home. With the offense as elite as it has traditionally been (aside from this season), the Suns just needed to be a top-20 defense to be a solid playoff team.

They were similarly abysmal defensively in 2008-09 when teams ran circles around the Nash-Shaq pick-and-roll combo. That squad ranked 25th in defensive efficiency just like this year’s by giving up 108.5 points per 100, making it a defense so bad that the league’s best offense was in the lottery.

When the Suns’ defense has been average or just a bit below average, the team has reached the playoffs. They ranked 19th in defensive efficiency in 2009-10, 17th in 2007-08, 16th in 2006-07, 19th in 2005-06 and 20th in 2004-05.

None of those defenses were particularly great but last year’s in particular got stops when necessary and all of the defenses were overall good enough to allow the Suns to take off on the special run they enjoyed this decade.

Gentry’s stat of choice is defensive field-goal percentage, and it paints the same picture defensive efficiency does.

This season the Suns allowed opponents to shoot 47.2 percent from the field, making this by far their worst such year of the Nash era.

The Suns ranked last by a decent margin in this department to begin the season, and at that point Gentry cleaned the slate by posting whiteboards in the locker room denoting Phoenix’s ranking in defensive field-goal percentage for the season as well as in its last 10 games. This provided the team with a short-term goal that wouldn’t be weighted down by their early season struggles.

The Suns ranked in the top 10 during some of those “last 10” stretches but not enough of them, finishing 25th in this category right above the Knicks and the Cavs.

Phoenix ranked 22nd in defensive field-goal percentage when the team missed the playoffs two years ago but otherwise has been solid for a squad not known for defense.

They ranked 11th last year at 45.2 percent — quite the sizable decrease for one season — 13th in 2007-08, 14th in 2006-07, 17th in 2005-06 and 14th in 2004-05. You don’t need to go to MIT to understand the correlation between these stats and winning and thus the necessity for Phoenix to at least be around average defensively.

Further exacerbating the problem is that the Suns were even worse at corralling defensive rebounds, especially until Marcin Gortat started playing major minutes. With Hedo at the four to start they year they ranked at the bottom of the league in this category by a good margin but finished third to last by getting to 71.6 percent of the available defensive boards. Only Washington and Golden State were worse.

Going forward Gortat solves some of these problems as he ranked seventh in the entire NBA in defensive rebound rate (getting to 27.4 percent of the available defensive boards) and traditionally has been one of the better players in the league at this stat. But he certainly needs help for the Suns to climb in the rankings.

As for how to fix these issues, aside from potentially acquiring a stellar defensive player or two Gentry wants to see the Suns improve their defense against dribble penetration — a mantra he’s been repeating since taking over as Phoenix’s head coach — as well as their weakside rotations.

President of basketball operations Lon Babby joked that the Suns started to change their defensive culture by giving away tacos when they hold opponents under 99 points just like they do when the team scores 99 points (I think he was joking at least).

Babby spoke of the need to alter that perception because teams walk into US Airways Center thinking they will be able to score at will, as Jason Terry verbalized during a TNT game last January.

“I just think this franchise has been so wildly successful as an offensive juggernaut that you can say you want to play defense, but at the end of the day the notion was, ‘Oh, we can always outscore everybody,’” said Babby, who sees improving defensively as the team’s top offseason priority. “I’m not sure that that’s true anymore given our personnel, and given the pressure we’re now putting on Steve offensively we’ve got to get better defensively.

“But hopefully I won’t be talking about this again a year from now, we will have made progress, and I think we did make progress. From the beginning of the year we made a lot of progress, it’s just we’re still not quite good enough.”