PHOENIX — Although the bench logged more minutes than might be expected, Phoenix Suns head coach Alvin Gentry treated Monday’s exhibition game against the Sacramento Kings as an opportunity to test out the rotation he plans to trot out when the games count.
Thereby we learned that Kendall Marshall — who did not play by coach’s [...]

[Read more →]

PHOENIX — Leadership is a funny quality when it comes to NBA locker rooms. It isn’t necessarily dictated based on talent or the player with the loudest voice, although those can certainly be determining factors. It often isn’t appreciated when it exists, but it’s definitely noticed when it’s absent. It isn’t inherent in everyone, but as [...]

[Read more →]

PHOENIX — Enough scorers have enjoyed career seasons next to Steve Nash to question whether Marcin Gortat will be the same offensive player without him around.
Every Sun figures to take some kind of efficiency hit without Two Time, but no Phoenix player relied on him more to create easy buckets than Gortat last season, although [...]

[Read more →]

This week is a sad week for Channing Frye, but in some ways it should be a happy one.
It’s beyond terrible that Frye was blindsided with news that he has an enlarged heart that will likely keep him out for the season and could potentially end his career, news that Frye said came “completely out [...]

[Read more →]

For the first time in eight seasons, Steve Nash is no longer the face of the Phoenix Suns franchise, nor is he the sun, moon and stars of it either.
For my money, that new face is Marcin Gortat, which is to say the Suns lack a franchise player.
That’s no knock on Marcin. The guy will [...]

[Read more →]

PHOENIX — The perspective of Marcin Gortat’s value and success during the 2011-12 NBA season lie in two paradigms.
On one hand, there was his career-high averages of 15.4 points, 10 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game in his first full season with the Phoenix Suns, and he ended the year as the eighth-best NBA player [...]

[Read more →]