RealGM

That starting lineup above is going to be it for a while. After 11 different starting lineups in the season's first 34 games, Suns coach Alvin Gentry and his staff gave the players an off-day Saturday and met to settle on a lineup and rotation.

He said this will probably be the starting lineup for the next 10 games and that he has learned this is not a team that can have a 10-man rotation. The latter part will be interesting to see play out because the usual odd man out has been Hakim Warrick, who has played well in the Suns' best games and started the second half of Friday's game against New York. But Gentry reflected the Suns' best games came when they were shorthanded at Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

The constant shuffling and the reach to start Josh Childress at center on Friday (Gentry called the blowout loss a "disaster") did not serve the Suns well for moving forward. There is a need to find some consistent rotation and build on it in a month that the schedule still allow for the Suns to move back toward .500 if they play better. The lineup Gentry is using tonight was used once this season in the home loss to Philadelphia, which was the last time the Suns had a 30-point quarter (18 quarters ago).

"The pace has got to be good," Gentry said of immediate goals. "We still have to shown promise in our defense."

He wants the Suns to recapture their identity and be more aggressive to get into the open court more. They have failed to score 100 points in a game for four consecutive games, the first time that has happened since December 2005.

"It doesn't have to be a sacrifice," Gentry said. "We can be a better defensive team and still be an uptempo team."

The Suns still must be holding hope in Lopez as a 22-year-old paint protector. His performance certainly has not warranted that he hold the starting job over Marcin Gortat. But Over the past six games, Lopez has more fouls (14) than rebounds (10) and has not played more than 13 minutes in any of the games. Even Gortat's defensive and rebounding positives are being countered by his poor shooting, with ongoing misses from outside the paint and Friday's missed layups.

Frye was supposed to start Friday until Gentry made a tip-off change because Mike D'Antoni was not starting Ronny Turiaf. The Suns rely on Frye to spread the defense but he is shooting 33 percent from the field in the past 10 games. He has shot much better as a starter (45.2 percent) this season than as a reserve (34.4).

JMac1 wrote:I wonder if he is only using Duds, Gortat,Pietrus and Duds.....

grumpysaddle wrote:

JMac1 wrote:I wonder if he is only using Duds, Gortat,Pietrus and Duds.....

They cloned Duds? One can dream...