The Phoenix Suns surprised the entire NBA last year by making it all the way to the Western Conference Finals when everyone thought their days as contenders were done. The Suns have every intention of duplicating last year's success, but few are giving them a chance to do so now that All-Star power forward Amar'e Stoudemire is a member of the New York Knicks. Even with Stoudemire gone though Coach Gentry is taking the same approach from last year.
"Last year they picked us anywhere from seventh to ninth or tenth anyway," recalled Gentry in a conversation with XTRA 910. "I tell guys right at the start of the year it doesn't really matter until the end of the season. Either you're in the playoffs or you're not. If you're not than they were right and if you're in then we can go na-na-na-na poo-poo.
"I look at the guys we signed and I think they're going to fit in just fine. You never know. I tell everyone, chemistry is such a strange thing. Everyone talks about the three guys in Miami, and they're great players believe me and they're tremendous athletes. But they're still going to have to come together from a chemistry standpoint in order to be great and win a championship. In our case we're going to have to do that because we're going to be a small team, there are going to be rebounding situations, there's going to be rotation situations because we're about 10 or 11 guys deep. So all of that is going to play into it. As we we go into the season and into training camp those are things that are going to be on our mind."
Gentry has a leg up on most coaches when it comes to forming chemistry because his best player, All-Star point guard Steve Nash, is somebody who makes everyone's lives so much easier. Nash is one of the league's premier playmakers but he now has the luxury of having another creative player by his side in Hedo Turkoglu. The Suns acquired Turkoglu earlier this summer and hope that he and Nash can form a dynamic duo that helps open things up for everyone else like the Nash-Stoudemire combo used to.
"I think for Hedo to have Steve Nash out there and for Nash to have Hedo out there will help," noted Gentry. "You're talking about a guy in Hedo that is really a facilitator. We will put the ball in his hands. For the first time since I've been here we can use Steve as an off the ball shooter which he is great at. He's probably one of the top five shooters in the league, but we just never had an opportunity to use him in that position."
The Phoenix Suns also had some big changes occur in the front office. They brought on former agent Lon Babby as the President of Basketball Operations and Lance Blanks from the Cleveland Cavaliers as their new general manager. Gentry has worked with them in the past and is excited about potentially having a good working relationship with both.
"One thing is I've known Lance for 20 years," revealed Gentry. "Known him as a player and gotten to know him as he's moved up the management ladder in the NBA. I think he's a very bright guy and will do a really good job. Lon I've known for 15 or 16 years and a lot of it has to do with his relationship with Grant Hill. Lon and I got to be extremely close when I was in Detroit and both those guys are very effective, efficient workers. I think they'll do a good job. I think they'll be willing to listen and I think they'll learn and they'll do extremely well because success seems to follow them wherever they go."
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