. . . . . . . . . . Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ORtg . . . . DRtg . . . . NetRtg
Nash - Hill - Dudley - Frye - Gortat . . . 105.35 . . . 94.26 . . . +11.09
Price - Brown - Hak - Morris - Lopez . . . 115.79 . . . 103.85 . . . +11.94
Nash - Hill - Dudley - Morris - Gortat . . . 101.70 . . . 85.00 . . . +16.69
Ok, wait, so our first unit is outscoring opponents...and so is our second unit?? Yeah, that's what the numbers say. Those three units are the only Suns units that have played at least 20 minutes together, but combined they have less than half our total minutes. We're not losing games because of our starters or our backups, but because our numerous hack units have been getting killed. For instance, for some unexplained reason we've had quite a few minutes with Hak at the 4, during which we've been comically embarrassed.
Another example: Our starters were actually beating up on the Lakers starters, the second team was holding its own, and then the Lakers went to small-ball and outscored us 14-0 with Metta or Luke at the 4 next to Gasol. (Yeah, we just got out-coached.)
2) Dudley and Frye have excelled in our system...
...but they're playing out of position. This is really pretty weird if you think about it: Take a couple of guys who thrived on the court as the 3 and 5 and move them to the 2 and 4 and expect them to do the same things for you???
When they were playing the 3 and 5, the Suns were rolling. Frye got the vast majority of the minutes at center when the Suns made the 2010 playoff run. Frye's raw on-court offensive rating for the 2009-2010 regular season was 118.44, easily the best in the league (in comparison, LeBron James' was 112.72 last season), while Dudley's 121.75 led the league during the 2010 playoffs. Out of the 3495 player pairs that logged enough possessions to generate an offensive RAPM score, Nash + Frye was 3rd and Dudley + Frye was 6th. For 2008-2011 three-man offensive RAPM, Nash + Dudley + Frye come in 14th out of 45008 combinations. While Dudley was on the court during the 2010 playoffs, the Suns outscored their opponents by 14.22 points per 100 possessions; 9.80 for Frye (in comparison, Derrick Rose was -12.98; Russell Westbrook was -2.73; and Dirk was -4.30).
Nash + Dudley + Frye is a really, really good combo. But it's pretty obvious that it should look like this:
Nash - ______ - Dudley - ______ - Frye . . . and not this . . .
Nash - Dudley - ______ - Frye - ______
The former is a much quicker lineup.
Frye can't stay with quick 4s, and he can't close-out on stretch-4s very well. Antawn Jamison lit him up: that won't happen if he's defending the 5.
3) Markieff and Price have been very solid additions.
I'm confident in Dudley and Frye (in the right setting). I'm confident in Nash and Gortat. I'm becoming more and more confident in Markieff and Price. Grant Hill can still defend, slash...he can give us important minutes. That's 7 guys. I believe in 8-9 man rotations, which means we only need 1-2 more pieces if they're in the right places.
What about giving Price some minutes at the two? He's a good defender, he can knock down open shots, and he's quick. Two point guard lineups have worked very well for Denver, among others.
4) Shannon Brown can play better basketball for us.
It ought to be abundantly clear that Brown cannot handle complete freedom. That's ok: he's spent the last few years watching Kobe, and now Gentry is letting him loose. Don't give him the freedom to shoot off the dribble. This is really not complicated. Don't expect him to create, because he's a horrible decision-maker with a terrible assist rate: he should just be an off-ball slasher. He's a good finisher at the rim; he's quick enough to really cause problems; he shoots 3s well enough to keep teams honest: I think his quickness could be incredibly valuable alongside Nash. Nash would find him in transition and as a cutter, and playing him next to Nash should effectively take the ball out of his hands.
If we can get positive minutes out of Brown, that's 8 guys we can rely on. So why not:
PG: Nash-32/Price/16
SG: Price-16/Brown-24/Hill-8
SF: Dudley-32/Hill-16
PF: Markieff-32/Frye-16
c: Gortat-32/Frye-16
Nash-32
Price-32
Dudley-32
Frye-32
Gortat-32
Markieff-32
Brown-24
Hill-24
Nobody gets more than 32 minutes, and you can still fill in with Redd, Lopez, Warrick, and Chilly. (But you don't need to play any of them!!
)5) We could get Lou back.
We've gotten slaughtered by 4s that are quick/versatile/good shooters this year when Frye is at the 4. Which is sort of a duh, Frye is not a 4. Markieff is a good defender at the 4, but he's more of a bruiser, so he can still get beat by quickness. The only other option at the 4, then, is Warrick. Ha!!
As I've been saying for approximately forever: we need an athletic, defensive power forward to pair with Frye. The Amare/Lou hybrids that I've repeatedly mentioned (Josh Smith, Amir Johnson, Thaddeus Young) are all tearing it up right now, so that probably doesn't happen even if we're willing to give up Gortat. We have to find a cheaper option.
There is exactly one situation in which Lou is extremely valuable: Playing the 4 next to Frye. Which means he's cheap: he's one of the only players we could acquire without giving up our core 8 guys. He's not getting playing time right now. Start Markieff-Gortat; that's a very solid defensive frontcourt with good spacing and a clear pick-and-roll man. We all know that Lou-Frye is an excellent combo off the bench. Lou gives us a massive boost in quickness, and he makes it much easier for Frye to return to the 5.
The only thing you haven't taken into consideration is that Gentry is purposely using this information to sabotage us winning. 
Or he is just inept at head coaching.
? Todays starting lineup pretty close to Los Soles one.