Welcome back to Planet Orange. Try not to bump your head on the low ceiling of expectations.

The Phoenix Suns are no longer chasing a championship trophy.

“Our job is to get this thing back on track,” Suns head coach Alvin Gentry said. “We have to change the culture a little bit.”

The 2011-12 Suns season begins Monday at US Airways Center, and in the world of sports, changing the culture is a popular euphemism for starting anew. Kirk Gibson said the same thing about his baseball team last spring before guiding the Diamondbacks to the playoffs.

This is a little different.

The Suns have too many weaknesses. The lockout-condensed, 66-game NBA schedule does no favors for a team relying on aging leaders. Center Marcin Gortat has a fractured thumb on his shooting hand. The franchise has missed the playoffs twice in the past three years.

The delusions are gone. So are many of the familiar faces. So is the debate regarding the Suns’ up-tempo style and whether it’s designed for postseason futility.

Now, a diminished franchise is merely hoping to make the playoffs.

“The room for error is real small,” Suns guard Jared Dudley said. “We’ve lost so many pieces over the years. We have to play scrappy, smart basketball, and we didn’t play smart basketball last year. If we don’t do that, and if we don’t become a top-15 defense in the league, it’s going to be hard for us this year.”

In a previous era, this team would be considered a Steve Nash specialty, appealing to his underdog sensibilities. Few players in NBA history have done more with less supporting talent. No one fosters better team chemistry.

But the Suns are lacking a big-time scorer, someone to deliver when the game is on the line. Nash is a former two-time Most Valuable Player, but he’ll turn 38 in February and is unable to carry his team for long periods of time.

Nash is also in the last year of his contract, so at some point he and the team might agree that a trade is the best solution for everyone involved. That speculation will follow in Nash’s wake for most of the season and will surely be a distraction.

“In a perfect world, he’d like to finish up here, get this organization back to respectability,” teammate Grant Hill said. “I just know how proud Phoenicians are of Steve and what he’s been able to accomplish. And I think we all feel like we have something to prove. When I came here, the franchise was trying to compete for a championship. To leave it the way things were last year just doesn’t sit right.”

From 2004 to 2010, the Suns were the little engine that couldn’t, a team that reached and lost the Western Conference finals three times. Their success captivated a region that swears allegiance to the Valley’s oldest major professional franchise. The failures led to deep heartbreak in the community and great angst surrounding the team’s owner, Robert Sarver.

Now, the Suns are at a crossroads. Regrets and miscalculations no longer matter. The future needs our attention, not the past.

The Suns will have plenty of salary-cap space next off-season to recruit free agents. A poor record in the upcoming season could yield a high draft pick, the best way to regenerate a mediocre team. And in the coming months, the Suns need to target their future franchise players, the ones who will restore championship aspirations.

In the meantime, Gentry will attempt to change a culture that never valued the art of defense.

I know. We’ve all heard that one before.

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying,” Gentry said. “I’m going to be adamant about it. We can’t have this culture of ‘If you score on me, I’ll score on you.’ In the last five minutes of a game, we have to know that we don’t need to make a ton of baskets to win.”

Former Suns star Charles Barkley thinks it’s about time for a change in mind-set and direction. He says that the run-and-gun philosophy has been exposed as flawed strategy and that peddling Nash is a necessity for this team to turn the page. He thinks Gortat and Robin Lopez can be the “best 1-2 punch at center in the NBA,” helping the franchise move into a new era.

“They are maybe a playoff team,” Barkley said. “But they are no longer a championship contender. And at some point, you have to begin the rebuilding process.”

Alas, that time seems to have arrived, even though few Arizonans want to hear such gloomy forecasts.

Already, it’s been a bleak winter for Valley basketball. Arizona State is in the midst of a horrific season, prompting head coach Herb Sendek to apologize to his fan base. Don’t be alarmed if Gentry must do the same in the coming weeks.

Rebuilding is never fun, and chances are, the upcoming NBA season will not go down easy. That is, unless you enjoy the taste of medicine.

Reach Bickley at dan.bickley @arizonarepublic.com. Follow him at twitter.com/danbickley. Listen to “Bickley and MJ” 2-6 p.m. weekdays on KGME-AM (910).

GILBERT — Amare Stoudemire will opt out of the final year of his contract if he doesn’t re-sign with the Phoenix Suns before the deadline at the end of this month.

Stoudemire, speaking at his basketball camp Tuesday, said he deserves a maximum contract and would like it to be with Phoenix, where he has played since he was drafted out of high school in 2002. The All-Star power forward said there was “no chance” he would exercise the final year of his contract with the Suns, which would pay him about $17 million.

Phoenix could give him more than any other team — a six-year deal worth about $127 million.

“We’ve got the fans excited about basketball again,” Stoudemire said. “So what I don’t want is for me to have to leave and the fans are now not quite as excited about the game here. I want to keep the hype, want to keep the fans involved, want to keep everybody ecstatic about the Phoenix Suns.”

Stoudemire, who helped the Suns reach the Western Conference finals, can become a free agent on July 1 but indicated he would like to have things settled with the Suns before then.

Asked if he would be a Sun if he was offered a maximum deal, Stoudemire said, “There’s a very great chance of that.”

Stoudemire said his agent, Happy Waters, would meet soon with Suns owner Robert Sarver and general manager Steve Kerr.

“My agent is doing a good job of keeping the line of communication open with Steve Kerr and Robert,” Stoudemire said. “Those guys became great friends, so I’ll just sit back and let them handle it. Once it comes down to a bottom line, that’s when I step in.”

Sarver has said he doesn’t mind spending the cash as long as he gets his money’s worth. Whether that means a full deal for Stoudemire, perhaps a shorter-term contract or nothing at all remains to be seen.

“That meeting’s going to tell a lot,” Stoudemire said.

Kerr did not return a message on his cell phone.

Stoudemire averaged 23.1 points and 8.9 rebounds last season and was especially effective after the Suns decided against trading him at the All-Star break. He averaged 21.2 points in the playoffs but only 6.6 rebounds.

There is concern by some that Stoudemire eventually will need another operation on his left knee, after he missed virtually all the 2005-06 season following microfracture surgery. He also was sidelined the final months of the 2008-09 season after surgery for a detached retina.

Stoudemire, with career averages of 21.4 points and 8.9 rebounds, cited the success the team has had in his eight seasons there.

“The most important factor of playing for an organization is to be able to be totally comfortable and give them 100 percent,” he said. “That’s what I’ve done my whole career, so it’s only right to look for a maximum contract. From the time that I was here we’ve done great. We’ve done great in the community, three Western Conference finals, we’ve been in the playoffs and won 60 games or so in several years.”

Stoudemire was confident there would be plenty of interest should be become a free agent. He mentioned the near-trade as evidence.

“Now there’s a chance to get me without giving up players,” he said. “I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a recruiting frenzy, but again it could not get to that point. You never know.”

By Seth Pollack – Regional Sports Editor

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Apr 18, 2011 - This weekend featured fantastic games in the opening round of the NBA playoffs. Of the eight games played there were no blowouts and three lower seeds pulled off a Game 1 upset. It would have been four upsets too if Derrick Rose hadn’t gone into Berserker Mode and ripped the still-beating hearts out of the Larry Bird’s Indiana Pacers with an insane performance not seen in Chicago since You Know Who.

It was fantastic stuff and a reminder of just how far the Phoenix Suns have to go.

While it’s always fun to think highly of the players wearing the laundry of your home team, an honest talent comparison with the playoff squads shows just how far the Suns are from being relevant again. 

Fortunately, the Suns front office isn’t delusional or dishonest about how bad their team is compared to those still playing (and frankly, compared to some of the younger teams as well such as the Kings, Clippers and Timberwolves). 

“I don’t think any of us deluded ourselves into thinking it was going to be a year like last year when we started, but we all believed we were a playoff team,” President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said at his end of season press conference.

“I think the outcome allows us to (look to see where we can get better) in a way that had we snuck into the playoffs we would have not been honest with ourselves about where this franchise is and where we need to go.”

Phew, good thing the Suns traded away Orlando’s first round draft pick to get Aaron Brooks so they could get over the hump and make the playoffs which would have caused said team to be dishonest with itself about how far two aging stars could carry an imbalanced squad full of role players.

The future is not bright because the past is dull

Forget about letting Amare Stoudemire walk or the ill-fated Shaquille O’Neal experiment, the Suns are in this position because of mistakes they made with draft picks years ago. 

Rajon Rondo could have been Steve Nash’s replacement. Serge Ibaka could be filling the power forward role. Rudy Fernandez, still on his rookie deal, could be providing a lot more bang for the buck than the approximately $11 million being paid to wing players Josh Childress and Mickael Pietrus. 

All those things are “ancient” history except now we also have to hope the Rockets strikeout with the low-20′s pick the Suns’ gifted them along with triple-double machine (slight exaggeration), Goran Dragic.

The only recent draft pick the team has left with any hope of contributing in the near future is second rounder Gani Lawal who tore his ACL this season. (Assuming the Suns have given up on Robin Lopez as most near the organization believe.) 

It’s going to take a combination of luck and the kind of creative skill and patience heretofore not seen by Robert Sarver’s franchise to return to glory. Even when the Sarver landed Nash in 2004 he already had the benefit of a core group young studs (Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson) to build around. No such core exists now.

No team is perfect and the Suns have had successes too. Channing Frye, Grant Hill and Jared Dudley certainly were positive moves made under Steve Kerr’s watch and keeping Steve Nash since 2004 has to count for something (especially considering all the other All-Stars the team has cycled through the revolving roster).

But recent history does not bode well for the future and that’s what really matters here. 

For example, in just six months last year this organization turned Leandro Barbosa (owed ~$14.7 million) into Hedo Turkoglu (owed ~$39 million). They then parlayed Hedo along with Jason Richardson’s expiring contract and the enigma known as Earl Clark into the right to pay Vince Carter and Pietrus a combined ~$32.1 million with the prize being Marcin Gortat.

Gortat is a guy the team touts as being a center in the tier below elite level which seems a bit on the optimistic side. But still, the reward at the end of all those moves is a guy who’s at best, not an elite player. Please take note of how many teams are in the playoffs featuring non-elite players at their core.

To recap, that’s $14.7 million owed LB plus JRich’s expiring deal into $32.1 million of wasted salary (Carter and Pietrus) all to get a non-elite player (Gortat) with a limited, but so far impressive, track record.

Brilliance like that doesn’t earn trust which is exactly what the newest front office (the fourth since 2006) needs more than ever from its fans. But as Babby said, “The proof is going to be in the pudding and the pudding is still cooking.”

Indeed the pudding is still cooking and probably the best we can hope for now is patience. That commodity has been in shortest supply by the transactionally oriented owner.

Add to all this the prospect of an extended lockout starting July 1 and pro (mens’) basketball in Phoenix is set to drop way off the sporting radar. Barring some kind of negotiation miracle, it might be well into 2012 before we even see the Suns play again and it will certainly take a different kind of miracle for the team to be back in the mix of NBA contenders. 

Forget contending, let’s just hope the next series of moves reverse the trend and start things going in the right direction. That would be some yummy pudding even if it’s not fully coooked.

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The Phoenix Suns fell short of making the playoffs this season, and there is some belief that guard Steve Nash(notes) won’t return to the Suns next season, according to ESPN.

Nash thinks he’ll be back, however. “I’m not approaching it [as if it's my last game in Phoenix] at all,” Nash said to the site before the Suns’ final game of the season Wednesday. “I have no reason to believe that I won’t be here next year. [Playing somewhere else is] something I really haven’t even thought about.”

However, multiple sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that questions in the Suns’ locker room about “what’s going to happen with Steve,” as one source described it, have been frequent as the season wound down.

The two-time league MVP and seven-time All-Star finished the season averaging 14.7 points, 11.4 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Let the rumors come to you. Follow Scoop du Jour on Twitter or Facebook.

Source: ESPN

Related: Phoenix Suns

Marcin Gortat had 21 points and 13 rebounds, and the Phoenix Suns denied San Antonio a chance for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs with a 106-103 victory over the Spurs in their regular-season finale on Wednesday night.

The Spurs, who at 61-21 finished a game behind Chicago for the best record in the NBA, lost Manu Ginobili to a hyperextended right elbow early in the game.

Had San Antonio and the Bulls finished tied and faced each other in the NBA finals, home-court advantage would have been determined by a random drawing because all other tiebreakers were equal.

Of greater concern to San Antonio could be the health of Ginobili, who went down with 9:46 left in the first quarter. The star guard slid to the floor near the San Antonio free throw line, then the Suns’ Grant Hill fell on top of him.

X-rays for a more serious injury were negative. An MRI was planned on Thursday.

With Memphis’ loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Spurs play the Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs.

Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker sat out the Spurs’ 102-93 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles on Tuesday but all three were in the starting lineup against Phoenix. Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes. Parker scored 12 on 4 of 12 shooting in 25 minutes. Neither were on the court when the game ended.

Channing Frye and Jared Dudley scored 17 apiece for the Suns, who avoided a four-game sweep of the season series.

Phoenix failed to make the playoffs for the second time in three years after a surprise run to the Western Conference finals a year ago, which included a second-round sweep of San Antonio.

The Suns shot out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter Wednesday night and the Spurs never could catch them.

After shooting 65 percent in the first 12 minutes (17 of 26), the Suns made 20 percent (5 of 25) in the second to lead 61-53 at the break.

San Antonio cut the lead to 66-63 on Parker’s short jumper three minutes into the second half, but an 11-1 Phoenix run made it 77-64 when Dudley made a pair of free throws with 5:01 to play in the period.

Down 85-74 after three, the Spurs came back to make it a free throw shootout down the stretch. Aaron Brooks sank two from the line to put Phoenix ahead 106-103 with 3.9 seconds to go. Gary Neal threw up an airball from the corner for San Antonio just before the buzzer.

Notes: Hill became the seventh player in NBA history to average at least 13 points at age 38 or older. … Ginobili missed two games this season, only one because of injury: March 28 against Portland because of a bruised left quad. … Phoenix’s Steve Nash led the NBA in assists for the fifth time, joining John Stockton and Jason Kidd as the only players to do so. … San Antonio had the best record in the West for the sixth time in franchise history – five of them with Duncan. … The Suns won 40 games for the seventh straight season.