PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns today announced the club’s regular season schedule for its 44^th NBA season, which will tip-off Nov. 2 at US Airways Center against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Suns open the 2011-12 campaign with three-straight games against Western Conference rivals, all three of which were playoff teams a season ago.  Phoenix follows its opening night contest against the Thunder with a Friday night tilt against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 4, and then hosts the Portland Trail Blazers on Sun., Nov. 6 to complete its opening week.  All told, Phoenix will play 12 of its first 17 games against 2010-11 playoff squads.

The Suns follow their opening homestand with a season-long six-game road trip from Nov. 8-16 that will take the club to Memphis, Minnesota, Indiana, Milwaukee, Detroit and Toronto.  Phoenix’s schedule includes five road trips of four games or more (Jan. 17-22, Feb. 11-17, March 20-25, April 9-14). 

The Suns’ 41-game home slate includes a balanced weekend to week schedule with 23 weekend games.  Phoenix will play nine home games on Friday, five on Saturday, and nine on Sunday.  The home schedule also includes a season-long nine-game homestand from March 2-18, which includes the second and final visit from the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks, and the season’s lone visit from the Boston Celtics. 

The Suns’ 13 total national television dates include eight appearances on ESPN, two on TNT, and three on NBA TV.  The national television slate consists of some of the league’s top teams, including the Lakers (Feb. 17), Mavericks (March 8), Celtics (Jan. 20, March 12), Chicago Bulls (Nov. 18) and Orlando Magic (Dec. 9).    

Phoenix will conclude the season by playing 12 of its final 17 games on the road.  The Suns will also play 15 back-to-back sets overall, one fewer than 2010-11.

Even though the 2011-12 NBA season is in jeopardy due to the current NBA lockout, the schedule for the season has been released today. In case the lockout is settled, the Phoenix Suns will begin the regular season with a three-game homestand against the Oklahoma City Thunder (11/2), Los Angeles Lakers (11/4), and the Portland Trail Blazers (11/6).

Think that’s bad? The Suns would then head to the midwest for a six-game road trip, with several tough road tilts to deal with including Memphis, Indiana, Detroit and Toronto.

Should Phoenix have the opportunity to take the court this season, they will have ten nationally televised games (eight on ESPN, two on TNT).

Does any of this matter? With Jared Dudley saying the likelihood of a deal is a long ways off, the NBA might just be pandering at this point.

By releasing a schedule for the upcoming season, the owners are placing an urgency on the players to acquiesce to their demands. Their theory could be that fans will grow impatient with the season coming up and the games still in question.

Has that changed the way the NFL has gone about their process? Not really. The NFL’s schedule has been out for months yet the players are still locked out. Unlike the NFL, though, no one really expects the NBA to play in 2011-12. 

Suns swingman Mickael Pietrus will undergo minor right knee surgery Tuesday, and as a result will not follow through with plans to play for France in the European Championship starting Aug. 31.

---

Profile: Mickael Pietrus

---

Pietrus missed the final 12 games of the season because of a quadriceps-tendon strain near the same knee, an issue that seemed to start when he landed after an attempted blocked shot on March 23. Pietrus’ agent, Bill McCandless, said Pietrus was mentioning discomfort with the knee before he was traded from Orlando in December. At his recent camp in Guadeloupe, friends were telling McCandless that Pietrus was not moving well.

“I’m looking at it extremely positively,” McCandless said. “I know the player well and I sensed something wasn’t right. He’s not a complainer.”

Pietrus took a physical upon arrival for France’s camp, but the national team recommended he undergo surgery to remove loose cartilage. He is expected to be out of basketball action for four weeks.

“It just seems he has no choice right now,” McCandless said about the surgery. “Mickael said the physician couldn’t certify him to play with the national team.”

Pietrus has opted not to rejoin the national team, which he last played for in 2006 and is trying to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. He likely would have backed up Nicolas Batum of the Portland Trail Blazers.

McCandless said Pietrus also had a contract offer to play for a Turkish pro team this fall, but had not made a decision. Last month, he exercised a player option that kept him under contract with Phoenix for next season at $5.3 million.

The Suns are prohibited from commenting on Pietrus during the labor lockout between owners and players, but McCandless informed Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby of the surgery plans.

Elston Turner has spent the past six seasons as lead assistant to coach Rick Adelman. (Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Phoenix Suns have hired Elston Turner as a defensive specialist on coach Alvin Gentry’s staff.

The move was announced Thursday.

The 52-year-old Turner has spent the past six seasons as lead assistant to coach Rick Adelman, the last four years in Houston and two in Sacramento. In all, Turner has 14 years experience as an NBA assistant, beginning with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996.

Turner played eight seasons in the NBA with Dallas, Denver and Chicago. He will work to improve a Suns team that ranked 25th in the NBA last season in opponents’ field goal percentage.