With Alvin Gentry entering his third full season as Suns coach, the team will keep pushing a fierce tempo. Scoring points has never been a problem for Phoenix. Stopping the opponent from scoring has.

Gentry has long preached the need for better defense. Now he’s added assistant coach Elston Turner to specifically address that aspect of the game.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be the Chicago Bulls or the Boston Celtics or the San Antonio Spurs,” Gentry said, “but I don’t think those teams will ever beat us offensively.

“What we have to do is continue what we do offensively but we have to know what we’re going to get night in and night out defensively.”

With a lineup that features the 37-year-old Nash and 39-year-old Grant Hill, the Suns hope to rely on improved depth to cut down the minutes for everyone in a compacted 66-game season.

“The one thing that we’ve done around here is we’ve always tried to play nine or 10 guys,” Gentry said. “I think it’s going to be important this year that you have a deep bench because you have certain situations where you’re playing five games in seven nights or six games in nine nights, where it’s going to be really important to have depth where you’re not burning guys out.”

The Suns signed three free agents — shooting guard Shannon Brown and point guards Sebastian Telfair and Ronnie Price. They also are expecting help from first-round draft pick Markieff Morris, a 6-foot-10 power forward from Kansas. They join a reserve corps that already includes Josh Childress, Robin Lopez and Hakim Warrick.

A major area of potential improvement is at center, where Marcin Gortat will have more time to work on what already is an effective pick and roll with Nash, who despite the team’s issues a year ago still led the league in assists at 11.4 per game.

Gortat was the centerpiece for Phoenix in the blockbuster trade with Orlando less than halfway into last season. Escaping from the considerable shadow of Dwight Howard, the 6-foot-11, 240-pound Polish center averaged 13 points and 9.3 rebounds in 55 games with the Suns.

Phoenix also is hoping to benefit from what appears to be a rejuvenated Lopez. The 7-footer is coming off a subpar season that followed a strong showing in the Suns’ surprise run to the Western Conference finals two years ago.

Jared Dudley, for now, is the starting two-guard with the athletic Brown coming off the bench. Channing Frye, Dudley and Nash will provide the outside shooting power, while the ageless Hill, who spurned offers from more obvious contenders to return to Phoenix, again will draw the toughest defensive assignments.

But this, as always, is Nash’s team. He enters his 16th NBA season, the last eight with the Suns. This is the final year of his contract. Suns President Lon Babby said he wants Nash to retire as a Sun, but the team isn’t in position to give him a new contract until after the coming season.

“We’re trying to be disciplined and stick with our overall plan, which is to remain as competitive as we can be and at the same time put ourselves in a position of flexibility beginning next summer,” Babby said. “That doesn’t mean everything is going to get accomplished next summer or the summer after that or that we don’t have high expectations for this year, but I think you have to have an overall plan and an overall strategy, and then the details unfold.”

Babby knows that speculation about Nash being traded is inevitable.

“We want him to stay here as long as he wants to be here,” Babby said, “and we want to have him go into the Hall of Fame as a Phoenix Sun and the (Suns) Ring of Honor as a Phoenix Sun. On some level, I’ve communicated that to him. It’s really going to be his decision, together with us I suppose, but that opportunity is there for him. That’s the right thing for our franchise.”

Babby said he thinks Nash “understands where we are.”

“We’re kind of at the end of one cycle and starting another cycle and we want him to help us return to elite status with the contributions he can make over the next period of time,” Babby said. “What I want to try to avoid, and I think I’ve communicated to him, is to not let it be a distraction.”

Nash said he isn’t looking beyond this season.

“I’m not really thinking about it,” he said. “I just want to try to make this team into a playoff team. At this stage of my career, I’m not thinking about tomorrow. I’m just thinking about today.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

In the Suns’ backyard, defense has been the spot where little will grow.

The coaches plant the seeds each training camp, but the soil never has been rich enough in defenders or received enough nurturing to blossom.

The Suns’ propensity for scoring points has been offset by the ease in which they surrender them. Last season, the Suns yielded the sixth-highest opponent field-goal percentage (47.2) and missed the playoffs. The annual lip service about addressing defense ensued, but there was more action this time.

The Suns hired Elston Turner to be more than another assistant coach. He is the lead assistant, defensive coordinator and leader of defensive segments at each practice.

“Hearing his approach to guarding various situations and overall philosophy certainly makes a lot of sense,” said Suns forward Grant Hill, the team’s most-respected defender. “It simplifies things. Much to the coaching staff’s credit, it’s been emphasized and worked on. It’s something you have to drill and talk about every day. I’m sure we’ll watch film every day. But I like it. I like the points of emphasis. It seems as though you’re only really defending a handful of situations.”

Turner’s points of emphasis do not stray from what always has been emphasized — protect the paint and make opponents shoot over the defense. His tactics to do so have worked at high levels during his 14 years as a NBA assistant. His 2002-03 Sacramento team led the league in defensive field-goal percentage, and two of his Houston teams ranked second and fourth, although Houston slipped to 17th and 18th the past two seasons without Yao Ming protecting the rim.

Turner wants to keep opponents off the free-throw and 3-point lines and, like coach Alvin Gentry, believes the team’s 29th-ranked defensive rebounding and 14 turnovers per game hurt the defense as much as anything. Offensive boards make for easy putbacks. Open-court turnovers lead to layups and dunks.

“The things I’m presenting works, as long as you have the players,” Turner said. “We have some guys with the ingredients. That is length and athleticism.”

Turner and Gentry will institute a defensive grading system. The system’s baseline was established when they went through each of last season’s games to grade each player.

“It’s going to be a change for the guys, because this stuff is not easy,” Turner said. “Scoring is fun. Playing defense is hard. There may be some resistance there, but I’m up for the challenge.”

Turner was known as a player who could stop wings during eight NBA seasons, and that has carried over to his coaching career. He was a finalist for the Suns’ head-coaching job in 2008 when the Suns hired Terry Porter. Porter retained Gentry, who later replaced him and picked Turner this summer for his defensive acumen and a personality that fits with returning staff.

“He changed my mind on some things, as far as being overly aggressive and getting ourselves out of position,” Gentry said. “He’s a little bit more of a conservative guy, as far as protecting the basket and the paint area.”

There also is only so much Turner can teach. He commends Steve Nash for superior effort but acknowledges his liabilities, starting with size.

“I’m going to line up guys behind him to protect him,” Turner said. “He knows team defense. He’s going to plug areas and be in the right spots. When it comes to staying in front of a (Russell) Westbrook or a (Derrick) Rose, who does?”

The Suns contend that getting to the middle of the pack defensively would make for more wins when combined with their usual elite offense. But you have heard that before, like politicians’ empty pledges to balance a budget.

“You have to be physical,” Turner said. “You have to have a big heart. You have to compete. There’s not a lot of skill in that. Knock somebody on their (butt) and go after the basketball. We have to be just a little tougher.”

For all the compliments Markieff Morris received after the Suns drafted him in June, the best one he has received might be in the form of interest from Athens.

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Profile: Markieff Morris

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European clubs are built with veteran players who are well-versed in team basketball and drilled in fundamentals. It is rare that any team, particularly a Euroleague power, reaches out to an American rookie but Panathinaikos is pursuing Morris to fill a power forward void.

Morris’ agent, Tony Dutt, said talks with Panathinaikos are “moving along” but nothing is imminent. Dutt said he would pursue an out clause so that Morris could return to the Suns if the lockout ends. It is not clear whether Panathinaikos, the Euroleague’s defending champion, would be willing to risk a midseason personnel loss to do that.

It is an interesting situation for Morris, who has yet to cash in on endorsements and could play for one of Europe’s most regarded coaches, Zeljko Obradovic. Former Arizona State player Mike Batiste has played for Panathinaikos since 2003. Panathinaikos has won the Euroleague title in three of the past five seasons.

Dutt said Morris returned to Kansas to train but soon will work out with former NBA player Pooh Richardson. Dutt also has asked a former client, Shawn Kemp, to play with Morris this summer.

Charity work

The Suns will give $1.3 million in grants to 178 charities in a ceremony Tuesday at US Airways Center.

Improving Chandler Area Neighborhoods (ICAN) will receive Phoenix Suns Charities’ $100,000 Playmaker Award to help build a basketball court for kids.

The Phoenix Suns are inviting fans of all ages to take their
shot on the main court at US Airways Center, when the club hosts
“Suns Operation Orange Shoot-around at US Airways Center” from 5 to
8 p.m. July 22.

Admission is free. The event will offer fans an opportunity to
shoot baskets on the main court at US Airways Center. In addition,
participants of all ages will have a chance to compete in a variety
of basketball skills competitions, including 3-point and free throw
contests along with a skills competition. Prizes will be awarded
within each age group.

Members of the Suns Dancers, APS Solar Squad and Verve Sol
Patrol will be on hand to interact with fans. For younger
participants, the Suns will have two adjustable hoops and an
inflatable slide in the lower bowl of the arena. In addition, the
APS Gorilla’s Greenhouse will be open for free-play throughout the
event.

Operation Orange is the new outreach campaign giving fans an
opportunity to interact with the Phoenix Suns and the community
through family-friendly events, activities, social media campaigns
and charitable causes. Fans are encouraged to log onto
suns.com/orange for Operation Orange updates and events throughout
the summer.

 

 

If phrases such as “no question” and “no doubt” popped up about the Suns’ defense in recent years, they were part of opponents’ thoughts on being able to score on them.

With Elston Turner on board, those are the words he uses in exuding confidence about how the Suns’ defense and rebounding will improve, how center Marcin Gortat can be their lane protector and how Steve Nash can be a “great team defender.”

Turner agreed to a two-year contract to be the Suns’ “defensive coordinator,” an assistant-coaching position being added to a full staff to improve last season’s defense, which was ranked 26th in the NBA last year, and league-worst rebounding.

With full empowerment to lay out a strategy, Turner has some film to study. But it is clear the annual goal to improve the defense has teeth this time, with a commitment to 40-minute defensive sessions to be run by Turner during each practice.

“The emphasis is going to have a tremendous increase,” Turner said. “It’s something that is going to be constant, and we’re going to get better.”

Turner, a 14-year NBA assistant, held similar responsibility for Rick Adelman’s teams in Sacramento and Houston for 10 years. Houston was not far ahead of Phoenix last season in opponent field-goal percentage (22nd) but finished second and fifth in 2007-08 and 2008-09, when it had Yao Ming playing (with Dikembe Mutombo behind him), Shane Battier and Ron Artest.

On offense, Turner said Houston had one main plan against the Suns.

“We would always attack them and attack the rim,” Turner said. “We didn’t think there was a great rim presence there. Stay aggressive. Crash the boards. When you flip that, we need better rim protection and rebounding. Those are blanket categories that must improve and are going to improve.”

Turner said Gortat can be a defensive and rebounding force and added that Nash is not so different from most point guards in that he needs help to stay in front of quick point guards.

“You can’t single out Nash, because of his age, and say, ‘Stay in front of the quickest guys in the league,’ ” Turner said. “(Backup point guard) Aaron Brooks will have trouble staying in front of most guys. The whole thing is based upon help. Some need it more than others.

“Steve has knowledge. He has vision. I can tell how he passes the ball that he can see plays before they happen, and a lot of that is defensive instincts. I’m expecting him to be a great team defender, plugging holes, seeing plays and helping. There’s no doubt in my mind he can be a fantastic team defender and hold his own solo.”

Turner was nearly the Suns’ head-coaching choice in 2008 when Terry Porter was hired and has been interviewed for head-coaching jobs in Minnesota, Sacramento, Philadelphia and Chicago. He was out of work this summer after Houston fired Adelman. Turner’s easygoing way was ideal to integrate with an existing staff.

“I’ll meet with Alvin (Gentry) and come up with Plan A, Plan B and Plan C,” Turner said. “We’ll be ready when the time comes, no question.”

If he goes, O’Neal retires fifth all-time with 28,596 points, 12th with 13,099 rebounds and second only to Artis Gilmore among players with more than 2,000 baskets with a .582 field goal percentage.

O’Neal’s contributions to basketball went far beyond his presence on the court.

One of the most charismatic players in NBA history, O’Neal was a franchise-saver when the Orlando Magic made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 draft. He took them from the lottery to the playoffs in two years, and then led them to the NBA finals in his third year before they were swept by the Houston Rockets.

O’Neal, 39, signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996 and had his greatest success there, winning three titles alongside Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson. But amid tension between O’Neal and Bryant over credit for the team’s success, O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004, fresh off a loss to the Detroit Pistons in the finals.

After 3½ years in Miami, a tenure that included his fourth NBA championship, O’Neal became a veteran-for-hire, moving to Phoenix and then Cleveland and finally Boston. But he couldn’t deliver another title for Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire with the Suns, with LeBron James with the Cavaliers or with the Celtics’ Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

At each stop, he endeared himself to the fans and his new teammates with his effervescent smile and playful attitude, including the habit of adopting a new nickname that he felt embodied his role with his new team. In Phoenix he was the “Big Shaqtus”; in Boston, the “Big Shamroq.”

He also embraced social networking, amassing almost 4 million followers on his Twitter account, where fans could find out his next move or even the “random acts of Shaqness” — like sitting in Harvard Square, pretending to be a statue, or going out in drag on Halloween.

But O’Neal’s off-court persona couldn’t disguise the fact that he was getting old, and while he showed he could still play with younger opponents he couldn’t manage to stay on the court with them. He missed a week in November with a bruised right knee, a week in December with a calf injury and another in January with a sore right hip.

He returned for three games — a total of about 34 minutes — before missing the next 27 games with what the team called a sore right leg. Although the injury was originally expected to keep him out just a few games, his absence stretched to more than two months.

He returned to play in one more regular-season game but lasted just 5 minutes, 29 seconds before reinjuring the leg and limping off the court. He missed Boston’s entire first-round series against the New York Knicks and made two appearances against Miami, a total of 12 minutes, and scored two points.

In all, O’Neal averaged just 9.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 20.3 minutes this season while playing in 37 games — all career lows.

Anxiety fills Planet Orange. The Suns are run by a banker, a former agent and a general manager who prefers to hide in the background. The franchise is perilously low on credibility and pedigree.

So why is Alvin Gentry in such a good mood?

“I definitely think there is a plan in place,” the Suns’ coach said. “I’ve never felt more confident that there was a plan in place. Lance (Blanks) and Lon (Babby), I have the utmost confidence in those guys.”

For a coach who missed the NBA’s postseason and was forced to watch every playoff game from his couch, Gentry’s optimism is surprising. He won’t go into specifics, but he has been encouraged by the depth and detail of recent meetings.

Unlike most fans, he is not stewing over what might’ve been had the team kept Amar’e Stoudemire, especially because the Lakers’ championship run is just about over.

“We have a chance to be pretty darned good,” Gentry said. “The first 20 games last year, we were awful. The next 20, we were as good as anyone in the league. Then we had too much fluctuation.

“But this is the first time we’ve been able to sit down and talk extensively about the team, where we’re going and what we need to add. And I’m very confident, I will say that.”

The Suns have some issues. They need a shooting guard who can create his chances, bailing out the offense when necessary. They need a legitimate hefty power forward alongside Marcin Gortat. With all due respect to Channing Frye and his remarkable growth spurt last season, the Suns won’t be a championship-caliber team until he returns to the bench.

Alas, all these years later, the team still needs a defensive upgrade, a point that Blanks has made clear to Gentry while assessing the wreckage from last season. Their relationship is worth watching.

By all standards, Gentry is an excellent coach, especially when blessed with talent. He sets the right tone, communicates with players and is unafraid to bench his starters. He coaches fearlessly, as he promised when he took the job, and earned much credit for the magical run to the Western Conference Finals in 2010.

Still, he was promoted by the previous general manager. He was not hired by Blanks or Babby. He surely will feel some pressure to perform next season.

“I feel comfortable,” said Gentry, who has two years left on his contract. “Lance and I have talked a lot. Obviously, there are things defensively that we have to get better at, and I understand where he’s coming from as far as that situation. We have to come up with stops and do it consistently.

“We made a big jump (in 2009-10). We were the 11th-best team in the league in defensive field-goal percentage. We have to get back to the middle of the pack, at least.”

More than anything, the Suns need stability. During the rocky tenure of owner Robert Sarver, they have plowed through players, blueprints and general managers. After missing the playoffs for a second time in the past three seasons, more changes are coming.

Grant Hill is a free agent. Steve Nash’s contract expires after next season and represents a huge dilemma/opportunity for the Suns. And at some point, the team has to figure out how to grow or when to deal Robin Lopez.

“We’ll spend a lot of time with Robin this summer,” Gentry said. “We gave him some time off, but we’re getting back with him soon. I thought he was on the right track two seasons ago, and this past season was just one of those years where things didn’t go right for him. We have to exhaust every avenue there.”

Yet once next season’s team is assembled, it must be for the semi-long haul. The revolving-door policy is not conducive to winning. It minimizes Nash’s remarkable team-building skills, wasting the end of a Hall of Fame career. It puts unnecessary strain on the coaches who invest a lot of time in these players. And it’s not fair to the fans who would like to see their team pick a plan and stick with it for a few years.

“All the teams that have done well have maintained a core and not had a lot of changes,” Gentry said.

After seeing what they’re missing in a wide-open playoff race, let’s hope the Suns have learned the hard way.

Reach Bickley at dan.bickley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8253. Read his online column at bickley.azcentral.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/danbickley. Listen to “Bickley and MJ” 2-6 p.m. weekdays on KGME-AM (910).