Boy, this would be a fun game to watch. A ton of young and new Suns players facing DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans and all their buddies, led by Suns legend Paul Westphal.
Unfortunately, the game won't be broadcast on TV, so we will have to wait and see what the box score tells us.
Being the first preseason game, you normally wouldn't expect much and by all means the score should be ignored. But this preseason has additional importance for the Suns, who have a lot of work to do before getting ready for the 2010-11 NBA season schedule to kickoff on October 26 in Portland.
Here's a list of goals for the Suns in the preseason:
1) The starting lineup probably won't play a ton together, but they need to work hard on incorporating Hedo Turkoglu into a group that was very comfortable playing with Amare Stoudemire. It goes without saying that Hedo is a much different player than Amare and the starting five have a lot of work to do before they are working together. This could take several months to fully accomplish.
The tendency might be to limit Nash's and Hill's minutes or even sit them for preseason games, but that's not an option this year. The starters need court time together, so I would expect to see them all play around 25 minutes.
2) The Suns' second unit is extremely strong and Alvin Gentry will need to experiment with all kinds of combinations of lineups mixing and matching his top ten players. Is Warrick better on the floor with Lopez or Frye? Can Dudley, Childress and Turkoglu play together? These are the kinds of questions and there are at least 10 possible combinations that Gentry will want to see together.
3) Getting the young guys like Earl Clark and Dwayne Jones enough minutes to see how they've developed in the offseason and figure out what kind of role they are ready to play.
4) Evaluating the end of the bench guys who are competing for a few open spots. It will be very difficult for Matt Janning, Zabian Dowdell and Chucky Atkins to all get significant time and Garret Siler might not be ready for the NBA, but the only way to really find out is to play him.
Staying healthy is always a preseason goal for any team, as well.
For more Suns preseason discussion, visit Bright Side of the Sun.