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The regular season doesn't start until October 31st for the Phoenix Suns, but the itch for professional basketball ends on October 10th in the Valley. It isn't as exciting as regular season basketball, but definitely beats Summer League basketball by mile.
Life without Steve Nash and Grant Hill begins on October 10th as well. The transition to Goran Dragic as the heir apparent to Nash begins this season. It will be a tough transition at times, but the pre-season is the perfect time to work out the kinks and build chemistry. Or at the very least a familiarity and flow.
This year the Suns kick off their pre-season schedule with a trip to the Sacramento Kings and round out the seven preliminary games on ESPN against the Denver Nuggets.
Here is the schedule as announced by the team today:
|
Date (National TV) |
Opponent |
Phoenix Time |
|
Wed, October 10th |
@ Sacramento Kings |
7 p.m. |
|
Fri, October 12th |
Portland Trailblazers |
7 p.m. |
|
Wed, October 17th |
5:30 p.m. |
|
|
Fri, October 19th |
5 p.m. |
|
|
Mon, October 22nd |
Sacramento Kings |
7 p.m. |
|
Tues, October 23rd |
7:30 p.m. |
|
|
Fri, October 26th (ESPN) |
Denver Nuggets |
7:30 p.m. |
It should be exciting basketball as the players will basically be auditioning for their roles in the regular season. The Suns have the luxery of facing a few other teams that in the same transition phase as them including Portland, Dallas, and Denver. They also get a preview of two young, talented teams in their own division in Sacramento and Golden State.
Have the Kings or Warriors eclipsed the Suns out west?
One thing is for sure the Suns have a ton of questions and hopefully these seven warm-up games are enough for Alvin Gentry to figure out the answers to a few of them.
You can get more Suns coverage at Bright Side of the Sun.
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