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Phoenix Suns having hard time adjusting to many lineup changes

If the Suns are looking for consistent performances, the inconsistency in the starting five doesn't seem to be helping.

Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

At 12-22, the Phoenix Suns have struggled to find something that works this season. One of those issues includes a lot of shuffling in the lineup, Arizona Sports reports. Head coach Alvin Gentry continues to change around the starting five, with mixed results.

Starting P.J. Tucker in place of Shannon Brown is one change Gentry has explored. Brown, who has started 20 of Phoenix's 34 games, was replaced by Tucker in Phoenix's previous three games. The Suns went 1-2 over that stretch, beating the Philadelphia 76ers but losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Utah Jazz. Brown ranks well ahead of Tucker in efficiency, 10.18 to 6.69, though neither are spectacular.

The continuing changes have left some players off balance. Guard Sebastian Telfair, who has started just twice this year and is averaging 18.3 minutes per game, didn't show much enthusiasm for the decisions:

"It's just different, ya know. I'm not really used to the starting five switching up so often. I don't know, maybe just for how this team is....I'm not exactly sure. I don't know if it helps us or not but sometimes when you're not winning games, it seems that you gotta to switch it up and Coach has been doing that. He did that within the last couple of games and we got a win last game, so hopefully it works."

Phoenix may need to figure things out sooner rather than later. They came up short against the struggling Utah Jazz, and of their next seven games only one is against a team with a losing record.