By BOB BAUM
AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX (AP) -- How many small forwards does it take to replace a five-time All-Star power forward?
That's the equation the Phoenix Suns are trying to figure out following the departure of Amare Stoudemire, and Steve Nash acknowledged that it's a tall order to expect this undersized team to repeat as a contender in the West.
"We have a lot to overcome," he said. "This is a league that when you get to the end you've got to have a certain amount of size. I'm not sure we have it. I'm optimistic because we have good players and good guys but we definitely are an imperfect roster in many ways. We're just going to try to overcome it with our chemistry, our togetherness and our hunger."
That worked last season, when the Suns undoubtedly were better than the sum of their parts. A team expected to be fortunate to make the playoffs wound up winning 54 regular-season games and sweeping longtime nemesis San Antonio in the playoffs before losing in six games to the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
That, though, was with Stoudemire. The muscular, 6-foot-10 power forward is gone to the New York Knicks, leaving Phoenix to replace his 23.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Nash no longer will have his partner in what may have been the league's most effective pick-and-roll.
"We're a pick-and-roll team, so we're going to be running the pick and roll with everyone," coach Alvin Gentry said. "We're not thinking that anyone is going to be what Amare was, but Amare's not here anymore."
The Suns brought in 6-foot-10 Hedo Turkoglu, 6-9 Hakim Warrick and 6-8 Josh Childress -- all more suited to perimeter play than to the bruising fights beneath the basket. Childress starts the season on the sidelines with a broken index finger.
Only one true "big" man is on the roster, 7-footer Robin Lopez.
"He'll have to have a bigger role if you look at our team and the inside scoring that we have to have," Gentry said. "He's going to have to step up and have a big role."
The Suns and their up-tempo style still should be entertaining and high scoring, but that might not be enough in the West, where the Lakers reign, Oklahoma City and Portland are on the rise, San Antonio and Utah still lurk and Yao Ming is back in Houston.
"You can go on and on," Gentry said.
As the season begins, the team will start Turkoglu at power forward. Elated to be out of an unhappy situation in Toronto, he has no trouble relinquishing the primary ball-handling duties to Nash. He also seems willing to give it his best at power forward but acknowledges that trying to mix it up with stronger, bigger players inside is something new to him.
The preseason was not pretty for the Suns, and Gentry said it would take time to work out a rotation and for the new players to get comfortable with their roles.
"We're going to have to work our way into this," Gentry said. "Do we anticipate winning? Yeah, that's our attitude all the time. Do we talk about winning? No, not really. We talk about performing at the level we're supposed to and playing the best basketball we can."
Turkoglu is the only new starter, with Lopez the center, Grant Hill back at small forward and Jason Richardson starting alongside Nash in the backcourt.
A year ago, Gentry was able to use five reserves in what became an effective, high-energy unit that often brought the team from behind or built a big lead.
Goran Dragic, Channing Frye and Jared Dudley are back from that group.
Whether the togetherness and unselfishness of last year's Suns can be duplicated is a major uncertainty.
"You just happened to have one of those magical seasons where the roles were well-defined and they fit and the guys accepted those right away," Gentry said. "Because of that, we went through a great stretch, a really bad stretch and a great stretch again. I think, in order to do that, you've got to have good chemistry so you don't have cliques forming and then people all of a sudden abandoning ship."
