Lopez's injury creates big opportunity for Suns' Frye

In one of the relaxed post-practice moments of October, before the season starts and getting bullied doesn't seem as humorous, Suns coach Alvin Gentry glanced to his right and nodded in the direction of assistant Bill Cartwright.

"We already told Bill," Gentry said.

John Shumate and Mark West too.

"We told Bill and we told Shu and we told Mark West they better get on the treadmill right away," Gentry said, "because there is an opportunity they don't want to have to pass by."

Gentry was kidding.

Probably.

Shaquille O'Neal got traded and Robin Lopez got hurt and so Phoenix unexpectedly turns to Channing Frye as the opening-night starting center, followed off the bench by... ummmm... well....

Maybe Gentry wasn't kidding after all. The Suns have depth there, all right, it's just that the cavalry is Cartwright at age 50, assistant coach Shumate (57), vice president of player programs West (a couple weeks shy of 49) and VP of facility management Alvan Adams (55). A lot more than an opportunity has passed them by.

What would have been a challenging transition time anyway, with Lopez becoming a starter after averaging only 10.2 minutes last season as a rookie, has become an All-Hands-on-Deck situation. The 7-footer from Stanford broke his left foot in an Oct. 3 scrimmage, underwent surgery three days later to insert a screw to help the healing, and is scheduled to be out until late-November or early-December, leaving Frye as the only true center not on the bench or in management.

The comforting fallback is that they have Amar'e Stoudemire, but only when he's not at power forward and also not as an answer for defense or post offense. And, these are the Suns returning to the popular speed game of the Mike D'Antoni days, rendering any traditional center a relic. They might have gone small a lot anyway, by preference and not necessity.

"If we establish our tempo," Frye said, "I'll take myself every night. If we're running up and down the court, it's going to be tough for big guys to really pound me like that."

Phoenix was 18th in rebounding percentage last season, though, and that was with production by O'Neal (a team-high 8.4 boards a game in 30 minutes per), though it was also with Stoudemire at just 53 appearances. Now, until Lopez returns, the only Suns taller than 6-foot-9 are Frye (6-11), Stoudemire (6-10) and 6-foot-10 rookie Earl Clark, all 225 pounds of him.

"We'll find a way," said Gentry, in his first full season on the job after replacing Terry Porter in February and going 18-13 despite having Stoudemire for two games.

"We played with Boris (Diaw, 6-foot-8) at center and got to the Western Conference finals (in 2006). We've never had a really big guy in there until we got Shaq. We'll be a small team again, rebounding will be our Achilles' heel, but I'll tell you, we'll continue to just work extremely hard and play together and do the best we can."

Frye is a Phoenix native who split the previous four years with the Knicks and Trail Blazers, playing 11.8 minutes a game last season in Portland but spending a large portion of that time at center. Offensively, he is far ahead of Lopez, and has a perimeter game that can stretch defenses. Opponents driving the ball down their throats every possession, a good possibility even with the preferred lineup, is the obvious concern.

What would have been an interesting outcome either way comes with the added spotlight of the transition away from O'Neal. Can Lopez develop into something more than an energy player? Will Frye turn out to be one of the underrated free-agent signings of the summer? That it's in a season when the playoffs remain the priority, having just re-signed Grant Hill and extended Steve Nash's contract, compounds the importance.

"For me, it's just definitely establishing on the defensive end that I'm going to be there and be in the right spots," Frye said. "On the offensive end, it's just being able to hit that shot. If I take five shots in the first quarter, that (opposing) big guy is going to have to step up. The coach is going to yell at him or they're going to have to make a change early when they may not have wanted to."

It's down to the execution now, for at least about a month until Lopez returns and then even as the Suns are at full strength. A return to the playoffs hangs in the balance. They don't want to let the opportunity pass by.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.