Suns biggest surprise to Kerr is the rebounding

PHOENIX - The Phoenix Suns are a surprising 10-2 on the season - with both losses coming to the defending conference champions on the back end of back-to-backs.

The Suns' general manager Steve Kerr joined Sports 620 KTAR's Doug & Wolf on Wednesday morning for his weekly visit and discussed why and how the Suns being so successful through the first three weeks of the season.

In winning 10 of your 12 first games the team has to be doing many things right while doing a few things excellent.

One of the Suns biggest concerns going into the season was rebounding. Through 12 games the Suns have averaged 43.3 rebounds per game while the opponents have averaged 41.3.

Kerr is pleasantly surprised with how many guys have hit the boards.

Sports 620 KTAR's Ron Wolfley asked him directly, "After the first 12 games what do you look at and say 'I never saw that coming."

"I would say the rebounding," Kerr said. "After the preseason when we were just getting pounded [on the glass] we were really concerned and we were wondering if we had the right lineup with Channing [Frye] and Amare [Stoudemire] we were thinking maybe we have to get a rebounder in the starting lineup and bring Channing off the bench and we were really concerned and here we are more than holding our own 12 games in.

"When you can rebound then you have a chance, especially when you are as good as we are offensively."

Amare Stoudemire leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per game with Grant Hill close behind at 7.7.

Starters Jason Richardson and Channing Frye are both averaging more than five boards per game.

Much praise goes to coach Alvin Gentry as he has mixed and matched different lineups throughout a game and is using the bench players in roles where they will succeed.

"[Gentry] has been phenomenal, everything he's done has been pretty much right," Kerr said when asked how much responsibility he puts on coach Gentry for starting 10-2. "I think what happened last year when he took over is he really coached fearlessly, he just said look I'm going to play these young guys and if they fail they fail but I'm going to give them a chance and I'm going to coach how I want to coach and I thought that was perfect."

Another aspect of basketball that goes hand in hand with rebounding is toughness.

Kerr sees a stronger team and a team that will battle with other teams down the stretch when they need to.

"That's probably the most exciting thing about the way we have started - our toughness," Kerr said. "It's something we have lacked here the last few years ... we've always been able to outrun people but in these grind out games like [Tuesday] night we always have had a hard time standing up to teams physically."

Kerr attributes the toughness of the team to their bench - mainly Jared Dudley, Lou Amundson, and Jarron Collins.

Gentry is not afraid to use the bench at anytime - including in the waning seconds of a tight ballgame.

The Suns bench production is the best it has been in the past six seasons. Going into the week the bench was averaging 33.6 points per game - a little less than a third of the teams overall scoring.

While talking with Doug & Wolf a new slogan was brought up that would fit the Suns and Kerr agreed.

Doug asked Kerr if it was safe to say 'Seven seconds or three' about this season after saying 'Seven Seconds or Less' in the past and 'Seven Seconds or Shaq' last year.

"Yeah, I think that's going to be accurate," Kerr said. "We're going to shoot a lot of three's and I've said pretty consistently this year we're going to have to make three's and rebound to win."

The Suns are shooting nearly 44% as a team from beyond the arc - second in the NBA behind Cleveland.

The big man Frye leads the team at 46% and he has taken the most deep shots - 76 - while also making the most - 35.

The interview can be heard in its entirety here.