Ten questions as Suns prepare for 2008-09 season

A lot has changed with the Phoenix Suns since we saw them last April, trudging off the court in San Antonio with a first-round playoff exit at the hands of their perennial nemesis.

The roster boasts five new players. The bench has four new coaches. The team's style of play is in for an overhaul, and the days of scoring 110 points and hoisting up three-pointers at will have come and gone.

Matt Barnes joins the rotation as a free agent. Goran Dragic, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard from Slovenia, and Robin Lopez give the Suns their first possible impact rookies since Amare Stoudemire. Terry Porter takes over for Mike D'Antoni and promises a tougher, scrappier team with more commitment on the defensive end.

But the top seven players from last season are back, including four who will be at least 32 years old (Raja Bell, Grant Hill, Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal). And while management says there is at least one good run left in the nucleus, basketball pundits are predicting anywhere from another first-round exit to missing the playoffs entirely for the first time since 2003-04.

Even the most ardent Suns fan has questions about this team. We tried to come up with the 10 most important, and tackle them all:

1. Will Steve Nash be rested more this year? Can the Suns do that with a rookie (Goran Dragic) as his backup and a tougher-than-ever Western Conference?

This is a desire the Suns have expressed for years but have never been able to do because (1) Nash has been so good and (2) the backups have been ill-suited for the job (Leandro Barbosa, Eddie House) or just plan awful (Marcus Banks). But Nash will be 35 in February and was obviously exhausted before the playoffs last year, so now it has become a necessity.

In July, general manager Steve Kerr expressed the idea of resting Nash for 10 to 12 games during the season, healthy or not. But the Suns were poised to sign a veteran point guard (Tyronn Lue, etc.) and bring in Goran Dragic to learn. But that never happened, and now Dragic is the backup, so the idea has morphed more into limiting Nash to 30 to 32 minutes a game and sitting him with minor injuries before they worsen.

With the Suns running a more structured offense under Terry Porter, the wear-and-tear reduction on Nash should also help.

2. Is Shaquille O'Neal ready to play? Is he still motivated to win, or is he just counting down the days to retirement?