"I don't know," Nash said. "Probably not."

Nash knows management's heart is in the right place. Now 34, he played in 81 of 82 games last year and averaged 34.3 minutes per game. To put that in perspective, Dallas point guard Jason Kidd, 35, was the only player older than Nash to log as many minutes.

Nash points out that San Antonio point guard Tony Parker had fresh legs for the playoffs last May in part because he missed three weeks and 13 games of the regular season with an ankle injury -- and Parker is eight years younger than Nash.

But that wasn't according to plan. Plans are different. They can be changed.

"I feel like you can always use the rest," Nash says. "If you can get to the postseason well rested, it's perfect. But you can't always afford to do that."

That was never a consideration under Mike D'Antoni, when the Suns -- either by choice or necessity -- played a tight rotation of 7-to-8 players and heavy minutes for his starters. But the Suns are hoping they will have a deeper team this year, with Matt Barnes and rookies Goran Dragic and Robin Lopez joining Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw off the bench.