--The Suns' in-house communications department might be twittering right from the practice floor during training camp and encouraging it in social settings, but the Suns were already instituting and taking the NBA's new Twitter rules even further with their thoughts on social networking. Players won't be twittering in the locker room before or after games -- or in Charlie Villanueva's case during halftime -- and the idea of Twittering in team situations was met by a roll of the eyes from general manager Steve Kerr. "It's amazing because even last year I don't think Twittering or anything like that was a topic of conversation before camp," Kerr said. "But it's definitely something that has to be addressed now. We're going to make sure that it's not an issue from the beginning and that everyone understands our thoughts about it."
The Suns' biggest Twitter fiend last year was Shaquille O'Neal, and his departure afforded the perfect opportunity to establish some blurred lines.
--Grant Hill and assistant coach Bill Cartwright will join NBA greats like Bill Russell, Clyde Drexler, Jerry West, Julius Erving and actor Samuel L. Jackson as interview subjects for the ESPN Documentary that celebrates Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 2007 book "On the Shoulders of Giants."
The documentary, released next year, chronicles the story of the 1939 Harlem Rens, an all-black New York basketball team who captured the first-ever basketball championship. It also focuses on Harlem, as a cultural mecca for musicians, athletes and those consumed with social change during the same era.
--Channing Frye will start at the center spot in place of Shaquille O'Neal. "Amare (Stoudemire) is the center on this team, but don't tell him, OK?" coach Alvin Gentry joked -- and Frye and second-year player Robin Lopez will have the task of filling O'Neal's shoes, but in a different way.
Frye has been accurate from 18-20 feet in the summer and Gentry thinks going to a mobile, outside/in postman will cure a lot of the Suns' ills from last season.
"It's going to open up the floor for guys like Jason Richardson and Leandro Barbosa, it's going to open up the passing lanes for Steve (Nash) and it's going to open up the areas where Amare likes to work. So the one move changes a lot," he said.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We know what we're going to be doing in training camp, we know what we're going to be doing from the first exhibition game all the way through. I don't think it's going to be a learning experience for anyone but (rookies) Earl (Clark) and Taylor (Blake), and I think the pickup games that they've had out here, I think a lot of the stuff will come naturally." -- Suns coach Alvin Gentry, on returning to Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo style in his first full season as head coach.
