Who will rebound in Phoenix?

Robin Lopez (right), Earl Clark, Channing Frye, Hakim Warrick, Grant Hill, Hedo Turkoglu. Those are the names of the Suns' front players. The Suns lost last year's leading rebounder (8.9 per), Amare Stoudemire, to free agency and haven't done much to replace him. Sure, they traded for Hedo Turkoglu, but he is an offensive acquisition to allow Steve Nash to play off the ball and isn't known for crashing the boards (career high 5.7 per in 2008).

Thus, Phoenix is going to have A LOT of trouble preventing offensive rebounds by their opponents and getting some themselves. Here are last season's rebounding numbers for their big men.

Grant Hill - 5.5 - With his age, don't expect an improvement

Channing Frye - 5.3 - The sharpshooting big spends a lot of time on the perimeter and is soft when he does play in the paint.

Robin Lopez - 4.9 - The Suns are relying on Robin Lopez to have a breakout year. At 7'0 and only 22 years old, Lopez showed some promise last year (averaged 9.1 boards per 36 minutes). He will see a lot of court time this year, but unless he pulls down 12 a game, the Suns are toast.

Earl Clark - 5.8 per 36 minutes - Young Earl Clark has Lamar Odom like talent but hasn't been able to put it together. He played only 7 ineffective minutes per game last year, and will probably get more burn this year. The Suns have successful in developing Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Robin Lopez, so this could be a crucial year for Clark.

Hakim Warrick - 4.1 - Warrick wasn't a good rebounder in Memphis, Chicago, or Milwaukee and won't be one in Phoenix.

Hedo Turkoglu - 4.7 - I still can't believe the Suns traded for Hedo's declining skills and onerous contract.

Without an inside presence, there is no way the Suns make it back to the Western Conference Finals. While they will play an entertaining brand of basketball, I see them as a fringe playoff team. Although he is the face of the franchise, the Suns should look into trading Steve Nash who probably wants to (seriously) compete for a title. Perhaps to the Blazers for Marcus Camby and Rudy Fernandez -- It's hard to gauge Nash's trade value given his age and past accolades.