The Suns' 2004-05 season began Thursday.

The organization has a plan to turn a 29-win club into a playoff participant a year from now.

"Everybody has their dragons to slay," coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We just have a lot of them."

Each coach on the staff will monitor assigned groups of players during the summer. Coaches will visit off-season homes, if necessary, to ensure that each player is on track.

"Everybody's got to be 100 percent ready to go," D'Antoni said. "We've got to get a jump-start on the season. If we start slow, that's nuts."

"If everybody could get on the same page, we could be unstoppable," guard Joe Johnson said.