Suns forward Amare Stoudemire has made it clear in the past he doesn't want to be a center, but with the Suns' best lineup ''on paper'' having the talented bigman at the 5 he slowly appears to be coming around to the idea.

Suns president Bryan Colangelo said he can see a scenario where "our best combination is when he's out there as a small 'five' (center)" flanked by Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson at forward and Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson at guard.

According to the East Valley Tribune the situation has been explained to Stoudemire, and "ultimately Amare's about winning."

And that means if he needs to play a significant amount of time at center, "He'll be fine with it," Colangelo said. Said Stoudemire, "If I have to do it for a couple games, that's cool.

"It's not my natural position. . . but sometimes it will be to our advantage because we'll be quicker (than opponents) and I can still go into the post.
"If I'm called on to play center, I'll play it." How about being the starting center?

"Whoa!" said a surprised Stoudemire. "It depends.

"We have legitimate centers (in Jake Voskhul and Steven Hunter). I don't think I'll be called on to play center that much."