Most of the preseason discussion of the Phoenix Suns has focused on Amare Stoudemire, the center who missed all but three games last season due to microfracture knee surgery. Yet it’s the Suns other pivotman, former Knick Kurt Thomas, who may make as much of a difference.Thomas was a key part of a Suns defense that was quite good early last season. When Thomas went down in January with a broken bone in his foot, the Suns became one dimensional.

Even so, the Suns enter this season after consecutive visits to the Western Conference Finals. If Stoudemire is healthy — and he recently declared himself 100% after a long struggle to feel confident in his movement — then the Suns figure to be solid choice to go all the way. In 2004–05, he had an MVPcaliber season scoring 26 points and collecting 8.9 rebounds a game while shooting 55.9%. Yet last season with Stoudemire in street clothes for 79 games, the Suns still won 54 games and came within two wins of reaching the finals. Credit for that remarkable season has gone to point guard Steve Nash, who won a second straight MVP award, as well as forwards Shawn Marion and Boris Diaw, but Thomas’s contributions tend to get overlooked.

By now, Knick fans may be wondering if I’m talking about that same Kurt Thomas whose workman-like efforts wereamong the team’s brighter moments in the last six years. The doubt is understandable. Thomas is 33, and toward the end of his Knick career, he was struggling to keep up with some of the more mobile power forwards like Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett. Was there something in the desert air that revived his career?

In fact, yes, it was a change of position. The Suns moved him to the pivot, which requires less mobility. And Phoenix played an unusual defense that was a perfect match for Thomas’s skills.

In contrast to most teams who play a defensive scheme that forces opposing players to the middle where the intimidating shot blocking pivotman awaits to knock opponents attempts into sometime last week, Phoenix employed a strategy that encouraged opposing players to take jump shots. They rarely fouled, and often took charges when their men tried to force them toward the hoop.

“As much as possible, we want the game to come down to our jump shooters versus their jump shooters,” said Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni in an interview last spring. “We think that gives us the best chance to win.”

This strategy was a fine match for Thomas, who has been among the league leaders in taking charges during the brief time that stat has been compiled. Also, Thomas remains an excellent midrange shooter, especially off the pick and roll play, and with Nash, he has a master court partner.The Suns defensive numbers bear witness to the impact of Thomas. With him they allowed only 100.2 points a game on 44% shooting.After Thomas was lost for the season in February, they allowed 107.6 ppg on 47.8%.

Or thought of in an advanced statistical terms, Phoenix ranked in the top five in Defensive Efficiency, points allowed per 100 possessions, with Thomas in the lineup. Phoenix has been the top offensive teams for the last two years, averaging more than 108 points a game in each of the last two seasons. Accompany a solid — not necessarily elite, just a very good — defense with that kind of scoring and you have a team that should rank among the top four teams in the league in any preseason survey. An elite defense should enable the Suns to all but guarantee a title by the All Star break.

Also it’s possible that Stoudemire might learn from watching Thomas execute D’Antoni’s defensive scheme. For all of his vaunted athleticism, Stoudemire is not a great defender. He goes for the opponents’ first fake too often, which results in fouls and forces the Suns to bench him. Thomas’s style is more based on guile than athleticism, and nobody really knows whether Stoudemire will be his old self right away.

There are other reasons for optimism in Phoenix this preseason. Although the team spent most of the downtime watching its pennies in order not to have to pay any luxury tax, the Suns did sign guard Marcus Banks.After a disappointing three seasons in Boston, Banks played very well in Minnesota, and the UNLV product likes to play fast, so he should be a good match for the Suns uptempo style. In each of the last two seasons, Nash has worn down a bit by the playoffs, but Banks’s presence gives him a capable backup.

If only one of the Phoenix big men stay healthy, it’s still pretty easy to imagine Phoenix going deep into the playoffs. If both Thomas and Stoudemire are available for most of the season, then it’s hard not to envision them going all the way.