azcentral sports Wed Jan 1, 2014 11:38 PM

Suns rookie center Alex Len got the best jump of anyone Wednesday on a happier and healthier new year.

For the first time since a brief, failed November comeback, Len practiced with the Suns on the first day of 2014 and felt no discomfort in the left ankle that had limited him since the start of the season.

“I was just excited to get out there,” Len said. “Happy New Year, baby. I’ve got to start 2014 with a new page. I’ve been waiting for this feeling for a long time.”

Len said he probably is about 10 days away from being ready for game action but on Wednesday he was wearing one of his better smiles since draft night in June, when the Suns made him the fifth overall pick. Len spent the summer rehabilitating both of his surgically repaired ankles but the left ankle, operated upon in May, continued to be problematic after he was cleared for training camp.

Len played in five preseason games and the first two regular-season games before being shut down to ease the ankle pain. When he resumed play, he lasted only five minutes in each of the Nov. 19 and Nov. 20 games to prompt a longer treatment plan.

The athletic training staff had been increasing Len’s workload recently until he could practice Wednesday.

“I felt good,” Len said. “I felt much stronger. For the past month and a half, I worked in the weight room really hard. Last month (in November), I got 29 lifts in 30 days. This month (in December), I got 31 lifts in 31 days. I worked really hard. I feel stronger. The ankle is still a little weak. I wasn’t putting a lot of pressure on my ankles. Otherwise, my body feels a lot stronger.”

After so much down time, Len acknowledged that practice moved fast for him but that would have been true regardless for a 20-year-old who was not able to play in the NBA Summer League like most rookies.

“I think he had a lot of pent-up energy,” Suns coach Jeff Hornacek of Len’s Wednesday practice. “If he plays like that, it’d be great. He was moving really well. He made some nice shots. He’s been working on his strength with not having to worry about playing and he looked stronger out there, not getting banged around as much.”

Len is like a midseason addition for a Suns team whose 19-11 success prompts speculation about adding a piece. Len, at 7 feet 1, can bolster the front line but he might not slide into a backup center role with how the Suns have established a style and rotation with Channing Frye or Markieff Morris playing backup center.

“We’ll obviously try to get him in there but I don’t know if there’d be a definite rotation with the way we’re playing right now,” Hornacek said. “If we could give some guys a few more minutes of break, that’d be good for us. We’ll see how the chemistry is and at what point we could get him in. It might be the (opposing) team that dictates it.”

Favored for 2 weeks

The Suns might not see a winning opponent for the next two weeks.

Starting with tonight’s game against 13-17 Memphis, the Suns’ next eight games are against teams that do not have winning records. Tonight’s and Saturday’s games are also the last times the Suns will play at home until a five-game homestand starts Jan. 15.

“Hopefully, mentally they prepare themselves for these games,” Hornacek said. “You look at Memphis and you could say they’re an under-.500 team but they kicked the crap out of us last time (110-91 on Dec. 3). We can’t take them lightly. We also emphasize that we’re not a good enough team that we can just show up and think we’re going to win a game.”

Passing it on

The Suns were averaging 18.6 assists per game until they recorded 50 in the past two games combined.

“Things look better when they pass the ball,” Hornacek said.

That has been helped by the Suns playing at a quicker pace the past two weeks. The Suns were always the NBA’s top fast-break offense but now find ways to get into other quick-striking chances more often.

“Our bigs are the guys who are usually under the basket and they can run and grab it quickly and our guards have gotten in positions where we could outlet to them quickly,” Hornacek said.

Up next

Suns vs. Grizzlies

When: Thursday at 7 p.m.

Where: US Airways Center, Phoenix.

TV/radio: FSAZ, KTAR-AM (620).