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Yes, pun-meisters: That's Amare.

The Phoenix Suns are undeniably and deeply in love with Amare Stoudemire, their rookie power forward.

They don't mind the small forward who plays next to him, either. That would be Shawn Marion, whose nightly output -- yes, from small forward -- falls just a mite below 20 and 10. It's a heady 20.4 points and 9.8 boards, to be precise.

So make that another yes: Marion is certainly validating his new max contract.

It doesn't stop with those two, though. The Suns are a stunning 19-12, clinging to an unimaginable slice of No. 3 in the West, but with a front line equally indebted to the backcourt. None of it could happen without Stoudemire and Marion, and likewise none of it could come without the NBA's Bashed Brothers keeping the ball moving.

Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway are equally responsible for the most surprising start in the NBA. Or maybe it's better described as the most surprising start inverse of the Lakers' stumble. Either way, these scorned former All-Stars -- young and old -- have forged a productive bond at the heart of it.

"Our start has been a pleasant surprise," Hardaway said.

Yes yet again: Penny did say pleasant. He can say so for the first time in a long time, even though he's merely the Suns' fourth option, because Hardaway is feeling healthier than he has in years. It's probably too late to retrieve his lost reputation, but Hardaway insists that the stats and all that don't matter any more. He'll be a happy guy so long as the knee cooperates, and the left knee is cooperating after a summertime operation in which a previously undetected floating bone was removed.

"People didn't want to accept that I was injured," Hardaway said. "I played on a bad knee, a really bad knee, for a long time. I actually put team before me and played when I was hurt, but people still would dog me. I still had the talent, but I just didn't have the knees.

"I used to ask myself why. Now I just try to laugh. Nobody's worried about what I do. I just leave it alone and worry about this team. ... With Steph, I don't have to be a point guard or a shooting guard. I can just be a guard."

Marbury, meanwhile, is also trying to rebound metaphorically, since it's not too late for him -- at nearly 26 -- to seize back the cred Hardaway has to strain to remember at 31. The past 12 months have lowered Marbury to depths rivaling Penny at his post-Shaq lowest. It started with New Jersey's instant transformation to NBA Finals participant with Jason Kidd in Marbury's place and bottomed out with a 10-day offseason jail sentence as part of a DUI charge.

But now the alleged Mr. Selfish is playing hurt and playing to raves. With the clearance of team doctors, Marbury delayed surgery to remove bone spurs from both ankles until after the season. In the interim, and in pain, he's doing some tangible leading. Which comes after he was forced to make the painful admission that the trade that put Kidd in Jersey, after Year 1, looked like "the best trade in history" from a Nets perspective.

"Last year it was something I would dwell on," Marbury said. "But I know who I am. People wrote me off last year, but it's all right. I know that when you're losing, you're giving people something to talk about. Winning is everything. If Jason Kidd went out and played the way he plays but the Nets weren't winning, nobody would say anything (nice) about him. Being that they're winning, he deserves to be called the best point guard in the NBA.

"New Jersey going to the championship, that motivated me. ... But if I let what people say bother me, I wouldn't be playing in the NBA. I just don't ever worry about it. I'm enjoying this right now. I kind of like the fact that nobody talks about us."

It's a fading silence, if anything. Folks around the league can't help but notice and praise the changes in the Suns' guards and team-wide.

A crucial step was Marbury approaching coach Frank Johnson to seek some tweaks in Johnson's new continuity offense. It's a system Marbury compares to the Lakers' triangle, but he made a case to Johnson that the Suns' athleticism -- especially in the backcourt and with Marion -- was being stifled. Hardaway and Marion were drafted into the discussion and multiple pick-and-roll calls were eventually restored to supplement the passing, cutting and reading.

"We're lucky we have a coach that's very flexible," Marbury said. "He's a coach you can talk to. He listens to his players."

The good fortune in Stoudemire lasting all the way to No. 9, of course, sparked much of the rest. The Suns are 14-6 since Stoudemire became a starter, and officials from other clubs are saying the 20-year-old's biggest impact might actually be defensively, even with Stoudemire averaging 11.1 points and 8.5 boards for the best out-of-high school production since Moses Malone with the ABA's Utah Stars.

"Stoudemire's defensive energy," said one top NBA scout, "has turned that team around." The numbers support it, too, with Phoenix ranking in the top 10 in points per game allowed and defensive field-goal percentage.

The offseason acquisition of championship veteran Scott Williams and the drafting of sharpshooter Casey Jacobsen added two more helpful pieces to join the energizing Bo Outlaw and work-in-progress Joe Johnson. The Suns also reloaded their coaching staff with three top-notch aides to assist Johnson: Marc Iavaroni to work with the big men, Mike D'Antonio fresh off a coaching stint in Italy and skills guru Tim Grgurich.

Suns president and general manager Bryan Colangelo, as a result, cautiously figured he had a team that could exceed what were universally low expectations. He felt even more optimistic after Marbury vowed numerous times to be more responsible on and off the floor, and a little bit more when Hardaway showed he could accept a reduced role.

Colangelo says now that he's even taking cues from the Bashed Brothers. He won't lash out, either, after being skewered as often as Marbury last season. Surely you heard the jokes about Colangelo and father Jerry meriting Executive of the Year consideration ... punch line being that they turned around two teams in the East by sending Kidd to New Jersey and Cliff Robinson to Detroit.

	“	Stephon has handled the situation like an absolute professional. He's maintained what I'll call a stiff upper lip while taking a brow-beating. I try to maintain the same approach. ”
		— Bryan Colangelo

"We were looking at 14 consecutive seasons in the playoffs," Colangelo said. "To drop out of that level was certainly frustrating. I prefer not to focus on my personal situation but of course it was difficult for everyone in the organization. The success that Jason and New Jersey had compounded the difficulties.

"But I have to tell you Stephon has handled the situation like an absolute professional. He's maintained what I'll call a stiff upper lip while taking a brow-beating. I try to maintain the same approach."

That shouldn't be a chore if the Suns maintain this pace. Common sense says they can't -- especially when someone brings up the losses to Denver, Golden State, Miami and Memphis -- but who knows? The Suns are 5-1 on the road since a 1-7 away start, and that includes victories at Boston and Philadelphia. If the Phoenix forwards and guards can survive January, when only six of the Suns' 17 games are at home, the desert-mirage theory could be buried.

"If our horses, Marbury and Marion, are able to maintain the level they're at now, we've got a pretty decent leg up," Colangelo said. "We need to improve our inside play, but Amare's given us a presence inside that we haven't had really going back to Charles (Barkley). So there's (three positions) in place. We feel like we have turned a corner."

That's apparent. Yes.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.