"Vince Carter has not even played three weeks for the Suns.

With that, it is already clear he needs to be a leading scorer or the Suns' season and his stay in Phoenix will last just three more months.

The Suns went 49-13 when Carter's shooting-guard predecessor, Jason Richardson, scored at least 20 in a game for Phoenix. Now that they swapped places, Carter is resuming the leading-scorer role he held for most of his career.

"I don't have a problem with that," Carter said. "That's a role I accept. I've been here before. Everybody looks at scoring. I just feel like being productive and being aggressive and being a guy that they can feel like they can put the ball in my hands late in games to make plays. That's all that matters."

In nine Suns games, Carter has averaged 17.8 points and 4.4 rebounds with 41 percent 3-pointing shooting after Richardson averaged 19.3 points and 4.4 rebounds with 42 percent 3-point shooting for Phoenix this season. That is with the offense still needing some translation for Carter to understand.

"When he plays well offensively, it's a little bit like Jason," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "We seem to be able to score and it loosens up everything with our offense. We have to have that one guy we can go to and right now it's Vince."

Gentry was happy to see guard Steve Nash be aggressive offensively in the past two games. He expected Nash to shoot more this season but his 11.8 shots per game is one less than last season. Nash also is again melding in new players but the improvising is improving, like Friday's alley-oop to Carter.

"He's got to carry a load for us on offense and we want him to be aggressive," Nash said."