The Phoenix Suns didn't want their summer to be defined by losing Amar'e Stoudemire to the New York Knicks, and they made sure of it Sunday night with two major deals, acquiring veteran forward Hedo Turkoglu from the Toronto Raptors for guard Leandro Barbosa and agreeing to a trade with the Atlanta Hawks that will bring restricted free agent Josh Childress, whose rights the Hawks still hold, to Phoenix in exchange for a second-round pick. Childress will receive a five-year, $34 million deal from Phoenix.

Turkoglu and Childress were both coveted by the Suns' former general manager, Steve Kerr, and even after his departure the club went ahead and got both players, who will bring much-needed depth to one of the league's older teams and provide help in several ways for Steve Nash and Grant Hill next season. The Arizona Republic first reported the Turkoglu acquisition and Yahoo! Sports first reported the Childress trade.

Because Phoenix received an eight-figure trade exception for agreeing to give Stoudemire an extra year on his $100 million contract, the Suns could bring in Turkoglu's $9.8 million salary for next season while only giving away Barbosa's $7.1 million contract, the final year of his deal.

A source said that Suns coach Alvin Gentry had also been "a big Childress guy" for many years and wanted to have more depth and flexibility on the roster next season. Phoenix played most of the postseason with just a 10-man rotation and felt it needed to get younger and deeper with the 36-year-old Nash and the 37-year-old Hill both expected to log big minutes again next year, and with starting two-guard Jason Richardson entering the last year of his contract. The 31-year-old Turkoglu and the 27-year-old Childress, who has played the last two seasons for Olympiacos in Greece, fit the bill, and also provide more pieces in case the Suns try to make another major acquisition down the road.

Phoenix had already signed free agent forward Hakim Warrick to a four-year, $18 million contract this summer, but ''we didn't want to fall off the earth with Amar'e leaving," a Suns source said.

Turkoglu will likely start at Stoudemire's power forward position next season and that will give the Suns a very different look at that spot and also give them more options. The 6-8 Turkoglu excelled as a playmaker for the Magic in the playoffs in 2009, running the pick-and-roll with All-Pro center Dwight Howard relentlessly in Orlando's Eastern Conference finals win over the Cavs. In Phoenix, he could have a similar role that would allow Nash to play more off the ball and not have as much pressure game in and out as the team's chief ballhandler.

Turkoglu signed a five-year, $53-million deal with the Raptors last summer, a seeming perfect match for the Turkish star, whose wife loved the cosmopolitan nature of Toronto. In doing so Turkoglu abruptly left the Portland Trail Blazers at the aisle, after the Blazers thought they had reached agreement on a free agent deal with him.

But Toronto turned out to be a nightmare for Turkoglu, who never meshed with Chris Bosh and who was caught in an incident where he had said he was too ill to play a game, but was seen later that evening at a local nightclub. Turkoglu initially said he wanted to be traded from the Raptors, then recanted and the team had indicated as recently as Saturday that it planned to bring Turkoglu back into the fold next season.

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