The sun hasn't quite set on the Phoenix Suns at this point, who are off to an unexpected hot start to the season. Ringing off four straight wins using head coach Alvin Gentry's up-tempo system, the team is currently on an East Coast road trip that could determine if they're for real or not.

Thus far, the squad has heavily relied on a rotation of nine players – Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa, Jason Richardson, Channing Frye, Grant Hill, Jared Dudley, Louis Amundson, and Goran Dragic. A significant omission from the list? Rookie big man Earl Clark.

The 6-10 athletic and long-armed forward has seen inconsistent minutes in the four games he's seen action in. Game one: 20 minutes, game two: 9. Game three: 4 minutes, game four: 0 minutes, and game five: 17 minutes. That up and down of his playing time is naturally quite frustrating for the young man, but he's taking it in stride.

"You don't practice a lot, but there's a lot of games and if you don't play in games, you miss a lot of action," Clark told HOOPSWORLD. "It has it's good an it's bad. I've been prepared coming from Louisville - Coach P (Louisville head coach Rick Pitino) teaches patience and he brought me along slow, so it was able to prepare me for the things I'm going through right now."

What he's going through right now is a very distinct frustration for rookies. Clark is trying to balance the reality that his coach doesn't feel like he can be a regular contributor against wanting to get out there, help his team, and fulfill his boyhood dream of playing in the NBA.

"[We] played against Dwyane Wade and I definitely wanted to get out there just to say that I was out there playing against D-Wade, O'Neal, Quentin Richardson and other guys I've been watching since I was younger," Clark said. "You see them going out there playing hard, trying to win, it's tough not getting out there."

However, Clark isn't moping and lamenting over his current situation. As he said, he's remaining patient and using this as an opportunity to learn from his coaching staff and teammates, whom he has tremendous respect for – particularly Amar'e Stoudemire.

"Definitely, STAT is a great teammate because he talks to me a lot and gives me pointers and tells me the bad things that I'm doing out there," Clark adulated. "To go against him in practice, it really helps my game a lot, too. He's real strong and quick off his feet and we do a lot of the same things - he's making me better every day by going hard against me every day."

In addition to helping him feel like a part of the team through practice, the veterans on the squad are hazing him as a rookie as anyone would expect. Before the team's first home game, the vets convinced Clark to wear a banana suit and run out onto the court – except no one else had ran out with him. The team is also cutting in front of him at the airport when IDs are being checked and making him buy fruit and donuts before practice.

"Every rookie has to go through it, so I just roll with the punches," Clark laughed off.

Clark sees Phoenix as the perfect fit for him, admitting that he thanks the heavens for bring in the Valley of the Sun. Prior to the draft, the Suns told Clark that they liked his game but Clark was grounded enough to know that many teams say that but that doesn't mean anything on Draft Night. Clark said he was excited for the chance to play in a run-and-gun system, shooting whenever it "isn't ridiculous".

In any case, Clark believes that with hard work, things will work out for him in the long term in Phoenix because of the flashes of solid play that he sees in his own game. "Once I made a couple of good plays out there, got a couple of stops on some real good guys, you think to yourself 'Man, it's not that hard after all - I could be a great player if I work hard,'" he said. "I've been making a lot of mistakes - I'm just a rookie and I'm trying to learn from my mistake and, everyday, just learn and get better."

During this season, though, Clark hopes to progress slowly and make his way into the rotation, earning the trust of gentry along the way. It's that spirit that should give Sun fans something to look forward to, as the humble Clark constantly talks about working to get what he wants, never implying a sense of entitlement despite his tremendous talent.

"I want my coach to count on me when we're down and feel comfortable putting me in the game knowing that I'm going to produce and not going to hurt the team when I'm in there," he said. "Basically, I need to get better - everyday, my coach tells me that it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. So I'm trying to think like that - everyday, get better, work hard, and one day, I'm going to be heck of a player."

Completely keeping his eyes on the prize, Clark has exactly the tools and mentality to eventually be successful in the NBA. "I'm just a young guy trying to learn my way," he said. "I try to stay with a good attitude and learn from them."