Out of the ashes... again

Ball so hard mof***as wanna fine me
(Matt York/AP)

At the start of every NBA season, the Phoenix Suns consistently get labelled as a team with no chance - be it age has finally caught up with the ageless; the role players can no longer fill their role or that Robert Sarver is a meanie - that the Suns have battled through since as long as I have been following the NBA.

In the 2009-10 season, the Suns unexpectedly caught fire post-All Star break and stormed to the Western Conference Finals as the #3 seed, only to be ousted in six games courtesy of an other-worldly performance from Kobe Bryant and a then-Ron Artest buzzer-beater.

The following season, Amare Stoudemire had left for New York and again, the Suns found themselves on the outside looking in. A series of front office mistakes (trading for Hedo Turkoglu to play PF, signing Josh Childress to the full MLE) led to a major mid-season trade, with the hopes of making a playoff push only to see Channing Frye go down to injury and Vince Carter disappoint with his inconsistent play. The Suns scraped together a 40-42 record, finishing six games out of the final playoff spot and 10th overall, the lone bright spots being the stellar play of Steve Nash and Grant Hill, and the emergence of Marcin Gortat as an up-and-coming big.

The beginning of the 2011-12 season saw the departures of Carter, Aaron Brooks and Mickael Pietrus. Ronnie Price, Sebastian Telfair, Shannon Brown, Markieff Morris and Michael Redd were the newcomers, with all except Morris (draft) coming via free agency. Critics said the Suns were replacing a team of role players with more role players. For the first half of the season, those critics looked right - the Suns floundered below the .500 mark before finally developing some chemistry and finding a rotation that worked.

The Suns started beating teams they shouldn't be beating, defeating the Lakers, Mavs, Grizzlies, pre-Rubio-injury Wolves and the Clippers (twice); and beating comfortably the teams they're supposed to. Now, at 23-23 the Suns sit 1.5 games out of the final playoff spot behind the slumping Rockets and inconsistent Jazz.

The question must be asked: can this Suns team keep up their blistering pace and offer a repeat of the 2009-10 run?

The pieces are there - above average defense, potent offense and a deep bench. Detroit proved it's possible to have playoffs success without a superstar, so it's unfair to write this team off just yet. If Phoenix maintains its current pace, it would finish around 42-24 and project to make a run at a middle playoff seed.

Of course, there's a caveat - the Suns schedule down the stretch is tough, meaning they'll probably have to lift their play even further to maintain the pace they've set.

Eternally underrated, this Phoenix team is yet again rising from the ashes to prove their doubters wrong. This team is dangerous. Watch out, West. The Suns are coming.

How Orlando can win with Dwight - A four step plan

Danny Granger (left) shoots over Dwight Howard on January 26, 2011 at Conseco Fieldhouse
(Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

By now, most NBA fans are familiar with the "Dwightmare", the follow-on from LeBron, Carmelo and CP3's final season with the teams that drafted them. Most seem to think Dwight's had enough of Orlando and is sure to team up with Deron Williams on the Nets or Mavs after the season.

The Magic, unlike the Hornets and Nuggets aren't convinced their star is bolting and seem poised to take the Cleveland route, holding onto Howard through the trade deadline and letting him enter free agency to decide his own fate.

Personally, I'm a fan of this approach. Chris Webber said it best: "Championship teams are stubborn". Dallas, LA and Boston all stuck with their core when given an opportunity to blow it up and rebuild, and those teams account for the last four championships. The 2008-09 season proved to us that a team built around Dwight Howard can get to the Finals - only a series of ill-fated trades and unfortunate injuries have prevented the Magic from returning.

I honestly believe Dwight's best chances for personal and team glory come with the Magic. In this era of super teams, Dwight is good enough to be the only max contract player on a championship team. Keep reading to see how...

Gilbert Arenas - Wacky but Honest, too.

Sam Amick, a very good reporter working for Sports Illustrated, sat down with the great enigma that is Gilbert Arenas and produced one of the most candid interviews to ever come from someone as famous as Arenas.

Reading the interview, it feels like you're a part of a casual conversation between friends, talking about things with an honesty rarely seen in journalism these days.

For me, the interview gives an insight into the reality of life in the NBA and opens my eyes to what the man, Arenas, is truly about. He's been labelled a locker-room cancer, an egomaniac, a wacko and a bad influence. He's still a little crazy, but you get the feeling that when he says the gun incident was a one-off thing, he's telling the truth.

Arenas, it would seem, has finally had that epiphany he needed to wake himself up and turn his life around, to get back on track. He's surprisingly family-oriented for someone who had such a me-first reputation.

To read about someone like Gilbert Arenas, who's had such a negative image for so long, and have that perception completely flipped is rewarding, and in a strange way, reassuring too.

Give the interview a read. It'll be worth your while.

Gilbert Arenas talks with Sam Amick of SI.com

All I do is Lin, Lin, Lin

Ahhh, Jeremy Lin. I've been resisting the urge to write about Lin for pretty much the entire past week. I mean, every man and his dog has had something to say about Linsanity, so it's a pretty tough task to come up with something that hasn't already been covered. So, with that in mind, I'm not even going to bother. What I'm going to write about, like many before me (and probably a handful after me) is why #Linning is a trend, and is not here to stay.

The Future of the Phoenix Suns

"Free Steve Nash!" "Fire Gentry!" "Trade ____!"

Such is the collective feeling of the Suns fanbase. Suns fans don't like what they're seeing so far this season, and honestly, I don't blame them. One might think that Sarver & co. would have learned a little something from the failed identity change of 2008-09, but yet again we find ourselves looking at a Suns team being asked to focus on defense first, throwing the familiar run 'n' gun style out the window. Like in 2009, it's not working very well.

Historically, the Suns have been quick in their rebuilding process and haven't really had any extended periods of losing, a la Golden State or the Clippers. To me, this preserves some hope that the franchise will put their plan in motion in time to minimise the rebuilding years and have the team back around the top of the West where they belong.

Part of the foundation has been laid, with just six guys under contract after the season (Marcin Gortat, Jared Dudley, Channing Frye, Hakim Warrick, Josh Childress and Markieff Morris) meaning there is money to be spent - what's important is that the Suns spend it on the right guys. Milwaukee and Detroit are two good examples of what can happen when teams make poor use of cap room. The next step would be to draft well, with Charlotte being an example of failing to capitalize on multiple lottery selections.

Above all, the Suns need to avoid the infamous mediocrity treadmill. That's why there's so much talk of trading Nash among Suns fans, because they're of the belief that Nash elevates this team from terrible to average, which puts the team (at this stage) in the late lottery, making it all the more difficult to draft the next franchise cornerstone.

The problem with that, though, is that the Bobcats, Wizards, Hornets and Pistons are all doing a much better job of losing, and the Raptors, Nets, Warriors, Kings, Knicks, Cavs and Bucks are all at around the same level, hovering between .300 and .400  in the standings. Obviously, the season's only around 1/3 complete, so things can (and likely will) change by the time the draft lottery is run. Despite that, it's hard to see the Suns losing enough games to significantly improve their chances of landing the #1 pick, with or without Nash at the helm.

Luckily, this draft class is touted as the deepest since the famous '03 class of LeBron and co., so Phoenix don't necessarily have to pick in the Top 5 to land a key piece of the future. Furthermore, there's talk of some lottery prospects staying in school another year, strengthening the following draft in a year the Suns are likely to be in the lottery again.

Building around a core of Gortat and bench role players means the supporting cast is already in place, leaving holes in the roster that can be filled by one guy at a time, instead of having to rely on a committee - i.e. franchise players. It's easier said than done, that's certain, but the Suns have the flexibility to land franchise players in all 3 possible ways (trade, draft and free agency).

Rather than trading Nash, I'd consider re-signing him. Call me crazy, but for $8-10 million there's still no other point guard I'd rather have running my team, and if I get to watch the brilliance of Nash without compromising the rebuilding process (i.e. the team still sucks enough to land good prospects), then a future with Nash is the future of the Phoenix Suns I'd like to see.

NBA Questions, v3.0

Last edition was almost three weeks ago. Sorry about the delay folks, been doing some other stuff that's kept me busy.

You can have a look at what I had to say last time around here. The things I've made good calls on have started getting a little repetitive, so I'll let you look back for yourself to see where I've been right and wrong. In the future I'll still highlight the extremes, right or wrong, of things that I've said for the convenience of all.

Moving along, here's what I've absorbed from NBA-land in the last 20 or so days:

• I know I've mentioned it before, but INJURIES! New additions to the hobbled list include Andrew Bogut, Al Horford (went down not long after my last Questions post), Luol Deng and Andrea Bargnani, who all figure to miss considerable chunks of the season. That's without mentioning the guys with nagging injuries like 'Melo, CP3, Rose and Rondo. Hey NBA, let's not make this condensed season a recurring thing, yeah?
• On Bogut, will this guy ever catch a break? Poor choice of words, perhaps. Easily in the Top 5 at his position when healthy, maybe even Top 3, Bogut just can't seem to stay on the floor. Hopefully he gets a good run of health before his best years are behind him.
• Dwight Howard expressed his displeasure with his teammates after losing to the lowly Hornets, telling guys to "stay home" if they weren't going to give 100%. Did Dwight ever stop to think that the pot might be calling the kettle black in criticising players for not being fully committed to their team?
• Looks like some of this year's rookies are making a lot of fans and media types eat their words. Kyrie Irving, Brandon Knight, MarShon Brooks and Kemba Walker have all shown glimpses of future all-star level production, already showing us that this draft class is more than the "good role players at best" class it's been described as in the past.
• Speaking of drafts, unfortunate as it is, it would seem that there will be quite a few teams competing for the top pick, with 12 teams sporting a win/loss percentage of less than 39% (teams are, in order: Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, New Jersey, Phoenix, Golden State, Sacramento, Toronto, New Orleans, Detroit, Washington and Charlotte), with 5 of those at 30% or lower. 
• On a more positive note, Steve Nash continues to lead the league in assists, despite the talent surrounding him being at an all-time low. Gone are the pick and roll finishers, and so too it would seem the excellent perimeter shooters. How is he doing it? Is Nash the best passer in the history of the game? Definitely worthy of discussion.

That's all I've got this time. Feel free to start a debate about the best passers in NBA history in the comments section. More posts coming soon!

JaVale McGee... tosser.

And people wonder (do they?) why the Wizards still suck. I actually think this team would somehow be less dysfunctional with Gilbert Arenas still in town. How often do you see a young team in the middle of a rebuilding phase reach the point where it needs to be blown up and started from scratch?

It's teams run like this that convince me I could be an NBA GM and run a better show than half the league.

PS - see what I did with the title? McGee "tossed" himself an alley... tosser... geddit?