Hi everyone. I don't really remember how to begin a blog post since it's been like a year so I'll just say this - Trevor Ruffin, Ian Lockhart, and Kenny Battle. What do those 3 former Phoenix Suns have in common? Probably nothing.

Smooth transition

So did everyone notice that we're in the thick of a playoff race in the Western Conference? That's pretty fantastic, no? The regular season ends in 16 days and the Suns are going to play 9 games in that span of time. Things are as tightly packed as something which is by its nature very tightly packed.

9 of the Western Conferences Top 10 teams were in action last night and unfortunately for our beloved Phoenix Suns pretty much all of the relevant players in our part of the race reigned victorious. Here are last night's results:

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As a Kansas State football fan one of the more amusing anecdotes in recent memory came from late 2005 when future Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Josh Freeman reneged on his commitment to the University of Nebraska to switch to Kansas State. The day after the commitment switch, Nebraska announcer Jim Rose went on the radio and declared (among statements about how Freeman had no integrity) that he effectively pitied Freeman for his choice - saying he had cheated himself by opting not to play with the Cornhuskers (here's the audio in case you're curious).

At the time I laughed and thought I'd never think such things and yet here I am five-years later feeling the same way about free agent wide receiver Braylon Edwards.

As you're no doubt aware, though Edwards has been to the Pro Bowl, has well over 300 catches in his career, and is a well acknowledged deep threat - he's had an awfully hard time finding a job. Reasons for this difficulty include his diva-like attributes, concerns over his motivation with a long-term contract, and his well-documented off the field troubles.

According to most of what I've read, the market has dried up to the point where the only teams with any interest are the Redskins, Titans, 49ers, and Cardinals - most of whom are likely offering short-term deals. So this is the point where I tell Braylon Edwards - if you don't come to the Cardinals then I feel bad for you. 

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There's a classic saying which goes a little something like "You've got to bet big to win big" - no I'm not just talking about gambling, we're talking about the Arizona Cardinals acquisition of Eagles backup QB Kevin Kolb.

What's at stake here is pretty clear and has been covered in depth - Larry Fitzgerald is a free agent after the season and Ken Whisenhunt's contract expires after the 2013 season. Both could be gone if this move backfires. Effectively the near future of the franchise rests of the shoulders of the 26 year-old quarterback who's started just 7 games in his NFL career. 

So why am I so excited about this? Well to be perfectly frank the Cardinals never do this sort of thing.

You could easily craft an argument that this is by far the biggest risk the Cardinals have ever taken at the quarterback position. Look at the history - this is a team that always takes the low ceiling, relatively safe, incredibly unsexy veteran.

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Well, the dust has settled. After a great deal of trade posturing, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected University of Arizona big man Derrick Williams with the second pick in the NBA Draft. It was always a bit of a pipe dream for the Suns to put a package together to acquire the pick and the rights to the local product, but when one door closes another opens.

Now that Minnesota has Williams in the fold they have quite a bit of overlap with another small forward/power forward tweener - Michael Beasley. Since being selected by the Heat out of Kansas State with the second overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Beasley has suffered some very public growing pains.

He wasn't the main guy in Miami - they were obviously Dwyane Wade's team. He has invited character concerns after tweeting a picture of himself with marijuana in the backgorund and then suffering a bit of a mental breakdown in the aftermath.

Yet after Miami assembled their Big Three and dealt Beasley to Minnesota for scraps, he's blossomed and matured a bit. In just his third season he averaged 19.2 points per game while posting 5.6 rebounds a contest. Perhaps even more importantly, all the character concerns appear to have quieted.

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Hi friends - it's your old pal Scott Howard back to provide some of my unique writing stylings. I apologize for interrupting the Dallas Mavericks love-fest but I wanted to ask a random question to my fellow fans. That question is in the title but here it is again - in quote form so it stands out:

What singular event in Suns history has made you the most pissed off at the franchise?

There's a few conditions here:

• It had to be something the franchise (meaning the players, coaches, front office, ticket folks, president, usher, parking lot attendant, Go-Rilla) did. So that means you can't just say "Well the time Stoudemire/Diaw got suspended for leaving the bench."  You can say you were mad at Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench or Phil Weber for not breaking their legs to prevent them from moving - but being mad at the NBA for suspending them doesn't count.
  
• It also has to be one thing. You can't just say "all the moves Robert Sarver has made" - it's got to be one specifically that pissed you off. Like effectively letting Joe Johnson walk (yes I know they traded him).
  
• Please don't adjust for your age. If you were a child and super pissed that the team traded Dennis Johnson for Rick Robey to the point where you wouldn't come out of your room for a week that's cool and that counts. Maybe as an adult you was pretty upset about Amar'e leaving but you probably still got up in the morning for your dead end job and kissed your horrible spouse before driving off for work in your economy vehicle that gets good gas mileage.
  

I hope that makes sense. If that doesn't make sense then in all likelihood it's your fault and not mine.

By way of example, here's when I was most mad at our fair basketball squadron. As someone who grew up in the Valley I also grew up as a huge Kevin Johnson fan. I had his posters on my wall, I begged to get his shoes, and I thought he was basically the greatest thing that ever happened to sports. As he aged I was looking for a new favorite player to carry the huge burden of being my hero - enter a high flying wingman from Wisconsin, Michael Finley.

Almost from day 1 I thought Michael Finley was the bees knees. I amassed a particularly impressive collection of his rookie cards, cursed Brent Barry when he stole the Dunk Contest (wearing his warmup jacket no less...gross), and thought he was the future of the franchise. All this happened when I was between 11 and 12 - frankly I thought Finley and I would grow up together as player and fan, celebrating championships arm in arm.

Thus imagine my horror when the day after Christmas in 1996, the Suns dealt Finley, Sam Cassell, AC Green, and a second round pick to Dallas for Jason Kidd (and scrubs Loren Meyer / Tony Dumas). I was enough of a basketball junkie at the time to know how talented Kidd - then just a 23 year old - was but that did not stop my fan fury. For a few days I even considered jumping ship to become a Mavericks fan (I know, right?) going as far as sauntering into the Hat Club at my local mall to see if I could get a hat.

Obviously I didn't ultimately stray from my first love (and didn't get a new hat), I even learned to tolerate Kidd's All-NBA level abilities (I was benevolent like that). I now realize that was a great trade for the Suns but for some reason watching Jason Kidd celebrate a title called that memory to mind. 

Anyone else have a similar story or just generally some moment that made you want to punch the Suns in the face?

Yesterday the Mavericks sealed what I think is one of the more surprising NBA Finals results of my lifetime (I'd still put it behind Detroit's mastery of the Lakers in 2004). After losing Game 1 and trailing by as many as 15 in the fourth quarter of Game 2 it appeared Dallas was going to be nothing more than a foil for the coronation of Miami's Big 3. From that point forward the Mavericks rallied to win Game 2 while the Heat would claim just one more game - game, set, title.

The championship was the first for Dallas since they entered the NBA as an expansion team in 1980. It's also allowed the Mavericks to escape a dubious club - that of NBA teams to never claim the championship. Of the NBA's 30 teams a grand total of 12 have failed to win it all - sorry Indiana I'm not counting your ABA crowns. Out of those 12, only 6 have been around more than 21 seasons (Minnesota, New Orleans, Orlando, Toronto, Memphis, and Charlotte are getting a pass).

That leaves 6 franchises who have been around a while and failed to hoist the big prize. Those 6 franchises and their birth years?

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Yup - it's a picture post. 

As I was cruising through the SI.com gallery of rare photos of Jason Kidd (I was exactly as bored as you think), I came upon a memory of Suns past that I only wish I could forget. Those of you who followed the Suns in 2000 already know exactly what I'm going to post but for the youngsters out there you should know that the late 90's and early 2000's were a time of just terrible style. Bleach blond hair on people that shouldn't have bleach blond hair dotted the landscape - and unfortunately Suns All-Star point guard Jason Kidd was no exception:

Yeah - drink that in.

But J-Kidd's unfortunate hair style got me to thinking, what are some of the most memorable fashion statements in Phoenix Suns franchise history.  This can apply to hair styles, accessories, gold teeth, facial hair, basically whatever you can think of.

I'll get us started.  While I wasn't alive at the time I remember reading in my prized Suns 25th anniversary book about the high-flying Ronnie Lee.  But not only was Lee an exciting player, dude also had a sweet afro:

Not sure how you couldn't love that. Alright fan boys and fan girls - time to see what you've got (and note that if Dennis Awtrey's perm doesn't show up here then you're all fired).

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On a July day last summer, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh condemned themselves and their team to a what would seem to be a lifetime of criticism and hatred. Fans and experts alike have tabbed them as everything that is wrong with the game of basketball and some sort of evil empire that, if not stopped, will take over the galaxy and probably blow up Alderran with their Death Star (need a fact check on that one).

The world delighted when they started the season slow and enjoyed the amount of discord you'd typically expect when you're trying to mesh three superstars and a bunch of crappy role players in a couple months. As you know, Miami righted their ship and got themselves the second seed in the Eastern Conference and in the playoffs, they are still universally hated. 

I understand the Heat hate, I really do. When you shame an entire city on national TV like LeBron or hold a giant pep rally for yourselves (complete with smoke machines) like Miami did days after the signings, you invite hate. Hell, I'll even admit that I've had periods of Heat hate myself. But the thing I'm having a real tough time reconciling in all of this is people suggesting teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and Bulls as reasonable alternatives. In fact, it's mind-numbing to me.

For anyone thinking the Heat are worse than the Lakers or Celtics, I invite you to remember that those two franchises have appeared in a combined 52 NBA Finals. Do you know how many total NBA Finals apperances were out there? 128. That means those teams have made 40.6% of ALL NBA Finals appearances. I'm supposed to root for them because a few assholes jumped up and down on a platform?

MIAMI - JULY 09: Chris Bosh #1 Dwyane Wade #3 and LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat are introduced to fans during a welcome party at American Airlines Arena on July 9 2010 in Miami Florida. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)

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I mean honestly who else did you think was going to do this? When Wil originally pitched the idea that I'd cover Vince Carter for our player evaluation series, I leapt at the opportunity. OK I'm kidding, I basically ignored his emails until Keify and Euty asked me on twitter - THEN I leapt (and basically only because I was drunk at the time). 

Enough about my vanity, on to the half-man himself. 

In the wake of their NBA Finals berth, the Magic who had lost Hedo Turkoglu to free agency decided to acquire Vince Carter from Jersey. In his only full season with Orlando Carter's numbers (including minutes) dropped across the board while the Magic were knocked out in the Eastern Conference Finals with Carter missing late crucial free throws in a Game 2 loss.

22 games into the 2010-2011 season with the Magic looking to shake things up and the Suns looking to escape from the idiotic albatross of Hedo Turkoglu's contract, the two franchies struck a deal. Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, and Earl Clark were sent to Orlando while Marcin Gorat, Mickael Pietrus, and Carter came to Phoenix. Though there were bearded smiles at the press conference and a small sect of people who held out hope for a Carter resurgence it was relatively clear to the world that the trade was done for the Suns to ditch the Turk and bring in Gorat. But Vince was here anyway. 

With the Suns top scorer off to Orlando and shooting guard options at a minimum a starting role was turned over to a guy most considered a short term rental at best.

Through his career Carter gained a bit of a reputation as a player who just didn't really give a crap. Fortunately for those with a healthy belief in reputations he lived up to the billing. The combination of showing up with an already balky knee and being thrust into a major role on a noncontender probably didn't do Carter's situation any favors. 

Stastically the 34 year old guard wasn't someone that was going to jump off the page as a disaster. In 51 games with the Suns he gave the team the following:

• 27.2 minutes, 13.5 points, 42.2% shooting, 36.6% 3 point shooting, 3.6 rebounds per game

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With the 2011 NFL Draft mere hours away and the Carolina Panthers about to go on the clock with the first overall pick I thought it would be a worthy pursuit to look at the recent no. 1 overall picks. I'm sure when Panthers fans saw their team struggle through a 2-14 season they thought well hey at least we'll get a franchise changing talent at the top of the draft!

Well my southern friends are in for a surprise.

Everyone knows about the rousing success the career of 1998 no. 1 overall pick Peyton Manning has been. He's a four-time MVP, Super Bowl champion, and vaunted commercial pitch man. But his brothers in top pickdom that have followed haven't exactly been a group that sets the world on fire.

Photo by: M. David Leeds/ALLSPORT

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If you've been following the NBA playoffs in spite of the Suns lack of presence in them you're probably aware of the plight of one Amar'e Stoudemire and his New York Knickerbockers. Apparently the former Suns star injured his back during warmups of Game 2 of New York's playoff series with Boston and suffered from such unbearable pain that he exited the game in the 2nd quarter and never returned. 

He's questionable for the third game of the series but as a Suns fan I can't help but continue thinking about his long history with injuries.

The Suns organization was relatively clear about their trepidation with regards to Stoudemire's health when they refused to fully guarantee the fourth and fifth years of a contract offer last summer. Though the back is a new injury you can add it to the knee, and the eye as trouble spots for the gifted big man. 

Saddest part of this whole thing for me is that because Stoudemire left Phoenix and I stand behind the organization's reasoning for not providing a full guarantee, I now find myself basically rooting for him to breakdown so that the Suns don't look like clowns (more than they already do for going from the Western Conference Finals to 40 wins in just 10 months).

I can't say I like myself for feeling that way but I also can't imagine that I'm alone.

Excuse me for a moment while I step out of my comfort zone and try to talk a little hockey. Yes I know, I don't know what I'm talking about blah blah blah. Anyway, I just got done reading this piece by Doug Franz and a thought immediately occured to me:

Shouldn't the team - and their consistently shoddy results - shoulder a great deal of the blame here?

Our local radio host talks about how Wayne Gretzky, a destroyed shoulder, and a goalkeeper who can't handle the playoffs have prevented Doan (who's been with the franchise since it moved here) and the Coyotes from making a deep run in the playoffs. Those are all excuses that frankly do make SOME sense but really not enough to wash over the fact that the franchise has accomplished absolutely nothing in their time in Phoenix.

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