Deron Williams having not yet signed an extension with the New Jersey Nets is not a secret. In fact, it's common knowledge that the Nets have taken a huge gamble in trying to persuade him to resign with them and help build the empire that Russian billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov, dreamed of when he bought the Nets back in 2009.

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..it's me.  You couldn't guess that could you?

Feel free to follow me on twitter @keiththejourno for regular o2 tweet updates on what's going on.

If you want any questions asked, let me know and I'll try and ask them.

So anyway, what's going on? Read after the jump to find out..

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Hello Raps fans...

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An update on my Nets-Raps interactions...

I hate pimping myself but if you would like to follow my goings on first hand and information I don't put in articles, feel free to follow me on Twitter @keiththejourno

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To my dear family,

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Yep, here's the light side to the other post that I created moments earlier: Which has been your highlight of the season so far.

Again, it can be an individual performance (I'm looking at you Jared), it can be a win that you enjoyed or it can be something the front office has done.  Let's look for a few positives in an otherwise subpar season. (And let's try to stay away from the ego stroking of other BSoTS'ers)

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It's real simple people, although the season is still young, it's the turn of the year and I'd like to hear what has been your lowlight of the 2010/11 season so far.

It can be an individual, it can be a single game or it can be a front office decision. Let's hear it but let's try and stay away from 'the whole season so far has been a lowlight'....

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Monday 20th December 2010 was the date Vince Carter sat along side Marcin Gortat and Mikael Pietrus at a Suns press conference, officially unveiled as the newest teammates of Steve Nash and Earl Barron.

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I'm following the mighty Lisboa into growing facial hair for Movember and am already at the beard/paedophile stage.

Now I need your help.

I need your creativity.

I need your opinions on what style I should shape said 'tache.

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This is now how I would define my skills. It's a limited skillset but one that I'm quite proud of.

But this article isn't just being written in order to boast about my incredible talents, no, this is being written to enlighten you on my gifts.

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It's a short article, about as short as 'Little Keith'....

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I'm back.

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This has probably been done before but I figured it'd be a nice way to get me back onto this site - by recycling something someone else has done....

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My name is keify34 and I am an expert bumlicker.

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So STAT has left.  Are we bothered? Damn straight we are!

But why are we bothered? Well, read on and find out why over the coming season I will be spewing forth more bile towards Amare, than I've lavished comments of adoration towards Lou (yes, my heart is still broken from Lou not being here).

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....I'm kidding.  I don't like the man who runs the Suns.

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Will Amare Stoudemire re-sign with the Suns this summer? That's the question I posed Thursday to a source close to Stoudemire. 

Stoudemire, you may remember, had his bags packed for weeks, expecting to be traded by the Suns near the February trade deadline. When potential trades fell apart at the deadline, Amare was furious and vowed to bolt Phoenix this summer when he could become an unrestricted free agent, a source close to the process told ESPN.com......

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I'm gonna keep this short and sweet....

During the game threads, pictures aren't allowed and as I have the mental age of a 6 year old, pictures are pretty much the most exciting thing in the world.

This post is the equivalent of a doodle pad. A special area designated for pictures only, to help us picture addicts get our fix thus meaning the game threads won't have pictures added. (That's right, I used the word 'thus')

Simply get a picture of the most random former NBA'er you can think of and post it below.

What a night people, what a night. 

I'm sure there will be a lot written about this team, how we shocked everyone with our success against the mortal enemy and about how the Lakers will DEFINITELY be the team to put us out.

But none of that interests me right now, oh no.  The one thing that has kept me buzzing all day is Steve Nash.

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Okay, so let me just start off by stating that the below in no way reflects my thoughts but I'm simply bringing up a few things which, as the series progresses, may be worth a look.
Also just for the record, the Suns will still win this opening series 4-2.  Since when have we ever done anything easy, huh?
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We all know how disappointing last nights game against the Blazers was.  
We all felt the huge let down after our grand expectations. We all believed we could start this series with a win. 
But like I say, when do we ever do anything the easy way?  
*The following is purely hypothetical so everyone, just chill*
Let's drop over to the Debbie Downer side and wonder what might be if we lose the series in whatever fashion the Gods of Fate would have planned for us:

"The third placed Suns go out to the sixth seeded Blazers". 

Ignoring all the gloating Blazers fans, the fact that Sir Chuck will be roasting the team to within an inch of their lives and that every single media outlet will be shaking their head in a 'We knew you were too good to be true and now you know it too' way, what will it mean for our franchise?  Who has most to lose from the Suns going out in the first round after so much expectation?

Steve 'Captain Canada' Nash:
Let's not kid ourselves, Steve is old.  Old in basketball terms at least.  Sure his body appears to be in perfect working order and it helps he's using alien technology to keep him feeling young but his window of opportunity is closing.  He knows it, I know it and you know it.  As much as we'd like to believe that Steve will keep playing for the rest of eternity, it's simply not going to happen.   If we go out first round, what's that going to do to Steve's psyche?  Will he throw in the towel at the end of his contract? Will he think that it's just not meant to be?  Will he forever be labelled by everyone outside of the Suns-lovers as 'hugely entertaining, love to play with him, dubious 2 time MVP who never made a single NBA finals. And he didn't ever play defense."?

 
STAT:
I've openly admitted I hated Amar'e until he beasted his way through the second half of the season but what happens if Phoenix drops out of the playoffs in the first round?  Will Amar'e become public enemy number one?  There were hints of this last night in the threads. Will he stick around or will he go to what he believes is a title contender who will overpay him what he wants? What happens if Amar'e doesn't pick his game up to the level we've all come to selfishly expect and he averages an 18-9 series?  His reputation would be battered.

Grant Hill:
Someone said it yesterday; if we lose will Grant be labelled as having 'The curse of Tracy McGrady', meaning he hasn't ever been out of the first round (I know T-Mac technically has but let's face it, the Rockets didn't even want him anymore at that stage..)? Will Grant, like Nash think that enough is enough and that maybe he should jack it all in to go and play the only song he knows on his piano? (5 bonus points for anyone who can name that song!)

Channing Frye:  This one interests me more and more as time goes by.  Frye has reportedly asked for a large sum of money that he's not worth.  A big man that shoots 3 and doesn't play defense?  For the money he is reportedly asking for, I could bring in 3 players to do what he does - 1 big man, 1 player who only shoots threes or long twos and someone who can't play D. Will his value plummet? Will he miss his chance of a big payday? Will he ever find a system that allows him to flourish as he does in the Suns one?

Lou 'my BFF' Amundson:  I have more love for Lou than I do my own mother but if we go out in the first round, will Lou be allowed to leave rather than paying him more by resigning him, than he currently earns ($855,189)? If that happens, will he go to a team where they pay him more and then expect more and ultimately break him?  (If we don't resign him, I swear to God I'm gonna send Sarver a piece of paper with a swear word on it!)

We can go on...the young guys - will the lack of progress this year affect their future careers? Possibly not as they will have other years to get back to the postseason but will any future appearances in the playoffs be alongside such savvy and smart guys as Grant and Steve where they can really learn about the game so early in their careers?

Jarron Collins and Dwayne Jones - We bomb out, these two guys are gone, right?  What's that? They'll probably be gone regardless?  Maybe but they also have a lot riding on this series/playoffs. They might be asked to stick around if we have a good post season run.

And what about Kerrs job? That'd be over I imagine.

I know it's easy to play the 'what if...' game and create thousands of scenarios as I just have but the impact could be bigger than Oliver Millers appetite if we lose in the opening round and it's something that, in Hypothetical Land, we'd need to be worried about.

However, we live in the real world and in this real world we currently trail Portland by only one game.  Think about how good we were towards the end of the season.  Is every sportswriter wrong when they said the Suns would emerge out of the first round?  That'd be unheard of.
We're leaving the first round...and it won't be to pack our bags and go home.  We WILL move on people.

Believe.

Everyone be quiet and take your seats please.  You at the back, sit down.
I'm going to tell you the secret to the Suns - Blazers series. I have spent many hours figuring it out and devised numerous equations that best show what I'm about to tell you.  So as long as you are all ready to hear it, here goes....

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Here's a little history on my relationship with STAT:

I've never really liked Amar'e. I didn't like his me-first attitude, I didn't like that he appeared one dimensional as a player, I didn't like that in the 7SOL book Amar'e came across as just another spoilt superstar who is only out for himself and I borderline hated him for not committing to the Suns but instead, chased the most money available to him. I disliked all these things about him.  Hell, I even thought that we made the wrong decision in trading away Marion. I thought it should have been STAT that we traded. After all, I figured that a versatile SF was harder to find than an offensive PF.

Even coming into this season, I was very much in the 'trade Amar'e before he bails on us' camp.  I believed he would become a distraction, a negative influence on a group of guys who seemed to gel pretty well.  Even when we were on a 14-2 run at the beginning of the year, I wasn't all that impressed with Amar'e.  He didn't do anything to me that made me think he warranted a MAX deal.  I always remeber Bill Simmons say that Amar'e shouldn't get a MAX deal because he doesn't do anything that helps his team win, and barring the points he got and a few rebounds, I saw Simmons' point.

Then came the Dallas game.  1 rebound.  1.  

I wanted rid of him.  I would have backed Kerr and Sarver to the hilt on that.  I wouldn't have wanted terrible players in return but neither did I want to hitch my wagon to a player for the next 6 years who wants to get only 1 rebound in a big western conference battle.

Allstar weekend hit and I think we all wondered whether the right decision would be made.  Should STAT be traded? What could we get in return?  What about our future? What about Steve? Won't somebody, PLEASE, think of the children?!?!

Amar'e didn't move.  I was quietly pleased with the decision.  'Better the devil you know' I thought.

Except I didn't know Amar'e all that well.  The Amar'e that came back after all star break is an Amar'e I didn't know at all.  He's been beasting it since then. Tearing teams hearts out, hustling out of bounds to change the course of games, dunking on men and boys to pull us to the win, he's been hitting nearly 60% of his shots - dominating anyone who wants to step to him, he's become unstoppable and now, now I want him to sign a MAX deal. Now, he's doing things which are helping the team.  Now, he's become a franchise player in my eyes. Now, he's worthy.

There are, however, two questions which are in the back of my mind constantly, which I'm helping someone can answer to allay my fears and worries....

- How will Amar'e react when we start losing?  We've seen how he flourishes in a winning environment but the true test of a player and human being is how they react in the face of adversity.  Since AMar'e has been on 'beast' mode since the Allstar break, we've not had a losing streak of note worthiness. My concern is what happens if we hit that streak, what will Amar'e do...

- What happens to STAT when he doesn't have anything to prove to anyone anymore?  He's had two years of microfracture, he's had a year of eye surgery and he's had a season or more of proving to people he is worth MAX.  What happens if he has a turbulence-free season?  Will he carry on playing with this fire or will he get comfortable?

After last nights Golden State disaster, and reading the comments on the game thread and how people were sick of the way we were playing and felt we were better, I felt it was time for some grounding.

We got off to a 14-3 start - an entirely surprising start and of late, we've gone 5-9 since the loss at the Knicks with each loss being attributable to something.  But amidst all of this, I kinda feel like we need to know what we expect and what we'd accept. My thinking is that it will help prevent the horrible knee jerk reactions we all have and help keep us sane by looking at the bigger picture.

So here's what I've done...

Starting with the GSW game and going through to Atlanta, what would you expect our record to be after the Atlanta game and what would you accept? (injuries, suspensions, trades, back to backs etc not permitting).

Make your predictions for EXPECT and ACCEPT after 40 games, 50 games, 60 games, 70 games, 80 games and seasons end.

Our record currently stands at 19-12

LAL

BOS

MEM

SAC

HOU

MIA

MIL

IND

ATL

Expect - 5-4

Accept - 4-6

40 to 50 games:

CHA

MEM

NJN

CHI

GSW

UTA

CHA

DAL

HOU

NOH

Expect - 7-3

Accept - 5-5

50-60 games:

DEN

SAC

POR

MEM

DAL

ATL

SAC

OKC

PHI

LAC

Expect - 6-4

Accept - 5-5

60-70 games:

SAS

DEN

LAC

UTA

IND

LAL

NOH

MIN

UTA

POR

Expect - 7-3

Accept - 5-5

70-80 games:

GSW

NYK

MIN

CHI

NJN

DET

MIL

SAS

OKC

HOU

Expect - 10-0

Accept - 7-3

80-82 games:

DEN

UTA

Expect - 1-1

Accept - 1-1

Season total:

Expect - 55 wins

Accept - 46 wins

After reading wattdoggs great piece about the first time he truly relised just how unbelievable our mighty leader Steve Nash is, I felt now would be as good a time as any to ask all of you - What's been your favourite Steve Nash moment?  What was it that made it so special? What happened?

Be as descriptive as possible people - we all want to bathe in the Nash-love that we all know we have.

Is it just me or is the answer staring us all in the face?  The most talented players who have been brought in to the team are B.Diddy, Marcus Camby and Zach Randolph. 

Baron was most successful playing crazy fast paced ball, Camby is one of the more mobile big men and Zach Randolph was really becoming useful in the D'Antoni system.

So being that those three guys - all big contract guys - have been most successful playing one type of ball, why not play that kind of ball?

Move Dunleavy upstairs to focus on being G.M. and bring in a coach who is happy playing fast break ball.

It's rare that a superstar in this league actually wants to come to the Clips, so let's not ruin it by forcing him out.