Doing a little research here for something else....

The questions is pretty simple, which of these Suns teams was your favorite this decade:

• 2000/01 - 51 wins with Penny and J Kidd plus 1st year Shawn Marion and other legends like Cliff Robinson and Corie Blount
• 2004/05 - Nash's first season and the first real look at D'Antoni's new system. Got to the WCF and lost in large part due to Joe Johnson breaking his face
• 2005/06 - This was an over achieving team that got back to the WCF despite not having Amare. We can call this the Season of Boris
• 2006/07 - The Eyes On The Prize season when expectations were ratcheted up and the team won 61 games and lost to the Spurs (suspensions). This was really the last full year of D'Antoni with Nash, Amare and Marion
• 2009/10 - Redemption. You already know enough about this season to vote
  

Poll

Which of these was your favorite Suns team of the past decade:

• 2000/01 Kidd and Penny show
• 2004/05 Nash and 7SOL bursts on to the scene
• 2005/06 Season of Boris (underdog Suns)
• 2006/07 Eyes on the Prize
• 2009/10 Redemption

  860 votes | Results

PHOENIX — Steve Nash doesn’t want you to feel sorry for him. Sure, he has played in more NBA playoff games than any player in the history of the league never to reach the Finals (118),...

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Or, "Why You Shouldn't be Pulling For Either Team"

via sports.comedy.com

Okay, so I understand that some of us SB Nation Gangstas consider ourselves basketball purists, and would watch any game, any time. I am here to explain to you why this year's NBA Finals should be an exception to that rule.

As Suns fans, boycotting the NBA Finals could be construed as many things to the outside world: childish, whiny, petty, ignorant, or just plain wrong. To prove that skipping the Finals is none of these things (except some of them), after the jump are the top 10 reasons I will not be tuning in this year:

1. Lakers-Celtics is boring. Yes, I said it. The two best teams pitted against each other is just plain boring to me. Nothing new. Didn't this happen a couple years ago? Didn't I skip watching it then? ESPN has been hyping the matchup relentlessly as the "two most storied franchises" pitted against one another (hell, Lakers v. Celtics even has its own Wikipedia page). They are relying on the two teams' history to make this exciting, but honestly, I couldn't care less whether the Celtics or Lakers win their 18th or 16th title, respectively. 

"The Lakers Big 3: Kobe, Odom, Farmar?" via thelakersnation.com

2. Nobody to root for. For me, this is even worse than Spurs-Celtics as far as good guy-bad guy scenarios go. I like to root for my teams and underdogs. Neither is present here. My hatred of both teams is difficult, given that I would constantly be rooting for both teams to lose. Which would be awesome. 

 

3. Media buildup. Seriously, the 24/7 Lakers-Celtics coverage has put me over the edge. Given my addiction to ESPN, SB Nation, and ESPN Radio, this has been a difficult week for me. There's nothing better worse than having Cowherd's nasally voice praising the greatness of this rivalry. Consider my nausea exacerbated. Case in point: too much media focus on one event turns into stories like this.

 

4. I am a Suns fan. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that any decent Suns fan can't watch (and enjoy) a Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals. Oh wait, yes it does. YOU ALL DISGUST ME. 

 

5. Arguments about rooting for either team are silly. At best. Look, the idea that any Suns fan would be OK "losing to the champs", or wants to see the Celtics "take revenge for us" against the Lakers is preposterous. It's not good sportsmanship to root for the team that just beat you. It's humiliating. So take some pride in not rooting for the Lakers or Celtics, please. Obviously the best outcome for the Suns would be playing in the Finals, but that didn't happen. So let's sit down and watch NCIS re-runs.

 

6. Kobe. If this image makes you feel all fuzzy and warm inside, you need to be over at Silver Screen and Roll. GO!

 

7. General health. I won't have to worry about my brain exploding because of rooting for both teams to fail. Think of how much extra time I'll have, too! I'll be able to exercise more, catch up on reading, or spend more time hanging out with friends who couldn't care less about basketball. Maybe I'll even write a fanpost. 

So remember that one time my boy keify34 put up that post inviting us to throw up pictures of obscure former NBA players?  And do you further remember how it was a Bright Side of the Sun sensation that swept the nation (word play) unlike anything you'd ever seen before? 

Well this is going to be kind of like that - or at least I hope it's going to be.  The title pretty much says it all so feel free to post pictures of your favorites in the comments.  Basically you want a player who was on the roster of an NBA Champion and was well....awful at the sport of basketball in the NBA sense.  I'll start - from the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (for which he only played one game during that season)....Jack Haley!

Can we recapture the keify magic?  Yes we can!

In his postseason review of the Suns, Yahoo's Kelly Dwyer goes to great lengths to debunk the idea that Dirk could come to Phoenix as a replacement. In the process, Dwyer gets some key details wrong and misses on a main point - trade exceptions.

First, in theory, I totally agree with Dwyer that Dirk won't end up in Phoenix mostly for the reason he also cites - Mark Cuban will overpay Dirk and max him out if he thinks there's a chance that Nash and Dirk could reunite in Phoenix. Cuban is not going to let that happen.

That said, there's a few important details to clarify because they apply to the Suns overall cap situation and other options for the summer.

1) Grant Hill and Channing Frye both have player options for next season and it is pretty darn clear at this point that Hill is staying (he already told Kerr that) and Frye is going to test free agency.

That gives the Suns a salary of $42.8m for 8 players assuming no Amare, no Frye, no Amundson and also no Jones or Griffin who both have non-guaranteed contracts for next season.  With the salary cap at $56.1m, that gives the Suns $13.3m (again w/ no Frye, Lou, Dwayne or Taylor or new 2nd round picks).

2) Dwyer thinks that LB is not tradeable. I totally disagree. There will be a LOT of teams with cap space burning a hole in their pockets and Barbosa is a proven scorer that a few of those teams could add without having to take on a long term commitment. Two years isn't much and especially if you consider that in his final year, he becomes a valuable expiring contract. That's another $7.1m off the cap if he gets moved, so now we are talking about $20.4m in cap space, although there would have to be cap holds for those open roster spots and any 1st round draft picks the Suns got back. So figure about $16m in available space.

3) If the Suns were to trade LB to a team under the cap and only take back draft picks, they also get a trade exception which can be used to acquire other players without having to match salary. In the Amare situation, it is highly likely that the Suns would do a sign-and-trade with a team that wants him and entices him out of Phoenix with a max offer. That could give the Suns significant flexibility if they got back $15m to even $20m in trade exception.

So while I DON'T think it is likely, it is certainly possible that the Suns could get Dirk using these trade exceptions, although it would require the Mavs to in turn do a sign-and-trade with Dirk because trade exceptions can't be used to sign free agents.

The key thing to remember is that the Suns could use these trade exceptions to go over the cap and take back players and fill the space between the salary cap and the luxury tax with some talent. As we've seen over the past few years, teams with cap space and the ability to spend without going over the luxury tax have a lot of flexibility when it comes to making deals.

Poll

If the salaries and contracts were equal, would you rather have Amare or Dirk for the next 4 years?

• Amare. He's our man
• Dirk. Can't have enough big German shooters

  1217 votes | Results