Suns are Ghost Contenders for the Title.

Looking back, the past 10 champs have all had certain things in common. Not just being that it was either the Lakers or the Spurs for 7 of those 10. Here's the crazy thing....the Suns fit into that same mold.

1. At least 1 superstar or (potentially Hall of Fame player.

The Lakers of '00-02 having Kobe and Shaq, Pau Gasol in '09, '03 Spurs with Tim Duncan and David Robinson (You can make an argument for Parker or Ginobili even from there other titles), '06 Heat had Dwayne Wade and Shaq again, The '04 Pistons don't have anyone completely clear cut, but Billups definitely deserves to be inducted at some point, and of course the '08 Celtics with their big three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce, all poised for the Hall. The Suns have a few of their own in Nash and Stoudemire and maybe even Grant if you feel up to it. These eventual title winning stars put out great games to alter the series and get them titles ( Wade, Pierce ). Or even great plays (Shaq alley-oop over Portland).  With the way Amar'e is playing, and the Grant and Nash hungry for that elusive title, I'd expect the similar outputs from them come playoff time.

2. Productive or Dominant Big Men.

As with the teams stated earlier, many of their star players were Big men in actuality. Duncan, Shaq, KG, and Gasol. Obviously Pau isn't as big as Kobe but an All Star nonetheless. Some stats to help out..

Shaq*:  27.0 PPG, 13.3 RPG, 2.2 BPG, .565 FG%

Duncan*: 23.5 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 2.6 BPG, .518 FG%

KG:  20.4 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 1.1 BPG, .495 FG%

Gasol: 18.3 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 2.0 BPG, .580 FG%

* - An accumulative average of each year of playoff statistics in years they won the title

KG and Gasol weren't exactly dominate but they were a force in the paint and ultimately helped win them their series

Amar'e in the last 5 games...

32.8 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 1.2 BPG, and if my math does me correct...73 FG% (!?)
 Max Contract Anyone?

If he continues with and output like this consistently, there is no reason to lay back and accept an early exit.

3. Solid Bench

I would attempt to give more detail about what each bench averaged for their team, but that's more than I'm capable of at the moment. If anyone else would like to give some more detailed bench summaries it would be greatly appreciated. I'll just give a simple synopsis of each team's key contributors

'00-02 Lakers Bench: Robert Horry ...

'03 Spurs: Malik Rose, Manu Ginobili

'04 Pistons: Corliss Williamson, Mike James,

'05 Spurs: Robert Horry...

'06 Heat: Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning

'07 Spurs:  Manu, Robert Horry...

'08 Celtics: James Posey, Leon Powe, Sam Cassell or Eddie House, You pick.

'09 Lakers: Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown (?)

These were just key players of course, and don't fully represent each bench accurately, but these players contributions were assertive enough to sustain leads or provide sparks

'10 Suns: Goran Dragic, Channing Frye, Jared Dudley, Lou Amundson, Leandro Barbosa

Hmmm...Interesting the difference in number of solid and consistent contributors

4. The X-Factor

My final listing of this post. What is the X-Factory. The player that isn't the superstar, isn't the HOF Guy, isn't the relied on 6th man, but rather the player who quietly but faithfully gives their team the edge.

I'm just gonna stick with the last 4 Champs for this one

'06 Heat - Some may find it arguable but IMO it's Antoine Walker. Had a couple of game changing buckets through out the series. 13.3 PPG and 5.6 RPG is a very solid contribution.

'07 Spurs - I'm gonna give it to Michael Finley. Guy never won a title until that year and his 11.3 PPG and .419 3P% at 33 years old showed some of his yearning

'08 Celtics - Rajon Rondo gets my vote here. Kid essentially came out of nowhere and led his team with 6.6 APG throughout the playoffs that year. 10.2 PPG helps some too.

'09 Lakers - Easily Trevor Ariza. Shot 47% behind the arc in the playoffs that year. Came up with huge steals in both the Denver and Orlando Series. 2.3 APG to go with 11.3 PPG aint bad either

What do the Suns have?

In all honesty you can argue this maybe, but in my mind it's easily Robin Lopez. Jason Richardson is definitely a close second but in reality, Lopez does so much more for us. They need a new category in the box score for this guy called "Altered Shots Per Game". Without him, we're not fighting for the 4th seed. Plain and Simple.

This years Suns are better than almost any we've had in recent years, maybe even all time, in terms of balance. Sure we have lapses or become turnover prone, but we have everything going for us this year. Two title hungry Vets in Nash and Grant. I complete and utter beast in Amar'e. Great bench output. Just a solid team overall. Sure there are teams that are obviously better, but those same teams feel their better and will probably not give the same passion as these Suns will playoff time. I'm talking to LA. Maybe Cleveland

Feel free to point out any mistakes or voice out oppositions.