Ouch....(Photo by Max Simbron)

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Basketball-Reference.com Blog " Blog Archive " Nash Gunning For a Third MVP?
The Suns' performance so far has been both surprising and commendable, but the jury is still out on whether they can maintain it, because the best predictor of future results says they're not quite as good as their record says they are.

I have to agree with this....The Suns have played great but in many ways it's been done with hustle and grit and a bit of smoke and mirrors. I am no where near ready to say that the Suns can beat the Lakers, Spurs or Nuggets in a playoff series. And as GREAT as Nash has been he has tendency to slow down as the season wears on.

Enjoy the early season success but this ride will still be more roller coaster than rocket ship....

Now go prove me wrong, Phoenix Suns and keep winning!

More Linkers

• Lakers already playing catch-up to Suns - Lakers blog : The Orange County Register
  DON'T CLICK THIS LINK. JUST ENJOY THE HEADLINE!
• Be wary of betting the Phoenix Suns
  Sell the Phoenix Suns – The Suns are off to a scintillating 10-2 start, but don’t expect the good times to continue for 82 games. HATER!
• Hardwood Paroxysm " Blog Archive " SUPER!BASKETBALL!FIGHTING!EXCITEMENT!BATTLE!
  Check out Steve Nash's Fighting Trading Whatever Card
• Hardwood Paroxysm " Blog Archive " Nichols and Dime: How Accurate are some of the Advanced Stats That We Use?
  Using advanced stats to attack advance stats....but forget all that. There's pretty pictures!

• Rookies Proving the \'09 Draft Class Can Play - Sean Deveney - The Baseline - Sporting News
  No Earl Clark? I kid!

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Bargnani tries to avoid the poster but he's just a bit too slow getting out of frame...(Photo by Max Simbron)

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• SUNS: Postgame Quotes: Suns 101, Raptors 100
  The defense picked up on both sides I think and both teams did a really good job. The switching bothered us a little bit, because we got a little bit stagnant, but we’ll take care of that. I think we’ve got to continue to pace and continue to push the basketball. That slowed us down a little bit. - Coach Gentry
  
• The Official Phoenix Suns Blog " Blog Archive " Several Players Get Credit For Win Against Raptors
• Suns escape with win vs. Raptors
  The Suns were more sloppy than slick. They missed more shots than they made. And in the end, they had to count on one of the game's clutch shooters to miss two shots in the final seconds.
• Turkoglu almost joined Suns in 2004 (wow - never heard this story before!)
  In July 2004, Turkoglu was a 25-year-old free agent who had been a part-time starter in San Antonio. The Suns, after deciding Kobe Bryant could not be wooed, struck fast in free agency by landing Nash. They wanted to pair him with Mehmet Okur. When Okur received a $50 million deal from Utah, Phoenix turned its focus to Turkoglu.
• Suns 101, Raptors 100 -- Thaaat close| Valley of the Suns
  The Phoenix Suns prevailed 101-100 over the Toronto Raptors when Hedo Turkoglu's potential game-winning shot rimmed out.
• Tip-In, Toronto Raptors Post Game Report - Mired in Amare - Raptors HQ
  It was a fight to the finish but the Dinos came up short...
• NBA Broadband League Pass – Where "WTF!" Happens aka Thoughts on Rockets 101 Lakers 91 (Game 10) - The Dream Shake
  Thoughts on Houston Rockets 101 Los Angeles Lakers 91. The LA Excuse Factory ramps up production.
• Kobe Bryant: strained right groin muscle - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN
  By J.A. Adande After Kobe Bryant missed 15 of 20 shots and came out with two minutes remaining in the Los Angeles Lakers' 101-91 loss to the Houston

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More photos » by Gus Ruelas - AP

Actor Zac Efron holds the ball as Phoenix Suns warm up before the start of the game. I Love LA, where who you are matters so damn much...

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Just kidding. Of course, losing sucks and of course losing to the Lakers sucks even extra bad and to get blown out...well, that just sucks.

BUT - as I said, it is not a bad thing either. There is a silver lining. This team has work to do. It needs to get better defensively and the offense needs to face a tough, focused and prepared defense like it did last night. Boston might be the best defensive team in the league but they didn't have three full days to prepare for the Suns. The Lakers did and it showed.

It was a humbling experience and as along as the team treats it as an opportunity to improve it will be beneficial in the long run. And besides, do the Suns really want that target on their back this early in the season?

Underdog suits us. Flying under the radar causes less turbulence.

The Suns are better than we all thought they would be but they are not (yet) on par with the Lakers. Especially, after playing 7 games in 10 days and especially without Robin Lopez who will be the difference maker!

Next up - Rest. Suns are taking the day off.

Recap coming soon from our very own international point guard super star - Panama Sun (he's a Suns fan - from Panama!)

Links Follow

SUNS: Postgame Quotes: Suns @ Lakers, 11/12/2009
Phoenix Suns Coach Alvin Gentry on tonight’s game being a back-to-back and the effect it had: "It is tough, unfortunately we will play them again on the back-to-backs. But they are great, they are the world champs and there is a reason why they are the world champs. Like I said I don’t know where their weakness is really. They are going to be a handful for whoever plays them.

We ran out of gas, we really did, the bottom line is that we missed shots that we normally made, I am not sure we quite had our legs, I am not making excuses because they are a great team, they defended the heck out of us, but we can usually stay in and make some of those shots. I have to give them credit because they are a great team and we have three more shots at them. It’s been tough, we started out in Miami and we ended up in Los Angeles over a 10-day period and in between we decided to stop in Orlando, Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia. It is tough."

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More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Slovenia tops Lithuania. As it should be.

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This just in...

New Orleans Hornets fire Byron Scott, according to NBA sources - ESPN
The New Orleans Hornets have responded to their 3-6 start by making the first coaching change of the young NBA season, firing Byron Scott on Thursday, according to NBA coaching sources.

• New Orleans Hornets information, analysis and discussion - Hornets247.com
  The Hornets got trounced tonight in Phoenix, 124-104 ( box | recap ). The Suns put up 40 points in the first quarter, 75 in the first half, and the Hornets never threatened. About what you'd expect when a bad defense meets a good offense. Some late-night bullets for this one...
• The Official Phoenix Suns Blog " Blog Archive " Suns Opening Eyes Around the NBA
• KTAR.com - Suns return home after impressive road trip
• Suns 124 , Hornets 104 : No Test; Much Rest.| Valley of the Suns
  Everyone was expecting a test against the Hornets in tonight's game. If it was a test, the Suns aced it, and got some extra credit. Absolutely ripping
• SUNS: Suns Sting Hornets, Put Eight in Double Figures
• azcentral.com - Coro Blog
  While the rest of the basketball world waits to see if the Suns have truly arrived in tonight's how-good-does-it-get-this-early matchup at the Lakers, it sure looked like Wednesday's home win against New Orleans said plenty enough already.
• New Orleans Hornets take huge step backward in loss to Phoenix Suns | New Orleans Hornets Central - - NOLA.com
  Hornets Basketball News. Get New Orleans Hornets schedule, roster, pictures and more. Get New Orleans Hornets current roster.
• Lakers will get a couple of early tests in Phoenix and Denver -- latimes.com
• Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash continues to defy his age - Ian Thomsen - SI.com
  Steve Nash is the grandfather who dances every dance at the family wedding. He is the millionaire who keeps showing up to work because he loves what he does. At 35, he continues to play like -- and get the best of -- the youngest point guards in the world's finest league.
• Iowa Energy: Roster in the air as season looms | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

• SUNS: Postgame Quotes: Suns 124, Hornets 104
  I think we can play even better – we did a lot of things right on both ends of the floor, but the funny thing is I don’t even think we’re running yet. So once we get to that where we’re just up and down and going like we normally do, we’ll be pretty good.

Someday we might have a D-league team in Tucson but for now our affiliation is with the Iowa Energy. They've been a great organization to work with and I look forward to following their season. Here's an update on their current roster going into tonight's draft from Coach Nurse.

Coach Nurse’s Notes: First Pieces of Team- Energy Hoopla – Iowa Energy Basketball Social Site
Matt Trannon (Michigan State)–Two sport star for the Spartans. Played both basketball and football. Has been in several NFL training camps, and played in Australia last year. Very athletic and tough. Plays hard.

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Amare Stoudemire may not have all his hops back but he got up high enough to reject this dunk attempt from Al Jefferson. (Photo by Max Simbron)

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Murder in Russia shakes women’s hoops world " Mechelle Voepel

This is really an amazing story that has the potential to impact the entire landscape of women's basketball...

Suns Road Trip Links

• SUNS: Suns to Embark on Five-Game Road Trip
• Contrasting styles present conflict in Phoenix Suns-Miami Heat match-up - Miami Heat - MiamiHerald.com
  The Suns bring the league's best shooting team and highest-scoring offense to face the NBA's stingiest defense in field-goal percentage allowed.
• BallerBlogger.com " Video: D-Wade Goes 1-on-5

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Practice today for the Suns ran longer than planned. The general mood of the team seems pretty serious. There's no high-fiving jocularity going into the season.

We got our first look at Jarron Collins. He seems to be about the same size as Channing Frye. Not a particularly wide body maybe a bit longer. He was a nice interview and talked about doing what he's asked to do. You can see why he lasted so long in Utah. He's a pro.

Collins also is a long time family friend of the Lopez family. He and his brother Jason played youth club ball with older brother Alex Lopez and he's know Brook and Robin since they were toddlers. I asked him if that makes him a good choice to be a mentor to Robin. He didn't take the bait and basically said at this point he knows Robin so well that the best he can do is just provide encouragement.

Other Griffin Brother

Taylor Griffin was once again the last player off the court. He said he was excited to play in his first NBA game and is clearly disappointed that Blake is injured. He said that he talks to his brother about every other day.

Options Date

The Suns have until October 31st to pick up the 4th year options on the rookie contracts of Dudley and Tucker. I asked David Griffin about it and he said they would likely announce the decision on Thursday. He called it a no-brainer but I am not really sure what he meant.

Picking up Dudley's option is a no-brainer to me but do the Suns really want to guarantee Tucker $2m for next season? If they don't pick up his option he becomes an unrestricted free agent next year which means this trade season he's an expiring contract. But maybe that's what Griff meant by it being a no-brainer. We'll find out soon enough.

You all know how much I love Tucker. He's a great guy and I think is a legit NBA player but here in Phoenix he's just stuck behind Barbosa and Richardson and that won't change next year either. It's a numbers game with him but I'm always going to be a Tucker fan.

Predictions:

It's that time of the year. I am picking the Magic to beat the Spurs in the finals.

I really don't care about MVP, MIP, ROY, etc but feel free to call your shot in the comments below.

Daily Links after the jump

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The AZ Republic is running a big Suns feature in today's Sports section. Here's some of the key links:

• azcentral.com blogs - Coro's Suns dish: Everything else was nice
  Coro's Suns dish: So how was the Suns' trip to Vancouver? They raved about the city, the hotel and the unbelievable Steve Nash following. Oh, the game? Welllllllll . . . So how was the Suns' fan fest and open scrimmage today?
• Suns' rebounds hit a low in loss
  You needed the preseason to learn that the Suns don't rebound well like you needed a thermometer to know that the Valley summer was hot.
• Kerr's latest plan unfolding for Suns
  Bickley: Will this season be Steve Kerr's revenge? Or just another regret?
• 2009-10 Suns to have familiar feel
  Back to school: The Suns are learning their old ways to get to a better class of the NBA.
• Suns' new math? Adding by subtracting
  The Suns sent away their only 2009 All-Star and expect to make the playoffs despite missing out last season.

• Suns coach has home-grown humility, dedication
  Phoenix Suns Coach Alvin Gentry leads and lives the way he learned during humble years in rural North Carolina.