Unless you been hiding under a rock for the past year, then you know that the sun are entering or is in meltdown mode already, well loads of rumours have been circulating the internet about trade moves from all over the league. The 2006/07 was one of the greatest seasons the suns have ever had, winning 61 games and having notched multiple 12+ game win-streaks during the course of the regular season. The Suns showed there wasn’t any push over by winning streaks of 15 and 17 games straight (tied for fifth longest in NBA history) but to breakdown so quickly doesn’t really add up.

People say it all began when the suns completed a trade for a certain big man called Shaquille O’Neil for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks; they say it ruined the chemistry that the suns built over the years with the D’Antoni and suddenly have a man who won multiple titles with Lakers and Heat, and take over the suns team like he was the puppet master, the system has to be changed, just for Shaq, a system that has made them into a fearful team.

This obviously didn’t turn out that Kerr would have liked.

The season hasn't even started yet, but I'm already starting to think about who can possibly win the MVP of the 2009-2010 season. To me, it came down to the top three finalists in this past seasons MVP race. I don't see any people surprising us, and becoming a major contender in this years MVP race right away. Here are some previews to this years upcoming season.

1. Dwyane Wade, Guard, Miami Heat
Dwyane Wade has one of the best shots at winning his first MVP title, so long as he can get a good supporting cast around him during the off-season. If Wade had the supporting cast that LeBron had, or that Kobe had, Wade would have been the 2008-2009 Regular Season MVP. D-Wade has all the skills to do anything and everything, and have his way with other teams defense.

Wade is definately one of the quickest Guards in the NBA, and he shows it with his full court fast breaks, and his ankle breaking maneuvers. Also, after this past summers Olympic Games in Beijing, Wade's defense picked up tremendously, and being with all those all-stars, and gold medalists, Wade learned alot from them.

Dwyane Wade should have won the MVP this past season, if it weren't for his bad supporting cast. Wade proved he could score with the best, leading the league in scoring, with his average of 30.2 PPG over the span of last season. Wade also averaged 7.5 assists, showing that he is an excellent playmaker, but again, that goes along with having some good teammates to finish off his plays.

MVP, MIP, 6th man all your favorites and some uniquely NHO awards.

To me the REAL contenders can be weeded down to Cleveland, Los Angeles and Portland. Denver is too soft along with Orlando who also hasn't been playing as well since Jameer Nelson's injury and Boston doesn't look as scarey with KG possibly missing the whole playoff schedule now.

Portland isn't that great of a team but their youth, depth and the fact that they transform into the 1987 Lakers when they're at home makes things interesting out west. Shooters like that rat-looking faggot Steve Blake, Rudy Fernandez and LaMarcus Aldrige make them deadly, and the leadership of Brandon Roy has gotten stronger with each season. Though I think LA can get past the Blazers, they do have the best chance of beating the Lakers of anybody out west.

Cleveland has played the NBA's best basketball since the Allstar break, but I don't think they are the NBA's best team. The closest they've come to the Lakers this year was a 10 point loss at home. Despite their inspired play I don't think they have the talent to matchup favorably against LA. They've held their own against the Celtics but, I think health had more to do with that than the players. A healthy Celtic squad, I think, can beat Cleveland. Honestly, I think Cleveland's record depicts a much better team than what really exists.

The Lakers are to me, the NBA's best team. They've won all the statement games against Boston and Cleveland and have the most talent and depth of any team, including Portland. The REAL difference though, is their mental toughness. This season they are a much stronger team mentally than they were last year. Instead of wilting, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol stepped up and took over games against Boston and Cleveland both at home and on the road. The added factor of their overwhelming depth, a healthy Andrew Bynum, the world's best player and a years worth of valuable experience make them the title favorites.

8) Vlade Divac
Many people forget about Vlade, but he was key in the playoff runs of the Kings in the early part of the decade. Arguably one of the best passing big men in the history of the game, Divac helped get the Kings within a game of the NBA finals in 2003. He was also an NBA all-star in 2001.

9)Marcus Camby DPOTY
One of the most underrated players of the decade. For year Marcus Camby anchored the defense for the defensively hapless Denver Nuggets. He was DPOTY in 2006-07 and lead the NBA in blocks four times.

10) Dikembe Mutombo DPOTY
A long time NBA veteran who has survived nearly two decades of the physical grind of NBA basketball, Mount Mutombo has become one of the more dominating defensive presences in the NBA. He helped the Sixers make the NBA finals in 2001, and played for the Nets in the finals in 2003. Many have forgotten his defensive impact over the years, but in the first three years of the decade he was one of the best.

A recent number of conversations on internet message boards has been who is the better center, Dwight Howard or Yao Ming? This is a tough question to answer, both are high quality big men but both have vastly different styles to their game. So, I thought I’d take a look into which of the two are better. How many casual fans will say that Chris Paul is a better player than Deron Williams? I think most of you would say he is. But in a head to head match-up Williams outdoes Paul nearly every time. The point of this comparison is, that basketball is a team game and players going head-to-head like this doesn't really mean all that much because there are so many other factors than the two players who go head-to-head.

You have to take into account teammates. Certain players play well against certain teams so stars do not get as many touches as they normally would. This will of course effect their stats for the game. Team A may shoot better against team B than they do against the rest of the league strictly because of match-ups.

We also have to take into account the timing of the game. is team A playing at home after 2 days rest while team B is on the end of an 8 game roadie? These things will all effect how players play each other that night.

Looking at how player A plays against Team C vs. how player B plays against team E is not a good measuring stick either. Because a team is going to prepare differently vs. Yao and the Rockets than they would against Howard and the Magic.

The best Power Forward of all time… there are many great candidates from many different eras and they way to judge would be so hard, you could go on individual success (stats awards etc.) players like Karl Malone and or you could do it on winning and success of the team they were in, then the top of that list become McHale, Tim Duncan and Dennis Rodman all of whom have been very successful, however I have made my list of the top few PFs on a mixture of both success in stats and success in play offs and regular season. The other problem is distinguishing a PF from the C because of the lack of height many of the larger forwards ended up playing center.

NO.10 Dirk Nowitzki,
Dirk is one of the better shooters of all time, his name is often compared to greats like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Dirk over his career he has averages of 22.4 points a game, along with 8.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game defensively he averages just less than a steal and one block a game. Dirk shots efficiently with 47 percent from the field and 38% from beyond the arch he is also a very successful line shooter, at 87% from the line (he has his routine in which he hums whilst taking his shot) Dirk has won an MVP, and in the same season(06-07) his Dallas mavericks won 67 games, He has been selected to seven All Star teams, and he has been selected to eight All-NBA teams, with three of them as a first-team member. He is also the first and only player from Europe to win an MVP. His style is more of finesse than brute and strength you seem him do some really good mid range jumpers do open up his inside game, as many bigger men struggle with guarding a player with his permitter abilities.

NO.9 Dave Debusschere
Dave was one of the first super Power forwards nicknames “D” and “BIG D” which stood for defence, he was an amazing player with unreal hustle and determination definitely in his times top handful of defenders. In 1996 he was recognised at being in the top 50 players of all time and is unlucky not to be higher on this list. Everyone who ever came up against would leave bruised, he is one of the most physical players of all time. He was never afraid of trading elbows and really fighting for a rebound or lose ball. He was also known for his Amazing Defensive skills, which helped earn his nicknames, he made the All Defensive 1st team 6 times. In his career he averaged a solid 16.1 points and 11 rebounds a game as well as getting 3 assists and shooting 43.2% from the field. A player like him in more recent times was Dennis Rodman, however Dennis didn’t have nearly the same offensive game as Dave. His style of play almost the opposite of Dirk’s as Dave would power it home more often.

Well before James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891, the peoples of Mesoamerica had a very similar game where the point was to get a ball though a hoop. The games origins date back as far as one-thousand years before the common era. The game has gotten many names over the years such as; juego de pelota in Spanish; pitz in classical Mayan; and ullamaliztli in Nahuatl. Each area had a variation of the game with different rules and customs but generally the game was the same. The game, which combined aspects of modern basketball, soccer and modern American football, was popular in both secular and religious life before the Spanish invasion of the area starting in 1520.

The game is played with a rubber ball called an ulama and depending on the region can either be played like soccer were a ball must go into a ground goal or like basketball were the ball must go through a stone “hoop” mounted above the playing court. Like the game itself, the courts vary in size and structure as well; from the very small courts found through-out small Mexican villages to the huge courts found at places such as Chichen-Itza. The size and scale of the game and court had an impact on exactly what type of game was going to be played. Much like in modern sports in areas were equipment is rare, the players had to make do with any substitutes they could find. This appears to be exactly the case with the Mesoamerican ballgame, and is a likely reason as to the variations of the game. In the more rural areas the game is played much lower to the ground and the ball is kicked or struck with the lower body more. In the more urban areas where materials and equipment is readily available the game is played higher up on the body, and decorative protective masks are sometimes worn.

There are many strange connections in history and politics, but maybe none as strange as how an eventual NBA commissioner would play a role in bringing down a president. Before David Stern’s monarchial grasp on the office there was Larry O’Brien. A Massachusetts native of Irish decent born in the birthplace of basketball, Springfield, Massachusetts.

Before he became the commissioner of the NBA, O’Brien had been one of the most successful political strategist in American politics. He had a natural talent for politics and got his very first campaigning job when he was 11 years old in 1928. O’Brien slowly moved through the ranks of the Democratic party until in 1952 a young Massachusetts war hero approached him about leading his campaign for Senator; that young mans name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

O’Brien did such a successful job on Kennedy’s election campaign that in 1959, when the Senator was running for president, he asked O’Brien to be in charge of his election campaign. After Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election O’Brien became a special assistant to the president.

Maurice Podoloff......... 1946–63 President 
Walter Kennedy........... 1963–67 President 
Walter Kennedy........... 1967-75 Commissioner 
Larry O'Brien............ 1975–84 Commissioner 
David Stern.............. 1984–   Commissioner

Team location by state