Tomorrow from 1-3 p.m., Suns Chairman Jerry Colangelo will appear at the Borders bookstore at the Biltmore Fashion Park to sign copies of the new book, “Return of the Gold: The Journey of Jerry Colangelo and the Redeem Team.”

The book, written by local journalist Dan Bickley, traces Colangelo’s successful efforts to return USA Basketball to Olympic glory, claiming the gold medal at the 2008 games in Beijing. The book also brings in the voices of the game’s all-time greats, including Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Julius Erving and Jerry West.

 
For more information on the signing, contact the store at 602-957-6660. The bookstore is located at the Biltmore Fashion Park at 2402 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Whew! I’m so glad Sunday finally came. It seemed like forever, just waiting for a chance to hit the hardwood. I have really been anticipating the start of this season. We have a lot to prove; to our loyal fans, to the league and to ourselves. We’ve been playing very well first three games and we’re building camaraderie on this team.

I have a lot to prove. To myself and the staff that brought me here. Many have said that I’ve been a solid player that you can count on for 20+ points/game, but haven’t really done anything special since 2002. Well, that may be true to an extent, but this year will be different. I’ve made a personal vow to myself that this year I was going to put everything I have on the court.

I’m going to give Steve (GM) exactly what he thought I would be able to bring to this team. I’m so hungry for victory that I can smell it. This is the year of “The Valley of Suns”. All of you fans that may have slipped away due to our poor performance over the years get ready.

We’re coming out swinging and taking no prisoners!!!

We arrived in Miami today and did a team dinner. Everyone is so focused. Everyone is on board. We are a team. Funny thing though, I had a bit of deja vous today while leaving dinner tonight. It’s amazing how blessed we are in this profession. When we don’t succeed, we can come back the next year and get it right. That’s exactly what we plan to do. As we continue building team chemistry and work out the rough spots, we’re going to make things happen this year.

Thanks for all of your love and support.

Go Orange! Go Green!! (MSU) lol

JRICH23

Visit Jrich23.com, his official site, for more information on Richardson.

This week, country music star Toby Keith released his tribute to friend, peer and fellow Oklahoma native Wayman Tisdale in the form of his new music video for the single, “Cryin’ for Me.”

The former Suns forward, who passed away from bone cancer earlier this year, left the NBA hardwood in 1997 to focus on a new career in music. Tisdale released eight albums over the next 12 years, and certainly had no shortage of friends in either industry.

“I got up and called his voicemail, because I just couldn’t believe he was gone,” Keith told The Oklahoman’s entertainment writer Brandy McDonnell. “I wanted to hear his voice one more time and then I wrote the song about it. It’s kind of a goodbye song; it’s kind of my way of venting my pain, if you will.”

The jazz-inspired video also features Tisdale’s genre contemporaries and friends Dave Koz, Marcus Miller and Arthur Thompson, who paid homage to the man who received the 2009 Courage Award during All-Star Weekend just a few months before his death.

“He was a grand individual and we really miss him,” Keith also mentioned in his interview with The Oklahoman. “It really hurt me (to lose him). I don’t deserve everything I’ve got. I don’t live that kind of perfect life, and I don’t know very many people who do. That was the saddest part for me was just what a great individual he was and how much he deserved to live. And it was difficult for me to understand why he was taken, but he was, and that’s not my decision.”

To read Suns.com’s tribute to No. 23, CLICK HERE.   

To see Tisdale’s Suns career in photos, CLICK HERE.        

To see Toby Keith’s “Cryin’ for Me” (courtesy of CMT), CLICK HERE.

(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Suns are good to go. On the road that is. With five games on the road in the next seven days they felt going in that it behooved them to be sure to pack a 3-0 record along with their other travel gear, and they completed that mission by burying the T-Wolves under a barrage of their trademark threes.

And discount the caliber of the opposition to this point all you want, the fact is there are significant signs happy days (i.e., the heyday of the Coach Mike era) are here again.

And perhaps the most encouraging one in terms of looking down the road is evidence the Suns are once again starting to wear down opponents by simply running them into the ground.

It was a familiar pattern two years ago— other teams coming out hitting on all cylinders early on, and then gradually running out of gas. The Suns scored points in league-leading bunches last year too, but by the end of many games they were often the ones breathing extra hard.

This year Coach Alvin’s emphasis on running seems to already be paying dividends, and Sunday night was a case in point as the Wolves matched the Suns hoop for hoop through most of the first half before cooling off. Although a sloppy finish skewered the result a bit, the bottom line is the Suns looked much fresher down the stretch. And this was pretty much the case in their other two wins also.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that they were shooting threes even better than they were shooting twos, with Channing Frye continuing his remarkable spree with six of 10 from arc city. He is now 13 for 20 from long range, and having a 6-11 center that kind shoot that well from that far out really complicates what was already the unenviable task of defending the Suns.

“It really stretches the floor and opens things up,” said Coach Alvin. All five starters scored at least 14 points, led by Jason Richardson, who confirmed his great training camp by scoring 25 points in his first game since coming off suspension.

The bottom line: You give Steve Nash this many weapons to choose from and you’re looking at a team that’s going to be dangerous regardless of its well documented (over-documented, it says here) rebounding and defensive deficiencies.

Eric Musselman is entering his third season without a job in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean he is no longer a coach.

In fact, Musselman has spent the past two years meticulously studying every NBA team. That includes the Suns.

And he’s one man who is not surprised that the Suns looked good — and were victorious — in their season-opener against Clippers.

“I heard great things about their (training) camp at the University of San Diego,” Musselman, who played his college ball at USD, told Suns.com. “The players are really buying into Coach (Alvin) Gentry. They have taken ownership in the style of play that they have now. The chemistry between Alvin and his team is excellent.”

Musselman was the head coach of Golden State from 2002-04, and Sacramento during the 2006-07 season. Before that, he spent nearly a decade coaching in the minor leagues and had stints as an NBA assistant with Orlando, Atlanta, Minnesota and Memphis.

He is the son of the late Bill Musselman, who coached Cleveland during the early 1980s and was the first coach in Timberwolves history.

Today, he is an analyst on Comcast SportsNet broadcasts of college games, and attends various NBA training camps and practices to pick coach’s brains in his spare time. Musselman also plans out practices for each of the 30 teams, as if he were coaching them, during the season.

“I literally pick a different NBA team each week of the season, and act as if I’m part of that team’s staff,“ Musselman once explained to me. “I do it in alphabetical order — so the first week, I was with Atlanta, the next week I was with Boston, and so on. The practice would vary depending on the team’s personnel, schedule, strengths and weaknesses and upcoming opponents.”

For instance, if the Suns were Musselman’s team of the week, and they had a game on a Tuesday, Musselman would watch the game and plan out their practice on Wednesday. On top of the written plan, Musselman also does 15 minutes of film work, figuring out what the Suns would need to review and improve upon.

During the preseason, he found the Suns to be a cohesive unit consisting of players who understood their roles.

“Their roster is built to run, so their personnel and system and style all fit well,” he said. “They have been playing with an identity.”

This bodes particularly well for veteran point guard Steve Nash, whom Musselman believes “will have another great season.”

And what does the coach think of the team overall?

“In the West, the Lakers, Spurs, Blazers and Nuggets should be the top four,” Musselman said. “The Hornets, Rockets and Suns should battle it out for the other playoff positions.”

As someone who now coaches every team in the NBA, he should know.

AROUND THE NBA

* Keep an eye out for Golden State rookie guard Stephen Curry. The lottery pick out of Davidson is starting for the Warriors, and is a true bright spot on a team that’s otherwise infested with issues. Curry displayed a high basketball I.Q. and lots of composure in the Warriors’ season-opening loss against Houston, scoring 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor. He also passed for a team-high seven assists.

* The Suns play 10 of their 15 games in November on the road, including two games in three nights against the past two Eastern Conference champions. That would be Boston (Nov. 4) and Orlando (Nov. 6). Two nights after Boston, the Suns travel to Washington — and the Wizards are widely expected to be the league’s most improved team with a healthy Gilbert Arenas, and some nice off-season additions in Mike Miller and Randy Foye, as well new coach Flip Saunders.

* In other words, it ain’t gonna be easy, kids. The good news is, the Suns get to play a very young (albeit feisty) Minnesota team before bolting for the East Coast.

* So, what do we know about the Timberwolves? Not much. Other than the fact former Suns forward Kurt Rambis is their new coach. They also came from behind to beat New Jersey on a buzzer-beating basket by Damien Wilkins on opening night.

* Other than that, perhaps the most notable thing about the Wolves for Suns fans is that Sasha Pavlovic is on the team. Pavlovic was one of the guys whom the Suns acquired in the Shaquille O’Neal trade, but was quickly released. Pavlovic scored eight points in the opener.

* More impressive, Wolves rookie guard Jonny Flynn scored a team-high 18 points in his NBA debut, grabbing four rebounds in the process. Flynn has a lot of Steve Nash-like qualities, and it should be a lot of fun watching them go toe-to-toe when Minnesota rolls into town Sunday.

Sam Amico writes for NBA.com and is a regular contributor to Suns.com. He can be reached at amico@probasketballnews.com.

Let everyone you work with know your true colors.  You can now install a skin on your Firefox browser that not only shows the Suns colors, it also gives you one-click access to all of your favorite sections on the web site including the Schedule, Roster, PlanetOrange.net and Videos.  Visit BrandThunder.com/suns to get it now.

As the Suns open the season in L.A. against the Clippers tomorrow, they’ll have an asset off the bench that they didn’t have at the beginning of the week. Phoenix was awarded 6-11 Jarron Collins off of waivers from Portland yesterday, beefing the frontline up a little around the basket.

The eight-year veteran, who has spent every career regular season with the Jazz, holds career averages of 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds in 16.9 minutes. Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry said that he is unsure if Collins will play tomorrow after only one practice, but sees his value against a team that features 7-footers Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby.

“We needed some size and experience and Jarron is a smart player,” Suns President of Basketball Operations and GM Steve Kerr said. “He knows how to guard people and he’ll give us an option defensively and on the boards that we definitely needed.”

With an injured Robin Lopez and the Suns having been badly outrebounded during the preseason, Gentry liked the option of possessing another big body on the bench to turn to if needed. He likes him for his toughness.

“The guy was able to last for a lot of years with Jerry Sloan in Utah,” he said. “I rest my case. We need some rebounding and we somebody to help us defend the post.”

Gentry also noted his alma mater.

“He’s a real smart player,” he said. “He picked up what we’re trying to do real quickly. The guy is a Stanford grad, ok?

“That’s all you need to know,” he continued. “This is (talking about himself) an Appalachian St. guy. There’s no comparison.”

One player who is looking forward to his pro debut tomorrow is Suns rookie Taylor Griffin. Griffin, who anticipated making his pro debut against his brother, Blake, had a change of plans yesterday when the Clippers reported that Blake will miss the next six weeks with a suffered a non-displaced stress fracture of his left patella.

“I think my parents looked forward to it more than anything,” Taylor said. “It’s pretty significant because it was his first home game, our first game playing each other and kind of the hype that surrounds it. But it will be good. He’s not thinking about this game, he’s thinking about getting back on the court.”

The elder Griffin, Taylor, says that he speaks with his brother about every other day and that they have used each other to help transition into the pros. He said that his brother is “pretty upset,” but that his brother “recovers pretty quickly.”

With Jason Richardson serving a two-game suspension, Gentry kept mum on what he plans to do with the starting lineup.

“We might start Jared (Dudley), we might start LB (Leandro Barbosa), we might start three big guys,” he said.

When asked if he had three big guys, Gentry responded, “We’ll start three medium guys.”
Gentry said Richardson’s scoring will be missed. He’s expecting him to be the team’s second-leading scorer this season.

At least the Suns will have Steve Nash, who sat out of yesterday’s practice with back spasms. The two-time MVP was once again running the show at practice again today.

Louis Amundson, who missed some of practice with a sprained ankle today, will reportedly be ready to go tomorrow. As will Amar’e Stoudemire, who’s last regular season contest was the game when his eye was injured against the Clippers.

“It’ll be fun being back at the same position, playing against the same team that ended my season last year,” Stoudemire said. “So I’m back with a vengeance.”

From the basketball writer that predicted the Y2K hoax and Balloon Boy’s whereabouts, Suns.com’s Stefan Swiat will lay his already shattered reputation on the line to predict with all uncertainty, how the Suns will fare this season. Brace yourselves to see the limb he will not go out on:

Basketball experts are predicting the Suns to finish anywhere between 10th and seventh in the Western Conference. ESPN’s Marc Stein, perhaps in an attempt to receive extra Cold Stone at halftime, wrote that the Suns will be the surprise team of the Western Conference, finishing sixth overall. Thanks Marc!

“I just know that in the past, the core group of this team has been in a situation where they’ve won at least 10 straight games every year that I’ve been here except last year,” Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry said. “Some kind of way we just have to play good enough basketball to so that we can get into the playoffs. We have to find a way to be better than one of those teams that finished ahead of us last year.”

When people wonder how the Suns are going to do this season, I tell them at as long as they all stay healthy, they are definitely a playoff team. Phoenix missed the playoffs by two games, holding the second-best record of all-time by a team (46-36) not to participate in the postseason.

The Suns would’ve been the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, but has the misfortune of playing in the highly-competitive Western Conference. But the offseason brought with it a few advantages.

First, when you look at the final standings from last season, the Rockets ended up with the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. But they’re missing their top three scorers from last season and it’s going to be tough for them to manage enough firepower to sneak into the playoff hunt.

Also, after the Suns’ ninth-place finish last season, the next closest team to them in the standings were the Warriors, who were 17 games behind them. Everyone is talking about how the Clippers are much-improved – which they may be – but they finished 27 games behind the Suns last year.

The Thunder have been getting billed as a young and exciting team that’s on their way up, but they concluded the season 23 games behind the Suns. That’s a ton of a ground for these teams to make up over an offseason.

“For the style of play that we have and what we’re trying to get done, this is a good team,” Gentry said. “Most of these guys have been here and played in this system so it’s just a matter of executing and getting in great shape so we can play this way for 48 minutes. And if we do that, I’ll be happy.”

So let’s say that the Suns remain the same and finish ahead of everyone they did last year and move ahead of Houston, they’re a lock for the playoffs. That’s just the minimum to expect.

Now what if a star player on one of the other top seven teams get injured? Besides the Lakers and the Spurs, the rest of the teams would have a tough time absorbing an injury to a key player.

Sixth Man of the Year candidates better watch out. (Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)

Now what about the Suns? Why do I think they’ll be better this season? I’ll give you five quick reasons:

1) Improved chemistry: It wasn’t that Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t a positive locker room influence and a presence in the paint – which he was – but now every single member of the team thrives in an up-tempo offense.

Plus, these guys really get along. There is a clear pecking order in the locker room with Nash and Hill as the team leaders and Amar’e Stoudemire bringing an upbeat attitude every day to practice.

I just spent an inordinate amount of time with them on a road trip and everyone jokes around with each other all the time.

It goes a long way when you enjoy going to work with people that you like.

You don’t want to disappoint each other and it makes it tough to turn against the group when difficult times arise.

2) Channing Frye: With the 6-11 Frye spreading the floor from the perimeter, Stoudemire has the entire paint at his disposal. They’re the perfect complements to each other on the offensive end.

3) Diminished expectations: How many times in sports do people give up on a player or team too early and they come back at them that one last time like a villain in a horror movie? That’s right. Too many times. And I think the Suns could play that Michael Meyers-type role. There’s nothing more dangerous than talented players with nothing to lose. In the words of Cool Hand Luke, “Sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.”

4) A healthy Amar’e: You have to remember, Stoudemire was the NBA’s fifth leading scorer in 2007-08. He was the team’s leading scorer and would have been 13th overall in the NBA last season if he would have played enough games. He missed 29 games and played only two under Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry. That’s a lot of production the team was missing. When Gentry was asked about STAT’s ceiling as a player, he responded, “I don’t think he has one.” But Gentry knows that the team has to be patient. “To think that a guy can sit out seven months, play eight games and be back to where he was is really unrealistic,” he said. “I think he’ll get there. Now will it take 10 regular season games, 12 or 15 regular season games? We don’t know that. We just know he’s working to get back towards that.”

As I look into my crystal ball, here are some other predictions I only want you to remember if I’m right:

1) Amar’e Stoudemire will have one of the best statistical seasons of his career. His shooting touch from the outside is as good as it’s ever been and the team is on pace to score a lot of points with him being the first option. With him looking to silence doubters, playing for the biggest contract of his career and him being well-rested, I would have said with utmost confidence he’d be a shoe-in for an MVP-like season… if he would have came back from his injury just a couple months earlier. But since he’s working his way back into shape, I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays well early, but becomes an utter monster after the All-Star break. After missing most of the 2005-06 season, he averaged 9.6 rebounds a game in 2006-07, while after a shortened 2003-04 season, he averaged 26 points a game in 2004-05. STAT is known for coming back strong from injuries.

2) Leandro Barbosa, who for some strange reason isn’t in the preseason discussion for Sixth Man of the Year, will be at the season’s end. Currently, Boston’s Rasheed Wallace, the Lakers’ Lamar Odom and San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili have the inside track. But all of those teams have a ton of threats on offense that will keep those three players from having remarkable numbers. Not to say that the Suns don’t, but they also average a ton of points, so there are more to go around. To keep in perspective how explosive Barbosa can be, he led the team in scoring 13 times last season despite reporting to the team late due to his mother’s death. He’s also coming off a FIBA Americas Championship where he personally dominated the tournament and led his team to a gold medal.

3) Channing Frye will make a run for Most Improved Player. Whenever this guy gets minutes, he produces. As a rookie in New York, he averaged 12.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24 minutes a night. That’s over 25 points and nearly 12 rebounds per 48 minutes. Now with the opportunity to make mistakes and not be looking over his shoulder, Frye is going to thrive in Phoenix. Last year, he averaged only 4.2 points and 2.2. rebounds in 11.8 minutes, while this preseason he’s already averaging 12.3 points on 43 percent shooting from downtown. Expect those numbers to rise as he becomes more comfortable too.

4) The bench will be a factor. Remember when two years ago everyone criticized former Suns Head Coach Mike D’Antoni for not resting the starters enough and not developing the young players? Well, Gentry heard that too. When he took over last season, the minutes of Louis Amundson, Jared Dudley and Goran Dragic all skyrocketed. All of those players responded too, playing their basketball at the end of the season. When the starters went to the bench with the lead at the end of last year, the reserves would hold or increase the lead. Expect all of them to pick up where they left off last season.

5) Steve Nash will lead the NBA in assists. He finished third in the league in assists last season, but was tied for first with Utah’s Deron Williams in assists per 48 minutes. Expect increased production from the two-time MVP this season, considering everyone in the organization is on the same page offensively this season. Just that little bump should make all the difference for Nash, who in my mind, looked fresher when he came into camp this year than he did last year. It might just be my imagination, but he looks a little quicker to me this year than last year.

6) Sorry to report, but the Suns won’t break the record for most points a game by a team. That honor belongs to the 1981-82 Nuggets, who averaged 126.5 for the season. Last year, the Suns 117.7 after the All-Star break, and although I think their scoring will rise a little, almost 10 points a game more is a lot to make up. I can’t wait to see them try though. However, they will lead the NBA in points and field goal percentage again though.

Suns broadcaster Tim Kempton told me he thinks this team will win over 50 games. He might be right. I think their best-case scenario is around 55-58 wins, if everyone stays healthy and they pull out all of their nail-biters.

Their worst-case scenario is 45 games, which will be good enough for an eighth seed. I’m guessing the median of the two will be good enough for the sixth or seventh seed, but they’re going to come on strong in the second half of the season and be one of the surprise teams in the league this season.

One thing that’s easy to predict is that no one is going to want to see them in April.

Thinking about the upcoming 2009-2010 NBA season, I got to wondering how many people, prior to the 1975-1976 season, thought the Suns had the remotest chance of being anything other than an afterthought in the league. Sports Illustrated didn’t. In a season preview that year, the magazine picked the Suns fifth in their five-team division, noting that the teams ranked above them all had centers among the finest in the league. The Suns, the editors reasoned in their barely-a-paragraph’s-worth-of-coverage, wouldn’t be able to defend bigger teams and would wither under their physical assault. After all, their only notable additions that offseason were a slender, undersized, rookie pivotman named Alvan Adams and a heretofore unheralded backup guard named Paul Westphal.

Well, Suns fans with long memories know what happened. The centers for the teams ahead of them became injured or imploded, the Suns traded for a physical presence in the form of Gar Heard, and used a pattern, precision offense to run all the way to the Finals.

Stuff like that doesn’t happen often in pro sports, where the stars align just so, and someone completely unexpected roars out of nowhere to make a huge impression on the sport. But it can happen. It does happen.

Anyone out there remember the 1969 New York Mets? They’d been the worst team in baseball – by far – for a decade. True story about how goofy they were: Their leftfielder, an American, would routinely charge in on short fly balls and yell “I got it!” to warn off the shortstop…only to get run over by the Dominican player, who spoke no English. In the off-season, the outfielder went to a Spanish-speaking coach and asked how to say, “I got it!” in Spanish. “Yo la tengo,” he was told. The outfielder practiced it all off-season. “Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!” In the first game of the next season, a short pop fly was hit to left. The leftfielder and the shortstop converged on the ball. “Yo la tengo!” shouted the leftfielder, and the shortstop moved off. The leftfielder prepared to catch the ball…and was run over by the centerfielder, who didn’t understand Spanish.

Would you pick a team like that to win the World Series? Of course not. Neither did anyone else. But thanks to some brilliant young pitching and intelligent management, that’s just what the Mets did, earning the nickname “The Amazin’s.”

More recent baseball example: The Tampa Bay Rays of a season ago. Sure, they had some young talent, but these were the Rays, perennial cellar-dwellers since their expansion days. Not even exorcising the word “Devil” from their name a few years back had helped that. But the young kids came of age and, with the right coaching, reached the World Series.

In football, how many pundits had the Cardinals reaching the Super Bowl last season? I wouldn’t need to take off my gloves and socks to count them, that’s for sure. But they got hot at the right time, had some teams in front of them stumbled, and rode some emerging stars to the title game.

Okay, you want basketball examples? I give you the 1981 Houston Rockets. The decade was supposed to belong (and largely did belong) to the Lakers and the Celtics. But Magic Johnson hurt his knee, and Moses Malone, the Rockets’ lone marquee player, put up a season for the ages, and the next thing you knew a .500 team had made the NBA Finals. How about those 8th-seeded Nuggets taking out the top-seeded, highly-favored Sonics in the playoffs last decade? Or the Warriors of just a few seasons ago, knocking off the top-seeded Mavericks the year after Dallas made the Finals? Did any but the die-hardiest of fans go into that season thinking, “This just might be our year?”

No one, but no one, is giving this season’s Suns a snowball’s chance in Goodyear of having a good year. Sentiments seem to be uniform across the board: The Suns can’t play defense, have no size, won’t rebound, lack depth, are too old at crucial positions. And maybe all those things will prove true.

But no one’s canceling the season. Too many things can happen. Some Sun could have the season of a lifetime. A rookie could blossom beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. More talented teams could suffer chemistry collapses (Helloooooo, Cleveland!) or, though this is nothing to root for, unfortunate injuries.

It’s a long season, with lots of variables and possibilities. And if they all fall into place, the Suns just might, to the delight of their fans, find themselves where no one thought they’d be – climbing to the top of the heap.

It’s happened before.