It’s probably because the Suns haven’t been in this position for a long time.

Eight years ago, Bryan Colangelo was the general manager in charge of shipping off Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway to the New York Knicks for scraps. It initially drew criticism, but the move opened enough cap space for the next one that still stands as Colangelo’s most brilliant pull as an NBA executive.

He signed Steve Nash, and that generated wins, glory and eight years of knowing that, at the very least, the Suns would put a product on the floor that wouldn’t embarrass itself.

With Nash once again a free agent, that’s not a guarantee.

“It’s interesting,” forward Jared Dudley said. “I think four or five guys are under contract, so it could look like a whole new team. Or it could bring a majority of the guys back with a couple tweaks.”

General manager Lance Blanks and president of basketball operations Lon Babby now sit in the same chair occupied by Colangelo in the offseason of 2004.

Like Colangelo then, they put their faith in taking aim at one offseason, where having money to spend would mark a new era in the franchise and a defining point in their own careers. Of course, now the question is whether or not they can make a defining move without their plan backfiring.

That again starts with Nash.

This time around is more complicated, and it has the potential to end in a much uglier fashion.

Here’s all that remains certain at this moment.

Marcin Gortat, Jared Dudley, Channing Frye, Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick and Markieff Morris are all under contract with Phoenix. Sebastian Telfair has another year on his contract, although it’s not guaranteed.

Shannon Brown could have upped his price tag under his one-year deal this past season, while Robin Lopez and Ronnie Price are likely gone. That’s not to mention restricted free agent Aaron Brooks, who Blanks kept tabs on during his tour in China, nor Michael Redd, who could be drawn to re-sign with the Suns for their training staff alone.

Grant Hill must face the music about whether his body will hold up to contribute to any team, be it the Suns or otherwise.

And Nash? The two-time MVP will weigh all options, but it’s quite unclear which domino will be the first to fall. In one sense, the unselfish assist man could recruit a big-name free agent target to join him in Phoenix. In another, Nash won’t re-sign with the Suns if they aren’t assured of nabbing a high-profile teammate.

This is the first chance to see how the recently-acquired Babby and Blanks will plan out and aggressively pursue the free agent market, one that looks unsettlingly dry after Deron Williams and Eric Gordon are scooped up.

How they handle Nash, meanwhile chasing down other talents, could be a fragile process as well.

And to that, the judged success in this offseason of intrigue depends upon what, if any, seismic moves Babby and Blanks can shake up in the draft and in free agent signings, because what Phoenix has in the cupboard that’s assured isn’t going to make a difference unless that happens.

In players like Dudley, Gortat and Frye, there are solid pieces to a good team already locked into contracts for next season. Yet, there’s not a lot of expectation that those three, nor Morris, will expand their games to any great deal a la Amar’e Stoudemire or Joe Johnson when Nash arrived in 2004.

That puts all of the pressure on the front office to make moves — big ones at that.

That dark hole Suns fans are staring into? Nobody knows whether there’s a light at the other end of it.

“It’s no fun,” head coach Alvin Gentry said of being left out of the playoffs. “I don’t like not playing. It makes for a long, long, long summer when you’re not playing at the end of April.”

If the Suns don’t have some tricks up their sleeves during this summer of uncertainty, they’ll be seeing a lot more just like it.

And an eight-year run of fans having faith in the franchise will be a distant memory.

PHOENIX — Amare Stoudemire’s return to Phoenix Friday night was like seeing your still beloved ex-girlfriend bring her new boyfriend into your home for dinner while you are still single and getting over the relationship and then having to sit there and watch them flirt the way you always used to with her.

On one hand it’s nice to renew acquaintances with that person who used to mean so much, but on the other hand it’s excruciating to watch her be so happy without you.

For many Suns fans, Friday’s game represented similar mixed emotions.

They must have been happy to see Stoudemire put up 23 points and nine rebounds while opening up the perimeter for his teammates to drill 17 three-pointers, one shy of the Suns opponent franchise record.

Stoudemire made just that kind of impact for years in Phoenix as the Suns blew out opponent after opponent that just could not handle all that firepower.

Now it’s the Suns’ offense that lacks a go-to scorer who opens up the game for everyone else with their attack grinding to a halt with four consecutive games below the century mark, which hasn’t happened since December 2005 …. when STAT was sidelined by knee surgery.

“The great thing about our team is that we’re so versatile so no matter how teams play us we’ve got players who can adjust,” Stoudemire said of the Knicks, a statement he’s uttered many times about Suns teams of yore that no longer holds true as the offense lacks spacing, cohesiveness and any kind of an interior threat.

Yesterday I analyzed some advanced stats to conclude that STAT isn’t playing too much better than he did with the Suns and that he’s actually lost some of his efficiency with the higher usage that has made his per game numbers look so good. He’s still a defensive liability as the Knicks are much better at that end when he sits, but he’s also still a special offensive player.

My article was not meant to knock STAT so much as it was to recognize that what he’s doing now he’s been doing his whole career, just now he’s doing it in the media capital of the world.

Still, it was stunning to see the Knicks out Suns the Suns in their own building with Phoenix’s old wily coach orchestrating a masterpiece from Stoudemire and a team of shooters.

“I had one objective, and that was to dominate from the start,” Amare said. “That was the main goal was to dominate from the get-go.”

I was a bit taken aback by the brash nature of that Stoudemire response, but then I remembered how often he would make such proclamations that seemed so silly and thus I realized this was just one more example of same old Amare.

Another big part of this night concerned the fan reaction. From the appreciative applause he received during pregame introductions to the handful of pro-Amare signs and jerseys, there was much love for STAT and no hate that I could find. Here’s more of what I discovered when interviewing Suns fans on their feelings toward Stoudemire before the game:

As you can see, all five people I spoke with are Suns fans still cheering on Stoudemire. I scoured the crowd for signs and jerseys that would either be pro-Amare or anti-Amare and all I could find was the positive stuff.

“It was great,” Amare said of the crowd’s reaction. “It lets me know the fans are still appreciative. It was a good ovation. I love Phoenix fans forever.”

Added head coach Mike D’Antoni: “It’s good. He’s done a lot of things here, so you kind of thought that.”

I’m not surprised by the reaction, but it was a striking contrast in comparison to the LeBron situation. The next time Bron decides to leave a city, he needs to hire Amare’s PR people.

Both Amare and LeBron left contenders to join new teams that are thriving while their old squads stumble. Perhaps because the Suns did not offer a full guaranteed max deal and since there has been debate as to whether a long-term deal for Stoudemire would be in the best interests of the franchise, the blame for the Suns’ current predicament has been shifted elsewhere.

To continue my analogy of the jilted lover, on a night like this it’s easy just to remember the good times. When you watch Amare stroke mid-range jumpers and dive hard to the rim, it doesn’t take much to remember how much better the Suns’ offense was with that dynamic.

But there was a reason this relationship ended, and it’s not just because Robert Sarver didn’t want to dole out a max contract.

The Suns clearly had reservations about Stoudemire’s ability to be the leader of the franchise’s next generation as well as concerns about his future health. The New York Times’ Howard Beck explains that the new cartilage from STAT’s microfracture surgery might not last more than a couple years, and Beck quotes Steve Kerr saying the Suns expected Stoudemire to have just two or three really good years left in him.

There’s no question that the Suns botched the post-Amare aftermath this summer, but we won’t know whether the Suns botched the decision not to offer the max fully guaranteed for a few more years. If their injury fears are realized and Stoudemire cannot lead the Knicks further than he led the Suns, perhaps Sarver went as far as was reasonable.

But on this night it was impossible to ignore what the Suns are missing in the present.

Amare Stoudemire’s impact makes the Knicks a legitimate playoff team, whereas his absence and the lack of a competent replacement puts the Suns in lottery territory.

That was on display in US Airways Center Friday night as a spirited Stoudemire led his Knicks to the kind of romp that never happened when he roamed these parts.

Although Suns fans wished him well, Amare’s conquest was as easy to take as watching your beloved ex make out with her new boyfriend right in front of you.

And 1

D’Antoni on the Suns: “They’re still trying to find their identity, and they will, but any time you make a trade it’s tough. They’ll bounce back.” … Felton on Stoudemire: “I know he really wanted this win.”

If you’ve been to or watched a home Suns game of late you must know who I’m talking about, the dude dressed in ORNG from head to toe who’s often shown on the Jumbotron or FS Arizona. Mr. ORNG is catching on fast, as a handful of fans wanted to take pictures with him before we could chat.

I asked him about his real identity, why he does it and the kind of reaction he gets from Suns and opposing fans alike in the interview below:

The following video shows some of the action, and it includes interviews with people on both sides of the issue. I look forward to reading your comments, but please understand the viewpoints expressed in the video are those of the participants in the rally and they do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of ValleyoftheSuns.

Now you can also get to the site on the iPhone via the newly-released Fan Pulse app, which allows you to:

• Follow teams like the Suns and trash talk fans of other teams before, during and after the game (not that I would ever suggest something like that or anything.)
• Get scores and breaking news sent right to your iPhone.
• Read not just scores but commentary from blogs such as this one.

Here’s what TechCrunch had to say about the app:

Yes, it’s sort of like setting up an online chat room or group IM session, but the app has other benefits. First, it’s on the iPhone, so you don’t need your computer out to chat. Second, the app gives you Push Notification updates for the game, as well as other games you may be interested in following — so you can multitask. Third, by “shouting” (their word for sending a message), you can also send these messages out to Twitter or Facebook with one click to update your statuses on those networks.

When you’re on the go during a big game, this app is a great way to stay close to ValleyoftheSuns — and maybe talk a little smack to Lakers fans while you’re at it.

Everybody is invited, readers and non-readers alike (although I suppose it would be kind of hard for you to hear about this if you aren’t a reader). We’re going to be doing some pre-game get-together at a local bar as well, so it will be a fun time to get to know your bloggers a little bit. I certainly look forward to meeting a bunch of you guys.

The details are as follows:

PHOENIX — The Suns’ marketing team coined the phrase Planet Orange a few years back to encompass the idea that all Suns fans share an almost familial bond on this planet.

At the #SunsTweetUp during Tuesday’s game against the Spurs, Suns tweeters came together like a bunch of long-lost cousins at a family reunion.

Unfortunately I didn’t really get to share in this family bonding until the question and answer period at the end because my last-minute seats were way up in the nosebleeds away from many of the tweeps.

But the question and answer session saw tweeps finding out that the random stranger walking in front of them is somebody they talk to all the time after a glance at their name tag. Others you could tell by their Twitter profile pic (either that or you’ve been doing a bit too much Facebook stalking …..)

One tweeter, @CWebbie, flew all the way from ATLANTA to be a part of the festivities, which makes me ashamed for thinking that US Airways Center is far from my North Scottsdale home, and she took pictures with all the tweeters she encountered.

I asked her what made her become a Suns fan all the way over in Hawks territory, and she said it started with her being a Grant Hill fan since he was a Dukie but that the Suns were the first team she really fell in love with.

A check of my Twitter page after the game showed a multitude of Suns tweeps expressing how excited they were to finally meet their Twitter friends in real life while lamenting the fact that there wasn’t enough time to meet all the tweeters in attendance.

Like Jeramie McPeek was talking about in the preview of this event, meeting face to face takes that connection to a whole new level. On one hand, you feel like you’ve known these people all your life, and on the other hand you just met.

For example, i rant with @ZoDogg34 about Suns basketball and University of Arizona sports all the time, but it was nice to meet the man behind the Twitter handle.

It really did feel like a big family reunion, only the US Airways Center ushers were shooing us out before we had a chance to meet that one final long-lost cousin.

The speaker of the night, to me at least, was Suns head coach Alvin Gentry. He was his usual humorous self, a side that the media gets to see of him during pregame chats in his office but that the general public doesn’t always get to see. He looked like he would be happy to answer questions all night.

His funniest response came to a fan who asked him about clearing some space for his upcoming 2009-10 Coach of the Year award. He replied that he’s happy to be November Coach of the Month, but he doesn’t want win the year award because the last handful of coaches to earn that honor have since been fired.

He also joked that 10 of his autographs equal one Phil Jackson autograph and he asked a fan questioning how he keeps his cool when the refs stink if they watched the Denver game. Gentry also said Kobe should be the MVP at this point and gave the Suns’ team MVP award to the whole squad before invoking the name of Steve.

Jared Dudley came out for a quick taping of JMZ — Fan Edition. Dudley has developed something of a cult following in Phoenix between his hustling style of play and the unprecedented inside access he provides the fans.

I think JMZ is one of the greatest things a pro athlete has done for fans in terms of taking them behind the curtain, BUT — and you knew one was coming — he seemed more concerned with promoting all he’s doing than really interacting with the fans tonight.

I’ll be the first to say that I LOVE all of his inside access, it’s the kind of stuff fans were missing even a year ago. It’s just that his talk was all about getting fans excited about what Dudley was doing instead of being more of a give and take. I do have to give him credit for his perfect display of showmanship to the adoring crowd, and signing a fan’s “Dudley No. 3″ headband as he walked off was a nice finishing touch.

Finally, the main man Amare came on with his two little kids by his side, and he did not disappoint. One of STAT’s first questions was about how far out he was when dunking on Duncan, and later he said he felt like he’s 100 percent healthy at long last, and he really looked it during tonight’s game.

It was interesting to see a mix of questions the media would ask and questions the media would never ask. We also got the predictable question about whether Amare will stay in Phoenix past this season, and we got a predictable, “Absolutely.” I just wonder what Amare would say if he were speaking to New York fans.

One last interesting note from Amare, he was asked about the Hebrew words he sometimes tweets. STAT said that he studied Hebrew during his recovery from eye surgery when he had to sit face down for 22 hours a day for 10 straight days. It looks like Sun Tzu spent time catching up on the education he never got in college this summer when he could not work on his game.

As the #SunsTweetUp reunion came to a close, my only disappointment was not getting to meet more citizens of Planet Orange.

An odd sight

You see your regular stream of Amare, Nash and Hill jerseys at any Suns game, but I was surprised to see a girl wearing a homemade Goran Dragic jersey as I was entering US Airways Center. I asked her why she fashioned a shirt after the Dragon and she said he was her favorite player.

I thought it was a little strange at the time being that it wasn’t like she was his girlfriend or anything, but after Goran’s 18-point explosion I promise not to doubt anybody wearing homemade Goran Dragic jerseys again.

That’s why all @PhoenixSuns fans on Twitter should attend Tuesday’s second annual Tweet-Up when the Suns take on the @Spurs at 7 p.m. in US Airways Center. Lower-level tickets cost $64 (discounted from $132.25) and upper-level tickets $32 (discounted from $35.50). You can get these special offers with the discount password “tweeps.”

Besides getting to sit with all your tweeps, this package includes early entry into @SunsCrib, discounts on pregame “Twitter Tailgate” concessions, a Tweet-Up T-shirt and a 10-15 minute postgame Q and A with @Amareisreal himself. Live tweets will be displayed on the Jumbotron and the television broadcast as usual as well.

The Suns held the NBA’s first-ever tweet-up last season and got over 100 tweeps to come out and enjoy a game. They expect at least twice the attendance this time around.

“I think the fact that it was the first-ever tweet-up in the NBA was exciting for our followers who came, and it was also the first time most of them had met each other in person,” said Suns VP of digital operations Jeramie McPeek, otherwise known as @SunsWebmaster. “They were all familiar with each other on Twitter, but to actually meet face to face takes that connection to a new level.

“We’re trying to take our Tweet-Up to a new level this season, though. It should really be a fun event!”

What I like best about this event, and why I plan on attending it instead of getting regular press credentials, is that you get to put a face to a Twitter handle. It’s one thing to complain about the officiating against Denver with people you’ve never met, and it’s another thing to strengthen that bond by actually enjoying a game together in person.

“I love our fans on Twitter,” McPeek said. “I’m now in my 18th season with the Suns, and have always received letters or e-mails, or even the occasional calls from our fans, who want to share feedback on our magazine, back in the day, or our websites in more recent years.

“But the whole social media explosion has really given me a new appreciation for our fans, as I’m now able to interact with them on a daily basis. It’s really encouraging and even motivating to know there are so many people out there who enjoy the content we produce and who live and breathe Suns basketball. Their passion is contagious!”

So step away from your computer and come meet some of your fellow Suns tweeps. And don’t worry, you can always still tweet from your phone.

PHOENIX — Confetti streamed down from the ceiling, “We are the Champions” blared over the sound system, and if you closed your eyes you could almost pretend like the Phoenix Suns had just won their first ever championship at US Airways Center.

Yes, a lighting fast, top-notch shooting basketball team won a championship last night in Phoenix, and that of course was the Phoenix Mercury, who may be on their way to a WNBA dynasty after winning their second title in three years.

Fans went berserk all around me, and it was kind of a shock to see fans get so excited over anything that happens in the WNBA. The crowd was loud, the fans around me were living and dying with every shot, and dare I say it, Game 5 of the WNBA Finals was one exciting basketball game.

Of course there were no high-flying theatrics, but if you forget about that this was just a very high level basketball game with teams on both sides making tough clutch shot after tough clutch shot.

My experience with the Mercury this season did indeed start about five minutes into the first quarter (after scalping a pair of tickets for $15 total, which was much easier than I even imagined it would be), but from watching this game it seems pretty obvious that they play atrocious interior defense.

Diana Taurasi — the MVP of the Finals, the MVP of the regular season and the MVP of blowing a 0.17 BAC — is a 6-foot-nothing guard, and as special of a player as she is on the offensive end, Indiana’s bigs scored at will against her and other Mercury interior defenders.

Why bring this up on a night that should be solely dedicated to talking about a championship? It’s because I’m fascinated that a team with such a weak interior presence can run and shoot its way to a second championship in three years.

Does that remind anybody else of a certain NBA team with a weak interior presence that hopes to run and shoot its way to a championship one of these days?

In recent weeks, I’ve made the connection about the Mercury proving that a basketball team can win a championship in Seven Seconds or Less, so to speak, but now I wonder if that’s the difference between the men’s and women’s games. Speed and skill is the name of the game in women’s basketball, winning over size and muscle. As the Suns have found out in recent years, that’s not exactly the case in the NBA.

Still, I was overly impressed with the Mercury tonight. They made a play on offense every time they needed to, and Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter are stars’ stars.

I do certainly wonder if this year’s WNBA playoffs and WNBA Finals will spark a bit of a revival in the game.

Let’s be honest, the WNBA has been more than an afterthought pretty much since its inception to all but the most diehard of fans. But after seeing the Mercury sell out Game 5 (with a little help from the Suns’ captains) and Indiana’s fans come out in full force, it feels like the perception of the game is changing little by little.

Every day I go on Twitter there’s another NBA blogger or fan talking about how surprised they are that they like the WNBA as much as they do.

As I have written, I haven’t given a crap about the league since its inaugural season. But I had a really, really good time watching that championship. It was fun, exciting basketball that any basketball fan would enjoy.

Now it did certainly feel more than a bit strange to “celebrate” a championship won by a team I was just getting to know. The beauty of a championship — as Red Sox fans learned in 2004 and Suns fans will know one day — stems from the agony of defeat, being vindicated for all those excruciating losses after which you longed for this day.

Even the D-backs’ championship in 2001 felt like the greatest thing to ever happen after living and dying with that team for four years and watching every other team I’d ever loved lose its final game.

To all the fans of the Mighty Mercury, congratulations. You deserve this day in the sun.

As for all you Suns fans out there, know that one day the scene below could be yours.

Quite honestly, I’m pretty excited for my first taste of WNBA basketball since I was in middle school.

No, I’m not going all Phoenix Stan or Ben York on you, but in any sport really nothing beats the excitement of a winner-takes-all championship game.

I still do think that a Lifelock Mercury title answers the question on if a professional basketball team can win a championship in Seven Seconds or Less to at least a tiny, tiny degree — especially since it would be their second title in three years — and I think it’s exciting to have at least one fast, elite shooting basketball team win something in this town.

I do, however, feel like more of a bandwagon fan than any Arizona Cardinal “fan” that came out of the woodworks during January’s Super Bowl run. Where are those Cardinals fans when the Texans come calling on a lonely October Sunday?

I last attended a Mercury game with my family during the WNBA’s inaguaral year of 199-whatever the hell it was. I enjoyed the game, got real into, celebrated every shot and then never cared about the WNBA again until my Twitterfeed shoved the league down my throat the past few months. I didn’t even give it anything more than a, ‘Hmmm, that’s nice,’ when the Merc won it all two years ago.

In those years, it became incredibly uncool to be a fan of the WNBA, at least among my friends in high school and college. It would have been better accepted for me to say I’m a fan of curling than to say I’m a WNBA fan, and for that reason I’ve spent the last decade or so of my life ignoring the league save for a few quick glances in the morning paper.

The only thing cool about the WNBA used to involve seeing who could make the best joke about how lame it is (this video wins my vote on that count).

But now the tide seems to be turning on that school of thought. Former VotS podcast panelist Ben York is leading the charge with his seemingly daily love ballads to Mercury basketball and Phoenix Stan of Bright Side isn’t far behind him, traveling all the way to Indianapolis to cover a WNBA game. Never in my life did I think I’d see the day when a blogger would travel to cover a WNBA game when the local paper doesn’t even do so.

Respected basketball writers like Kelly Dwyer are tweeting things like, “I can’t remember the last time I’ve had this much fun, halfway into a basketball game. That’s not me going over the top, or fawning, either,” when talking about the WNBA, all the while hosting a live blog from a WNBA game that he’s covering.

These guys have made me feel like I’m the lame one because I largely haven’t really cared about the Merc’s playoff run.

But that all changes tonight.

There’s nothing worse than a bandwagon fan, but in this case, who could blame me?

Look for me somewhere in the upper deck, or wherever the scalpers put me. I’ll be wearing my sister’s old Michele Timms jersey with “Mercury” on the front before the days of Lifelock. No, the jersey hasn’t been dusted off in at least a decade, and no, that’s not how I ever thought I’d spend a Friday night in my mid-20′s.

So all you closet WNBA fans who have never had a reason to care, join me at US Airways Center tonight because there’s certainly nothing uncool about a Phoenix basketball championship.