FanHouse GrantHill

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The 2009-10 Phoenix Suns are caught somewhere between the past and the future. But just because they don't know where they're going, and have one foot stuck in a place where they've already been, doesn't mean that the team can't win this season, while playing an entertaining style of basketball along the way.

The trade of Shaquille O'Neal was just as intriguing from the Phoenix side as it was the Cleveland end, even though the Cavs got the best player (by far) in the exchange. While clearly a cap-cutting move for the Suns, the return package of Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace provided a flexible cap situation in which Phoenix had the potential to offer a retiring Wallace to a cash-hurt team needing to unload a well-paid player.

That particular avenue was closed Monday, however, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports the Suns bought out Wallace's $14 million contract for $10 million. Coro reports Phoenix went forward with the buy-out in order to maintain a reasonable payroll after signing Channing Frye ($2 million) and Grant Hill ($3 million) last week. But in the process, a long-rumored Wallace-for-Tyson Chandler deal goes kaput.

Not many free agents in any sport elect to play in New York because of "family reasons.''

According to a source, it looks like Grant Hill will.

Hill, the 36-year-old small forward, is leaning toward accepting an offer from the Knicks instead of the Boston Celtics or Phoenix Suns on Thursday, and a major reason is his wife Tamia, a national recording artist who would benefit greatly from him playing in New York.

Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash presented the 2nd annual "Showdown in Chinatown" charity soccer event on Wednesday in downtown New York City. The game benefited the Steve Nash and Claudio Reyna Foundations, and was an 8-on-8 match filled with NBA and soccer greats. Predictably, NBA stars Chris Bosh and Grant Hill didn't fare as well as the likes of Thierry Henry and Edgar Davids. However, international hoopsters, Nash and Tony Parker, definitely held their own on the pitch. Okay, now I'm just name-dropping. Check out FanHouse's look at what was a fun, if not somewhat awkward, game of soccer. The video is below.

What little chances the Phoenix Suns still had at sneaking into the playoffs came to a quick and violent end on Sunday, when the team gave up 140 points on the way to an ugly loss in Dallas. To a man, the Suns' players and coaches seemed genuinely surprised at the way the game went, but really, given the way that they've performed on the road of late, the outcome was one that should have been expected.

Phoenix faces a do or die situation in Dallas this afternoon (3:30 PM ET, ABC). Here are three things to watch for.

Can Shaq dominate the paint? Erick Dampier is known as one of the league's least consistent pivots, but he's a fine rebounder and defender. Shaquille O'Neal, however, doesn't exactly let himself get dominated. With everything on the line for Phoenix, we expect Shaq to assert his power around the rim, forcing Dallas to foul, double and play from their heels instead of their toes. The Suns need that.

Crazy box score from that game between the Warriors and the Kings Wednesday night, right? Well, it's even crazier if you're Grant Hill and decide to hit up NBA.com to check it out. See, for some reason, whoever does the box scores for the site doesn't seem to like Hill very much, and doesn't even know what team he currently plays for.

PHOENIX -- There was a playoff atmosphere at the US Airways Center for Monday night's game between the Suns and the Nuggets, and why not? For Phoenix, who now sits three games out of a playoff spot with just 12 remaining, every game is critical to keeping its slim postseason hopes alive. And the Suns were able to do just that, at least for one more game. In a wild one that went down to the wire, the Suns squeaked out a 118-115 victory over the Nuggets.

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A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Timberwolves faced the Suns on January 16th.

Suns' head coach Terry Porter spent almost 20 minutes with the assembled media prior to Friday night's game against the Timberwolves, and with good reason. There was a lot to talk about, and it mostly had to do with his team coming off of a tough overtime loss the night before in Denver.

Porter felt that there should have been a foul called on the final play of regulation, one where Grant Hill went to the basket but was tripped by the Nuggets' Dahntay Jones. He admitted that his team sent tape of that play (and a few others) to the league for review, and talked about the Hill play in particular, before discussing whether or not instant replay in that situation might be something the league should consider.

There was a pretty entertaining basketball game Thursday night in Denver, where the Suns turned a 14-point second quarter lead into an eight-point fourth quarter deficit, before coming back to send the game into overtime and eventually losing to the Nuggets.

As is often the case in the NBA, the losing team tends to point to a single play or call by an official that they feel cost them the game, even though there were, like, over 200 total possessions that they could have used to swing the outcome in their favor.

Grant Hill did exactly that after the game, when he said that the referees "blew the call" at the end of regulation when they swallowed their whistles on his final shot. Did the refs get it right? Video and discussion, after the jump.