As the regular season winds down and pundits prepare to give out the league-wide awards, who should be recognized as the Suns’ best team performers this year?

Phoenix Suns’ Team MVP : Steve Nash

The entire NBA knows that without Nash, the Suns would not be in contention for the 8th seed in the tough Western Conference. In what could be his last year as a Sun (most of  us hope not), Nash is 2nd in the league in assists with an astounding 10.8 assists per game. Despite being 38 years old, Nash led the Association in assists for the majority of the season until Celtics’ G Rajon Rondo took over the leaderboard late last week. He is the critical ingredient in the team’s recipe for winning. With a 115 Offensive Rating and only 19.3% Usage Rate on a weak Suns team, Nash has done historical things. The electrifying, savvy point guard who can create offense in a multitude of ways has been the Most Valuable Player for the Suns this season.

Phoenix Suns’ Defensive MVP: Grant Hill 

Grant Hill, without a doubt, is the defensive backbone for the Suns. One of the few players that have the ability to guard the Kobe’s, Carmelo’s, and Monta’s in the league. I don’t have enough fingers to count how many times Grant Hill has saved us in the final seconds of a game this season with his DEFENSE. Convinced? Not yet I’m guessing. Hill has also held league-leading scorer, Kevin Durant, to 20.1 PPG, 32% FG, and 20% 3PFG. By Kevin Durant standards, that’s “crap”. Hill, no doubt, is our defensive MVP.

Phoenix Suns’ X Factor: Newcomers

How ’bout I show you the statistics of first-year players for the Suns?

Shannon Brown : 10.8 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 1.1 APG, 41% FG, & 35% 3PT

Sebastian Telfair : 5. 9 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 2.3 APG, 40% FG, & 32% 3PT

Michael Redd : 7.9 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 0.7 APG, 40% FG, & 31% 3PT

Markieff Morris : 7.5 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.0 APG, 40% FG, & 36% 3PT

Impressive, no?

What I call our “Core Four” Of The Future averaged 32.1 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 5.1 APG, 40% FG, & 34% 3PT in one season. This “Core Four Of The Future” leads the league almost in all categories as  the best new-coming quadruplet in the league. The future is bright, Suns’ fans.

Phoenix Suns’ Most Improved Player

C Marcin Gortat is the clear-cut winner for this award. There’s no debating about it. We’re talking about a guy who a year ago was a backup center in the East and now is an elite, top-tier center in the West. Gortat’s stats improved as well as his performance. Gortat raised his PPG by nearly 3.0 PPG, 0.7 RPG, and blocks by nearly 1.0 BPG! Impressive improvement all in his first full-season as a Phoenix Sun. Not to mention his amazing efforts on the defensive side either, clearly the best post defender on the Suns, is is second in the league in taken charges and leads the Suns’ in Defensive Rating. Yet another bright spot in our future.

Phoenix Suns’ Executive Of The Year

Lance Blanks GM… Why? Well for once in a couple years, our management hasn’t screwed our chances of winning. Wasn’t a fan of Kerr either… Also, Blanks brought in Brown, Telfair, Morris (drafted), and Redd. “GOOD” season for our management, hopefully we don’t trade away another Rajon Rondo or Andre Iguodala in the draft… *fingers crossed*

Those are your 2011-2012 NBA Regular Season Awards for your Phoenix Suns! Sorry I didn’t do Sixth Man Of The Year Or Coach Of The Year, it’s just that we only have one sixth man and one coach, so hopefully you can put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Full Grades and Awards for the Phoenix Suns’ 2012 NBA Regular Season - Sun-N-Gun - Sun-N-Gun - A Phoenix Suns Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

“WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE!”

Never mind that the Suns had just given up the lead and a 6-0 run to the Spurs’ third rotation. Never mind that M-V-Steve’s first play after being subbed in to deafening cheers was a turnover. And never mind that Nash played a grand total of 17 minutes. Because the fact is, when Alvin Gentry finally obliged and put him back in for a just over a minute, it wasn’t about winning the game or watching Steve Nash play anymore. It was about giving us the chance to let him know that if it was his last game in a Phoenix Suns jersey, it was going to be memorable for everyone in the building.

Sitting in the upper deck, going crazy every time Nash made a shot, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel going into the night. I knew that this could be Nash and Grant Hill’s last game for the Suns and I felt nervous. I was disappointed that Grant Hill didn’t even get to suit up and enjoy a similar ovation, but maybe it’s better that he didn’t. Because when an arena full of people starts chanting “WE WANT STEVE!” with five minutes to go in a game that doesn’t matter, you know that player meant something. And it felt appropriate that this was Steve Nash’s night, which is why we cried out:

“WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE!”

No one really cared that the Suns lost the game. A few cared that Nash only came in for a minute before being subbed out again, but most got over it pretty quick. Everyone cared about getting one last opportunity to show Steve Nash how much his hometown loves him, and that brief, one-minute curtain call was enough for all our emotion to come pouring out. All the memories and highlights of the past few years came back into our minds and because we all sensed that this could be the end, our need to give Nash that standing ovation overpowered anything else that was going on on the court. He deserved to have that moment, regardless of where he chooses to play next year as a free agent. Nash has kept the Suns competitive over the last few years, even without a great supporting cast, and he’s never complained once in that time. He’s been our leader, our hero, our one bright spot in a few dark seasons.

No one knows for sure what will become of Steve Nash after this season. He’s said that Phoenix is his home and that this is his team, but as a competitor, he still wants a championship ring and he stated that if the Suns don’t make the right off-season moves to keep him interested, he might leave. He even mentioned being open to listening to LeBron James try and persuade him to come down to Miami. But nothing is certain yet.

While I’d love to sit here and tell you “Don’t worry, Nash and Hill will both be back next year!” I don’t think I can do it after last night. Even though Nash doesn’t know what he’s going to do yet, both parties approached the night like it was his last just in case. We weren’t taking any chances on missing out on his final appearance in a Suns jersey and because that sentiment was hanging in the air of US Airways, it definitely felt like the end of an era in Suns basketball. On the one hand, I think I speak for everyone when I say that a small part of me almost wants Nash to leave, to move on to bigger and better things and to have a realistic shot at winning a championship with a contender. Especially after that beautifully sentimental moment last night, it would almost seem strange for Nash to return and suffer a few more mediocre seasons here. But on the other hand, a selfish yet powerful voice deep down keeps saying something over and over. It mentions that maybe the Suns can make the right moves to make the team better. It emphasizes that this is Steve Nash’s home. It even pleads that he won’t leave us. But above everything else, it says:

“WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE!”

Steve Nash’s Phoenix Finale? - Sun-N-Gun - Sun-N-Gun - A Phoenix Suns Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More