In basketball, unlike in other big-league sports, the addition or subtraction of a single player can make or break a franchise.
And so, Amare Stoudemire transformed the Suns this season.

That single bold stroke ? the decision to draft a high school kid who proved ready to go nearly from the start ? gave them an inside presence for the first time since Charles Barkley's glory days.

Add in career seasons by Stephon Marbury and Shawn Marion, and the fact Frank Johnson proved to be a wise choice for coach, and the Suns' drop into the lottery tank last year appears to have been a surprisingly brief, one-year dip.

Their best years no longer are found merely in scrapbooks. No, good times appear on the road ahead, not in the rearview mirror.