For the first time in a long time, the Phoenix Suns really have no idea what they have.

	Shawn Marion emerged this year, although Phoenix was generally inconsistent.

They could be challenging for one of the top playoff spots, they could be challenging for one of the last playoff spots, or they could be challenging for the right to choose the first pick in next season's draft.

But say this for the Suns management: They are not afraid to take a chance, be it brilliant or buffoonish.

Just like almost every other team in the league, the Suns came into this offseason with an eye toward the luxury tax.

As a side note, isn't David Stern supremely clever how he slips something like the luxury tax into collective bargaining, getting it under the radar because it does not take effect until a few years down the road?

Then, BLAM, luxury tax kicks in, and virtually every player in the league not named Chris Webber is affected, and then they all wonder how something so Draconianly fiendish could slip past their union and create so much havoc with their paychecks.

I guarantee you Anthony Mason did not know how to spell luxury tax three years ago, but he certainly knows what one is now, if not how to spell it -- preferably not in the side of his head. Bravo, Mssr. Stern, I want you on my team in all future disputes.

Did you notice Stern's latest stealth maneuver? Coppin State assistant coach Stephanie Ready became an assistant on one of the NBDL teams, the first female to coach a men's professional team.

I can only surmise that this is a sort of trial balloon, and in a few years Ready or some Pat Summitt or Tara VanDerveer or some other well-deserving woman is going to be named to the staff of some team in the NBA.

Maybe even the Suns, though who knows what direction they will be going at that point.

The Suns are unique because while every team except Dallas, Portland and New York were wary of the luxury tax, Phoenix was the only one that went right out and dumped salary to avoid it.

And if you want to tell me that Suns owner Jerry Colangelo traded Clifford Robinson to Detroit in exchange for Jud Buechler, John Wallace and a free set of Firestone Tires simply because Robinson got nabbed with a little dope, I have a pristine Renault Dauphine that I want you to sell for about $27,000.

It certainly didn't hurt that Robinson had a suspect history, so to speak, but if there was no such thing as a luxury tax, Uncle Spliffy, I mean Uncle Cliffy, would still be a Sun.

The same cannot necessarily be said for Jason Kidd, who gave both the organization and his wife a black eye in the same domestic dispute incident. Kidd is unquestionably one of the best point guards in the league, and he may very well be the best point guard.

But how many 50-win seasons can a franchise endure that end in am early-round playoff loss before something drastic needs to be done?

The fans were getting bored, evidenced by a 25 percent drop in season ticket sales, which brings them below 12,000 season ticket holders.

Where America West Arena used to be one of the best places in the league to go see a game, now it is simply an excuse to get out of the heat once the high 90 degree temperatures hit at about, oh, say, January 15.

Let's just put it this way: Tom Gugliotta gimping around on one leg, Penny Hardaway gimping around on one leg and no heart and Kidd passing to both of them was only marginally more exciting than watching whether coach Scott Skiles or the blue-haired oldster with the pink pastel pants in the eighth row would have a coronary first.

So, I'll give the Colangelos credit. They shook things up. They stayed in the news. They generated interest. They at least have people wondering what the Suns are going to look like, rather than have people know exactly when the Suns will set.

Even with the losses of Robinson and Kidd and, gasp!!!, Chris Dudley, the Suns could be a very good team, primarily because they got back Stephon Marbury, who, in my mind, is one of the best, most exciting players in the league.

By all accounts, (Penny) Hardaway has been playing well, working out in Houston and playing in the summer league in Los Angeles. But Hardaway always works out well in the summer. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell him he needs to work out well in the winter, when the basketball season actually is played.

Certainly, there are questions about him, particularly since he tends to want to do too much and has not proven that he necessarily can carry a team. One of the most interesting aspects of the Suns will be how they react to playing with a point who likes to shoot a lot after playing with Kidd, who teammates nearly had to scream at to shoot.

The other thing is how will Marbury and Googs get along? There was a lot of rhetoric after Gugliotta left Minnesota that he did not like playing with Starbury, who has a rather inflated opinion of himself.

Will a few years apart, as well as Googs' debilitating injury, make them more compatible in the desert than they were in the frozen hinterlands of Minneapolis?

Another key variable will be Penny Hardaway, who never is going to challenge Bill McCartney as leader of the Promise Keepers.

By all accounts, Hardaway has been playing well, working out in Houston and playing in the summer league in Los Angeles.

But Hardaway always works out well in the summer. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell him he needs to work out well in the winter, when the basketball season actually is played.

If Hardaway is healthy -- how many times has that phrase been muttered in the Valley of the Sun? -- a starting lineup of Marbury, Hardaway, Shawn Marion, Googs and Jake Tsakalidis is fairly formidable, with Rodney Rogers, Tony Delk and Dan Majerle coming off the bench.

Look, nobody is predicting this group is going to challenge the Lakers anytime soon, but at the very least they should be interesting to watch. And that's what they intended.

Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.