The short answer is “I don’t know.”

Not enough? I don’t blame you. I wrote the following during my running diary on draft day:

There’s a rumor that the Warriors might send Andris Biedrins, Marco Belinelli, Brandan Wright and the #7 pick to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire. That seems like an awful lot to give up given the trades we’ve seen go down in recent days. But Stoudemire is a borderline franchise player, so a good center (Biedrins) and three prospects (Belinelli, Wright and the #7 pick) doesn’t seem crazy.

The Warriors drafted Stephen Curry when he fell to #7. At that point, it wasn’t clear whether or not he’d be headed to Phoenix as part of this trade. Paul Coro of AZCentral.com reported that he “likely” was headed to the Suns.

Golden State’s selection of Davidson point guard Stephen Curry at No. 7 was likely made for the Suns as part of an Amaré Stoudemire trade that can’t be completed until Wednesday. That is because Phoenix would be acquiring Warriors center Andris Biedrins, a base-year compensation player, as part of a Stoudemire deal that would include more Warriors players, possibly power forward Brandan Wright and/or shooting guard Marco Belinelli.

The Suns were hoping they could land Curry or Arizona power forward Jordan Hill with the Warriors’ seventh pick but had their choice after Minnesota took neither with its fifth and sixth picks.

The next day, Coro reported that the deal was all but done, but hinged on whether or not Curry was included…

Read the rest of this entry »

T-Mac for Amare?

According to the same source that disclosed Terry Porter was about to be fired as Suns coach, the Rockets are leaning toward swapping Tracy McGrady’s expiring $22M contract, Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks for Leandro Barbosa and Stoudemire, who owns an escape clause after next season and is demanding an extension this summer to waive it.

I’m not sure what the upside is for the Suns. Stoudemire will likely opt out of his contract after the season, so they aren’t gaining any financial flexibility. They do get a couple of good young players (Landry and Brooks), but is that really enough? McGrady is a very good player when healthy, but he can’t seem to stay upright.

This would be a bold move for the Rockets, but it would leave them awfully thin at point guard. Kyle Lowry would be the only experienced PG on the roster, but Houston could use its mid-level exception to go out and get a veteran like Andre Miller or Mike Bibby, though the MLE may not be enough.

Read the rest of this entry »

Memphis GM Gerald Wallace took a lot of heat for trading Pau Gasol to the Lakers. But if we’ve learned anything in the past few days, it’s that Wallace was simply a man ahead of his time.

On Tuesday, we learned that the Bucks agreed to trade Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Amir Johnson. (Fabricio Oberto was part of the original deal, but San Antonio sent him to Detroit for Johnson, who was then sent to Milwaukee.)

Regular readers know I’m a Bucks fan, and I spent the last couple of days grumbling on the Sports Bubbler message boards about how we didn’t get anything in return for Jefferson, who is still a pretty good player. When Wallace traded away Gasol, at least he got Javaris Crittenton (who was considered a prospect with upside at the time) and Pau’s brother, Marc, who turned out to be a productive center for the Grizzlies.

Then I wake up today to see that the Cavs and Suns have agreed to go through with that long-rumored trade that will send Shaq to Cleveland for salary cap relief. Who do the Suns get in return? A retiree (Ben Wallace), a bench player with a partially guaranteed contract (Sasha Pavlovic), some cash and a second round pick.

This is the going rate for a Third Team All-NBA center these days.

We knew that this summer had the potential to be a rough one for free agents, but it’s a little surprising to see that good players like O’Neal and Jefferson could be had for virtually nothing. Bucks owner Herb Kohl and Suns owner Robert Sarver realize that their clubs aren’t legitimate contenders, so they don’t see the point in paying the luxury tax just for the privilege of being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. What kind of an effect these moves have on season ticket purchases remains to be seen.

The bottom line is that if a team is willing to spend, there has never been a better time to acquire talent. You’re not going to get someone like Caron Butler, who plays for a (pretend) contender and has a reasonable contract, but you can get Jefferson, who is overpaid and is on a mediocre team that is up against the luxury tax. And the older the player, the more likely he’s available. Teams aren’t going to give up good players that are in their early- or mid-twenties because the plan is to rebuild before they’re over the hill.

So who might be on the move for a bag of peanuts and some salary cap flexibility? How about Tracy McGrady, Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby, Vince Carter, Tyson Chandler, Amare Stoudemire, Jermaine O’Neal, Michael Redd, Ray Allen or Rip Hamilton?

Truth be told, a team like the Suns isn’t going to give the youngish Stoudemire away for cap flexibility alone. But as the price of a star goes down, the price of superstar goes down as well.

It promises to be an interesting summer.

Earlier today, the Boston Globe reported that the Suns and T-Wolves were working on a trade that would send Al Jefferson and the #6 pick to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire.

Hours later, that rumor was shot down.

An NBA source said today that Minnesota forward-center Al Jefferson is not being traded to the Suns with the sixth overall pick for Suns All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire. An NBA executive told The Globe on Wednesday that the teams discussed the trade. But another source acknowledged the discussion, but also said the Suns were quickly turned down.

This is the sort of rumor that just doesn’t pass the smell test. Forget the #6 pick, why would the T-Wolves trade Jefferson, who is already a 23/11 guy at the age of 24 and is locked into a pretty reasonable deal for four more years at the tune of $13.5 million per, for Stoudemire, a 26-year-old 21/8 guy who can opt out of his contract after the season and has already had microfracture and eye surgery in his career? I wouldn’t even make that deal straight up, much less throw in the #6 pick.

Ridiculous.

Eliminated from the playoffs, it’s time for the Phoenix Suns to look forward to next season. For his part, Steve Nash says that he would like to stay…

After missing the playoffs, Nash could decline an extension if he is unhappy with the offer or the off-season plan. He wants to play four more seasons.

“My first priority is to sit down and listen to Steve and (Suns Managing Partner) Robert (Sarver) and hear what their wish is and what their plan is for the team,” Nash said. “I can be a part of us revamping here.

“I’m under the impression they want to talk an extension, and I do, too. Hopefully we can find ourselves in a position where we can revamp and be back in the playoffs and hopefully be a contender. Hopefully I’ll be a part of the plan.”

Nash, 35, still is a special offensive player. If he maintains his fifth consecutive 50 percent field-goal shooting season in the final two games, Nash would become the first player in NBA history to record three seasons in which he shot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free-throw line. Nash went from averaging 13.8 points under Porter to 19.1 once interim Alvin Gentry restored the team’s Nash-and-dash style. Nash’s assist-to-turnover ratio went from 2.6 -to 1 to 3.7 -to 1.

I have been critical of the Suns’ brass — namely Steve Kerr — all season long.

Read the rest of this entry »

On last night’s TNT coverage, Charles Barkley and David Aldridge talked a little bit about Cleveland’s attempts to swing a trade. First up is Aldridge:

“(The Cavaliers) tried (to make a trade), they really did try. They were all over the place. They tried to get Antawn Jamison from Washington, they tried to get Amar’e Stoudemire, they tried to get Richard Jefferson, they tried to get Shaq. I can tell you this, they were more interested in Shaquille O’Neal than they were in Amar’e Stoudemire. That’s a fact. They wanted Shaq badly and they really tried to get him.�

Then there’s Barkley:

“The Cavaliers made a mistake (by not making a trade)…They should have said, ‘We’re going to keep LeBron (James), we’re going to keep Mo Williams, you can have anybody else we got.’ If they would have done anything to get a big body they would have been better off.�

Rookie J.J. Hickson is just 20 years-old and has shown great potential. He’s 6′9″ (which is the optimum size for a power forward), athletic and has a few polished moves down low…

Clearly, this is not how the Suns wanted to start the second half of the season.

The beleaguered Suns announced Friday that Amare Stoudemire was forced to undergo eye surgery to repair a partially detached retina suffered in a Wednesday night rout of the Los Angeles Clippers. It is Stoudemire’s second eye injury since October and the All-Star forward could miss the rest of the regular season.

Stoudemire’s return to physical activity has been estimated at eight weeks by the Suns. He underwent surgery Friday morning, although the club said in a statement that “recovery varies on a case-by-case basis.”

The Suns were just starting to feel a sense of optimism about salvaging something from this painful season after replacing coach Terry Porter with Alvin Gentry on Monday, ringing up 280 points in back-to-back victories over the Clippers and getting the go-ahead Thursday from owner Robert Sarver to keep hold of Stoudemire and Shaquille O’Neal after shopping both this month in an attempt to significantly reduce Sarver’s payroll.

But the injury suffered by Stoudemire when he was poked in the eye during his 42-point game against the Clippers means the Suns will have to try to make the playoffs without him, which was not going to be easy even with a healthy Stoudemire. The Suns awoke Friday as the West’s No. 9 team in an eight-team race with a record of 30-23, one game short of the eighth spot.

This is obviously a huge blow for the Suns, who made the decision to move forward with Stoudemire after trade discussions with a number of teams. It’s going to be tough for Phoenix to make the playoffs without their power forward, and even if he can return in two months, what kind of shape will he be in?

You can blame it on the Grizzlies.

Ever since they traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers for a bag of peanuts and some slightly used underwear, NBA teams have become more and more fickle about pulling the proverbial trigger. With the state of the economy, and some owners desperately trying to cut payroll before the cap and luxury tax thresholds decline, it’s a buyer’s market out there. And those buyers are looking for Gasol-type deals. On the flip side, Chris Wallace took all kinds of grief over that trade and general managers around the league don’t want to follow in his footsteps.

After two or three weeks of covering all of this trade chatter, the biggest deal to speak of is the Shawn Marion/Jermaine O’Neal swap and that happened almost a week ago. Sure, guys like Brad Miller, Andres Nocioni, John Salmons, Rafer Alston, Larry Hughes, Tim Thomas, Chris Wilcox and Drew Gooden changed zip codes, but I doubt any fans out there are sporting wood at the idea that one or more of these players is joining their team.

This year’s trade deadline was mostly about teams setting themselves up financially for the next two summers of free agency. Even though there were a number of big names bandied about, the Marion/O’Neal deal is the only semi-blockbuster trade of the season. And, barring some last-minute, late-breaking deal, we have these five teams to blame…

5. San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs were in talks with the Nets about acquiring Vince Carter and also spoke with the Bucks about Richard Jefferson. Either of those players would have been a nice addition, but the Spurs just don’t have the pieces (or the balls) to pull off a trade like that. They were willing to trade for Carter, but they didn’t want to give up Roger Mason or George Hill. So they offer the Nets Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto. Great, the numbers don’t even add up. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t really think that the Spurs should have given up Mason and/or Hill to acquire Carter. They’re arguably the second-best team in the West and their current lineup, if healthy, is likely to give the Lakers fits if the two teams meet in the playoffs with a less-than-100% Andrew Bynum. Plus the Spurs are notoriously conservative when it comes to messing with their chemistry. Jefferson wouldn’t have been a problem in that area but Carter might have been. So the Spurs stand pat. Shocker.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the Bulls are talking about a deal that would allow them to land Chris Bosh.

The Amare Stoudemire trade talk still has the Bulls among the teams most involved, but a new scenario making the rounds has the Bulls taking part in a three-team deal that would bring Toronto Raptors star Chris Bosh to Chicago.

The rumored swap would send Stoudemire to Toronto and land the Phoenix Suns a package of players and draft picks from the Bulls, likely to include Drew Gooden and his expiring $7.2 million contract, Tyrus Thomas and a first-round pick.

Maybe I’m wrong, but this just sounds like wishful thinking by Brian Hanley, the writer of the article. He doesn’t even say that he has a source — he just calls it a “rumored swap,” which means he might have read about it on some fan blog somewhere. (Not this one, of course.)

The Raptors have said all along that they don’t want to move Bosh and with the recent actions by the Suns indicating that they may in fact keep Stoudemire, I don’t really see how this deal goes down. Besides, if you’re the Suns, wouldn’t you rather do a straight up Bosh-for-Amare swap than to do a three-team deal and trade for Tyrus Thomas, Drew Gooden and a few other pieces? Bosh’s trade value is higher than Stoudemire’s because he’s two years younger, hasn’t had microfracture surgery and has a reputation for being a solid defender.

If I were a Bulls fan, I wouldn’t hold my breath. This just sounds too good to be true.

2/18 Update: Toronto GM Brian Colangelo says there is “no truth” to the trade rumor.

That appears to be the case, at least according to ESPN’s sources.

After the Suns spent several days taking and making phone calls on potential trades for Amare Stoudemire and Shaquille O’Neal, NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that Phoenix — having received a series of underwhelming proposals for Stoudemire — prefers now to leave its core intact for the rest of the season to see if new coach Alvin Gentry can do more with this group than the outgoing Terry Porter.

“I got the impression today that [the Suns] are standing pat,” said one source with knowledge of the team’s thinking.

Said another source close to the situation: “That is very accurate.”

Officials from two other teams told ESPN.com on Monday that the Suns’ willingness to consider offers for Stoudemire has been scaled back considerably from last week, when Stoudemire himself seemed resigned to being sent elsewhere, telling reporters: “I know for sure, wherever I go, we’re going to definitely be playoff contenders.”

At a news conference to announce Gentry’s hiring, [Steve] Kerr stopped short of promising that the Suns would sit out the deadline completely, but did add: “I’d like to keep what we have and go forward and see what we can do,” Kerr said.

Well, well, well…it appears that cooler heads may have prevailed. It could be that the Suns realized that they weren’t going to get equal value for their superstar or they may have decided that he wasn’t the problem after all. The dismissal of Terry Porter would indicate that management places a fair amount of blame for the Suns’ inconsistent play at his feet.

After all this build up, the Suns may very well decide to keep Stoudemire through the end of the season. Salary cap ramifications aside, I think this is the right call.