We have a surplus of players. Majority think we should not make a trade YET. We do not understand Gentry's rotations. Fine. In that case, let's work out our minutes distribution.

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This post is not meant to encourage people to jump on the ESPN trade machine and start punching in ridiculous ideas or even great ones that management will probably never see or consider. No, its more of convincing people who think we are over-reacting with all the trade talk. So without further adieu, let me give you my top 10 reasons why we should make a trade:

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I know I'm not in the best position to say this, as I am not as active as maybe half of you in BSOTS, but seriously guys, why are we afraid of using the rec button? Though I am a Suns fans first and foremost, I also check out other SB Nation blogs, and since I have no time to really read all the comments, I search for all the green ones and it's really helpful. A lot of the best insights come from comments (at least I believe they do), and some of the best if not THE BEST comments come from Phoenix Suns fans in our blog. However, I can go through a whole game thread of 600+ comments and not see any green comment from our side. This is such a tragedy. I believe (and again this is just my own personal opinion) that if there is one button that should be abused, it is the rec button, and I hope we learn to love the green.

I'm sure all of you have noticed that Nash has been playing kind of poorly lately. He's becoming more of a scorer than a facilitator and seems to be pushing things. It's no surprise, then, that he's second across the league in turnovers per game, a horrible 5.3 TO's compared to 6.8 assists. What may surprise you though, is who leads the league in turnovers  - Amar'e Stoudemire with an astounding 5.7 per game. Yes, this is a sample size of roughly three games, but what does it all mean? Quite simply - Steve and Amar'e are not yet used to playing without each other. Yin and Yang, Apples and Oranges, Fish and Chips, beer and kebabs, whatever you want to call it, they used to fit together. It'll take some time for our man Steve to adjust, and let's not blame him for that. In response to all the talk of "Start Dragic!" - I agree he needs more minutes, but Steve does too. He needs these minutes to get himself acclimated to LAA (life after Amar'e), and we should expect to lose a few games until he figures it all out.

Just wanted to see your reactions about the Mike Conley signing - I thought it was a LOT excessive, but then that's what a lot of people though about our Steve Nash signing back in the day, and look what happened. Anyway, hope it works out well for all of you. I also noticed that you guys have a lot of posts but not much commenters, why is that? Your team is on the rise, it may have an even better shot at making the playoffs than our Suns. You guys need to support them more! Read some blog entries, they're really good, you guys should really comment more!!!

This isn't what you think. Trust me. This is just a very hypothetical question to pass the time. My question being:

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Hi guys! Just wanted to get some feedback. As you all know, Nash will probably retire sometime soon, probably within 2 - 3 years. There are a lot of people who want to trade him for "his" sake, so that he can finally get the championship he deserves. That would also aid us in the rebuilding process. However, Nash made it clear that he would prefer to stay in Phoenix and bring a championship here, but that doesn't seem possible during his career. I want Nash to retire as a Sun, however, I also want him to win his championship. My question is: which will cement his legacy more? To analyze this, I classified certain HOF'ers into 4 groups, which I think Nash can belong in:

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Hi guys! I haven't posted in forever, though I have constantly been following your blog. Blame it on growing up (jump from college to work, something I haven't fully adjusted to). Anyway, I've been reading most of your posts and noticed that many of you guys want to do an S-n-T with the knicks for david lee, but noted this isn't possible unless we break our commitment with Warrick. I also noted that no contracts were formally signed, though verbal agreements are in place. I am far from a cap expert, but I don't know if this would work:

Knicks sign david lee to 11m/year contract

Knicks sign warrick to 4m/year contract

Knicks sign frye to 6m/year contract

Suns sign amare to max 20m/yr

Salaries more or less match, and a sign and trade is made. Wouldn't this work? On an added note, I noted that barbosa has a player option for the season after next. we could inclue him and receive eddy curry (expiring contract) to get the most possible cap space for next season.

What do you think guys?

yes, call me crazy but think about it. The rockets are ridiculously frustrated with Yao's constant injuries especially in key moments. for all he does for them during the regular season, it all goes to naught when an injury like this happens. That said, the Rockets may want to rebuild around someone a lot less fragile (no its not shaq). The Rox are already tops defensively, so adding a big body like shaq who may have his defensive weaknesses can only help the team, especially come playoff time. And if this experiment fails? no problem as Shaq's contract expires after the end of next season, clearing for them 20 million in cap space to pursue whoever it is they want to rebuild with.

As for us Suns? Can you imagine a frontline of Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire? Yao is an underrated defender and he's surprisingly mobile for someone his size, he will not clog the lane and he actually can shoot the ball quite well. As for his injury issues, well we have the best trainer's this side of the NBA. If we can revive Shaq and Hill (causing him to play 82 games) im sure as hell we can maintain Yao Ming. Thoughts?

Disclaimer: Obviously this isnt the best time for a trade idea, as you guys said your focused on the draft. However, trades are made this offseason and while the draft is coming, yes, we can still consider trades.

yes, we got eliminated from the playoff race (not yet officially, but 99.9% chance), so now what? do we cry at home and stop watching basketball until next season? hell no! lets find a second team to root for, one which has done us no harm (lakers, spurs - burn in hell). what better team than the blazers? after all, sergio rodriguez and rudy fernandez should have been our players anyway (sad but true). so lets jump on the blazers bandwagon, after all dont you miss our suns of never getting over the hump after getting our hopes up? lets go blazers!

you may think im just disappointed that the suns unofficially put the last nail in their coffin with regards to the playoffs. maybe i am. but since i cant look forward to the playoffs, i will look back, and try to figure out what the hell happened.

before steve kerr pulled the shaq for marion trade, phoenix was the number one seed in the west. that was a little over a year ago. now, we are the number 9th seed, 5 1/2 games away from the playoffs with 20 games to go. tsk tsk tsk. so what happened? a humble, unprofessional analysis of steve kerr's bone-headed moves:

1. the kurt thomas salary dump

we traded 2 draft picks and kurt thomas to the seattle supersonics (now thunder) for.... a conditional second round draft pick. i understand that we needed to get rid of kurt thomas's contract, but really? we added two 1st round draft picks? lets not forget that kurt thomas's contract was an EXPIRING contract. san antonio later gave the sonics a draft pick for kurt thomas, then resigned him after the season ended, obviously showing that he did have value. why did kerr feel the need to throw in draft picks? lets not forget that our 2010 pick is UNPROTECTED. kerr must have assumed that there was no way in hell we wouldnt make the playoffs in 2010, but he underestimated his ability to fu ck up a team.

2. shaq for marion

i agree that phoenix wasnt going to win a championship with the way it was presently constructed. we needed an inside presence undoubtedly. but shaq?? first of, this trade was pulled when shaq was injured, and marion was in his prime. sure, marion had a bad attitude, but seriously, shaq? we knew it was a longshot that shaq would be healthy (we're very lucky this year he is) but this trade was way too much of a gamble. shaq did not fit our run n gun system (d' antoni was our coach at the time). i know d' antoni convinced kerr to make the trade, but he is the GM, not the puppet. he cant pin this on d' antoni, a coach is a coach, a GM is a GM.

3. driving d' antoni away and hiring terry porter

maybe d' antoni really did leave because of his large ego. fine. i wont blame kerr for that. but hiring terry porter? a small list of candidates who were unemployed at that time: jeff van gundy, rick carlisle, avery johnson, flip saunders, mark jackson. and he hires terry porter? the assistant coach of the detroit pistons, who had a losing record as head coach of the bucks, having been fired as head coach after his team, which was expected to make the playoffs, finished with a 30-52 record? a coach who literally had coached only two seasons, should handle the egos of shaq, nash, amare, hill? brilliant.

4. drafting robin lopez and goran dragic

robin lopez may pan out eventually, and i admit we did need a back-up big man, but some other players he could have drafted include: mareese speights, alexis ajinca, courtney lee, mario chalmers. still, i wont blame kerr for this. he chose the best big man available, thats ok with me. but goran dragic?? did you know that kerr gave san antonio a million dollars to swap draft picks, bought out goran dragic's contract, and payed him the highest salary EVER for a 2nd round draft pick? GORAN DRAGIC. Disgusting. no wonder sarver wants to cut costs, kerr literally spent about 4 million this season on goran dragic (buyout, signing, swapping of picks)!

5. trading raja bell and boris diaw for jason richardson

nothing against richardson, but werent we committed to defense? so we trade our best defensive player and our only back-up big man (lopez was already sucking badly at that time) for another wingman who is a somewhat average (and im being generous) defender? we lose depth at the forward position and saturate ourselves with wings because....?

6. firing terry porter HALFWAY into the season

the only good move of kerr was correcting his past mistake,but HALFWAY into the season? what a douche bag. what does kerr think, that systems are learned in a week (all-star break)? way too dumb. i wanted terry porter fired, i admit that, but not this late!

in retrospect, i firmly believe that kerr is the dumbest GM ever, and yes, i know who isaiah thomas is.

there is no other way to put it: kerr killed our suns.

lets accept facts. The suns will probably not make the playoffs. we are 3 games behind dallas, with 20 games remaining and a tough schedule ahead of us. i know its not impossible to make it, but its very unlikely. that said, i realize we have probably the oldest core players in the league. we will probably go into rebuilding mode, and we need solid play from our young guns.

that being said, should we pull a don nelson? what i mean by this is, should we play our young guns heavy minutes in the hopes of giving them confidence and getting them ready to start in this league? 20 games may not be enough to catch up to dallas (i realize its not impossible, of course) but it is a LOT of time to develop our other players. can you imagine this starting line-up?

PG Goran Dragic

SG Leandro Barbosa

SF Alando Tucker

PF Jared Dudley

C Robin Lopez

with these players coming of the bench first: (courtney sims, jason richardson (hey he's young, what can i say)

I know this has d-league written all over it, but if we are not gonna make the playoffs anyway, why not get quality minutes for these guys, and get our old-timers healthy to maximize trade value (or staying power) if we keep them. So what say you?

Yahoo: Stoudemire is out for the Playoffs

so basically, even if we do make the playoffs, we wont have amare. this really sucks. we should seriously think about whether we want this team to make the playoffs, or just finish with 40+ wins and get a good, solid first round pick (not that we can control that - but still). at least now, if we dont make the playoffs, we wont feel so bad.

ZF: Pic & Poll Added.  Remember the Benjamins...

we were number 1 in the west, had a 33-14 record, on set to finish with a 58-win season, had the best offense, had the top 15th defense.

today...

we are currently number 9th in the west, have the 6th best offense, the top 25th defense, a 26-21 record, on set to finish with a 45-win season, fail to make the playoffs, and get the 14th pick in the NBA draft.

if i made you feel better with that 14th pick in the draft thing, then you'll love this...

With the 14th pick in the 2009 NBA draft, the Phoenix Suns select....

draft pick traded to portland for cash considerations

as if your day didnt suck enough. o_O

Halfway into the season, it has become apparent that Terry Porter as our coach just isnt working. In fact, i would go so far to say that the person who cost us the MOST games is none other than our very own coach, Terry Porter. A list of a few bone-headed moves by TP at random:

1. "resting shaq" in back to back games rather stupidly. Im sure most of you remember a stretch where we played denver and minnesota back to back and TP decided to give shaq the night off playing denver. we lost that game in overtime, and when we played minnesota, we lost to them too. AT HOME. Let me first say that while resting shaq is good, some common sense should be used. you rest shaq against a playoff team in the west in the first night of a back-to-back? RIDICULOUS. what makes TP even more stupid is he played shaq two nights in a row, first against atlanta then against - the WIZARDS. Yes, dont play shaq in a potential playoff matchup because its a back to back but play him against the wizards. You go, TP.

 2. Terry Porter's poor rotations. Matt Barnes, who has been taking ill-advised shots, and shooting well below 40% still gets played 20 mins or more. Really? come on coach, i understand if hes in a slump but have you seen the shots he takes?

3. Coach TP's focus on DEFENSE. not only did our offense suffer, (from 1st last yr to 6th currently) but Terry Porter just slows down the pace a bit to make it SEEM like we are a better defensive team. its a shame then, that while we were a middle-of-the-pack defensive team under D' antoni, we currently are 25th in defensive efficiency. the knicks, btw, are 24th.

4. Terry Porter's ridiculous offensive system. I dont get who put in terry porter's head that he was a better offensive coach than d' antoni, but he sure fucked up our system bad. his new system "throw the ball to shaq and watch what happens" sure seems kind of stupid. we have a rejuvenated MVP center making his free throws, a 2-time MVP point guard, an all-star starter power forward, a dunk contest winner, a former rookie of the year, a former 6th man awardee, and throwing shaq the ball is the best you can do? COME ON. we are 6th in offensive efficiency, even though WITHOUT A DOUBT we possess the BEST OFFENSIVE TEAM IN THE HISTORY OF THE NBA. seriously: nash, mr. 50 - 40 - 90, barbosa, hill, amare, shaq, richardson?? are you kidding me, 6th???

5. Terry Porter's motivation skills. I especially love this. TP has done NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to motivate our suns. when we lose, he just shrugs it off and says "we got a good ole ass whipping". well whoop dee do, TP, you think maybe you should call out your players for not playing defense, instead of just standing on the sidelines looking like a fool?

6. Porter's many other idiotic moves. Hack-a-bowen? WTF? theres a reason no one has tried that before - ITS STUPID. it undermines the players. its like tellng them, we are better off getting bruce bowen to the line and hoping he misses than trying to get a defensive stop. im sure the players hate TP so much after costing them the game.

If you guys know any more bone-headed moves by TP, feel free to post them in the comments, im sure i missed a lot. id also like to add that ive been asking stan to get this site running: www.fireterryporter.com - he claims its too early, but i disagree. we have a good team, which is being run to the ground. COACHES HAVE BEEN FIRED FOR A LOT LESS.

what are we waiting for? making it as the 8th seed, getting tossed in the first round and rebuilding the team coz we lost again? Id much rather fire the coach, hire a new one (who although late in the season, can AT LEAST fix the kinks and/or rotations of porter) and we have a much better shot for the playoffs. or it could backfire, we dont make the playoffs and get a higher first round pick - both options i gladly prefer.

lets do this stan! lets start our campaign to fire terry porter!

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=609~2166~1727&teams=21~6~6&te=&cash=

basically we trade amare and barbosa for dirk. dallas gets to rebuild, and we have a tandem of nash and dirk. this is the sink or swim strategy. another would be to just give amare to dallas for expiring contracts and draft picks. what do you guys think? dirks contract is 3 years long though, so we lose out in the '10 bonanza.

I saw this interesting article on www.nola.com that noted that chris paul received 1.1 million votes to pass mcgrady on the all-star voting. here is the full link:

http://blog.nola.com/hornetsbeat/2009/01/new_orleans_hornets_guard_chri_2.html

This got me thinking - did david stern really screw the all-star selection process? well first chris paul got 1,059,161 votes on january 8 and finished with 2,134,798 votes, which means he got an additional 1,075,637 votes after january 8. yes, this is possible, but lets compare it with kobe's returns, who of course, would get more votes than paul (being kobe). kobe started with 1,903,798 votes and ended with 2,805,397 votes for an additional 901,599 votes. david stern do you really expect me to believe that more people voted for chris paul than kobe bryant within the last few days of all-star voting??

now first, while you can vote individually for all-stars, most votes are done online where you check in the 10 people you think should be all-stars. it would make much more sense for kobe getting more votes than paul, especially being much more popular in china.

lets assume for a moment, that china did not vote much after january 8. lets see if the results back that up. evidence number 2: yao ming. yao started off with 1,758,499 votes and finished with 2,532,958 votes for a difference of 774,459 votes. while it would be ridiculous to attribute this to china only, we have to of course assume that yao lost some votes to shaq and other good centers of the west. who did kobe lose his votes to?? why did he end up with just a little over 100,000 more votes than yao ming after january 8? bullcrap.

lets look at another case: Yi jianlian. Yi (can i call you Yi?) started of with 1,216,348 votes on january 8 and finished with just 1,813,829 votes, for only 597,481 votes after january 8. wow, what a coincidence then, that yi finished just a little over 200,000 votes short of kevin garnett. what a travesty it might have been had yi finished with just 200,000 more.

last case in point: dwight howard. the east center race is a joke, there is no center even close to dwight howard. but dwight started of with 2,102,368 votes and ended with 3,150,181 votes for a difference of 1,047,813 votes after jan 8. FTW!!! DWIGHT SUPERMAN HOWARD and just about everyone else got less votes than chris "freakin" paul in the returns! i didnt know chris paul was that popular!!!!

while this may seem to have nothing to do with the suns at first, i assure you it does. a'm'a'r'e stoudemire, everyones favorite sun got in when i believe no one - NO ONE in phoenix even likes the dude anymore. what a coincidence then, that the all-star game is in phoenix. this all-star selection process is a joke and stern should be embarrased. if your gonna cheat, you might have wanted to make it seem a little bit more believable mr stern, you stupid f***tard!

i know that porter rips amare (at times) and maybe kerr has his sweet lil talks with him, but i do believe amare needs to be ripped publicly. think about it. remember when dwight howard was a volume scorer and SVG told the media that he hated dwights defense and dwight was forcing shots? that was about last year, where dwight had a string of 5 games where he didnt even get 10 rebounds. dwight said hed work on it, and he did. you see, ripping a player publicly puts a lot more pressure on the player. the media is watching, people see your deficiencies, and YOU know theyre watching, so you better man up. heck, i remember when kobe scored 40+ on the thunder  but needed about 40 shots to do it (though he made half) and phil jackson still said kobe played like a ball hog (they won the game btw). or how about when phil said that sasha plays with so much heart but zero brain (a month ago, i believe).

point is, we are babying amare. hes acting like an idiot. weve tried everything, talking to him nicely, asking shaq to teach him, kerr talking to him privately, porter ripping him in the sidelines, its time to pile on the pressure. tell the media that amare is vastly underperforming and is an idiot.

it may not be the nicest thing to do, but trust me it will get results. oh, and amare sure as hell deserves any shame he gets.

It's now Duncan and Carmelo Anthony who hold the top two spots. its ironic that Amare had the 2nd highest votes among voters before his ridiculous campaign, and now he has slipped to 3rd, while an oft-injured Carmelo who is averaging a career-low gets the nod, by providing intangible support to his team aside from just simply trying to score the most points.

hmmmm, lesson learned, Amare?

Note: Carmelo is out a couple of weeks after fracturing his hand, so im assuming amare will start in his place, but i hope amare realizes what it really means to be an "all-star" from this point forward.

steve kerr, who wanted to instill defense in the suns, hired terry porter, a "defensive-minded" coach. the result? we are 24th in the league in defensive efficiency (down from approximately 15th last year), while the no "d" antoni coached knicks are 22nd.

yes, thats not a misprint. but wait. its not the fault of the GM right? even if he handpicked the coach, when so many high-profile guys were still on the table (avery johnson, tom thibodeau, scott skiles). so yes, our defense has gone to the crapper. but wait! theres more! our offense, number 1 last year, is now number 4. Hell no.

KERR. IS. A. MORON.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 01/06/09 2:20 PM PST ]

I initially resisted issuing a Moron Point for statistical trends which reflect results over time and is antithetical to the event driving purpose of the Genius/Moron Point system.

However, the fact that the Knicks are a better defensive team then the Suns really can't be ignored. I do think the Sun defense is improving and I do think there are a lot of the story that stats don't explain (like the Suns having a far better record then the Knicks) but alas this couldn't be left unaddressed.

So, with some reluctance Steve Kerr is issued a Moron Point for putting together a Suns team that has a lower defensive rating then the 'Antoni led Knicks. Sorry Steve but facts is facts.

according to NBA.com's race to the mvp, nash is number 16 and amare stoudemire is number 20. WTF? shaq on the other hand is considered under "other reader's favorites"

heres the full link:

 no way is shaq lower than either of the two, what are these people talking about? o_O i would even go so far as to say i dont think nash right now warrants all-star consideration given his drop in performance.

[Note by Phoenix Stan, 01/05/09 11:02 AM PST ]

This is an interesting question now isn't it. We've talked about Shaq deserving to be an all-star. We've ridiculed Amare for his all-star vote campaign. We haven't really gotten into whether Nash deserves to be selected at all.

Let's start the discuss with a vote from you...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArO6U4oIAp2KO8QTXEzGii28vLYF?slug=aw-marion121508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

article sez cavs are seriously talking about trading anderson varejao and wally sczerbiak for SHAWN "whinny whine whine" MARION. i HATE this trade. coz its good for the cavs and might push them over the top, and marion might win a championship before my man nash. its good for the heat too, as marions and sczerbiaks contracts expire, leaving them with a serviceable big in varejao. i know this is a suns blog, but this is sure to have reprecussions, seeing as marion was one of the best suns players ever. any opinions?

while like most suns fans, i originally hated the trade of shaq, this is why i think overall it was a good move by steve kerr:

1. the suns would NOT have won the championship last yr, even if they didnt trade marion. they could have possibly reached the finals (i doubt) but would nevertheless be crushed by boston.

2. would you trade shawn marion for shaq right now straight up? i know i WOULD NOT. i do know shawn marions contract expires, but really, which free agent could we get in your opinion? shaq is playing really well, we are outrebounding opponents, and his FG% is about 60% while marions is closer to 40%. so really, while marion was appreciated, would you honestly trade back marion for shaq?

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=383~2772~2166~3423&teams=21~21~18~18&te=&cash=

jerome james, and david lee for leandro barbosa and goran dragic. put james in to make the salaries match, his contract expires next yr. d' antoni would probably pull this trade off as he loooves barbosa, plus he gets a young point guard who may (but probably wont) be steve nash's heir apparent. what do you guys think?