Rebuild?

Anyone following basketball knows that the Suns are willing to trade anyone except for Steve Nash. Multiple different articles written on various sports news websites have stated various reasons why: bad team chemistry, lack of defensive effort from Stoudemire, no draft picks, and the need to get under luxury tax are the primary concerns. As with most things in business and sports, this is all about the money. With the country sinking deeper into recession, there is no doubt that Sarver is feeling the pinch and desperately wants to dump salary. He has made his money in banking and real estate, and I would be very surprised if he has not lost a significant amount of money over the last year or so. I am fearing a fire sale may be in the future.

I think it would be madness to trade Stoudemire at 26 years old. It would be so backwards to keep Shaq's $21 million dollar salary. Also, Shaq's contract comes off the books next year, so why not just wait until then to be under the luxury tax? It makes you wonder about Sarver's financial situation when he cant take another luxury tax hit. The only thing that I can think of is that Kerr's "master plan" is to dump a huge chunk of salary by getting rid of Shaq and Stoudemire, making a move for a big-name free agent in 2010, and getting everything else through the draft i.e. long-term rebuild. Maybe the Suns are throwing in the towel and have just accepted that they cant compete with the Laker and Spurs and figure they can just rebuild and be primed for a title when the Lakers and Spurs have all aged. The main problem is that we are way behind the curve of acquiring young talent. The new generation of NBA superstars is budding, we have none of these future greats.

You have to wonder if Amare is just too demanding of all the attention. There are a lot of fiery competitors and intense personalities on this team. The perception is more and more that Amare will opt out to test free agency after next season. Kerr has to be thinking that we have get what you can for him now instead of letting him walk for nothing. He still cant shut it down on D, though he did play well in the win against Detroit.

So theres a lot of speculation out there. I am surprised that Kerr has such a short-term memory. We played so well last year and just had yet another gut-wrenching early exit from the playoffs at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs. I think we need to keep it together and see what can come of it. The Suns roster is so deep with talent. If Amundson can continue to elevate his game then maybe that can neutralize our poor pick-and-roll defense that San Antonio killed us on last year in the playoffs. We have got to get that swagger back.

I think the game against Cleveland on Wednesday will be the most important game of the season for us. We have not played well against top-tier teams. If we can win, then I think it would be a HUGE statement win. If we lose, it may be the straw that broke the camel's back.