Over this weekend, a listless Suns team was taken apart by a young but terrible Memphis Grizzlies team 106-89. However, the Suns losing was not the major news coming out of Memphis. Come to find out, the Suns and Memphis had worked out a deal in which Amare Stoudemire would have been traded for Rudy Gay, Mike Conley and a 1st round pick in 2009’s draft. Here is what Memphis’s coach Lionel Hollins had to say about the prospects of that trade proposal.

“You can make a trade like that and it looks good on the surface but we’re not a winning team,” said Hollins.
“You’re trading your nucleus for one player who’s probably not going to take you over the hump. I love Amare Stoudemireas a player but he’s not Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) when Shaq was in his prime. He’s not LeBron James. He’s not Kobe Bryant. Even those guys need players around them.”

Upon taking a look at this situation, it appears Lionel Hollins opposition to the trade was enough for the Memphis Grizzlies not to go through with the deal. I know many would contend that this would have been a great trade for the aging Suns, especially considering Amare’s eye injury. Despite being a huge proponent of trading Amare before the All-Star Break, I am not sold that this would have been a good move for the Suns. With Alvin Gentry at the helm, Amare Stoudemire scored 42 points in the only game under the “old” 7 seconds or less Suns system. Granted, Amare can not play a lick of defense and his injury only will magnify fan’s regret in not getting this deal done. However, if Steve Nash sticks around, Amare can still be a more valuable cog to the Suns than the 3 players that would have been returned. Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire run the pick and roll together as well as any tandem in the history of the NBA and are reminiscent of John Stockton and Karl Malone on offense. Rudy Gay is a solid young star, but he is no defensive guru in his own right. Mike Conley has not lived up to expectations thus far and is basically a duplicate of Goran Dragic. The 1st round pick is seemingly enticing because of Memphis’s chances at securing the #1 pick AKA Blake Griffin in this year’s draft. However, beyond a top 5 pick the draft is relatively weak on overall talent this year.

The jury is still out on whether Memphis made the right move here. However, if I was one of the Suns top brass I would be happy Amare is still here and then search for a defensive center that can erase his mistakes on defense. If Amare comes back healthy next year and they continue to stay with the run and gun style, Suns fans will all be thanking Lionel Hollins for letting this trade slide through his fingers.