On December 23rd, I received lots of criticism on my Twitter account for saying in this blog that Amare Stoudemire should be moved before the trade deadline. The Suns at the time were 18-10, and seemingly cruising along to a likely 3 or 4 seed in the Western Conference. Today, nearly a month later the Suns are 24-18 and one game away from not being in the playoffs at all if the season ended today.

What has happened to the Suns? In this 6-8 stretch since I spoke about trading Amare Stoudemire, the wheels truly have come off. The once confident Channing Frye has withered away. I can’t say this is Channing Frye’s fault in a conventional way. The word is out around the NBA that Frye is a one-trick pony and if you run him off the 3-point line on offense and post him up on the defensive end, he is rendered virtually useless. This is evidenced over his performance in the last 5 games, only shooting 21% from the field. Its the same old story with the Suns unfortunately; teams simply pound them on the offensive glass and can come back from virtually any lead the Suns can muster. Alvin Gentry has been tinkering with lineup changes including Robin Lopez and Leandro Barbosa and having Frye and Jason Richardson come off the bench. In my opinion, Lopez in the starting lineup is a good move defensively, however Barbosa is a step-down from Richardson on defense and has done nothing this season to warrant starting.

Amare Stoudemire continues to be consistent, consistently not a max contract player. Amare is having a decent year especially considering the fact he is coming off major eye surgery last season. However for someone who considers himself a super-star, his numbers are simply not there. Amare is currently paid $16,378,325, that means he is making more this season than Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, Joe Johnson, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace, Kevin Durant etc…. My point being here is that he is over-paid and does not match the production of any of the aforementioned players. Amare Stoudemire, never has improved his defense as evidenced by not even trying to stop O.J. Mayo against Memphis the other night on a break-away dunk that ultimately swung the momentum in the Grizzlies favor. Amare is 30th in the league in player efficiency rating (PER) behind the likes of Marc Gasol, Brook Lopez, Antawn Jamison, Mareese Speights, Carl Landry, and Nazr Mohamed. Granted these are all solid players, but most certainly not super-stars.

The Suns need to capitalize on any lingering perception around the league that Amare Stoudemire is still an elite player in the NBA. At this point, a solid interior defender that can hit a 15-17 jumper with a draft pick would be a great return for Amare. Would a team like the Miami Heat who already have 2-first round picks in the 2010 Draft be willing to part with Udonis Haslem and a first rounder to bring Amare into the fold? This would help both teams right now as the Heat could have a solid tandem in Dwayne Wade and Amare Stoudemire, while the Suns could improve their defense and start looking to the future?

Here are the various rumors I have found this week in regards to Suns trades in general:

Amare Stoudemire to the Chicago Bulls for Brad Miller and Tyrus Thomas

Amare Stoudemire to the Detroit Pistons for Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton