Its been awhile since I last posted. Perhaps this was in silent protest to the Suns not trading Amar’e Stoudemire, or the fact that I have a 3 week old Suns fan at home. Either way, let’s have a quick recap of the last 2 weeks of Planet Orange.

• Amar’e Stoudemire remains a Phoenix Sun:Despite the fact that Amar’e will likely opt out of his contract at the end of this season, Steve Kerr and Robert Sarver were unable to find a deal that was even close to market value for Stoudemire. The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to never really be interested in actually obtaining Stoudemire, rather it is my contention that they were using the media hype as leverage to force the Washington Wizard’s hand in trading Antawn Jamison. The question here is was this Steve Kerr’s failure to negotiate or is the market demand for Stoudemire with a history of injuries and bad defense just that low? I would contend that it is a combination of both. Kerr has not been successful in regards to trades during his tenure as the Suns General Manager. Kurt Thomas for a conditional 2nd round pick, Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’Neal, Raja Bell, Boris Diaw for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley? Ok, the last one is likely a wash, but you get the point here. Part of the problem is that the Suns leverage disappeared last year when we wanted to potentially trade Stoudemire the first time. NBA GM’s are no dummies and they realize that the Suns are in a position of weakness with Stoudemire so they subsequently offered extremely little.

• Steve Nash Tired from All-Star and Olympic Schedule: Steve Nash had quite the adventurous All-Star break. Nash first went to his native Vancouver to hold the Olympic torch and participate in the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Nash then went to the All-Star weekend in Dallas where he won the NBA Skills Challenge and then dished out 13 assists during the All-Star game. This torrid schedule however caught up with Steve Nash and his body. Nash is now dealing with lower back pain and an abdominal strain. He did not travel with the team in their epic 104-102 comeback victory of Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The rest appeared very well received as Nash last night played against the Philadelphia 76ers and score 20 points and dished out 13 assists before sitting out the entire fourth quarter due to their lead.

The Suns are winners of 10 of their last 12 games and have moved into the 5th position in the Western Conference playoff race. The Suns are only 2.5 games out of 2nd and they have ony 10 road games for the rest of the season. Doing some simple math, the Suns are winning 75% of their games at home (21-7) and 50% of their games on the road (15-16). If these percentages hold true the Suns can finish out 15-8 and have 51 wins. The only problem here is that the 4 teams currently ahead of the Suns are all going to win more that 51 (Utah, LA, Denver and Dallas). So that leaves the Suns as a 5 or 6 seed in the playoffs facing either Dallas or Utah in the 1st round without home-court advantage. Utah is nearly unbeatable with home court and Dallas improved drastically at the trade deadline with Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler. Perhaps I am being pessimistic, but despite their great play right now the Suns still will be one and done in the playoffs. Another season will have gone by and no title in the desert. Stoudemire will be gone to a team like New Jersey looking for star power and the Suns will be left looking for answers. This team is incredibly fun to watch on a nightly basis, however the future is looking more bleak by the day.