Since the blockbuster deal that sent Suns stand-out Jason Richardson along with Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark to the Orlando Magic for Mickael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat and Vince Carter, Suns fans have waited patiently to get their first look at Vince Carter in Purple and Orange. In the meantime, the Suns have lost 3 straight games including one to the lowly Los Angeles Clippers. It was initially reported than Vince Carter would have arthroscopic knee surgery and could be out for as long as a month. However, once again the Suns vaunted training staff did their magic and Carter will make his Suns debut tonight versus the Philadelphia 76ers.

Unfortunately for the Suns this is not the same Vince Carter that was once touted as the next Michael Jordan, not the Vince Carter that scored 25 points on a nightly basis either; rather it is a Vince Carter that averaged 15.1 PPG during this season with the Orlando Magic. Some would point to the swelling in his knee to explain why his scoring is so down. I however have another hypothesis: he is simply not that good anymore. The Suns system rewards those that can spot up and hit the 3-pointer as Steve Nash puts it in the shooting pocket on virtually every pass. The problem with Vince Carter is that he was only shooting slightly over 34% from beyond the arc with the Magic this season. With Dwight Howard commonly forcing double teams Vince was often wide open and still shot below his career average of 37.5%. What is even more disconcerting is the fact Carter’s overall Player Efficiency Rating or PER created by ESPN’s John Hollinger is at a career-low of 16.71. To put this in perspective, Grant Hill (17.9), Hakim Warrick (17.95), Jason Richardson (18.45), Steve Nash (23.67) all are more efficient on the court than Vince Carter at this point in his career. This is not to say Vince Carter is a bad player, rather it shows he is not the All-Star he once was.

Despite all the Suns recent struggles, they are still only  1.5 games out of the 8th seed for the playoffs and 4 games out of the 6th seed. However it is clear a 6th seed is not going to survive in the Playoffs in the brutal Western Conference. This is truly sad to see this team in such turmoil after being 2 games away from the NBA Finals last season. Here is to hoping that Vince Carter finds his fountain of youth in Phoenix like Steve Nash and Grant Hill have, I however will not be holding my breath.