Here's one thing we know just as sure as Steve Nash dropping 10-plus assists on a nightly basis -- as long as there's a big name player out there who could possibly, under some confluence of circumstances be traded, there will be trade rumors. As you can see by reading the other four stories in this Story Steam, we've been skeptical of all of it since Day 1 and nothing from the latest round of Nash trade rumors has changed that.
The cycles basically play out like this: Someone with a big soap box floats an idea (Mr. Hollinger for example) or someone else reports on the whiff of rumor that a team is interested in Nash (can't blame them), then we all rush to ask Lon Babby about it and he repeats the same thing -- we have no interest in trading the sun and the moon and the stars, aka Steve Nash. Then we ask Steve how he feels about being the subject of trade rumors and he says, "What trade rumors?"
Rinse. Recycle. Repeat.
Today we got a tiny sliver of new information however, although honestly once you think about it there's really not much here either:
Weekend Dime: Latest trade chatter - ESPN
"Steve is a Phoenix Sun and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he's the face of that franchise," Bill Duffy, Nash's longtime agent, told ESPN.com this week."But logic dictates that it would be prudent for the Suns to start looking at their long-term future in the summer, so we would expect that they may entertain moving him during the summer. We are ready for that and we anticipate a very respectful process if they decide to look at starting over with a younger core."
So, Nash's agent is stating the obvious. Obviously, the Suns will start looking into their options. In fact, it would be Gross General Managerial Negligence if they did not look into their options either this summer or at the upcoming NBA Trade Deadline (Feb 24). It is their job to look into options. They are professional option lookers.
No one actually expects a team to offer the Suns a package the would be worth prying Nash out of Robert Sarver's hands, but that doesn't mean it absolutely won't happen. Since it's pretty much impossible to prove a negative -- that the Suns won't trade Nash -- we will sit back and wait and try and not get our panties in a bunch while all this chatter goes on.
If we hear of something that sounds vaguely legit, we'll discuss it. Trading Nash and Hill to the Knicks for guys who are readily available on the free agent market in any given summer (Landry Fields and Wilson Chandler) does not pass that legitimacy test despite being floated by a member of the Worldwide Leader.
As for the notion that Minnesota would trade Ricky Rubio for Nash? Our buddy Tom Ziller made swiss cheese of that theory in short order.
Feel free to opine that the Suns should trade Nash. It's a fair point. But don't expect it to actually happen any time soon.
As for this coming summer, nothing is getting done until the new CBA is signed. With the potential for a radically different playing field after the likely lockout, it would be folly to think that any team has real plans to do anything until a deal is in place. Just like it wouldn't be wise to invest in Egypt until we see what comes next, teams aren't going to be prone to making long-term decisions until they know what the new rules will be. This is not fantasy sports.
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