In just another sign of the craziness that surrounds the NBA Trade Deadline and it's summer alternative, the NBA Draft, the Phoenix Suns were once again forced to forcibly deny they were trading Steve Nash. The initial ESPN report said that the Timberwolves would dangle the number 2 pick in Thursday's draft in return for Nash (salary mismatch issues aside) but quickly realized that wouldn't work (which should have been obvious before anyone had to pick up a phone).
The Wolves, according to the report, were willing to part with the second pick to get Nash but since Nash only has one year left on his deal (a year the might be shortened by a lockout), it doesn't make sense to give up an asset to get him for such a short period of time unless Nash were willing to sign an extension or otherwise indicate he would be willing to stay in Minnesota (and why would he do that?).
So, that brings us back to Suns President Lon Babby telling the Arizona Republic that the Suns are not trading Nash. This might sound familiar since Babby has said the same thing about 10 times.
azcentral.com blogs - Coro's Orange Slices - PaulCoro - Babby firm on not trading Nash
"We are not trading Marcin Gortat. Period. End of sentence," Babby said Wednesday morning. "We are not trading Steve Nash. Period. Exclamation point."
The inclusion of Gortat in the denial is actually more interesting since just yesterday GM Lance Blanks didn't fully deny rumors of a possible deal sending him to Minnesota. Not that Blanks indicated they would make a move, but in totally typical GM-speak he did leave the door somewhat open. Babby closed it.
"It's speculation," Blanks said Tuesday. "It's obviously founded speculation, but that's part of the business. We're going to build the best team we can. We love Marcin Gortat, and hope that he's a part of our core going forward for a long time."
Babby turned "we hope that he's part of..." to "we are not trading Marcin Gortat" which of course really only means they don't plan on trading Marcin Gortat right now. But if we've learned anything about covering the NBA it's that anything is possible.
Sometimes it's just better to wait until something actually happens before talking about it...but that's not really possible either so the rumor game rolls on.