ESPN's Marc Stein has opines on anything an everything when it comes to the NBA. So when there are talks of the Phoenix Suns trying to trade Steve Nash, Stein is going to put his two cents in.
Team owner Robert Sarver is holding on to hope that Nash will want to re-sign in Phoenix for two more seasons, keeping the 38 year old, hoping he rides out into the desert sunset and retires as a Sun. But there are a lot of teams interested in Nash's services, New York, Dallas Orlando, Toronto, and Portland just to name a few, and the Suns have a quite the tight rope to walk when it comes to Nash.
Keeping Nash beyond the trade deadline exposes the Suns to the same risks Orlando faces if it hangs onto Howard, creating the very real possibility that Nash could leave Phoenix without compensation. In that scenario, though, it's believed that Sarver would prefer to announce to the world afterward that the Suns tried everything they could to keep Nash but ultimately couldn't stop him from signing elsewhere -- and then start to try to rebuild with the resultant cap space -- as opposed to settling for a so-so trade in the next two weeks.
Phoenix continues to claim that they aren't going to shop Nash unless Nash asks for a trade, and some of Stein's sources say that due to his age and looming free-agency teams aren't exactly chomping at the bit to make star-studded deals for the perennial All-Star at the trade deadline.
From how the stars are lining up it seems that Nash will be in Phoenix past the deadline, but if the right deal comes along, you never really know.
For more on the Suns, head over to Bright Side of the Sun.