What's your evidence for this? That Suns brass are now denying everything? They'd do that no matter what. Obviously they aren't going to come out and say, "Yeah, we tried to move Marion and some other pieces out for Garnett, but we couldn't connect all the dots."
I've never before seen that level of chatter for something completely unfounded. Either all of the mania over the Boston three-way was absolutely unprecedented for its amount of pure, focused, many-times-collaborated nonsense ... or there was something to it.
Personally, I'd say the evidence points pretty strongly to the latter possibility.
Here's what I believe really happened at this point. The Shawn Marion/Boston deal that was actually close to getting done did not involve KG. I'm sure the Phoenix Suns were pushing for something, but the Minnesota Timberwolves were not about to pull the trigger if they were getting back expiring contracts and the #5. They wanted Al Jefferson or Amare Stoudemire.
The deal that was close when Shawn Marion for Theo Ratliff, Delonte West or Tony Allen, and the #5. That's the trade that probably would have been done if Shawn Marion was willing to sign an extension in Boston. btw, I think they would have taken Corey Brewer at #5 if that deal had gone down.
I know many of you just refuse to believe that the Phoenix Suns were ever willing to part with Amare. However, I think this latest SI report is probably closer to reality. I'm not sure how close anything was to actually getting done. I do believe they would have created Amare in the right deal for KG though.
Go back and read all of the Phoenix Suns statements wants the rumors of Atlanta being involved broke. It was always, "we haven't had many direct talks with Atlanta." Well, that might be true, but it doesn't mean that the Phoenix Suns weren't talking about him possibly going to Atlanta in directly through the Minnesota Timberwolves.
A lot of you guys and the media find it hard to believe that Kevin McHale would want Al Jefferson instead of Amare Stoudemire. I'm not sure why. First of all, with Jefferson you don't have to deal with quite the massive ego of Amare, Jefferson did not have micro fracture surgery two years ago, and Jefferson is still on his rookie contract.
Assuming they don't make any other deals to get rid of somebody like Jaric, I believe Minnesota will have $15 million to spend next summer. That would not be the case if they had traded for Amare. They've also got some decent pieces to make other moves like Ricky Davis with an expiring contract, Gomes, draft picks, and even Telfair if he plays well before the trade deadline.
I'm not sure why a couple of you guys think that the SI article would be spin by Kevin McHale. That doesn't make much sense at all to me. Why would he want people second-guessing him for taking a Jefferson package instead of Amare?
Once it became apparent that none of these deals were going to happen I believe the Phoenix Suns spin machine went into full gear. Please notice that it was all the local puppets (the Suns themselves, Coro, Gambo, etc.) claiming they had never discussed trading Amare. It makes sense. The last thing you want is a guy like Amare Stoudemire believing the Phoenix Suns were willing to trade him.
The clock is still ticking for the Phoenix Suns. They've got to do something to fortify that frontline if they really think they are going to win a championship. They're extremely thin at the 4/5 even if they are completely healthy, and that health is going to be far from certain.
Joe Mama
