It’s an odd day for me to post something where I point out John Hollinger saying something about the Suns that’s remotely insightful. Earlier I gave props without to J Rich, John Hollinger, It’s your turn. Listen to the logic behind not trading Amar’e:

”

Phoenix has been criticized in a lot of quarters for not dealing Stoudemire when they might lose him for nothing after the season, but you won’t hear such noise from this chamber.

The Suns did the right thing here (for more on who didn’t, hang on a minute). They made it clear they were receptive to offers for Stoudemire, listened to what everybody was willing to do, and then decided it wasn’t enough. Granted, they were more public about this than they needed to be and have to do some damage control with Stoudemire. Nonetheless, what they did is good trading, in its own way: They saw everybody’s hand and decided to fold their cards. You don’t have to play every hand you’re dealt.

Phoenix had plenty of reason to hold out for a good offer. It would have been very, very odd for a team 10 games over .500 to salary-dump a star player; trading an All-Star like Stoudemire is very different from Utah’s decision that Ronnie Brewer was fungible. Thus, the Suns’ incentive to deal Stoudemire was pretty small unless they got bowled over; haggling with Cleveland over J.J. Hickson fell considerably short of that benchmark.

The Suns still have several options if they feel Stoudemire will opt out and become a free agent. (Given the uncertainty that awaits in the 2011 market, he probably will.) The two things everyone forgets are that (1) they still have until the end of June to extend his contract, and (2) trades get done at draft time.

What this means, in practice, is that Phoenix can do an “extend-and-trade” deal with Stoudemire on draft day, similar to the one the Celtics made to get Kevin Garnett three years ago. The Suns can also sign and trade him if he opts out, or re-sign him as a free agent (Phoenix still can give him the longest deal and the biggest raises, remember). Bottom line, the Suns have enough options remaining that they didn’t need to give up on a playoff team to get pennies on the dollar in return. ”

Holy Crap.

I agree.