FanHouse RobertSarver

It's been such a wild year for the Phoenix Suns that the trade deadline rumors that swirled around Amare Stoudemire almost seem like they didn't even happen. But happen they did, and the fact is that the Suns were openly trying to deal their young All-Star to anyone who would listen -- including the Memphis Grizzlies.

There were plenty of unsubstantiated rumors about where Stoudemire could possibly end up, but Memphis was apparently a legitimate possibility, at least from the Suns' standpoint. The Memphis Commercial Appeal has the details of how it all could have gone down.

It seems like this "Shaquille O'Neal to Dallas" rumor won't be going away anytime soon. If you recall, DallasBasketball.com got the ball rolling on Tuesday morning by posting a report citing anonymous sources claiming O'Neal isn't hiding his desire to be traded this summer.

"Privately, he's not making any secret of it," says one mutual friend of Shaq and DallasBasketball.com. "I bet right after the season ends, it won't be private anymore, either."

PHOENIX -- I have this funny little device called The Jordan Tax. Anybody who comes in contact with Michael Jordan and benefits disproportionately from him, in context with the rest of that person's career or life, should be taxed accordingly and pay up. It could be an owner, a general manager, a teammate, a media person, a public address announcer, a gambler, an ex-wife, Ahmad Rashad, anyone.

Rumors about Terry Porter's job security in Phoenix have been running rampant since Wednesday, but so far everybody -- from team owner Robert Sarver, GM Steve Kerr and Porter himself -- has denied there's anything to it. Until Saturday night, that is.

Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reported Saturday that "there are strong indications that the Suns will have a new head coach" come Monday. In response to the report, Kerr gave an extremely telling non-denial to the AP: "We haven't made a decision. There are a lot of things we're working on this weekend."

Earlier this week, Ken Berger of CBS Sports reported that the Suns' stance on trading Amare Stoudemire "has advanced from accepting calls to placing them," an indication the team is serious about moving him.

But today, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Suns owner Robert Sarver is now personally involved, as well, reaching out to at least two fellow owners in an attempt to get a deal done. Stoudemire has told reporters numerous times that the team's motivations for trading him were purely financial, and after hearing how eager Sarver is to part with the All-Star big man, it's not hard to believe him.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Amare Stoudemire knows he's on the trading block, and he knows we know. While most athletes would dodge questions about rumors with trite cliches, Stoudemire was refreshingly honest following Sunday's win in Detroit.

"I know about the rumors. I know what teams are looking. I know what teams want me," Stoudemire said. "I pretty much know everything -- I know what's going on. I'm definitely in the loop on what's happening."

The spat between Mike D'Antoni and Phoenix's current management has flared back up. In this morning's New York Post, D'Antoni told Peter Vescey that owner Robert Sarver and GM Steve Kerr tried to force in a defensive assistant coach after the first-round blow-up against the Spurs and basically tinkered too much for his taste. D'Antoni also asserts that in his first meeting with Shawn Marion, Kerr told the forward he wasn't worth a max contract.

Via BSotS, Sarver jumped on Phoenix sports radio today to answer the charges. Here's his basic assessment of what led to D'Antoni's departure.

"At the end of the day, I think that while Mike didn't really want to be the GM, he also didn't want a boss. Mike's a pretty stubborn guy and probably felt that a little bit of the suggestions were maybe undermining him, even though that wasn't our intent. [...] Steve walked on eggshells all year and basically didn't tell Mike to do anything."

There's better gossip in there, though: Sarver said D'Antoni agreed before the 2007-08 season that he'd consider adding a defensive coordinator to the bench once Marc Iavaroni left for Memphis. Kerr brought then-free agent Tom Thibodeau to town. (Thibodeau was a long-time Jeff Van Gundy assistant and had been interviewed for a few head coach jobs that summer.) Sarver said D'Antoni rejected Thibodeau and instead promoted his brother Dan D'Antoni to lead assistant. Thibodeau, of course, eventually landed in Boston, where he implemented what became the league's highest-rated defense.

Did D'Antoni feel threatened by the Thibodeau suggestion? If Sarver and Kerr knew he was stubborn and didn't like having a boss, why did they think he'd approve of having the boss' hand-picked #2 on his staff? Of course, I imagine Suns fans will be less than ecstatic that D'Antoni put his own autonomy in higher regard than the team's plight. With Thibodeau's specific expertise, the team could have won a title.

In news that can either be described as an anti-collusion effort or simple petty bitterness, the Globe and Mail reports that when the Suns granted Mike D'Antoni permission to speak to other teams about their head coaching positions, they had one condition. He is not allowed to speak with the Toronto Raptors.

Now, if the two teams were division rivals, this would be pretty self-explanatory. If they were conference rivals, even, I could see the inherent value. But as they play in different conferences, there are really only two options. The first is that Suns owner Robert Sarver wanted to make sure D'Antoni's buddy and Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo didn't benefit if he was in any way involved in D'Antoni's decision to ride out of the desert. This is not beyond reason, considering the personal and professional relationship between the two. Likewise, it prevents D'Antoni from hooking back up with Colangelo and re-instituting the "run and gun" which the Suns have decided to abandon, and succeeding with it where the Suns failed, however unlikely that may be. Better to just nip the possibility in the bud than to risk further embarrassment and attention to how quickly the Suns disintegrated when Sarver hired Steve Kerr.

But there's a more likely reason, after the jump.

If that headline seems negative, it's only because I think that if Steve Kerr doesn't plan on keeping Mike D'Antoni as head coach of the Phoenix Suns -- and that's t he way I'm leaning right now -- then why lead him on? On the other hand, he's already gotten D'Antoni to wave his hand and claim the Shaquille O'Neal trade, so with the Daddy on the hook for another $20 million next year, maybe he wants a scapegoat.

Or maybe Steve Kerr isn't evil and I'm just being paranoid. But he's admitted -- and it's obvious -- that he and D'Antoni have significantly different philosophical approaches to winning in the NBA. Which may be why the two of them and Managing Partner Robert Sarver are having a little get-together this weekend. Of course, before they sit down and talk, they had to clear up the rampant rumors that D'Antoni was already out in Phoenix.

'There's no truth to that,' Kerr said. 'I asked Mike when the story came out, and he denied it. Mike's our coach and has done a great job for four years.'

Kerr, D'Antoni and Sarver will meet by the weekend after taking some time for emotional separation from Tuesday's first-round playoff elimination at San Antonio. 'We'll make a decision, and hopefully we go on and get this team over the top,' said D'Antoni, who has guided the winningest four-year run in team history.

Asked if he wanted to return as Phoenix's coach, D'Antoni evaded the question, saying, 'We'll sit down and talk and evaluate everything and see where we are.'

There's the other twist. Maybe D'Antoni wants out. Would it be that shocking to see an architect walk away from a project early because the guy in charge of buying supplies decided to go a different direction? Of course not.

We've just about beat this Shaq-for-Marion deal into the ground, but this puts a fresh angle on it: what if Pat Riley's master plan wasn't just to dump Shaq's salary for a guy who's almost certainly going to opt-out this summer? What if Riley is actually contemplating another deal that will send Marion packing before he even has a chance to do a load of laundry? From HOOPSWORLD:

The rumors floating around - published and unpublished - suggest that the HEAT aren't planning to keep Shawn Marion.

One version of this rumor has the Dallas Mavericks involved. We've heard that it might be as part of a three-team deal that would land Jason Kidd in Dallas (the Mavs don't need Marion when they have Josh Howard), but then we've also heard that it might just be with Dallas. ... Avery Johnson denies his team is looking at any trades and Mark Cuban refuted this rumor specifically, saying he has not spoken with the HEAT at all. The Mavericks are pretty straightforward in these matters. If they say they're not dealing, they most likely aren't.

Then again, just a couple of weeks ago Suns owner Robert Sarver was saying he was sticking with his core and wouldn't make any big trades, so you never know what will happen until the time comes.

This is definitely an interesting twist, and I wouldn't put it past Riley for thinking like this. Shaq was essentially unmovable -- Steve Kerr was probably the only GM in the league willing to take a shot with him. But Marion is a dynamic talent on both sides of the ball, and (for all intents and purposes) has an expiring contract, to boot. Should Riley keep him on the trading block, there should be no shortage of suitors, including contenders out West who knew better than to even bother inquiring with the Suns.