Tonight, the 6-11 Phoenix Suns will take on the 11-8 Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden, 8:00pm MST, in what is sure to be a test for the Suns regarding their resolve to stay together and willingness to continue competing.

The Suns are coming off of a disappointing two-game losing streak against the Dallas Mavericks without Dirk Nowitzki, and then against the Toronto Raptors at home who the Suns had previously beaten 14 times straight. The confidence of this team is in question and their future together hangs in the balance. The Suns' lone victory against an opponent with a winning record came against the Blazers back on Jan. 6th; when they upset Portland with a blowout victory 102-77. Tonight's game will either further the notion that something must be done to shake things up, or show that this team still has some fight left in it.

The Trail Blazers are coming off of difficult stretch themselves after losing five of their last nine games, with seven of those games on the road, but they have been playing very well at home. In fact, the Blazers are 8-1 at home so far this season compared to 3-7 on the road, so the Suns will certainly see a different team tonight than the one they beat earlier this month in Phoenix.

Will the Suns have what it takes to pull out another upset tonight against the Blazers? Read on for some analysis on what to expect from tonight's game.

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This week we discuss the Suns 2-3 road trip and loss to the Raptors, the Robin Lopez situation and update on what free agents might be available this summer. We also discuss some ideas for making the Suns better now how some recent Nash comments about the lack of talent in Phoenix have been overblown.

Podcast hosted by Bryan Gibberman and Seth Pollack and presented by Arizona Sports 620 and SB Nation Arizona.

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In general, the only way for a team to excel at both offense and defense is to have a huge positive point differential. This a concomitant circumstance of being a good team. Good teams outscore their opponents. They score more points, so they are better on offense. They give up less, so they are better on defense.

An average offensive team that’s great on defense can accomplish this. Likewise, an average defensive team that’s great on offense can achieve the feat. The Suns for many years have done the latter to differing degrees of success, but it appears that the 2009-10 playoff run was the Suns turn to the jump the shark and the true wizard of AZ (Sir Steve) was left high and dry by management mere moments after performing the perilous feat.

We’ve heard the offense is worse. We’ve heard the defense is better. We’ve heard there is actually still more room for improvement on the defensive end than the offensive. We’ve heard that Alvin Gentry shops at The Clotherie.

What are we to make of all of this? Trudge forward to let me obfuscate the subject even further with everyone’s favorite form of prevarication – statistics!

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It is evidently time to play the blame game here in the desert. Our favorite collective of professional basketball players are losing in horrific, depressing fashion, and the calls are coming from all angles with ideas on how to right the ship. I agree it is time for Robin Lopez to find some new surroundings. I agree the team has basically two consistently good players . But I also agree this team wasn't constructed to win, but rather, to raise some hopes, fill some seats, and keep us quiet until next season when the Suns front office and ownership will allegedly spend some money and completely rebuild this team into a Western Conference contender.

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There is a lot of speculation on what will happen to Robin Lopez in the next few months. Rather than create an open dialogue on a hundred different possibilities, I thought I would narrow it down to one particular, realistic scenario for us to consider in this article.

I know we Suns fans are holding out for a better deal (Houston's Courtney Lee maybe, or Memphis' OJ Mayo, or just a late #1 pick), but today I just wanted to find out which of the "Houston 4" you'd want if we had no other offers and had to choose one.

The Suns have a recent history of being able to work with the Houston Rockets. Last year's trade was a bust for the Suns - Goran Dragic and a late #1 for Aaron Brooks - but at least we know the two teams can work together.

We are not here to talk about that trade. Really, we're not. We are here today to talk about trading Robin Lopez for one of the "Houston 4" - four lottery picks from the 2009 draft who were just told yesterday that they would be unrestricted free agents this summer. These are all young guys with talent who just couldn't make their careers happen yet. Kinda like Robin Lopez.

I know there are potentially other, better trades out there for Lopez. But you have to understand that the better the trade is for the Suns standpoint, the less likely it's going to happen. It's most likely that the best the Suns can do with Lopez is to trade him for a 2-month trial on someone else who, if they play well, the Suns would own that player's Bird Rights and would have recent familiarity with their "fit". At worst, the Suns still get the cap space this summer.

Hit the jump for a rundown of each of the 4, and then vote on your fave.

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We can forget holding out hope that the Suns might drastically improve and make the playoffs this season. It's pretty simple: if you manage to lose to the Nets, Cavs and Raptors all at home, you're just not a good team at all. There's no two ways about it.

There's all kinds of reasons for this, namely an inability to execute on offense, especially when Nash sits, along with poor defensive efforts (save for a few games when it was impressive). There's also the fatigue factor, with the shortened and packed schedule seeming to be a bad thing for a team where two starters are almost 40. But let's not go over all that. What I want to look at is the shooting, specifically, the three point shooting.

Since the 2004/05 season when Nash returned to Phoenix, the Suns have been known as a great three point shooting team. Their ability to space the floor with good shooters who could knock down their shots was as vital to their success as anything else. Here's a look at the percentages for each season since Nash returned, along with the key performers from three point range. We'll ignore those who didn't shoot much, for example Maciej Lampe shot .667 from 3 in 2004/05, but only had three attempts.

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As if losing to the Raptors at home last night wasn't bad enough, Suns center Robin Lopez got himself ejected from the game in the second quarter due to another of his failures at temper control. It was a new low for Lopez in a season that had started so well for the Suns big man. He showed enthusiasm and commitment by showing up on the first day players were allowed back at team facilities as the lockout was ending, looking and sounding physically and mentally rejuvenated.

Lopez was so impressive in preseason that there was talk of competition at starting center between Lopez and Marcin Gortat, even though Gortat had clearly won the job down the stretch last season. Then Lopez took advantage of the opportunity provided by Gortat's injured thumb to score 22 points to go with 7 rebounds in the season opener against the Hornets. Despite a Suns loss, he was the team's player of the game.

Unfortunately, that game nearly a month ago was his finest moment of the season, by far. And now the Suns will not sign Lopez to an extension by today's deadline, making the 4th year player a restricted free agent at the end of the season.

In the Suns' current situation, the lame duck status of their backup center doesn't make sense for either party. It's time to aggressively shop Robin Lopez and trade him for the best available return before March 15th's trade deadline.

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