Note:This is NOT a thread to bash sarver.

I love and dread this time of year. There is a lot of excitement and anticipation but there is also tons of uncertainy and doubt. Same time last year the Amar'e drama was in full buzz and by summer all of the great feelings from that tremendous playoff run was shattered by Kerr's resignation and Amar'e's departure. Now look around. Denver and Utah both gave up their franchise players; at first glance people will think that these two teams got robbed. Now look again. Denver gets a number of picks, height and youth; Nene can finally play his natural position and the Nuggets have depth at the guard positions. Honestly, I would have preferred a deal with Favors, Cap space, and Harris, but Gallo and Chandler are both extremely talented. Utah on the other hand receives a potential laden Power Forward in Favors and two potential lottery picks out of this deal. (In my opinion, I find this trade to be pointless because the Nets are grounded for a few more years and the Jazz already have a solid Pf in Milsap)

Neither Utah nor Denver could have gotten better deals than that; you and I both know that is true. If Denver kept "Melo past the deadline they would have gotten nothing, and the Jazz certainly were not headed in the right direction. So they decided to blow up and rebuild. Now, Both Denver and Utah have better long term expectations than the Knicks and Nets respectively. At this point you may be asking yourself why you care about any of this. So let me get started by saying that the Suns are probably a lock to make the playoffs now. Portland has the hardest schedule of any NBA team from here on out, Utah just traded away their best shot at making the playoffs, same thing goes for Denver, and Rudy Gay is down and out for another month or so.

Alex made a very solid point that the Suns should exhibit success post all star break and right now, there are a lot of teams out there that are in firesale mode. Atlanta is on a downward spiral, O.J Mayo is unhappy in Memphis, Troy Murphy may be wide open on the market soon, and Vince Carter's contract is the key to all of this. The lockout might diminish market value, but there are teams looking for cap relief and number 25 can provide that for them. Sarver has to be willing to part with the loyal and the toilers to bring in that "guy", Babby and Blanks must realize the kind of opportunity they have right now. The Phoenix Suns are gushing with easy to move assets that they can work into a grand schemed trade.

In my opinion the time to be fooling around with the phone is now. Things will certainly change over time and the Suns have to be willing to deal with that so that they can establish a winner. They cannot narrow their possibilities rather they should expand and be more flexible because the Suns could very easily be a facilitating team and get something very good out of it.

What do you guys think?