There's going to be folks in Denver or Utah that might not agree, but Steve Nash making the 2012 NBA All-Star team as a reserve was a no-brainer. You already know this because you watch Steve Nash on a nightly basis. You know how well he's shooting. You know how well he's running the team and dishing the ball. You even know how well he's swatting shots (two of them!) this season.

Here's what NBA All-Star Steve Nash had to say about the honor earlier in the day before it became official that Captain Canada would be heading to his eighth All-Star Game.

"I had one scholarship offer and had a lot of ups and downs in the league so I don't want at any stage of my career to be under-appreciative of the All-Star Game. In some ways I'd probably appreciate it a lot more now knowing the stage of my career that I'm at and how hard I've worked to continue to play. I'd definitely enjoy it."

Not bad, for an old guy. Not bad at all.

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This week's NBA Power Rankings are out and as you might expect, the Phoenix Suns are nowhere to be found in the top 5 or the top 20 for that matter. Sitting atop the NBA world is the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder or Indiana Pacers, depending who's Power Rankings you favor and how far below the very top spot you want to look.

Here's what Tom Ziller at SB Nation has for the Suns in his NBA Power Rankings:

NBA Power Rankings: What You Missed Before The Super Bowl - SBNation.com
The Suns have basically no shot at the playoffs, so the Steve Nash trade conversation will only heat up as the weeks wear on. Marcin Gortat, however, is a real keeper, and Michael Redd lives!

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There's a lot of ways to "count" and use "mathematical tricks" to create "statistics" that measure the relative performance of various players. We count their points to determine scoring leaders. We average their shooting rates to determine efficiency. We use regression analysis to measure the correlation between shoe size and points per possession to calculate their Podiatric Efficiency Determinant (PED).

OK, I made the last one up but come on, how awesome would that stat be!

PEDs aside, SB Nation's NBA National Editor Tom Ziller put his big brain to the task and came up with another way to look our our NBA heroes. He measured scoring volatility to demonstrate consistency:

On Volatility Among The NBA's Top Scorers: How Valuable Is LeBron James' Consistency? - SBNation.com
I borrowed a trick from finance: I took the standard deviations of the players' game-by-game scoring totals and divided by their scoring average. This gives us a volatility rating

Ziller used his newest number trick to compare the NBA's top ten scorers and come up with a chart (of course) that has Carmelo Anthony on one end with a 44% volatility rating and LeBron James on the other end with a 20.8%.

In this case, the lower number is better because that means a player is giving a more consistent and predictable scoring result.

Would you rather have Melo, who has big games some nights and games with just one point? Or LeBron, who's going to give you a steady number each night?

Or, would you rather have Josh Childress, who will sit on the bench and not play at all for eight games and then come in and give you four points? Obviously, you would rather have Josh since that's the most consistent result with the least amount of volatility.

So how do the Suns scoring stars compare to the league's best?

Read on and your question that I just inserted into your mind using mind tricks and dream manipulation will be answered...

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Steve Nash suffered a thigh bruise on the final play in Saturday night's victory against the Memphis Grizzlies. Nash fought through a Marc Gasol pick and was kneed in the thigh for his efforts.

Today Nash practiced with the Phoenix Suns after missing Monday night's debacle against the Dallas Mavericks prompting the following tweets from Paul Coro and Craig Grialou:

Nash would be a welcomed a readdition to a Suns squad that is 10-25 without Nash in his second tenure with the Suns. In 38 games against the Hornets, Nash has averaged 13 points and 9 assists. Nash has scored in double figures in 6 of the Suns last 8 games while averaging near 10 assists.

Wednesday the Suns face David Stern's 4-17 Hornets who are missing Eric Gordon and losers of 4 of their last 5. It would be nice to be able to sit Nash against the awful Hornets but Phoenix is in no position to be taking an team for granted, especially the Hornets who bested them opening night, 85-84.

Suns vs Hornets coverage

At The Hive

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Everyone has an opinion about Steve Nash but there's only two men who's minds matter -- Steve Nash and Robert Sarver. So far, those guys have been rock solid in their commitment to each other and the latest NBA trade rumor only reinforces that the #FreeSteveNash movement will be about as effective as #OccupyNYC was in getting anything done beyond...OK, let's not go to politics.

According to Hoops World, the Suns are more interested in using their prodigious cap space in 2012 to keep Nash in Phoenix a few more years than they are to trade him:

NBA AM: Who Is Available In Trade? | HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors
Suns fans are worried that the team may lose a future hall of famer to free agency, but sources close to the situation say the Suns may be willing to do a new deal with Nash this summer in the $8 to $10 million range to insure Steve stays in Phoenix and that kind of money may be more than anyone else in free agency would or could pay for Nash.

The story goes on to say the Suns, who have received only poop-level offers for Nash so far, would only consider a trade if "its clear Nash is leaving, that's when a trade will likely happen and the Suns are not there yet."

Bringing Nash back for a couple of years does make sense, especially since they will have all that cap space available and (likely) no max players worth spending it on. He's also clearly a better fit with Marcin Gortat than any other available options.

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The Phoenix Suns and their fans will get a first look at shooting guard Michael Redd on Thursday night when the Suns host the Cleveland Cavaliers (game preview). Redd will likely play early in the game and according to head coach Alvin Gentry, could eventually start for the Suns.

"We'll stick him in and see what's going to happen. Obviously it's going to be something that he builds up. He's not going to come in and play 25-30 minutes tonight," Gentry said. "There's always a place if you can create your own shot on a team."

There's been speculation and some assumption that Redd's minutes would come at the expense of shooting guard Shannon Brown. Gentry said, however, that it's veteran Grant Hill who will have his minutes cut.

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The Phoenix Suns signed veteran shooting guard Michael Redd to help provide another scoring option for the team that's experiencing an uncharacteristic offensive drought. Redd joined the Suns almost two weeks ago but has yet to take the floor for his new team. He's spent the time working on his conditioning and getting into basketball shape after having played just 10 games last season and only 61 games in the last three years due to multiple knee injuries.

Redd, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, participated in five-on-five scrimmages for the first time on Wednesday and will "likely" make his debut for the Suns on Thursday when Phoenix hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers.

azcentral.com blogs - Coro's Orange Slices - PaulCoro - Redd-letter day coming
"I felt good," Redd said. "We pushed it and I felt fine. I didn't come out of practice the whole practice so that's a good sign. I'm learning the system and the plays and the guys have been very helpful with that. The game is starting to slow down a little bit for me in practice. When I first started, it was kind of fast. Now it's starting to come. Now it's time for a real game."

It's not yet clear who's minutes Redd would take in a Suns rotation that's already ten-men deep. Back up shooting guard Shannon Brown is coming off a strong performance against the Los Angeles Lakers where he scored nine points in nine minutes in the fourth quarter on 4-8 shooting.

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There are several reports out there (starting with the pride of Apollo High School, Paul Coro) that the Phoenix Suns will sign former Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Michael Redd. Redd is coming off two ACL surgeries on the same knee in 2009 and 2010 and has played a total of 61 NBA games in the last three years.

Last season, Redd was still drawing a huge paycheck from the Bucks and made a brief 10-game comeback at the end of the season. He averaged 4.4 points and 13.4 minutes in that stretch and perhaps most troubling, shot just .235 from three.

Redd, in his prime, was known as one of the best shooters in the game but never shot over 40% from three after his brief stretch from 2001 to 2003, and for his career is a 44.9% shooter from the field. His defense in the best of times was iffy and now he's 32 and years removed from a full season of NBA play.

Maybe with all this extra time to work on his game, the high-character Redd can come in and give the Suns the offensive punch they so desperately need.

Or maybe he's so far removed from playing in the NBA that he'll be a low-cost PR stunt to give the impression the team is trying to do something.

It's a low risk move for the Suns (assuming they sign him to a one-year minimum deal) with the potential for high return should Redd be able to recapture his prior scoring magic. In other words, why not give Redd a chance?

The only downside here is taking potential minutes away from other guys like Josh Childress or Shannon Brown. The upside is adding a former one-time All-Star (2004) and member of the 2008 US Olympic "Redeem Team" who holds the record for the most threes made in a quarter (8, 2002 vs Houston). The press release practically writes itself.

Update: It's official with a press release proclaiming: 11-year NBA veteran is a former All-Star, gold medal winner

"Michael Redd has a proven pedigree as a first-rate NBA scorer," said Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby. "He will work with our renowned training staff to get into basketball shape. When he is ready to play, Michael will be a welcome addition to our team."

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