Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns were in New York last week to take on the struggling New York Knicks, which of course led to the same rumours that have been circulating for a couple years.
The rumour of course is that Nash will join the Knicks next summer when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
There are many reasons that the New York media believes that the Canadian point guard will be Broadway bound this summer, not the least of which is that the Knicks are in dire need of a point guard.
It has also been noted that his former all-star running-mate, Amare Stoudemire, and former coach, Mike D’Antoni, are employed by the Knicks and that Nash resides in New York in the offseason. And at 38 years old, Nash is stuck with a Suns squad that is in some sort of rebuilding mode. (It’s hard to figure exactly what they are trying to accomplish in the desert as they re-signed an almost equally-aged veteran in Grant Hill last summer but ejected another veteran, Vince Carter, in a cost-cutting move.)
However by the time the season ends, Stoudemire and D’Antoni could both be gone. It has been reported that the Knicks have offered Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler to the Orlando Magic in an effort to pry loose Dwight Howard.
D’Antoni is currently stuck on one of the bigger hot seats in the history of basketball as his team has lost six straight and are currently sitting at 6-10 on the season. It would be a surprise if he were to hang onto the post next summer although this is a team that allowed Isiah Thomas to remain in charge for years, as he played fantasy basketball with the team, leaving it in shambles.
D’Antoni is not the only man feeling the heat in New York these days as fans are also directing their frustrations at star forward Carmelo Anthony.
And they are not alone as legendary NBA writer Peter Vecsey wrote a scathing column on Tuesday which read, “Teammates hate playing with (Anthony) because they never know what to do, never know where to go, only to get out of his way and be ready in case Melo runs out of time trying to scale grid lock.”
Questions were raised all weekend long when the Nuggets were in town as Anthony and the Knicks lost to his former team 119-114 in double-overtime on Saturday night. Anthony took 30 shots in that contest, missing 20 of them. Not exactly a way to endear yourself to the home faithful.
The question was repeatedly asked over who won the Anthony deal last February with many leaning towards Denver as the Knicks traded away most of their team in an effort to secure the former Syracuse Orange star’s services.
All of this should also lead Nash to pause before he would consider leaving Phoenix to end his career in New York.
The Knicks will be linked with any and all point guards this summer, including Raymond Felton and Jameer Nelson, as there is a major hole in their backcourt after they used the amnesty clause on Chauncey Billups to sign Chandler.
They did claim Barron Davis off the scrapheap but he has yet to suit up for the Knicks as he has been working his way back from injury. A bit of positive news for the Gardens faithful, as he began practicing this week.
Maybe he will perform well enough this summer that Nash isn’t even asked to leave the land of the Suns.
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Jose Calderon did a question and answer session for Spanish newspaper Marca. Here are a couple of the more noteworthy questions and answers.
Q: Would you put pressure to get traded to a contender?
Calderon: I don’t think so, that’s not me, that’s not my personality.
Q: Would you like to change teams to contend for the title? Do you think a trade is possible?
Calderon: I would like to have the opportunity to compete for something.
