Latest Amare Stoudemire Rumors
The Miami Heat have reportedly stepped up their efforts to pry Amare Stoudemire away from the Phoenix Suns. The major sticking point remains Jermaine O’Neal’s contract.
In order to make the deal work the Heat want to send O’Neals expiring $23 million contract to Phoenix. The problem is in order to do that the Suns would need to throw in additional players to make the salaries involved fit under the NBA’s salary restrictions.
The Heat are reportedly willing to offer up Michael Beasley and potentially a first round pick to land Stoudemire.
The Suns still covet Andre Iguodala and one scenario had Miami and Phoenix including the Sixers in a three-way. The heart of the deal would have had Iggy going to Phoenix with Stoudemire going to Miami and Beasley going to Philly.
While Beasley has established himself as a 15+ point scorer per night there is still some sentiment around the league that he is not someone to build a team around. He has yet to live up to the hype coming out of college and players like O. J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, and Brook Lopez have already established themselves as rising stars in the league while Beasley still has some questions surrounding his work ethic and drive to be an elite player. The Sixers likely feel Beasley is too similar of a player to Thaddeus Young to really make it work.
The Cavs are still in the mix and are still offering Zydrunas Ilgauskus’ expiring contract and J. J. Hickson. It is also being reported that the Cavs are willing to throw in draft considerations as well. The major snag is the Suns are not sure landing Hickson is worth giving up Stoudemire for, and, with the Cavs being perennial contenders in the East the past couple of years their draft picks do not carry a ton of trade value right now.
The Suns reportedly are not adverse to taking Beasley in the deal the Heat just needs to figure out a way to do it without including O’Neal in the deal. They obviously think Beasley is a safer investment than Hickson is right now.
Unless the Cavs or the Heat can somehow manage to involve a third team in the deal that can add some additional value for the Suns it seems unlikely that Stoudemire is going to get moved. The Suns have been willing listeners, but, have never acted as though they felt like they had to deal Stoudemire so they are just as likely to keep him and see what happens in the playoffs as they are to trade him.
