The Suns need to offer 27-year old PF Amare Stoudemire a max deal to keep him in Phoenix. Stoudemire played in 82 games (all starts) last season for the Suns and he averaged 34.6 minutes, 23.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.0 blocked shot. He has now played in 516 games (499 starts) in his 8 years with the Suns and he is averaging 34.3 minutes, 21.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 blocked shots per game. Stoudemire is tenth all-time in games played with the Suns appearing in 516. He is also #3 in rebounds (4,613), #5 in blocked shots (722) and #6 in points (11,035) in Suns’ history. The Suns just can’t afford to let Stoudemire go.

UPDATE: Stoudemire has opted out of his contract becoming a unrestricted free agent. The Suns will keep talking to him as they can’t really afford to let him go. Remember it wasn’t that long ago that the Suns were pushing the Lakers in the Conference Finals.

UPDATE II: (7/9/2010) - The Suns have done a sign and trade deal with the Knicks for Stoudemire. The Suns will get a $16.5 million dollar trade exception and a conditional 2nd round pick for Stoudemire. That’s not much but it’s better than letting him walk away for nothing.

37-year old small forward Grant Hill has exercised his player option for the 2010-11 season with the Suns. Hill played in 81 games (all starts) for the Suns last season and he averaged 30.0 minutes, 11.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. He shot 43.8% from three point range which is off the charts good. Hill has now played in 233 games (216 starts) in his three years with the Suns and he has averaged 30.5 minutes, 12.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. It’s good for the Suns to have Hill around again in 2010-11 as he’s still a very solid all-around basketball player.

The Suns are going to have to make some hard decisions this summer. First up is Amare Stoudemire who is going to opt out of his contract thus becoming a unrestricted free agent. I think he’s going to leave as he has turned down offers to extend his contract. Grant Hill is saying that he’s going to exercise his player option for 2010-11 valued at $3.4 million bucks and he’s definitely worth that kind of money. Channing Frye is going to opt out of his player option for 2010-11 and he might get an offer too big for the Suns to match although he hasn’t closed the door on coming back. Louis Amundson is a player the Suns would like to keep but he really improved this year so he might get a decent offer from some team. Jarron Collins will likely be allowed to walk away as I don’t see the Suns making him an offer.

The Suns showed some fight in the 4th quarter Saturday Night but they dug too much of a hole in the first three quarters when they were losing 91-74. The Suns were also outrebounded 41-31 in this game which certainly didn’t help their cause. Amare Stoudemire led the way for the Suns in this game with 27 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots. Steve Nash helped the cause offensively with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists. Jason Richardson pitched in with 13 points in 29 minutes on the floor. Channing Frye (12 points, 13 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 blocked shot) and Goran Dragic (12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in only 18 minutes) helped out off the bench for the Suns. The Suns fought hard in this series before falling 4-2 to the Lakers.

The Suns played a hard game last night leaving everything on the floor but they forgot to block out under the basket giving Ron Artest a chance to beat them and he did with a layup. Steve Nash led the way for the Suns in this game with 29 points, 3 rebounds and 11 assists. Amare Stoudemire was working hard with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocked shots. Channing Frye filled up the stat sheet off the bench last night with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot. Jason Richardson had a rough game with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot. The Suns are now down 3-2 to the Lakers with Game #6 in Phoenix tomorrow night.