The Phoenix Suns free-fall continued last night in Salt Lake City. The Suns battled back from an early 17-4 deficit to take a 17 point lead late in the 3rd quarter against the Utah Jazz. This was primarily led by the unlikely heroics of the young Slovenian guard Goran Dragic. Dragic poured in 32 points (24 in the first half alone) on only 13 shots. Despite this break out performance from Dragic, the Suns porous defense reared its ugly head once again and the Suns succumbed without much of a fight in the 4th losing 124-115. In a losing effort, Steve Nash had 15 assists and crossed the 8,000 assist threshold for his career. Nash is now eighth all-time and his next target in 7th place is Gary Payton with 8,966.

The Suns are now at a crossroads at 26-20 and 7th in the Western Conference. The Amare Stoudemire trade rumors are running rampant and as Chad Ford from ESPN.com has indicated Amare is detrimental to the Suns chemistry at this point. Stoudemire will be the Western Conference’s starting Center in the All-Star game despite the fact he really plays Power Forward with a Small Forward mentality. It truly dawned upon me that being an All-Star does not mean that a player helps his team to victory. In fact, I would contend Amare has caused more Suns losses this season then games he has won. This was never more evident than last night as Carlos Boozer simply dominated Amare Stoudemire. Boozer is clearly not as athletically gifted as Amare Stoudemire, but he managed to grab 20 rebounds compared to Amare’s meager 5 rebound night. Boozer also scored more points that the complacent Stoudemire 21-16.  It simply boils down to heart and desire and Amare simply does not have those intangibles. Any team that believes Amare is a max player at this point is out of their mind. I am convinced that fan voting for the all-star game is based solely on Sportscenter’s top 10 plays. It is in fact true, that Amare can produce some electrifying dunks during the course of a game, but his lack of interest on defense allows teams to come back from insurmountable leads. The Suns should listen to trade offers that are out there (Nets, Heat, Bulls and Cavaliers have all shown interest).

Stoudemire is not the only All-Star that is hurting the Suns right now. Everyone that is familiar with my blog knows that I love Steve Nash. He is a great spokesperson for the NBA and possibly the best shooter and passer this generation has seen. However, Nash like Stoudemire plays matador type defense on a consistent basis. In the past, we could put up with this because he dominated the offense. The alarming part of Steve Nash’s game this season is the sheer volume of turnovers. Nash is averaging 4.04 turnovers per game. Specifically in January, Nash is averaging nearly 5 turnovers per game (4.9) versus the 3.8 in November; way back when they were 14-3. Nash’s assist to turnover ratio is only 2.72, good for 15th in league, even behind shoot first guard like Baron Davis. This is the lowest it has been since he was originally drafted as a Sun.  Understandably, Nash isn’t solely responsible as players are not in position or simply fumble perfect passes. However, the alarming trend of late is Nash’s propensity to leave his feet and throw the ball away typically, leading to fast breaks for the opponents.

Point blank, if Nash can not get his turnovers below 4.0 and Amare Stoudemire is not traded, the Suns will be watching the playoffs at home. I hope both happen and sooner than later.