Amare Stoudemire - Basketball Conundrum

     Few power forwards in the NBA have both the physique (6'10", 250 lbs.) and the skill (21 ppg, 9 rpg) to match Amare. However, with a history of injury problems and a poor defensive effort most nights, the good comes with the bad. 'Stat' is making $17 million this season and has 1 more season left on his contract with the Suns. But (big but) he has the option to 'opt-out' of his current contract and seek a larger payday. This is trouble for the Suns who's current salary is a shade over $63 million with big contracts to Steve Nash ($13 million), Jason Richardson ($13 million), Leandro Barbosa ($6.6 million), and Stoudemire. With a projected drop in the NBA's salary cap to $50-$55 million next season the Suns are looking to dump some of these bigger contracts while still remaining playoff contenders. Nash signed a 2 year contract extension and is playing the best basketball of his career (at the tender age of 36) so he'll be staying. While still playing well, J-Rich is hardly worth the $ Barbosa has been plagued with injuries all season while Goran Dragic has proved himself an excellent back-up to Nash as point guard.
     Despite Stoudemire's defensive shortcomings, there is no one in the league at PF who is as valuable as Stat on offense. In my opinion, it would be wise for the Suns (who are back to playing at the top level of the western conference) to keep Stoudemire, thereby guaranteeing the Suns being a top offensive team next year (barring any injuries), and trading Richardson and Barbosa (both potential all-stars) for role players who can shoot 3's, run out on the fast-break, and play tough defense.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=TradeTalkRoundup-2010