Over the past two years, there has been a tremendous amount of speculation around the league regarding the future of Amare Stoudemire. More precisely, the future of the 6-11 power forward has been discussed extensively at the 2009 and 2010 trade deadline as the Phoenix Suns obviously feared to lose their franchise cornerstone in free agency without getting anything valuable in return.

Yet, Stoudemire completed his contract wearing a Suns uniform and will now have to explore his options on the free agent market this summer. However, as of now, everything points to Amar'e staying in Arizona, provided that Phoenix is willing to sign him to a max. contract. According to sources close to the franchise's front-office, he is also looking to get more insights into the Suns' long term plans as winning a championship remains the ultimate goal down the stretch.

Similarly, the era after Steve Nash remains a concern as the Canadian All-Star guard has been an essential part of Terry Porter's squad and carried the team all the way to the Conference Finals versus the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009-10. That said, young backup point guard Goran Dragic has been improving by leaps and bounds and could very well turn out to be an excellent option in the long run. Likewise, Channing Frye and Jason Richardson demonstrated that they are excellent complimentary pieces to the dynamic offensive duo of Nash and Stoudemire. Taking everything into consideration, it looks like the Suns are going to offer a max. contract to Amar'e and that he will accept said offer – although only time will tell whether spending that kind of money on a player who does not play much defense really is a smart move.

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