Outside looking in

It has been a busy week in the Association as July 1st has come and gone. All free agents are able to negotiate with any team across the league. Contracts cannot be inked until the 8th, though many stars already have deals in place. The champion Lakers made big headlines yesterday when word broke that they will be signing Ron Artest away from Houston. After offering Trevor Ariza nothing more than the mid-level exception, which he declined, prompting the Lakers to sign Artest, thus prompting Ariza to sign with Houston to fill their void.

The ’08 champion Celtics are in heavy pursuit of Rasheed Wallace to come play alongside KG on the front line in Beantown. Couple that with Shaq in Cleveland, VC in Orlando, and Richard Jefferson in San Antonio, and it’s clear that all the heavyweights are re-loading and re-tooling, hoping to make one more run at the Larry O’Brien trophy. The time is now, with teams focusing on next year instead of 2010.

Meanwhile back on the home front, Suns fans still aren’t sure what direction we are heading. Does Amar’e Stoudemire sitting courtside with Robert Sarver at the Mercury game mean anything, really? Sarver’s been in business long enough to know how the importance of public relations. He realizes that fans blame him for the demise of the organization, and he will do whatever is necessary to promote something positive. Even with the reports that Amar’e remaining in Phoenix are getting stronger, all it takes is one phone call to change that. In the meantime Suns fans will just sit and look up in the standings, while all the contenders continue to re-up. Funny how not long ago, PHX was the free-agent destination. Now it’s just the place where opponents love to come play.