Stoudemire staying in Phoenix?

ESPN’s Marc Stein reports Amare Stoudemire will likely stay in Phoenix, unless they are blown away by an offer. Would this end the Chris Bosh to the Bulls possibilty as well?

There are suddenly strong signals emanating from the desert that the coaching change announced Monday by the Phoenix Suns will be the only big personnel change they make this week.

After the Suns spent several days taking and making phone calls on potential trades for Amare Stoudemire and Shaquille O’Neal, NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that Phoenix — having received a series of underwhelming proposals for Stoudemire — now prefers to leave its core intact for the rest of the season to see if new coach Alvin Gentry can do more with this group than the outgoing Terry Porter.

“I got the impression today that [the Suns] are standing pat,” said one source with knowledge of the team’s thinking. Officials from two other teams who spoke Monday with Phoenix told ESPN.com that the Suns’ willingness to consider offers for Stoudemire has been scaled back considerably from last week, when Stoudemire himself seemed resigned to being sent elsewhere, telling reporters: “I know for sure, wherever I go, we’re going to definitely be playoff contenders.”

Several teams contacted Monday night by ESPN.com were unanimous in the belief that the Suns are serious about taking Stoudemire off the market — at least until the draft in June when he is likely to be available again — in spite of the potential financial benefit to Sarver were Stoudemire or O’Neal to be exchanged for a large expiring contract. The initial leaguewide reaction suggests that this has not been received as a ploy from the Suns to generate better offers.

The Chicago Bulls were widely considered the favorites to land Stoudemire, but sources say Phoenix is not as high on Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas — who would have been packaged with Drew Gooden’s $7.2 million expiring contract — as media reports have suggested. The Detroit Pistons have a much larger expiring contract to offer but don’t have nearly as many movable young players to add to Rasheed Wallace’s $13.9 million ending salary as the Bulls do.

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