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The idea of trading Nash will keep popping up as long as the Suns linger outside the playoff picture with a star who turns 37 before the Feb. 24 trade deadline. President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby's repeated response is that Nash is "the sun, the moon and the stars" of the franchise to make a point that Nash is here for the season without saying it unequivocally. "He (Babby) told me a month ago when it first sprung up that he had no plans to move me," Nash said. Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Trade, Steve Nash, Lon Babby 

Nash signed an extension in 2009 that runs through next season. He shows no interest in asking for a trade. "I signed up for this," Nash said. "I'm committed to trying to build a team here. Obviously, last year was a phenomenal year. Tied 2-2 (in the conference finals), I thought we could win a championship. I genuinely believed we could and would win it. It's tough to be in this position six months later. I'm still committed to it. I love the guys. I think we've got potential but we've had so much change and haven't been able to put it together. If we want to point fingers, we've got to point some at ourselves and say, 'We haven't put it together.' "I'm still happy. I just want to try to win games for these fans and our team because that's the most frustrating thing." Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Trade, Steve Nash, Lon Babby 

With the Suns falling out of the Western Conference playoff race (14-19), the first thought becomes: Will Nash be traded? The national media posed that question and threw out possible scenarios, but president of basketball operations Lon Babby assured Nash he isn’t on the move. “He told me a month ago when it first sprung that he had no plans to move me,” Nash said. “I think I’m at the stage of my career now where I’m not going home, worrying about trades and stuff like that. I really, genuinely don’t think about it when I leave here,” Nash added. “And you to be honest I’m the last to know, I don’t usually follow closely. I usually find out from you guys and get a sense of ‘is something going on?’” Valley of the Suns

Phoenix Suns, Trade, Steve Nash, Lon Babby 

With Suns president Lon Babby, a former agent. On maintaining civility with agents: "When you're doing business negotiations, then the most successful ones are the ones that are win-wins for both sides. Identifying what you can give to the other side that's important to them without compromising what's important to you is what makes for a successful negotiation. And in this business, that's magnified a thousand-fold because you're dealing with the same people over and over again. So I tell my kids: 'When you have the leverage, that's the most important time to be gracious, because tomorrow they're going to have the leverage and you're not -- and maybe they'll remember how you treated them under similar circumstances. They may not cut you a break, but at least they'll be gracious about it." SI.com

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby 

Since Turkoglu was drafted into the NBA in 2000, Babby had personally represented him. In fact, as recently as the summer of 2009, Babby negotiated a five-year $53-million deal with the Raptors for Turkoglu’s services. But when Babby accepted his position with the Suns, in order to avoid a conflict of interest, he had to strip off his “agent hat” and put on his executive one. Ironically, it didn’t take long for his new hat to replace the old hat’s usefulness. That irony wasn’t lost on Babby. “I’m going to be sad to see him go,” Babby said. “He’s a great friend of mine and I appreciate that. “But I also know that it’s great the way it turned out for him because he’s going back to a place where he’s had his greatest success and I know he views it as home. So that takes the edge off a little bit.” NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Hidayet Turkoglu, Lon Babby 

With front offices around the league in daily contact with each other, potential trade scenarios began to emerge with Orlando that included Turkoglu. That’s when the personal and professional worlds officially collided. “In some sense it’s just one more negotiation but the consequences of it are great,” Babby said. “I used to hate when I was an agent to get word that one of my guys was traded. “I think everybody forgets the human aspects of it. If (Suns GM) Lance (Blanks), myself or any one of us in this room found out that we were moving to Orlando tomorrow we would be a little discombobulated. I think we try to be sensitive to the human elements of this and the disruption that it causes.” NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Hidayet Turkoglu, Lon Babby 

Lon Babby: "It happened in a bizarre way. I had known [Suns owner] Robert Sarver through my dealings with Grant, and when Steve Kerr decided to leave [as Suns GM last spring] I told Grant that it would be important for us to try to participate, if welcomed, in some kind of search for the general manager -- to the extent that Robert was willing to hear a player's point of view, I was happy to vet candidates with him. "So I called Robert and somehow from those conversations evolved a job interview. And one day I said to him, 'This is starting to sound like a job interview, I haven't had a job interview in 35 years.' And that's when I immediately shifted gears and said I need to make sure I'm ethically on solid ground with the players. SI.com

Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr, Lon Babby, Robert Sarver 

Jeff McDonald: Tim Duncan w/ good things to say about ex agent, Lon Babby, now PHX Prez of basketball ops: "Every night I'm not here, I'm rooting for him." Twitter

San Antonio Spurs, Lon Babby, Tim Duncan 

Instead, Dudley agreed to a deal that will guarantee him $4.25 million each season with up to $250,000 in playoff incentives each year for reaching the second round or conference finals ($125,000 each). Dudley can opt out before the contract's final year, 2015-16. "It was a very challenging environment now to do this," Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said, referring to negotiations between the NBA and players union for a new collective-bargaining agreement. Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Jared Dudley, Lon Babby 

Both Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby and Dudley's agent, Mark Bartelstein, talked tonight about how difficult it was to come up with a deal when a CBA is expiring. "When you're operating blindly, you tend to take opposite views," Bartelstein said. "It made it difficult to get a deal done." Babby said "good will prevailed," crediting a team effort of the Suns' new basketball operations staff for getting it done. "I owed it to this franchise and Jared to keep working at it until the deadline and find some common ground," Babby said. "Robert (Sarver, the Suns' managing partner) gave us great insight and input. It required a lot of thoughtful work on both sides of the table." Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Jared Dudley, Mark Bartelstein, Lon Babby 

Phoenix is high on the list for free-agent center Erick Dampier, who is expected to pick a team before opening-night rosters are set Monday. "We are continuing to explore ways to improve our roster," Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said. Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Free Agency, Erick Dampier, Lon Babby 

When Suns President Lon Babby hired Lance Blanks to be his general manager this summer, he said Blanks would be on board for as long as he was. Now the same can be said for Alvin Gentry. The coach that the new Suns front office inherited now has its hearty endorsement. Gentry signed a one-year contract extension that puts him and Babby under contract for the next three years. The Suns picked up an option on Gentry in June that guaranteed half of his salary for 2011-12, with the rest subject to a lockout season. That move followed the departure of then-GM Steve Kerr, who asked Managing Partner Robert Sarver to pick up Gentry's option and add a contract Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby, Alvin Gentry 

As for the team itself, Babby likes what he sees so far with all but three roster players (Richardson, Dragic, Turkoglu) in town for voluntary workouts. "I think it's really exciting. I think we have a great group of guys -- very versatile, very hard working, great camaraderie." One early season challenge and certainly a prime question for Coach Gentry is how to give enough playing time to the top 10 or 11 players. Babby relayed Gentry's thinking on that. "It's funny, I asked Alvin (Gentry) that question yesterday. I said, 'How are you going to play all these guys?' and he said, 'I'll tell you what, I would much rather look down the bench and see that than look down the bench and see the Gorilla.'" SB Nation

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby 

The Phoenix Suns named 30-year basketball veteran John Treloar the club’s director of player personnel. In his new role, Treloar will assist President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby and General Manager Lance Blanks in all personnel decisions and will lead the club’s draft scouting process. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for John and his knowledge of the game,” said Blanks. “His longstanding track record of consistency and success are admirable. He is a perfect fit for what we are trying to do.” NBA.com

Phoenix Suns, Draft, Lon Babby, Lance Blanks 

Despite spending the past decade in Cleveland and San Antonio, Blanks endorsed the Suns' more open style of play. After missing all the off- season action that brought in five new Suns, Blanks hailed the moves that leave him little roster work to do but for adding a big man. "There's a great infrastructure in place to have success," Blanks said. "So part of my job will be staying out of the way and not messing things up." New Suns President Lon Babby hired Blanks three weeks ago to be his "basketball genius." Babby cited Blanks' acumen for the game, locker- room presence as an ex-player and his front-office work with successful teams, including the past five years as Cleveland's assistant GM. "He will have the most influential voice on personnel matters," Babby said, diffusing opinions that the GM role would be watered-down under Managing Partner Robert Sarver and Babby. Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby, Robert Sarver, Lance Blanks 

Not only did Phoenix lose big pieces from their roster, the front office underwent change as well after Steve Kerr and David Griffin resigned. While the Suns have done a good job hiring Lon Baby as team president and Lance Blanks as the new general manager, the changes surprised Dudley. "It surprised me a lot because we just went to the Western Conference Finals and were on the brink of going up 3-2 against the Lakers and possibly going to the Finals. Usually when stuff like that happens, you bring back your team and people in the organization get raises or extensions. That's what usually happens when you go to the Western Conference Finals, not the team gets broken up and management leaves. I was shocked by that. I was a huge Kerr guy because obviously he traded for me, was great with us, and everybody liked Steve Kerr and David Griffin. We now have Lon Babby and I don't know the new general manager's name but obviously [Robert] Sarver has done his due diligence and we just hope that we get in training camp and mesh early. It's going to be crucial for us to get off to a great start because if not then that's when stuff like trades and all of that happens." HoopsWorld

Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr, Jared Dudley, David Griffin, Lon Babby 

Unsure of his next career turn as the Orioles were sold in 1994, Babby was asked by Hill to talk to his son, Grant, about representing him because the Duke star had not clicked with prospective agents. "I saw what a lot of his clients have seen," Grant Hill said. "He's smart, thorough. He's a dot-the-I's, cross-the-T's guy. In 30 minutes, I wanted him to work for me. He was smarter than the others. He was competitive and a good person. That's what I wanted to be aligned with." He added Cherokee Parks and Jerome Williams but his practice took off by landing Tim Duncan in 1997. "Management experience was an advantage," Babby said. "I'd heard all the arguments so I knew which ones worked and which ones didn't." A negotiating career in every major sport - at both sides of the table - brought him to Phoenix, where he was hired for his savvy with contracts and ability to optimize moves in a revamped collective bargaining agreement next year. "People don't rise from nothing," Gladwell wrote in "Outliers." "It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't." Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby, Grant Hill 

Lance Blanks was named the new general manager of the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. Phoenix brought in agent Lon Babby last month to serve as president of basketball operations and his first priority was to hire a GM who could evaluate talent for the franchise. Blanks and Babby will team to replace Steve Kerr, who stepped down at the end of June to return to his former job as a basketball analyst for TNT. ESPN.com

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby, Lance Blanks 

Here are Suns President Lon Babby's full comments on his hiring of Cleveland Assistant General Manager Lance Blanks to be the Suns' new GM. Blanks will speak to reporters Friday afternoon by phone from Senegal, where he is serving as a NBA ambassador for Basketball Without Borders (as is Suns assistant coach Bill Cartwright). Babby: "We engaged in a pretty exhaustive, deliberate process and talked to a lot of people. I established the criteria early on. I really wanted first and foremost a basketball guru, a great mind and talent evaluator, a vanguard of the analytics that are at the forefront of talent evaluation and someone with solid scouting processes. Secondly, a cultural fit with the highest personal standards. I think that's precious (what is in place in the organization) and we'll preserve it. And No. 3, I wanted somebody who's been associated with winning and who could take those processes here. Lance Blanks was the perfect choice. "I found someone who is a compliment to my skill set. he has an impeccable resume since he was a scout with the Spurs (starting in 2000). He was a personnel guru with Cleveland, where the team won 67 percent of its games. Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Lon Babby, Lance Blanks 

"We've got a great opportunity for him and us, because he has the opportunity to develop," Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said. "It gives us an opportunity to watch an important asset develop, which is what you want with your draft picks." Arizona Republic

Phoenix Suns, Draft, Lon Babby, Gani Lawal