Opinion on the newest Phoenix Sun, point guard Aaron Brooks, isn't particularly positive so far. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

The Suns again surprised Planet Orange on Thursday by dealing reserve point guard Goran Dragic to the Houston Rockets for Aaron Brooks.

Most (even team management) thought the Suns weren’t going to make  any moves at the trade deadline, but when the Rockets made Brooks available, the Suns decided one more change couldn’t hurt. With Brooks aboard for the playoff push, here’s what they’re saying about the trade…

• Houston Chronicle columnist Jerome Solomon doesn’t seem impressed with Houston GM Daryl Morey’s maneuvering, and isn’t expecting much from the new Rockets: “Go ahead. Think about the trades with Memphis and Phoenix and try not to yawn. Is the person next to you yawning, too?”
• Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic was able to get Dragic on the phone for a reaction. Coro reports that Steve Nash was the first to learn of the trade after turning on his phone when the team landed in Toronto, and he was able to get to Dragic before Dragic got to his messages.
• Fellow TrueHoop blog Red94′s Connor Winn wasn’t pleased with the Rockets’ return on Brooks, arguing that he and the rest of Rockets nation had overestimated the point guard’s trade value: “Was I happy when the www.dailypuppy.com reported that the Rockets were in the preliminary stages of forcibly packing Aaron Brooks’ suitcase in exchange for a Pomeranian and a twelve pack of Purina? No, but I was less thrilled when I read Brooks was headed to Phoenix in return for Goran Dragic and a first round pick.”
• Despite what Suns brass had to say last night about the trade, ESPN columnist Bill Simmons jokes (jokes?) that the trade means more: “Phoenix’s acquisition of Aaron Brooks (for Goran Dragic and a future No. 1 pick) opens the door for Nash’s departure this summer to Vancouver Relocated Franchise X. Can’t you see Nash crying during the Canadian national anthem at that first home game? He’d either be crying because of the emotion of the moment, or because it just dawned on him that Phoenix came within a botched boxout of Game 7 of the 2010 conference finals and then immediately gutted that team.”
• The Phoenix New Times‘ headline pretty much sums up their feelings about this one: “Goran Dragic Shipped Off by Phoenix Suns for Ball-Hogging, Brick-Shooting Houston Rockets PG Aaron Brooks.” Ouch.
• At SB Nation Houston, Rivers McCown calls this one for the Rockets: “Regardless of whether you think Brooks or Dragic is the better player, I think it’s clear the Rockets win this trade on value. It’s a pure challenge trade for the Suns, who are under pressure from their ownership to make the playoffs this season.”
• Doug Franz of ArizonaSports.com says Suns management made another bad move and blames them for Dragic’s regression this season.
• Finally someone who likes the trade is ArizonaSports.com’s Greg Esposito … but he also thinks it isn’t what the Suns needed.

• In The Arizona Republic, Paul Coro has reactions from a few Suns players about how their new teammates will fit on Planet Orange plus some thoughts from Steve Nash on the potential for him to be traded from Phoenix as well.
• Kevin Baumer at Business Insider thinks the Suns-Magic deal may have knocked the Suns out of playoff contention and into rebuilding mode, but also says the Suns “would be foolish to trade” Nash: “The Suns would be dumb not to listen to offers for Nash, but unless they’re blown away, dealing Nash is the wrong move.  He is beloved by Suns’ fans and since they’ve just seen the team make a move clearly based on money and not winning, Phoenix would risk infuriating many of its fans by trading Nash.”
• Rob Mahoney writes on the New York Times blog “Off the Dribble” that the Suns will be best served embracing Gortat and giving him significant minutes: “Adding Gortat makes sense on just about every level. He hedges several of the Suns’ weaknesses on his own and provides depth at a position in which the team is a bit shallow.”
• The Suns’ trade seems to have sparked more discussion about whether or not Nash will be traded next and on CBS Sports, Royce Young suggests that an exit from Phoenix would likely come on Nash’s terms if it happens at all: “At 36, he’s probably not thrilled about the prospect of playing point guard on a rebuilding team. He is the draw for the Suns and any time you have Nash, you’re not that far off from being good. But if he wants a change or isn’t on board with the direction, it might not matter what Sarver says or thinks. Nash will almost surely get his way.
• On the TrueHoop Network mothership blog, Eddy Rivera of MagicBasketball.net shares his concerns about the trade from Orlando’s standpoint: “Van Gundy has a lot of work to do to assimilate Arenas, Turkoglu, and Richardson into Orlando’s schemes collectively. Then there’s the issue of figuring out whether or not the Magic sacrificed too much defense with these trades. The next couple of months should be real interesting.”
• Rivera also took a look at Turkoglu and Richardson on MagicBasketball.net: “Richardson was excellent in the postseason and even though he returned to earth against the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s instances like his game-tying three-pointer in Game 5 with 3.5 seconds left, before Ron Artest made a game-winning shot for the Lakers, that show he shines when the lights are at their brightest.”
• On FoxSportsArizona.com, Brad Steinke writes that he loves the trade and says he had a feeling something was going on last week while he interviewed Suns GM Lance Blanks for an upcoming show: “During our chat, I had the sense something was up with the Suns/Blanks. He was constantly checking his cell phone, texting feverishly and seeming a bit distracted. Now it all makes sense — he was full on in swashbuckling trade mode. I have no doubt he was in the middle of making this mega-move take place.”
• Cory Williams of SB Nation Arizona may not have turned his calendar since 2006 because he’s calling Vince Carter “Half man, half amazing.” He gives the trade an enthusiastic “boo-yah!” and says Vinsanity is coming to Phoenix: “Steve Nash is going to push Vince Carter to be great again. Carter’s still relatively young (at 33, he has several years of productive basketball left) and has never won anything in his entire career. Can Nash and Carter bring back the funk to Phoenix?”
• Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley says the Suns finally cut their losses in the Turkoglu experiment and take steps to prepare for the future: “It’s an unspoken concession that the team should’ve swallowed hard after losing Stoudemire, stockpiling salary cap space for the future. It allows former agent Lon Babby to cut his losses with Turkoglu, an obvious mistake that threatened the credibility of the team’s new architect. It will give the Suns more financial flexibility coming out of an impending lockout.”

Through free agency, trades, an administrative overhaul and schedule announcements, there has been no shortage of Suns news. Things are starting to slow down now though, which means it’s time to get creative at least until the preseason.

As the Suns inch closer to another season and their public relations team finally gets to stop and take a breath, here’s what’s being said on Planet Orange.

• Even the Suns can’t escape the Brett Favre storm as Arizona Republic Bob Young compares the Minnesota Vikings pursuit of the quarterback to the Suns 1999 courting of Antonio McDyess.
• Also in The Republic, Paul Coro profiles new Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby and how his various experience prepared him for his new role: “Even with 33 years in sports law, in baseball and football front offices and as a basketball agent, Babby never saw the role of Suns president coming until it spun out of other talks with Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver.”
• Tom Haberstroh compiled a list for Hardwood Paroxysm detailing the best bargains in the NBA last year. Haberstroh uses an interesting method, essentially monetizing play production and the cost of win on the free agent market. Ranking as the eighth-best bargain last year was the Suns’ own two-time MVP Steve Nash. Look for Michael Schwartz’s upcoming Valley of the Suns article elaborating on Nash’s contract.
• One more from The Republic: Coro writes about Grant Hill’s hoops game with President Barack Obama and the NBA’s best. Hill said the NBA players weren’t going full force and the commander in chief apparently hit a game-winning shot to knock off Hill’s squad. Think they let the basketball-loving president win?
• On Bright Side of the Sun, Seth Pollack has the scoop on something Goran Dragic told a Greek basketball website: he could leave the NBA. The Suns don’t seem too concerned with the report, as they’ve got long-term plans for Dragic and the statement may have been somewhat skewed in translation. UPDATED: Dragic has since e-mailed Pollack to confirm that this was “a big misunderstanding” and say that he hopes “to stay in Phoenix for many years.”
• A lot of Suns players are working with trainers in intense regimens, but Channing Frye took up a more unconventional workout routine: kickball. ESPN’s Page 2 talked to Frye at an event in Oregon where Frye lives and plays the recess classic.
• ESPN’s Marc Stein shares inside information on Louis Amundson’s NBA future, which obviously doesn’t include the Suns. With the way teams spent money this offseason, it’s amazing that Amundson hasn’t been scooped up.

Although there’s still a general manager to hire, the bulk of the Phoenix Suns news is now behind us for this offseason (although who could ever count out another trade?). So today I bring you a handful of links to stuff going on that has some kind of bearing on the Suns:

• So now all of a sudden once he hits New York, Amare Stoudemire might have some Jewish roots? How convenient. Stoudemire told The Associated Press he’s “soaking up the culture” on his current trip to Israel. He also said of his mother that “she studied the Scriptures and history and she believes she is a Hebrew. I grew up in a very spiritual home. It’s not about religion, it’s about spirituality for me.”  He tweeted: “2 clear everything up: I’m studying history & want 2 learn about all religions. I think I might have some Hebrew Roots & i’m researching it.” This isn’t completely out of nowhere because STAT has been tweeting Hebrew words such as “shalom” and “laila tov” for quite some time now, but as his agent Happy Walters told AOL FanHouse, that doesn’t exactly mean he’s Jewish: “I think he’s excited about learning more about his roots, but it’s not like he had a Bar Mitzvah. If he finds out that his mother’s great grandmother was Jewish, then hey it’s possible. I haven’t checked to see if he’s circumcised, but regardless, it’s a stretch to call him Jewish at this point.”
• Since this has kind of been Wages of Wins week at ValleyoftheSuns, one more Wins Produced-related tidbit for you. In his analysis of the offseason based on this metric, WoW writer Arturo Galletti gives the Suns a B+: “Classic Suns pantsing the league on Childress and cutting payroll. The only reason I withhold an A is Frye. Looking at their roster they may not be done yet.” According to this analysis, the Suns had the fifth-best offseason of any NBA team, bringing in $6.35 million more value than they paid for. Not surprisingly, Miami has brought in the most value by a landslide (+$47.55 mil).
• I’m excited for the World Championships that start at the end of August largely to see how Goran Dragic’s improvement translates to his national team. We may have gotten an early sneak peak when he threw up a triple-double against China earlier this week. The official box score has Dragic with 15 points, 10 boards, and 10 assists, leading his team in each statistical category.
• The New York Times took a look at “the new generation of NBA executives,” particularly focusing on the Suns’ new president of basketball operations Lon Babby and Portland’s new GM Rich Cho. Both Babby and Cho come from legal backgrounds, and this story details the potential shift in how teams may build their front offices in the future that Suns owner Robert Sarver was talking about at Babby’s introductory press conference. “You use that background and knowledge to help you make trades, in contract negotiations,” Cho said. “That’s one thing where it helps me and Lon.”
• I recently joined Zarar Siddiqi on a podcast for Raptors Republic. The main focus of the podcast was to speak about how Leandro Barbosa might fit into Toronto, but we also delved into Hedo Turkoglu’s fit in Phoenix and compared Channing Frye with Andrea Bargnani.
• ESPN’s David Thorpe, who copiously tweeted at both the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues, ranked the rookies who competed this summer. Of course John Wall was No. 1 and it’s no surprise to see DeMarcus Cousins at No. 3, but you might not have expected Thorpe to rank Suns second-rounder Gani Lawal at No. 13 after the former Yellow Jacket amassed 15.4 ppg and 7.4 rpg to go with a block per contest in Vegas. Wrote Thorpe of Lawal: “Lawal represents the highest-ranked player here that is going to have the toughest transition to the real show. He’s a back-to-the-basket banger, and those guys rarely make it as second-round picks. On the other hand, he locked in as a rebounder during summer league, and that is the best way he can assure himself opportunities to stick in the NBA.”
• TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott finds an interesting correlation between the way Google has conquered the Internet with “applied mathematics” and the advanced stats movement. Abbott writes, “And here’s where hoops stats are getting to be a bit like Google … All those things I listed above that matter to winning but aren’t easily measured? If they matter to winning, they may be mired in a lot of noise, but they’re in plus/minus somewhere. In other words, you kind of can measure heart, if it leads to winning.”
• Mark Travis from ButTheGameIsOn.com feels the Phoenix Suns’ immediate future is surprisingly bright thanks to the moves they have made to replace Amare Stoudemire with Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress, and Hakim Warrick. Travis writes, “When you really look at what Phoenix has done this off-season, they’ve done a manageable job replacing what they had with Amare. Of course, it’d be really hard to find a better combo than the one Nash and Amare formed during their tenure in Phoenix, but as much as you can replace a player like that, Robert Sarver and his vacant GM spot have done a nice job doing so.”

I scoured the Internet to get a sense of how the national media feels about how the Suns did with the selection, and the first-take opinions are overwhelmingly positive.

So while it will still take a few years before we know if Lawal becomes a rotation player in Phoenix, here’s what they are saying about Lawal across the web in the aftermath of the draft:

ESPN’s Chad Ford: “Lawal is a value pick. He is tough and a good rebounder, and he could make the rotation down the road. Nice pick for Suns owner Robert Sarver — who knew he was also an NBA scout?”

ESPN’s Andy Katz: “This is actually one of those cases where the player may have been better served leaving early last year. He was a borderline first-round pick a year ago. He’s more mature and maybe more ready to handle the NBA now, but the middle of the second round has to be a major disappointment. His best hope is that free agent Amare Stoudemire hits the road and frees up a little room at power forward.”

CBSSports.com (No. 31 overall prospect): “Lawal is a bit of an enigma. He has all the physical tools you look for in a power forward, but while his defensive and rebounding ability have matured, his ball-handling and shot-selection skills aren’t NBA quality.”

FoxSports.com: “Both power forwards (Lawal and Dwayne Collins) were great value picks with no risk as second-rounders. Either one of these ACC products could crack the Suns’ rotation this season potentially, and both will help on the boards, which fills a big need. No one should have any complaints, seeing as this team doesn’t even have a general manager right now.”

Yahoo! Sports‘ Jeff Eisenberg: “This energetic power forward would have gotten more scoring opportunities had he not been playing alongside Derrick Favors last season.”

NBADraft.net’s Nick Prevenas: “At 46, the Phoenix Suns get a ready-to-contribute NBA power forward in Gani Lawal. Had he not played on a team with terrible guards and a top-3 talent in his position, Lawal would’ve been drafted in the top 25. He’s not the most polished offensive player, but he thrives in an up-tempo offense (hello, Phoenix!) and can pull down a rebound in traffic (unlike a certain someone who is demanding a max contract). Outstanding pick, but who made it?”

DraftExpress.com’s Jonathan Givony: “Good pick by Phoenix taking Gani Lawal. Could be the next Lou Amundson for them. 21, rebounds well. Solid athlete. Nice one Griff.”

NBA.com: “Great motor and rebounder willing to do the dirty work.”

AOL FanHouse’s Tom Ziller: “The Suns grabbed Georgia Tech’s Gani Lawal in the second round, and he should be a rotation player if Louis Amundson and/or Channing Frye move on. Lawal might be the best second-round pick of all.”

SBNation’s Matt O’Brien: “Lawal is pretty good at a lot of things, but doesn’t really stand out with one elite skill. Still, he’s big, decently athletic with a good motor. He has a chance to contribute in the desert. Not bad work.”

Overall Grade: B+ The Suns clearly got great value with this pick as most of the pundits expected him to be selected in the 30s and some thought he would be a late first-rounder if he didn’t spend last year playing next to Derrick Favors. The Suns essentially have found a cheaper solution to Lou Amundson (making this a need pick as well) after selecting the kind of dirt worker who always seems to make it in the second round.

• The Suns worked out potential draft picks Friday as they prepare to make selections No. 46 and 60 in the June 24 draft. Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic had the report on who the Suns brought in: “The Suns looked at four combo guards, who probably would need to be pro point guards, and two lean big men. Alabama guard Mikhail Torrance’s size (6 feet 5 and 210 pounds) and play-making make him the group’s star, but he could rise out of the Suns’ range.”
• Coro also heard from Stoudemire last week at his basketball camp in Gilbert. Just days after making it clear that he would not exercise his player option for 2010-2011 and would seek a maximum contract, Stoudemire expressed his desire to return to Phoenix and said he remains loyal to the Suns: “Even if he gets to free agency, Stoudemire said he would give the Suns a chance to counter any offer he would receive.”
• Using a school project analogy to illustrate his point, Matt Petersen of Fanster.com wonders if the Suns might consider scrapping their core and starting over: “They’ve been retooling for half a decade now. It’s been easy, because mitigating factors have come along every year, convincing them to give it another shot. Injuries, suspensions, trades, all the bumps in the road have let Phoenix tell itself, ‘Well, we haven’t really seen what we can do barring some freak occurrence, so let’s give it another go.’”
• Tony Gallagher of The Vancouver Sun seems to believe (as so many people do) that Stoudemire won’t be playing alongside Steve Nash next season: “Nash has faced these situations before, in that many thought his magic show would end when he couldn’t dish the ball to Shawn Marion or they lost the three-point shooting of Raja Bell. But Stoudemire’s decision determines the degree to which Nash will be allowed to compete for the big prize as his career winds down. And that has to have Nash checking his Blackberry regularly.”
• In ranking his five players most likely to coach in the NBA, Dime Magazine‘s Daniel Marks included the Suns’ Grant Hill: “He has rebounded nicely with the Suns for the past few seasons, and his second career and time off have made him wiser and more appreciative of the game.”
• In addition to its annual mock draft, NBADraft.net has analyzed team needs by division and Adam Ganeles wrote about the Suns’ concerns of potential free agency losses and who they might select to soften that blow.
• While visiting ESPN headquarters last week to debate Skip Bayless on “First Take,” Jared Dudley spoke with Page 2 about his affinity for Twitter and how an incident this season has made him more careful about what he says on his Twitter account.

• Bright Side of the Sun’s Seth Pollack reports from the media circus at US Airways Center that the Suns may not be the only team in the series with a weakness on one end of the floor: “The real untold story for this series so far is the Lakers defense or lack thereof.”
• ESPN.com’s J.A. Adande on Suns coach Alvin Gentry’s use of zone defense Sunday night: “For a moment, as Alvin Gentry prepared to discuss the Suns’ 118-109 victory over the Lakers in Game 3, he made a motion as if he were going to sit at the separate podium normally used by Phil Jackson for his news conferences. Gentry thought better of it, but if ever there were a night for him to try resting on Jackson’s throne, it would be Sunday, when the coaching move of the game belonged to Gentry.”
• Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times says it’s time for the Lakers to bench Andrew Bynum so he’s rested when the Lakers “possibly meet the Celtics” in the NBA Finals, and Plaschke clearly doesn’t like the Suns’ chances in this 2-1 series: “If the Lakers can’t beat the Suns without Bynum, then they don’t deserve to go to the NBA Finals anyway. This is not about the last week in May. This is about the first week in June. This is about a run at Kendrick Perkins and the Boston Celtics and history.”
• Darius Soriano of Forum Blue & Gold gives the Suns ample credit, but says it wasn’t just their efforts that shape Game 3: “As much as the Suns deserve credit, the Lakers deserve blame.  And loads of it.  Not every player that saw game action played poorly, but most did.  And while we saw Kobe, Fisher, and Gasol put up wonderful stat lines and display their fierce competitiveness, this team — as a unit — did not play smart basketball and it cost them the chance to win this game.”
• The Arizona Republic‘s Paul Coro discusses the presence of Robin Lopez in Game 3 and the need for the Suns to stay big against the Lakers: “The most stunning part of Lopez’s 20-point game would be that it was just his third game back from a seven-week absence for a bulging disk … if it was not his third career playoff game too.”
• On the Land O’ Lakers blog, Brian Kamenetzky examines the Andrew Bynum question.
• Chris Tomasson of FanHouse describes the Suns’ reaction to Steve Nash’s broken nose and continued displays of toughness.
• Basketball Prospectus‘ Kevin Pelton on the hottest Suns-Lakers topic of the day: the zone.
• Ken Berger of CBS Sports praises Amare Stoudemire’s efforts, saying he delivered the way a superstar should.
• Stefan Swiat of Suns.com caught up with Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner at Sunday’s game to talk hoops.

• Sebastian Pruiti of TrueHoop sister blog NBA Playbook breaks down Amare Stoudemire’s defense (or lack there of) against the pick and roll: “The Lakers ran a ton of pick and rolls in Game 2 with Pau Gasol as the screen man for most of them.  This allowed the Lakers to take advantage of Amar’e Stoudemire’s poor pick and roll defense since he was the Sun usually responsible for defending Pau Gasol. Now Stoudemire wasn’t asked to defend the ball handler coming off the pick and roll too much, but when he was, he didn’t do a very good job of it.”
• TNT analyst and former NBA head coach Doug Collins answers playoff questions from bloggers, including Valley of the Suns’ very own editor Michael Schwartz.
• Paola Boivin of The Arizona Republic lays out five ways the Suns can bounce back. No. 2 on her list involves the Suns underperforming backup center: “What happened to the guy who started 41 games this season, who kept defenses honest with his outside scoring, who had the second-best three-point shooting percentage on the team? He has been supplanted by his evil twin. Bad Channing is 1 for 13 from the field in the Lakers series. After averaging 27 minutes during the regular season, he was reduced to nine in Game 2, and contributed zero points, one rebound, one turnover and four personal fouls.”
• Also at The Republic, Paul Coro reports on Suns GM Steve Kerr and coach Alvin Gentry’s takes on Amare Stoudemire’s recent remarks, which were out of character as of late.
• Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times on the Lakers’ unexpected contribution in Game 2: “Kobe Bryant didn’t hesitate to answer what changed the momentum for the Lakers in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals Wednesday night at Staples Center. ‘Jordan Farmar,’ Bryant said.”
• The owner of Tempe’s Caffe Boa Bistro have promised the entire Suns team quite an incentive to bounce back, according to The Arizona Republic: “[Owner Jay Wisniewski] vows that if the Suns win the championship, he will give the entire Phoenix Suns team — every player, every coach, every towel boy — free meals for life at the Tempe Caffe Boa.”
• Phillip at Forum Blue & Gold discusses the Lakers’ resolve in this postseason, particularly against the Suns: “When the Suns came roaring back to tie the game at 90 at the end of the third quarter the Lakers were put in a position where they would have to show a title defense resolve that they hadn’t shown yet this postseason.”
• Suns.com’s Daniel Banks shares some behind the scenes stories from L.A. including Alvin Gentry’s vocal skills and Jared Dudley’s clutch shooting.

• Paola Boivin of The Arizona Republic on Amare Stoudemire’s Game 1 letdown effort: “There were moments Stoudemire looked disengaged, others when he settled for a jump shot instead of a drive. His 23 points were a team high but the statistic that told the greater story was rebounds. He finished with three. Steve Nash had more.”
• Also in The Republic, Paul Coro discusses the Suns’ trait that’s been a hot topic year after year–defense: “Might we seem some zone next game to control the perimeter and guard the paint? Problem being, that compromises the Suns’ ability to rebound and Odom already was devastating in that regard with 19 boards. Might they double Bryant more? That’s what Phil Jackson is expecting, comparing it to how the Suns defended Brandon Roy.”
• At Forum Blue & Gold, Darius Soriano is asking for three more games like that from the Lakers and was surprised at their offensive preparedness: “After both the Lakers and the Suns had a week off, one would have thought that maybe the offenses would have suffered.  That maybe it would take some time for both teams for find their rhythm.  That both teams might struggle to make some shots.  Uhh, not so much.”
• On the ESPN Daily Dime, J.A. Adande says the Suns have no answer for Kobe Bryant, Kevin Arnovitz talks Robin Lopez, Marc Stein talks Steve Nash and much more from Suns-Lakers.
• Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles says it’s time to forget everything you thought you knew about this Lakers team because they aren’t the same team you’ve seen before.
• The Los Angeles Times‘ Bill Plaschke says Kobe is still unhappy about his playoff past with the Suns: “This is Kobe with a bigger chip on his shoulder than in his knee. This is Kobe holding a memory as painful as his finger. This is, on or off the court, the most unstoppable Kobe that anybody can encounter.
  This is payback Kobe.”
• Jeff Miller of The Orange County Register called Shannon Brown’s missed dunk “easily the most magnificent missed field-goal attempt of the postseason and yet the perfect signature to an oddly one-sided Lakers victory,” and says the Lakers are making it look too easy.
• At the TrueHoop mother blog, Henry Abbott shares some various thoughts on Game 1.
• Zach Harper writes on TrueHoop sister blog Hardwood Paroxysm about the interesting story of Lamar Odom after his big Game 1 performance. Complete with comparison to the Riddler of Batman fame.
• Trying to ease the pain of the Cavs’ early playoff exit, Mark Cameron of Numbers Don’t takes a very statistical look at the Suns to reveal some interesting trends.

• Rob Mahoney of Hardwood Paroxysm may be jumping the gun, but out of context, the highlight reel makes a case: “I don’t know if you heard, but Goran Dragic won the MVP Award on Friday night. He scored 26 points — all in the second half and 23 in the fourth — in the Suns’ decisive Game 3 victory over the Spurs, and was thereby coronated as the league’s Most Valuable Player, the Suns’ new starting point guard, and the sovereign ruler of the great state of Arizona.”
• At the TrueHoop mother blog, Henry Abbott recaps the Suns-Spurs history after Phoenix’s monumental sweep.
• At 48 Minutes of Hell, Andrew A. McNeill proclaims that the Suns were just the better team in this series: “Much like we thought the Spurs were peaking at the right time, so has Phoenix. And after their four game sweep of the Spurs is done and dusted, it seems the Suns are peaking just a little bit more.”
• Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express News on Manu Ginobili’s bad night: “Ginobili’s shooting fell off after he suffered a broken nose in Game 3 of the Spurs’ first-round series against the Mavericks, and coach Gregg Popovich acknowledged the difficulties his guard experienced.”
• At FanHouse, Chris Tomasson says the Spurs need not blow up the current team, as they have the talent to remain a contender.
• Bob Young of The Arizona Republic considers the alleged Spurs curse and others.
• Also in The Arizona Republic, Doug Haller discusses Amare Stoudemire’s maturation and his role in the Suns-Spurs series: “Stoudemire had been reduced to a role player for parts of this Western Conference best-of-seven series. That changed in Sunday’s Game 4, a contest in which old demons threatened to derail the Suns.”