NBA Trade Rumors: Steve Nash Trade a Pipe Dream for Knicks

There are a lot of theories out there about how the New York Knicks can be fixed.

One is to fire Mike D'Antoni. Another is to trade Carmelo Anthony. Another is to trade Amar'e Stoudemire. Another is to simply wait for Baron Davis to return and act as the Knickerbockers' savior.

Then there's the "Go get Steve Nash!" movement, which has been in place for over a year now and has yet to fully die down. In fact, the notion that the Knicks should make a deal for Nash is still rather prevalent. The Knicks desperately need a point guard, and who better than the guy who used to play for D'Antoni and with Stoudemire?

There is a growing sentiment in Phoenix than Nash needs to be traded. Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic wrote a column about it this week, saying, "The Suns must trade him soon, before he can turn a flawed, talent-deprived team into something mediocre."

Nash himself told ESPN.com's Marc Stein earlier this month that he's not about to demand a trade, but that's not going to quell the desire in and around New York for Nash to be dealt to the Big Apple.

One of the latest examples is a Friday column by Shaun Powell of NBA.com. Powell admits that a trade for Nash "might cure" the Knicks, but only in the short-term. Nash is getting up there in years, after all.

There is, however, a rather obvious problem facing the Knicks, one that Powell restricted to parentheses, "They're short on tradeable assets, though."

This is not exactly a secret. The Knicks dealt their best assets to the Denver Nuggets to get Anthony last year, among them being players like Raymond Felton and Danilo Gallinari and a handful of draft picks. They gave up everything they had, and it's pretty obvious now that they made a stupid deal.

To get Nash, the Knicks would have to make a similar deal. Stein noted that the Suns would look to get "multiple difference-making" assets for Nash in a deal, which is something even they are pessimistic about. There are teams out there who could make a deal like that, but none of them have come forward and the Knicks are not and can't be among them.

And no, a straight-up Melo-for-Nash or Stoudemire-for-Nash trade wouldn't work. At least not according to ESPN's NBA trade machine.

In reality, nothing would work. This is an idea that cannot and will not become a reality.

We should therefore do ourselves a favor and stop talking about it.