Ugly Sunset on the Horizon for Phoenix

In the 2000 film Gladiator, General Maximus Meridius requests that his would-be executioners grant him a swift death instead of a slow, painful, dishonorable end.

The Suns should be doing the same.

Lead by Robert Sarver's money-motivated caution, the Suns have slowly transformed from a young, up-and-coming contender for years to come into an old, increasingly irrelevant team.  Like a butterfly morphing into a caterpillar, Phoenix has incredulously regressed when, at one point not too long ago, the sky was seemingly the limit for this franchise.

A core of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson/Boris Diaw, and Leandro Barbosa could be contending for a second or third championship by now.

Instead, an aging group of Nash, Shaquille O'Neal and Grant Hill are trying to lead an unbalanced and deunified group to the glorified eighth spot in the Western Conference.

How the mighty have fallen.

Instead of admitting the group assembled wasn't working and blowing it up to build it up, Sarver and Co. have decided to tweak here, tuck there.

Phoenix now resembles a gradual facelift that will never meet the image desired.

Small changes are needed when the team is on the cusp reaching the summit (see the Lakers trading next to nothing for Pau Gasol, or the Celtics picking up Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown last year).

Phoenix wasn't on the cusp this year. Trading Diaw and Raja Bell for Jason Richardson and Richard Dudley was akin to getting an oil change on your car after you've thrown a piston rod.

It's still broken.

The Suns needed a massive overhaul, and they had the pieces to do it. I say had, because now their biggest trade assets are damaged goods.

Stoudemire is likely out the rest of the season thanks to surgery performed to repair a partially torn retina.

Whatever trade value he had is shot until he proves he can still play at a high level and won't need follow-up operations, as has been hinted at by his doctors. No team wants to mess with that kind of medical baggage, especially when he can hit free agency in the summer of 2010.

Shaq and Hill are likely in the last two years of their relevancy. Again, this will keep teams from wanting to invest too many of their assets into acquiring them.

Nash could pull a Stockton and play well into his forties, but how much will any team want to give up for that?

The best the Suns can do to avoid an ignominious spiral into oblivion would be to trade what they have while it's still worth something to teams who think those players could the missing pieces to their championship hopes.

Or, look to teams who are desperate for marketing. Shaq, Nash and even Stoudemire have the ability to boost a team looking to sell tickets.

Trade them for draft picks and young talent.

They're too far away from a championship now to think one decent player or two will put them over the top. Now is the time to say, "Hey, our window's shut. Let's smash it and open a new one."

Otherwise, it's going to be a painful walk into the night for this one-time contender.