So, the Jazz & the Suns face off at the ESA tonight. The Jazz come in at 25-18, 6th in the West and winners of 7 of their last 10. The Suns, meanwhile, come in at 26-19, just percentage points behind the Jazz and 7th in the West. That said, they've lost 6 of their last 10 and have been struggling.

Channing Frye's hot start has come to an end, and Robin Lopez has replaced him in the starting line-up... looking good in the process. See what happens when you play youngsters?

Speaking of youngsters, the young center the Jazz picked just 8 spots after Lopez, Kosta Koufos, has been sent back down to the Developmental League. It's his first trip there this season, but it seems highly unlikely that he'll be back up this season (barring injury, of course). In fact, he might be done in Utah also, but whatever. We'll worry about that when it happens. He could potentially be included in a trade that happens before the deadline, or in the off-season, given that it seems unlikely that he'll ever develop/get playing time here.

Speaking of the trading deadline, one of the bigs in the game today is all over the trading rumor mill. And, surprisingly enough, he doesn't play for the Jazz. There seems to be a lot of interest in Amar'e Stoudemire from teams both good (Cleveland) and bad (New Jersey), and everywhere in between (Bulls, Heat, Sixers, Warriors). Given that his contract comes to an end after the season though, a bad team might struggle in justifying giving up talent for a half-year rental (maybe 1.5 years... Stoudemire does have a player option... much like 1 Carlos Boozer did lasat season).

Speaking of rumors, how about one started by a Jazz fan? It involves one of the Jazz bigs not known as Carlos Boozer. My fear is simple enough... I don't think a 'Sap/Booze/AK rotation works at center, and I don't see Koufosenko playing much at all. Because that's how we roll. That said, adding a wing like Maggette would be awesome for this team. He recently had a stretch where he had like 11 straight games with 10+ FTs... and shot above 80% from the line in each of those games. That would be awesome on our team. Plus, if the Jazz have any interest in resigning Booze after the season (which seems likely to happen), one of AK, Okur & Deron have to go. Deron's safe, cutting the choice down to either AK or Okur. And AK is much more of a presence defensively. Plus, Okur & Booze really can't co-exist, it doesn't seem... as clarkpojo mentions while justifying the trade. And I don't see Boozer getting traded before the deadline... not with the way he's been playing this season.

Sticking with the Jazz... AK as a starter = good. (Which isn't really surprising.) He's also interested in resigning when his current contract is up, and will probably take less cash. Sign me up!

Didn't he say practically the same thing regarding Ronnie Price last year (replacing starting with playing, of course).

And elsewhere, the Hornets have traded Devin Brown. (Again... though this time the trade actually happened.) Brown is heading to Chicago (he's their replacement for Ben Gordon?), while the Hornets get Aaron Gray to back-up Emeka Okafor (or something), while also (potentially) moving youngster Marcus Thornton to the starting line-up. Ah... the joy of playing youngsters and watching them develop. When was the last time I had that feeling? Anyhow, Gray is interesting... I kinda wanted the Jazz to draft him when he came out. Of course, the Jazz drafted Morris Almond instead, and that went just splendidly. Gray actually went 6 picks before the Jazz drafted Herbert Hill (who they promptly traded for Kyrylo Fesenko)... another pick that has gone really well. All a wash, I guess.

The Suns have given up 118.5 ppg in their last 4 road games... all losses. They're 1-11 on the road since the end of November (the 29th, actually). This is the first of 4 meetings between the teams this season... the next comes in early March.

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