Marcus Banks, Sean Marks, and STAT

The Suns finished their offseason moves (hopefully) with the signing of Marcus Banks to be the backup PG and Sean Marks to be the backup benchwarmer.
Marks is not relevant so I really don't have anything to say about him other than he's a big oaf from New Zealand. He'll sit in the seat on the bench next to Pat Burke that was previously occupied by the now retired Rastafarian, Brian Grant.
I like the Banks deal. I haven't seen much of this guy play, but from what I have seen he will be a good fit into the Suns' system. He is definately an upgrade from Eddie CrackHouse. Of course, my cat would be an upgrade from House.
Banks could have commanded more money and probably a starting job from some other team (Lakers?) but chose to play in Phoenix. He went to UNLV so Phx is close to his Vegas home, and who wouldn't want to play for this team?
Banks will allow Barbosa to contine to be a #2 guard off the bench, and not play the PG, where he is less comfortable.

The most important acquisition the Suns made this summer so far isn't even a new pickup. It is the return of Amare Stoudemire. He played well in the Summer league and currently is training for Team USA for the World Championships. Hopefully he will be able to regain the explosiveness he had during his first three seasons. If Amare is at 90% (and the Suns don't make any dumb moves...I.E. Trading Shawn Marion), the Suns should be the favorite for the Western Conference Title.

Now What?

Tim Thomas is a Clipper.
The only good basketball team in L.A. gave him $24 million over 4 years. The Suns offered him $12 million over 3 years. That is what you would call a no brainer.
Tim did well in his brief stint with the Suns, and said all the right things leading up to free agency. The Suns offered him a fair offer, but the Clippers gave him an insanely large contract after losing Valdimir Radmanovic to that other team that plays in the Staples Center. So...where does that leave the Suns??
The loss of Tim is not that crushing of a blow for the Suns. The only reason he was signed to begin with was to compensate for the loss of Kurt Thomas, who will be back from his stress fractured foot. Oh yeah, there's that Amare guy who is coming back too. I hear he's pretty good.
The Suns key need right now is a backup point guard, so Steve Nash doesn't have to play 40 minutes a game for 82 games plus playoffs.
Unfortunately, in this summer of overblown contracts, the best available backup PG's have been given huge sums of money the Suns don't have under the salary cap to commit to a bench player. Speedy Claxton and Bobby Jackson got huge contracts to play backup roles in Atlanta and New Orleans / Oklahoma City respectively.
So...where does that leave the Suns?
We can go out and get another shooter, and keep what we've got...that means Barbosa would be the backup PG; a role he has clearly shown he is not suited for.
We can go and re-sign Eddie House (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't do that!!!)
Other than that, there's not much left out there.
Now that the free agent period is underway, the Suns selling their draft picks for cap space isn't looking as good as it did on draft night. Marcus Williams could have definately helped in the backup PG dept.
Well...we shall see what develops. Stay tuned.
On a more positive note (I hope), Suns summer league is beginning today. Amare Stoudemire is going to play against a bunch of scrubs from other teams. Hopefully his knee is fully healed and we will see the "old" Amare dominating a bunch of 12th men and rookies in Las Vegas. Three of the games are televised on NBATV so we will get to see how STAT looks. I'm cautiuosly optimistic.