With Kevin Garnett now in Boston, the Mavericks and Suns are expected to ramp up efforts to sign P.J. Brown.

The Suns hired former guard Jay Humphries as an assistant coach on Monday.

Humphries, who played three of his 11 NBA seasons with Phoenix after being drafted by the Suns, spent the past five years coaching in South Korea. Before that, he coached in China.

Phoenix Suns guard Raja Bell underwent successful arthroscopic surgery for general debridement on his right knee yesterday at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. The surgery was performed by Suns team physician Dr. Tom Carter.

?Raja had mild wear and tear of his knee cap,? said Carter. ?This was simply a clean-up procedure. He should experience a full recovery in four to six weeks without any limitations on his play.?

Bell, who will be entering his eighth NBA season, was named to the 2006-07 NBA All-Defensive Team, averaging a career-high tying 14.7 points and tied for the NBA lead with a career-high 205 made three-point field goals.

The Phoenix Suns re-signed unrestricted free-agent center Sean Marks to a one-year contract.

An eight-year NBA veteran, Marks owns career averages of 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds in 9.5 minutes in 108 career games with the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Seattle SuperSonics, San Antonio Spurs and Suns (signed a 10-day contract with the Sonics in the 2000-01 season, but did not play).

The 6-10, 250-pound forward/center appeared in three games (six points and three rebounds in 17 minutes) in his first season with the Suns in 2006-07.

With an open roster spot and a need to replace the departed Kurt Thomas with another big man, the Suns are willing to let a sparse free agent crop at the position dwindle, waiting to see whether veteran P.J. Brown decides to play and if he is interested in Phoenix.

Melvin Ely, Brian Skinner, Michael Sweetney and even Chris Webber ? like Brown, a player leaning toward retirement and who would require more than the veteran minimum salary to attract ? are also possibilities.

An insurance issue could keep Suns forward Boris Diaw from playing for France in the upcoming European Championships.

The French newspaper L?Equipe reported Monday that the Suns will not allow Diaw, who signed a $45 million extension with Phoenix last summer, to practice or play for France unless the national team obtains a specific insurance policy that would absolve the Suns of paying the contract in the event of injury. That information was confirmed by an NBA source.

Such a policy, which would likely cost in excess of $100,000, would specifically cover Diaw?s troublesome back problems, which cost him nine games last season and bothered him over much of the second half of the season.

The French apparently believed the Suns wouldn?t stand in the way of their national team captain playing for his country even without the insurance, but Phoenix made its intentions clear during a recent conversation. And Diaw was absent from the initial team workout.

Game 3 of the Suns? playoff series in San Antonio on May 12 offers damning evidence against ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy, under investigation for allegations that he bet on games he worked, writes Jack Magruder of the East Valley Tribune.

Amar? Stoudemire scored 21 points in the Suns? 108-101 loss, but played only 21 minutes because of foul trouble, finishing with five fouls.

He was given his first two fouls 34 seconds apart in the first quarter, a theorist?s preemptive first strike, before being effectively eliminated from the game in the second half.

Stoudemire received two fouls in the first 1:25 of the third quarter and sat out the rest of the quarter. He got his fifth foul 19 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, including the go-ahead jumper with 6.6 seconds left, to lead the blue team to a 105-104 victory over the white Sunday as the United States closed its weekend minicamp with an intrasquad game.

Five months after he was the MVP of the All-Star game here, Bryant took over down the stretch in his long-awaited first game in a USA jersey. He scored seven points in the final 2 minutes, including a 3-pointer over LeBron James that tied the game at 101 after the blue trailed by double digits earlier in the fourth quarter.

"That was probably better than the All-Star game," point guard Jason Kidd said.

Bryant also forced James into a tough shot at the buzzer that missed.

"Today everybody got a chance to see what we've been going through in practice for the last couple of days," Bryant said. "It was just extremely competitive, everybody still having a good time and enjoying themselves but really going at each other."

The NBA will return to Vancouver this fall with an exhibition game between the Phoenix Suns and Seattle Sonics.

Two-time MVP Steve Nash of Victoria said he's thrilled about the Oct. 26 game at GM Place.

"It's going to be a lot of fun for me," the Suns point guard said after his charity classic basketball game Saturday night. "It's nice to come here and have the charity event but it would be really special to come up here with my whole team and play a home game in Vancouver.

"I'm excited."

The Grizzlies played in Vancouver from 1995 until the team left for Memphis to start the 2001 season.

In a move to unload salary, the Phoenix Suns traded Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics.  

In exchange for taking on the remainder of Thomas' contract, the Sonics will also receive the Suns' 2008 and 2010 first-round draft picks.  

The Suns receive a conditional second-round draft pick and a trade exception of about $8 million.

Before the trade, the Suns' payroll would have left the club more than $10 million over the new luxury tax threshold of $67.9 million.