With exclusive negotiating rights this summer, the team has until Oct. 15 to sign Amare Stoudemire to a five-year contract extension and has already started the process with its most dominant player.

?(Talks with Stoudemire have) begun and we hope to end our business soon,'' Suns president Bryan Colangelo said Wednesday. ?Nothing that we are doing (with Johnson or any other personnel move) has affected our discussions or the direction that we intend to go with Amar?.?

Stoudemire is set to make $2.59 million this season, but the Suns seek to sign him to a ?max'' contract ? one that would likely fall in the neighborhood of $90 million and give him one of the richest deals in franchise history.