Steve Nash will be a free agent this summer, increasing the odds that the Suns could trade him before the deadline. 

One executive whose team has had serious interest in Nash in the past told SI.com that the Suns are "as close as they've ever been" to realizing that they need to strongly consider a trade.

"I have no idea what the club will eventually do if a bunch of offers are thrown in their face," Nash said, "but I feel like I'm not nervous about [the trade deadline] and I'm not thinking about -- what's the word? -- I'm not anticipating anything to happen. I feel like I made a commitment and I feel like I owe it to my teammates -- the city, the fans, the club -- to play it out and to play as hard as I can."

"Our position has been the same all along, which is I've told him that he has earned the right to stay with our franchise as long as he wants provided that he believes in what we're doing, and provided that he's all in and wants to do that," Lon Babby told SI.com.