Phoenix Suns: Top 5 Free Agency Targets

2. Amar’e Stoudemire

Maybe this is too high on the list for a 33-year-old injury-prone player in the twilight of his career, but don’t lie. Anyone who knows anything about the Phoenix Suns wouldn’t be opposed to seeing STAT finish out his career in the same place where he spent the best years of his prime.

Last season, Amar’e Stoudemire averaged 5.8 points and 4.3 rebounds in 14.7 minutes per game — all career lows — for the Miami Heat. His return to Phoenix would clearly not be for his playing value, even on a team with two rookie power forwards.

However, wouldn’t Amar’e’s return make the 2016-17 season at least a little more bearable? Let’s face it, the Suns have mostly been unlikable and unsuccessful since Steve Nash left. In what will likely be a season of development, why not revel in sweet nostalgia with a Suns legend who would probably come cheap anyway?

Kevin Garnett got his return to Minnesota, so why not allow Stoudemire — a player who probably won’t be in high demand — the chance to distract people from the fact that he’s on his last legs with his mere presence being able to make fans happy?

Even after a successful, youth-centered draft for the Suns, this franchise is still on a long road to redemption in the eyes and hearts of its fans. Giving them a taste of sweet nostalgia is one way to happily frame a season portrait that will be filled with the dark splotches of growing pains.

As a locker room mentor, Stoudemire could teach Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss a thing or two about pick-and-rolls, the ins and outs of the game, where to properly strike fire extinguisher cases, which vintage to use for their wine baths, how to play halfhearted defense….

Wait. On second thought, we probably should’ve put Stoudemire lower on this list.

Next: No. 1