NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Bright Side of the Sun. Amare Stoudemire can't remember the last time Phoenix practiced defense.

2. Talking Points. What is the impact of Monta Ellis' injury on Don Nelson's retirement plans?

3. Ridiculous Upside. Sam Vincent talks about player development, coaching in the D-League and how no one lives in Reno.

4. The Sporting Blog. Shaun Livingston ... Golden State? Lakers?

5. Wages of Wins. Is Ben Gordon worth the toast he's spread on?

6. The Lost Ogle. Another Thunder slip.

Today's reminder that the Tim Donaghy scandal will not go quietly into that dark night comes from Arizona. A prosecutor in Arizona is following up on an earlier request for the documents pertaining to Donaghy's case. The prosecutor was told to wait till after Donaghy's federal trial concluded before processing his request. Donaghy's been sentenced, and now the prosecutor, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, wants his shot.

The claim is that he wants to explore whether Donaghy broke any state laws during his happy go funtime dancing with betting on games he worked. But in reality, we know the real reason behind the inquiry.

There's no doubt that the real reason behind the inquiry is to discover if Donaghy admitted to shenannigans during the Suns notoriously questionable playoffs series against the Spurs in 2007. It's likely that the investigation has very little to do with actually pursuing Donaghy, seeing as how he's, you know, already in the clink. But ever since people started pointing out that Donaghy was involved in that, um ... interesting series, there have been blood cries from the desert.

As someone that was as outraged by that series as anyone, I'll still say someone should tell Phoenix that this won't put Steve Nash's nose back together in Game 1, nor will it keep Amare Stoudemire on the bench after Robert Horry cheapshot 1.0. It's done.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. SLAM. On Michael Redd: "THIS MAN WAS TALKING TO HIMSELF DURING THE MEDAL CEREMONY. IF ANYONE READS LIPS, TELL ME WHAT HE WAS SAYING. I THINK HE MIGHT'VE BEEN SINGING THE SOMALI NATIONAL ANTHEM. NO WONDER HE DIDN'T PLAY."

2. WhatIfSports, via BrewHoop. The shocking statistical answer to the absurd question: Dream Team or Redeem Team?

3. A Stern Warning. Carnival of the NBA #59.

4. Ball Don't Lie. Salim Stoudamire's Team USA jersey is the hot fall fashion.

5. Detroit Bad Boys. The odd investigation of Lindsey Hunter.

6. NBA.com. Trraaaade! Suns send D.J. Strawberry to Houston for Sean Singletary. Jersey maker rues the needless extra work.

I'm ordinarily not that interested in the private lives of professional athletes, but when they intersect with the courtroom, they're hard to ignore. TMZ passes along the news that an Atlanta woman named Alexis Miller has been granted a restraining order against Shaquille O'Neal after Shaq allegedly harassed and threatened Miller. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Deadspin) corroborates the story:

Judge Richard Hicks granted Alexis Miller's request on Thursday after reviewing her claims that the NBA star threatened her with bodily harm and made harassing phone calls in which he would breathe heavily into the phone before hanging up.

Miller, a 23-year-old independent music artist professionally known as Maryjane, also alleged that O'Neal, 36, threatened to ruin her career by having her blackballed after Miller ended an intimate relationship between the two last month.

Shaq breathing heavy? Go figure. TMZ has the text of some of the threatening emails that Shaq allegedly sent; I'm not going to re-print them here, but if it's really him, he looks really, really bad (and not just because of the atrocious grammar).

The timing of the alleged break-up is interesting, especially in the context of Shaq's previously estranged wife announcing earlier this week that the couple had reconciled and planned on canceling their divorce. Maybe there was a reason Shaq wanted to get back together? It'll be interesting to see Shaq's response -- now that a judge is involved, he may not want to say something he can't repeat if put under oath.

For a team better known for pawning off draft picks to the highest bidder, it's been an odd summer watching the Phoenix Suns. Landing with the #15 in the first round, Phoenix didn't sell it ... they used it, on Robin Lopez. As TrueHoop's Henry Abbott notes, armed with a second-rounder, the Suns tacked on some extra dough to move up to grab the guy they wanted. That guy happened to be Slovenian point guard Goran Dragic, a big physical fellow which an imposing surname.

The Arizona Republic reports Dragic will sign a three-year, fully guaranteed deal with Phoenix. Most seconds get one or two years guaranteed at most; some, including high second DeAndre Jordan, don't get paid unless they make the team in October. Yet, because Dragic made a rather big financial commitment to leave Tau Ceramica, Phoenix had to pony up a large financial commitment of their own. Abbott:

Dragic had better be good. On that front, the Suns' brass has a lot of conviction. I love that. Identify the players you like and then -- everyone else's views be damned -- go get them.

One of the biggest problems sub-elite internationals face in the NBA is a lack of minutes. Sarunas Jasikevicius suffered this ... Vassilis Spanoulis, as well. All players -- from NYC or Ljubljana -- need minutes to get acclimated and get into some comfort level. If the Suns -- including Terry Porter -- believe in the power of Dragic, this hurdle will be skipped. Then, he has no excuse if he can't prove he belongs in the NBA.

Surprise! Not everybody is spurning the NBA for Europe. Despite previously indicating he was going to stay in Europe, Slovenian point guard Goran Dragic has reversed course and is finishing up the details on a buyout that will allow him to sign with the Phoenix Suns, who acquired his rights in a draft-day trade with the Spurs.

It's been a long process, in part because his agents have had to negotiate two separate buyouts: as Sean Deveney of Sporting News explains, Dragic's rights are technically owned by a team in his hometown of Ljubljana, but he's been on loan to TAU Ceramica of Spain. The NBA allows teams to contribute only $500,000 toward a player's buyout, with the difference coming directly out of the player's pocket.

That said, the Suns are expected to circumvent that rule by putting a little extra something in Dragic's pocket -- he was a second-round pick, so his salary isn't restricted by the league's rookie scale, meaning the Suns are free to use a portion of their mid-level exception to make buying out his European contract worth his while. You don't usually see teams bend over backward to accomodate a second-round pick, but the Suns were so enamored with Dragic that they actually considered drafting him in the first round with the 15th overall pick.

New Suns coach Terry Porter told me a few weeks ago that he'd yet to settle on a backup point guard, but Steve Kerr made it clear yesterday that Dragic is expected to be that guy, telling HOOPSWORLD he hopes "Dragic will back up Nash, play 17 minutes a game and develop in that position to the point where one day he's our starter."

Starting you off on the long road to divorce and estrangement from your family is New Orleans at Orlando at noon. So after opening presents, enjoying your Christmas morning coffee, and inevitably calling your sister to ask why she hated you enough to buy your kid that obnoxious talking Monk doll or plotting to return the sweater that your grandmother got you for an iPod charger, you can sit back, relax, and watch Tyson Chandler and Dwight Howard beat the crap out of each other.

Then the blood rivalry resumes with San Antonio traveling to Phoenix at 2:30PM EST for what should be a warm and happy holiday greeting between the two teams as Amare Stoudemire tries to go Silent Night, Deadly Night on the team that's bounced him from the playoffs two years in a row, while Bruce Bowen attempts to give Steve Nash the gift he's never wanted, two severed Achilles' and a partridge in a pear tree.

Remember that really ... weird photo of Steve Nash and Baron Davis on a bike from a few weeks ago? Here's your explanation: it was a still from a mock trailer the pair of point guards made for IBeatYou.com.



Nash clearly outdances Boom to some early Michael Jackson about halfway through, which is a tremendous surprise. No offense to the great Judd Apatow, but this is probably better than the movie they're quasi-mocking. (I say 'quasi-mocking' because, really, they're just mocking themselves.)

Pardon the horribly inaccurate (the rumor itself seems like pure fiction and the Spanish is not even close to correct) but it's not every day that I get to use Boris Diaw's name in a Spanish exclamatory phrase.

Of course, it's not everyday that a rumor surfaces that would allow the Bulls to dump Kirk Hinrich on some poor unsuspecting sap another team. That sap du jour is Steve Kerr and the Phoenix Suns, although this particular rumor, founded by East Valley Tribune and Jerry Brown, probably bears all of us bringing our saltshaker.

re both Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa now necessary on the roster? Would the Bulls, who are still sparring with Luol Deng on a contract and looking to move Kirk Hinrich's contract, entertain the idea of swapping Hinrich for Diaw (they have almost identical contracts) and then go after some center depth with their last roster spot?

There is no indication that the Suns and Bulls have talked. But Hinrich is a name that has intrigued the Suns in the past, and they will have to get creative in picking up a point guard. Barnes' pleasantly unexpected arrival gives them more chips to play.

Oh yes, it's also worth mentioning that Brown seems to think Matt Barnes makes a nice backup point guard. I would tend to disagree with that, although Leandro Barbosa might. Still, this is an interesting proposition, if only because Hinrich is a guy that would certainly interest Kerr, and it seems fairly obvious that Diaw and Barbosa are not.

Additionally, it would solve a problem for the Bulls (getting rid of Hinrich aside) in that it would give them a versatile big man who can pass. Rumor? Yes, certainly. Plausible? Just maybe.

Who needs Tyronn Lue? Who really needs Corey Maggette? Why waste your time with valuable free agents, when you can have ...

Matt Barnes!

Yes, that's right, the Suns have signed unrestricted free agent Matt Barnes, who you may remember from such hits as "that 2006-2007 season where he was good for about thirteen seconds" and ... um ... yeah. Barnes is long, reasonably athletic, and a great glue guy. He also was hardly used by the Warriors at all last season, despite their desperate need for a deeper rotation and his status as a team captain.

Still, this kind of conservative approach may be what's needed for the Suns, given that some of their bigger moves (so to speak) have not worked out well. This signing speaks of defense and a willingness to bring in guys that want to work. You have to be concerned with how quickly he fell from team captain to expendable, but for the league minimum, this is a value pick up, and a good one at that.