I asked Lon Babby and Lance Blanks Thursday if they acquired Aaron Brooks to be the “heir apparent” to Steve Nash.

They told me it was a good question (I agree), but that it was somewhat unfair. In fact, Babby’s exact quote was, “He’s here to backup Steve Nash now and into the future, and I wouldn’t read anything more into it than that.”

General Manager Lance Blanks took it one step further, saying it would not be right of the team to expect Brooks to be the next Steve Nash. “To say that Aaron Brooks is here to replace him or the heir apparent is just unfair,” he said.

While I admire the unwillingness to acknowledge what life without Nash may be like, if they genuinely believe what they said then the Suns have once again misfired when making a trade.

As my colleague Espo pointed out, if the Suns were seriously looking to improve their chances this season they would have added a power forward. It was reported that they looked into Utah’s Paul Millsap, and that news is promising. However, we cannot really give credit for trades that were talked about, as we can only judge deals that were actually consummated. The one the Suns made, after a night to think about it, has me scratching my head.

If in fact Brooks was not brought in to be Nash’s successor, the Suns just traded away a player, Dragic, who had shown the ability to fill that role. In two starts this year Dragic averaged 13.5 points and 7 assists, along with one steal and 45 percent shooting. Not Nash, but not bad. But, apparently this was not about basketball sans Nash, it was about improving the bench right now.

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