In today’s edition of the NBA At 2: Steve Nash is not on the block…Cavs’ GM Chris Grant knows the right choice…Minny still playing games…NBA Chats.

Bill Ingram will be back Thursday.

Nash Not Available: Over the past year or two whenever a rumor involving a trade of Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash has come up we’ve held to the same comments: Nash wants to be in Phoenix and Phoenix wants Nash to be there. The argument is there is so much mutual respect there the only way the Suns would trade Nash would be if he came to them and asked to be traded, for whatever reason.

Nash is under contract for one more season at $11.7 million.

In the past couple days Nash’s name has been thrown around quite a bit. There was a rumor making the rounds yesterday about the Minnesota Timberwolves offering the Suns the number two pick and whatever else it would take to make the deal work under the CBA (the Wolves have about $4 million in cap space, so they would have to send about $7 million or so in contracts back to the Suns). Then there was another rumor involving the New York Knicks, one that would have to center around veteran point guard Chauncey Billups for cap reasons (unless the Knicks were going to move Amar’e Stoudemire or Carmelo Anthony, which they are not).

Had the Suns changed their tune?

Regarding the Minnesota rumor, someone close to Nash told Ken Berger of CBS Sports:  “I can’t believe (Phoenix) would do that to Steve.”

Following all of this hullabaloo, Suns’ President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby made an emphatic statement to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “We are not trading Steve Nash. Period. Exclamation point.” (He said the same thing about center Marcin Gortat.)

Well then, it appears nothing has changed in Phoenix.

What’s important to note here is in both cases the Suns took a call from a team wanting to see what it would take to get Steve Nash. They will listen – the team would be silly not to hear the inquiring team out – but the reality still is the Suns are not looking to trade Steve Nash. They may trade him if someone makes an unbelievable godfather offer, something that could alter the future of the franchise, but they aren’t going out of their way. If such an offer were made, presumably they would talk to Nash about it and the two sides would figure it out.

But for now – again – Steve Nash is not available. Unless you are a team making that godfather offer, it might be best to just make a different call.

Interesting Cavs Note: By now the world pretty much agrees the Cleveland Cavaliers will probably take Duke point guard Kyrie Irving with the top overall pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft. Want another reason? General Manager Chris Grant.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Grant joined the Cavaliers on July 9, 2005. The previous nine years he worked in the front office for the Atlanta Hawks, finishing as assistant general manager. Just a few days previously, at the 2005 NBA Draft, the Hawks – in desperate need of a point guard – had shocked just about everyone when they chose tweener forward Marvin Williams with the second pick in the draft. The two players chosen after him? Deron Williams and Chris Paul, widely regarded as the current two best point guards in the NBA today.

Now in the top GM spot Grant has the opportunity to choose the consensus best point guard in the 2011 NBA Draft for a team who needs a reliable young leader. After seeing what the Hawks dealt with after trading Jason Terry to Dallas in the summer of 2004 until they acquired Mike Bibby at the trade deadline in 2008 – i.e., the lack of a point guard leader – it’s quite doubtful Grant will allow the Cavaliers to make the same mistake.

That’s not saying Irving is going to be Williams or Paul, but it saying Grant shouldn’t let his team overthink this. If Cleveland instead takes Derrick Williams with the top overall pick over Irving, it should only be because they are using the #4 pick to pick up a veteran (Tony Parker?) they feel fits the team better long-term.

As for Baron Davis…I can’t be the only one who thinks a Davis as the starting shooting guard experiment is something worth trying, just to see, right?

Minny Playing Games: We’ve talked awhile here, by various writers in various articles, about the Minnesota Timberwolves flooding the market with trade offers that include the second pick in Thursday’s draft. Just about all of them have heated up the internets for a length of time – Pau Gasol, Andrew Bogut, JaVale McGee, Steve Nash, Andrew Bynum – and then at some point been resoundingly shot down by the other team.

However, it’s not just the trade rumors where the approach has been…interesting. And by interesting I mean different than other teams do it, and not necessarily in a good way. Their treatment of head coach Kurt Rambis is right up there.

At this point a team should know if they want to keep their coach or replace him. If the line is so fine it takes analyzation to the point the Wolves and Rambis are at now – over two months after the season is over and not endorsement or firing – then it’s time to move on. All this about needing to talk to other people, having to fill out reports…none of it is bad, but it is very public and borderline unprofessional.

“I recognize that this is painful for everybody involved, or at least awkward at a minimum,” General Manager David Kahn told the Associated Press. “But I think we understand where we’re at. All in due time.”

This is the problem. We do understand where they are at – we just can’t fathom why they are there as opposed to a point with resolution.

Rambis isn’t going to simply throw up his hands and walk away, because if he resigns he doesn’t get paid. If the Wolves fire him, he gets paid. If the Wolves fire him, they have to pay him and his replacement.

The Minnesota Timberwolves need to make the right decision here and fire Kurt Rambis. At this point, it’s the best resolution for all involved.

NBA Chats: Salary cap expert Larry Coon is up next on the chat schedule at 3pm Eastern. Then Mark Nugent takes your questions at 5pm Eastern, and later tonight Tommy Beer will give you his take at 8pm Eastern. Here are all the upcoming chats and all the chat wraps.