While it’s a very difficult decision to make, the Suns should trade Steve Nash while he still has some value. Phoenix needs to get pieces for their future. Nash is the team’s best and most marketable player, but he also happens to be 38-years-old. He will be a free agent at the end of this season and his future is not with the Suns.

Alvin Gentry joined XTRA 910 in Phoenix with Bickley and MJ to talk about how nice it was to get a win over the Lakers on Sunday, what he thinks of Jeremy Lin’s success, whether Mike D’Antoni’s system is the reason for Lin’s success this year, how he feels about his team heading into the All-Star break, and the possibility of trading Steve Nash.

How nice it was to get a win over the Lakers:

“Oh yeah. Anytime. I know it’s been said that Kobe (Bryant) has this passion or hate for us but you know we’re not exactly in love with them either so the feeling is pretty mutual there. We haven’t had the success that we have had in the past against them but I thought our guys did a great job of battling against them last night and competing like crazy.”

What he thinks of Jeremy Lin’s success:

“It’s been an unbelievable story Bick. The funny thing about it is that our guys ask on the way out, our guys ask at halftime, and everybody wants to know what happened, what this kid did, or how he did it, or what went on, and I love the fact that everybody is just picking his game apart. I told someone the other day if a guy can give you 28 points, 14 assists, and five steals who cares about the seven turnovers.”

Whether the system is the reason for Lin’s success:

“The system? So it’s got to be the system with Peyton Manning and it’s got to be the system with Tom Brady. With Derek Jeter it’s got to be the system too. The guy is proving and he has done a great job here. The system is supposed to take advantage of what you do best and Mike (D’Antoni) has done a great job of implementing him in a situation where he’s handling the ball, he’s done great things, and he’s winning games. The whole purpose of the thing is to win games and they’ve won nine out of ten that he has played in.”

How he feels about his team and the way they have played so far this year:

“First of all I think we have some really good pieces. Marcin (Gortat) is playing great. He’s really playing well. Steve is playing great, Grant (Hill) is doing a good job for us defensively, we’ve had some other guys like Jared Dudley step up, we’re there. I think the thing that we struggle with is consistency like I said all along.  I think we have to be consistent and have some consistency off our bench. If we do that we’ve been able to compete with most of the teams. We haven’t played the Miami’s or anything like that but we’ve been able to compete. We have not been able to finish games. We have to find a way to do that for 48 minutes. Not 32 minutes, 38 minutes, or 42 minutes, we’ve got to be able to do it for 48 and that’s where we’ve struggled a little bit.”

On the possibility of trading Steve Nash:

“First of all I don’t have any authority as far as trading or keeping Steve so I don’t spend very much time thinking about that. That will be something that management and Steve will have to deal with. The only thing that I try to concentrate on is the guys we have on our team right now, how we can get them better, and how we can get them playing at the highest level. That’s where all of my energy goes.”

Listen to Alvin Gentry on XTRA 910 in Phoenix here

Gentry lets it be known that Nash is playing at no more than 70 percent right now. The Suns head coach also admits he is fairly surprised Nash is playing at all.

Alvin Gentry joined KTAR in Phoenix with Burns & Gambo to discuss Steve Nash becoming the Phoenix Suns all-time assists leader, Grant Hill’s knee injury, the emergence of Josh Childress in the Suns lineup, and Steve Nash playing through injuries.

Steve Nash is now the Suns all-time assists leader. Nice night for Steve Nash huh coach?

“Yeah he played extremely well. To be honest with you guys he is probably 70%. He had more ice on him after the game then you would find on a cooler I think. That’s just the kind of guy he is and he went out and he did a great job. I just thought he was really aggressive offensively. He just played extremely well.”

Let’s talk about Grant Hill and the knee. What are the expectations with him going forward?

“Well he feels a lot better. I don’t know at what stage of the game that he actually hurt it, but it just wasn’t worth taking a risk. We just sat him out. It was sore and Josh [Childress] had been playing really good for us anyway and really aggressive, so it was one of those deals where we felt it was best to sit him out and kind of take a look at it. He’ll rest it today and we’ll go to shoot around tomorrow and kind of take a look at it and see where we are with it.”

What have you seen out of Josh Childress that you like?

“He is the consummate professional. When he was sitting over there not playing, he was working every day at practice and doing that and we had talked several times. When I put him in there he did great and I just told him that I would continue to use him when he played with that kind of aggressiveness and defensively I thought he’s done a good job for us. It gives me a guy to relieve Grant [Hill] of guarding a Dirk Nowitzk of the world or something like that. I think he’s playing really good.”

You mentioned how Steve Nash had more ice on him than a cooler. He’s okay though right?

“Yeah he’ll play. I just…he won’t ever say anything about it. He’s playing in a lot of pain and there’s a lot of things going that would not normally – the normal guy I don’t think would be playing.”

Listen to Alvin Gentry on 620 KTAR in Phoenix here