Music: {allcanada} AGENT: SUNS AGREE TO SIGN-AND-TRADE NASH TO LAKERS FOR PICKS

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

{allcanada} AGENT: SUNS AGREE TO SIGN-AND-TRADE NASH TO LAKERS FOR PICKS

Steve Nash won't be coming home to Canada.

The point guard's agent says the two-time NBA MVP is going to the Los Angeles Lakers in a sign-and-trade deal with the Phoenix Suns.

Nash, who spent the past eight seasons with the Suns, was a free agent but a sign-and-trade agreement was necessary for the Lakers to afford him.

Bill Duffy says his client agreed to a three-year, US$27 million contract. In return, the Suns get four draft picks -- first rounders in 2013 and 2015 and second rounders in 2013 and 2014.

Duffy said the deal was finalized about 6 p.m., PDT. He said a main reason for the Victoria-raised player choosing the Lakers was to remain close to his children, who live in Phoenix.

Nash's decision will surely cause disappointment among fans of the Toronto Raptors. Canada's only NBA team made a pitch to bring the veteran point guard to Toronto.

Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo reportedly made Nash a three-year offer worth $36 million over the weekend.

Reached by The Canadian Press, Colangelo declined to comment on the move.

Nash is also the general manager of Canada Basketball's senior men's national team.

The deal will put Nash on the floor with the team he tried so hard to unseat as a Western Conference power, teaming him with Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and at least for now, Pau Gasol.

Nash has never made it to the NBA Finals. He was last in the Western Conference finals against the Lakers in 2010, when the Suns lost in six games and Los Angeles went on to win the NBA title.

Los Angeles hasn't had an elite point guard alongside Bryant for several seasons, failing to address Derek Fisher's gradual decline while the rest of the West got better. The Lakers got sub-par play last season from the 37-year-old Fisher, who was traded to Houston at the deadline.

The New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks were also reportedly vying for Nash's services. ESPN reported earlier Wednesday that a sign-and-trade deal between the Knicks and the Suns were in talks.

Any deal can't be made official until July 11, when NBA teams can begin signing free agents.