Accepting substantially less guaranteed money to remain in Phoenix would have constituted bad business on Stoudemire's part. Conversely, refusing to fully guarantee his salaries for more than three years represented fiscal prudence by the Suns. Running the risk of another Anfernee Hardaway debacle wasn't necessarily worthwhile for a club that still seemed to lack a championship formula.
Even with Stoudemire back, Phoenix probably wouldn't have been the same team without Barbosa and Amundson and given the regression of Dragic and Lopez. Last season, the Suns went 32-12 (.727, a 60-win pace) with Barbosa and 22-16 (.579, a 47-win pace) without him.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/barbole01/splits/2010/The point is that the differences between last year's team and this year's extend so far beyond Stoudemire that pinpointing his value proves difficult. One of the greatest strengths of the 2010 club was its bench and that second-unit fundamentally changed for the worse after the departures of Barbosa and Amundson.
With Stoudemire still in tow, the Suns may have been less likely to break-up their starting lineup and consummate that Orlando trade. We'll never know for sure, but I'm glad that Phoenix could acquire Gortat: he gives the franchise its best defense-and-rebounding center since perhaps John "Hot Rod" Williams in the later 1990s and he's not bad offensively.
