Once the end of the year came, P.J. Brown supposedly was going to be more ready to return to play after spending Christmas with his family.

With two months of the season behind them, the Suns were going to be able to show Brown, 38, how much they could use his veteran post play.

But between Brown's reluctance to leave the retirement recliner and Brian Skinner's emergence in the role of Suns reserve big man, the signing that Phoenix chased this summer appears as doubtful as ever.

"I've had no indication that P.J. is interested in playing," Suns General Manager Steve Kerr said. "It sounds as if he's retired. It's obviously less urgent with the way Brian has played. This is around the time we thought we could convince P.J. into play for us.

"That said, if he's interested, we'd still be interested in him. We don't have a lot of bigs. You'd always love to have depth inside and playoff experience."