A lasting impression

The Warriors and the Rockets have learned from the system the Suns used under Nash

The connection sparked pleasant memories, some regret and further validation on how he helped revolutionize the modern NBA.

Well before Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Houston guard James Harden oversaw two of the NBA’s most devastating offenses, Steve Nash nearly did the same thing over a decade ago with the Phoenix Suns. With an offense that scored in “seven seconds or less,” Nash ran a system that valued 3-point shooting, passing and positionless players over post-ups and plodding big men. After once sparking derision that those philosophies cannot win an NBA championship, the Warriors showed it can with two NBA titles in the past three years.

“It’s nice and great. But at the same time, it doesn’t bring back any championships,” said Nash, who has served as a Warriors’ consultant for the past three years. “We definitely have an imprint on the league, I think, in some respects. It’s fun to

watch these teams play and see players take it to a new height.”

The Warriors and Rockets are expected to reach new heights beginning Monday in a Western Conference finals showdown that provides many parallels to Nash’s time with the Suns.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr has mirrored the Suns’ emphasis on ball movement, spacing and 3-pointers after once serving as Phoenix’s general manager (200710).

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni has incorporated a similar system he implemented with Nash (200408) as he has with Harden.

“I don’t think we thought we were the future. I just think we thought we were playing the way that our roster had the best chance to succeed,” Nash said. “With a thin creative point guard and no traditional center, walking the ball up the court and getting in a wrestling match is not going to suit us.”

Instead, Nash steered an offense that featured an unstoppable pick- and-roll diver (Am- are Stoudemire), a versatile wing (Shawn Marion) and countless 3-point shooters. The Suns routinely ranked among the NBA’s best in offense in 2004- 05 (first, 110.4 points per game), 2005- 06 (first, 108.4), 2006- 07 (first, 110.2) and 2007- 08 (third, 110.1). Overseeing all of that was D’Antoni, whom Kerr said “gave his players great confidence.”

“That’s Mike’s brilliance,” Nash said. “He’s able to adapt and adjust and bring the best out in a group of players.”

Incidentally, neither D’Antoni nor Kerr brought the best out of each other.

Less than a year after becoming the Suns’ general manager in 2007, Kerr traded one of D’Antoni’s prized players ( Marion) along with Marcus Banks to Miami for an elite center past his prime (Shaquille O’Neal). Kerr and D’Antoni had disagreements on the Suns’ direction, including Kerr reportedly telling D’Antoni he needed to do more to revamp the team’s defense. And after the Suns lost to San Antonio in the playoffs for the third time in four years, D’Antoni resigned to take the New York Knicks’ coaching position.

Though Nash conceded the two were “a little bit at odds,” he called D’Antoni and Kerr “two great basketball minds and two great people.” Nash said he wished D’Antoni well when he informed him by phone he would go to New York despite feeling “surprised that it actually happened.” Before taking the Rockets job in 2016, D’Antoni encountered frequent roster turnover and philosophical differences on his system with the Knicks (2008-12) and Los Angeles Lakers (2012-14).

“They’re both great guys. It’s kind of sad it didn’t end on better terms,” Nash said of Kerr and D’Antoni. “Having said that, that’s the nature of the business. Everyone is under so much pressure. We were a team that is knocking on the door and probably just was a little bit ahead of our time in that we played a style and we had a roster that suited the game five or 10 years down the road.”

Since those 10 years have passed, Nash maintained he does not harbor many “what if” feelings had D’Antoni stayed with the Suns. Instead, Nash attributed various circumstances that contributed to the Suns’ post season flame outs more than any criticism surrounding D’Antoni’s system.

The Suns lost to San Antonio in the 2005 Western Conference finals partly because Joe Johnson missed the first two games with injuries. They lost to Dallas in the 2006 Western Conference finals after Stoudemire missed all but three games because of microfracture surgery. After former Spurs forward Robert Horry knocked Nash into the scorer’s table at the end of a Game 4 win in the 2007 Western Conference semifinals, Stoudemire and Boris Diaw received a one-game suspensions for leaving the bench.

“We had some bad bounces and made some decisions on personnel that were dictated financially that maybe weren’t as impactful as we feared it would be. Having said that, I also take a lot of blame on maybe not making another play or two in some of those decisive games,” Nash said. “That’s the game and it’s why as beautiful as it is. Not everybody wins every year. Some people never win. Although it still pains me, I wasn’t a part of a winning team, I also loved that about it. I loved that instead of saying, ‘ Why me?’ I say, ‘ Why not me? I didn’t get it done.’ ”

Somuch that Nash contends he should have shot the ballmore af- ter averaging 12.37 shots per game in Phoenix under D’Antoni.

At the time, Nash guarded against that so he could empower his teammates. Yet, those numbers hardly compare to the shot attempts that Curry (16.8 shots) and Harden (20.1) averaged this season. Back when former Warriors coach Don Nelson has Nash with the Dallas Mavericks (19982004), Nelson often told Nash, “You’re a better shooter than these guys; I want you shooting the ball.”

“It probably would have made a lot more sense. But at the time, we weren’t ready for that, league wide,” Nash said. “Everyone was telling us you can’t win shooting all of those threes. Now we realize thatwe didn’t shoot enough, especially when we’re playing small.”

D’Antoni realizes the same thing. Fitting, since he rarely has told players to worry about missing a shot.

“He really empowers his players. I learned a lot from that,” Kerr said. “There’s a lot of coaches that tend to harp on the negative. Mike is constantly bumping up his guys and pushing the envelope and asking him to shoot more and shoot less. I really admire that approach.”