Not much help for Nash, but he forges on
As Steve Nash takes the new coif to his eighth all-star game, thereby tying Walter Davis for the most appearances in Phoenix Suns franchise history in this weekend’s much-hyped tilt, he’s apt to go into shock when he hits the court.
For at that point he will be surrounded by talented players, something he’s no longer accustomed to with the Suns, now a ridiculous collection of stiffs that is a fitting tribute to the hopeless management that’s been in place since he joined the team from Dallas.
While Nash had some excellent players with him when Amar’e Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell and Joe Johnson were around, the steady deterioration of the roster has been staggering as owner Robert Sarver wanted to save money.
Wednesday night this sorry collection managed to lose at home 106104 to the Golden State Warriors, a team that had lost 13 straight coming in and was the team to most recently waive Jeremy Lin. And it would have been much worse had Warriors’ point guard Stephen Curry not gone out in the first quarter with an ankle problem.
Over the last two or three seasons Nash has been able to keep this sorry lot competitive, and even now his brilliance, which hasn’t deteriorated much though he is 38 years of age, allows them to compete in stretches.
But as good as he still is, it’s a struggle and his problem remains, the better he is at keeping the group competitive the more likely the Suns are to hang on to him. He may in fact want that personally because his kids still live in the city.
But professionally, his only shot at a championship would have to be preceded by a trade or signing with another team at the end of this torturous season.
That Nash is threatening to become only the third player in NBA history to average 11 or more assists per game for three straight seasons, along with John Stockton and Magic Johnson, is nothing short of miraculous with this team, which simply doesn’t make many shots no matter how open a look is created.
On a nightly basis their success depends almost exclusively on how well seven-footer Channing Frye shoots from the three-point line. When he shoots poorly, which has been often this season, they can’t win.
Nash has made the career of Marcin Gortat, a Polish centre who was Dwight Howard’s backup before he came in a trade for the failed experiment of Hedo Turkoglu. He constantly feeds Jared Dudley, who has good nights and bad, Grant Hill is very close to finished and the rest are simply not NBA players, save maybe Markieff Morris, a rookie from whom the ball never escapes. No matter where he gets it, he jacks it up.
Wednesday night the pace of the lockout-condensed schedule got to Nash, the Suns playing their 14th game in 22 nights this month, more than any other team. He had no energy, never attempted to get to the hoop — which generally opens up so many shots for his teammates — and so his numbers were anemic.
He finished with seven points on just four shots and added nine assists, which stopped his streak of 11 straight games with 10 or more as he hits the All-star Game on fumes.
And while his own game would probably have benefited far more from the break than from getting the glory, he now joints Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-jabbar and Moses Malone as only the fourth player ever to appear in the Classic at age 38 or higher.
For a guy Mavericks owner Mark Cuban worried wouldn’t last very long when he decided not to re-sign Nash in Dallas some seven years back, the Victoria native has had pretty good staying power.
Nash has made it plain he’ll accept whatever the Suns management wants. He says he would like to stay and would re-sign in Phoenix, but hasn’t changed his position at all with respect to a trade, either.
He says he understands it’s a business and if the franchise wants to get something for him in a deal at the deadline, he’ll also understand, assuming it’s a contender.
After such a career as this, you just hope he gets what he really wants.