by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
At 37 years old, Steve Nash put the finishing touches on yet another assist title last night, his 5th in 7 years. And he plans on pulling off this baffling magic act for the next three years.
There’s just no telling in which city Nash’s act will take place going forward.
The Phoenix Suns failed to qualify for the Playoffs this season, a year after nearly making it the NBA Finals, and are clearly in rebuilding mode. It becomes harder and harder to envision Steve Nash wasting away the twilight of his career in orange and purple.
For the time being, Nash is saying all the right things about wanting to ride it out in Arizona, but also won’t rule out the possibility of playing elsewhere.
From SRI and ESPN:
If he’s considered finishing his career somewhere other than Phoenix: “I don’t know but I want to be a Sun. I don’t know what the scenario may be, and I’d never say never or be foolish enough to say there wasn’t any circumstances. Or who knows, maybe the team will want to move in a different direction, so I have to be open to that if that time came. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve been here a long time, because we’ve had a lot of success, I’ve got a touch of the old school in me. But I don’t really feel like playing with anybody else. I want to play with the Suns, and I want to get back to that place we were last year and try to turn the corner and get to the Finals and win it.”
“I have no reason to believe that I won’t be here next year. [Playing somewhere else is] something I really haven’t even thought about.” Suns coach Alvin Gentry, for his part, echoes that approach. Yet while Nash continues to insist that he will not push for a trade — even after a season he openly describes as “very tiring, draining and disappointing” — multiple sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that questions in the Suns’ locker room about “what’s going to happen with Steve,” as one source described it, have been frequent as the season wound down.
When they start playing hoops in Phoenix again, whenever that may be, the questions about Steve Nash’s future will only continue to grow in intensity.
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alongside blake dj and gordon ,nash would bring showtime back
it would be dope to see him back in dallas with dirk, i’d be scared of that team.
Anyway, I think it’s interesting how our perceptions of players shape their images.
For example, people want Nash to “ring chase” after he signed that massive extension that no other team was going to give him.
They thought Karl Malone and Gary Payton were suckers for signing with L.A. back in the day for the minimum. Mike Bibby and Dampier were also considered a little fake for linking up with the Heat, but Troy Murphy was cool for rolling with the Celtics.
It’s like we decide if the same decision makes sense based solely on whether we like the player or the team they are signing with.
Personally, I think it makes sense to chase money first, then worry about winning. So Nash made a good move. But I don’t feel sorry for him because he’s not winning. He chased the money first.
Exactly what challenges does Nash have besides his creaky back, which strangely is ok on offense?
Now that would be interesting to see.
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Robert Sarver NEEDS Steve Nash. Plus…he wants to keep him. The Suns just need to bring in players to play with the Suns. Letting Amare go was the wrong choice. Using MORE money to get Childress and Turkoglu turned a bad decision worse and breaking up the backcourt core with Richardson, has done more damage than first thought.
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Marcin Gortat has been a pleasant surprise (think Varejao with hand eye co ordination and less hair) and IF they don’t sign Vince Carter they may have some serious coin to attract a top 2nd tier FA or a sign and trade option.
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Next year I expect Goran Dragic to find some serious form and gun for the 6th man of the year title. Bringing in some serious ALLSTAR help with be the quickest path for the Suns to get back to post season success.
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