Daily Poll: To Nash or Not to Nash

I’m so glad they extended him! And for the right price! $11mil per year is not bad at all for a point guard of Nash’s offencive quality. If JRich can man up on Defence, we should be in great shape next year!

Not just because he’s the face of the franchise and much loved, but because i’d rather stay mostly competative than not competative at all going forward.

On the plus side his extension isnt anywhere near the 15mil/yr we first heard about. 11mil/yr aint bad at all for a class act like Nash and if we really need to move him going forward we can still do so in the years to come.

All in all I can live with it.

not only because it keeps us competitive, but because it keeps us attractive to free-agents. Players are more likely to sign for less with us when we have a floor leader like Nash than they would be without him on our roster. Bottom line, he makes everyone else better offensively. Good move.

The Suns really had no choice in the matter as the article pointed out. There is no one on the roster that can run the team, and they had no money to bring in anyone comparable if Nash walked. This is not say that it’s not good to have Steve Nash for the next three seasons. Even as his injury risk would seemingly increase and his “step” decrease, he is still a top 5 NBA PG, period. Nice work front office for seeing things clearly.

Oh and um, Goran, I like you, but you better start pulling it together if you want to be the heir apparrant.

I am just glad that it is finally done.

Though I am not sure what Nash will be like for his last year of this extension, it’s good to see the suns management repay a player that has elevated the Suns and brought so much positive leadership to both Phoenix and the NBA. I am reminded of how Patrick Ewing was shipped out of NY at about the same time in his career. I always found that move to be really classless. Steve Nash should retire a phoenix sun.. period. no matter what. When you do classy things like this, players will want to come and play for the Suns… Just look at NY’s run since they traded Ewing.

Sarver— way to not screw this one up.. good job

Several things to consider aren’t there? Are we attractive to FAs? Will Amare stay? We will remain competitive? I am not sure the answers to these questions yet. Cant be until we see Amare play. If Amare is healthy and plays like the beast we know he is, then things will drastically change come december and the trade deadline.
Oh, and by the way, Nash is well worth 11M a year. HE is not the dead weight killing our roster, JRich is. His untradeable contract is destroying our ability to make good pick ups. Ousting him should still be our number one priority. Only then should we think about signing more big men.

I agree—- I think this could be his year.. He is not a Number 1 go to guy, but neither was Matrix.. hopefully he gets better on Defense… I am not giving up on the suns yet… I think Nash could bring everyone to the Promise land— probably not to a title.. but who knows… If Dudley Amundsun and Lopez all play beyond their potential, we could be talking about a lethal team..

And yes— I just took a 44oz drink of the Kool-aid

I understand that, as constructed, our team represents something of an enigma. It would be much easier as a fan to know exactly what we are gonna get with this team, but let’s focus on the positive and break down our roster position by position. I think this team has a good combination of talent, youth, and depth. Are we gonna win the championship, probably not, but I think we’ll be competetive. Plus there’s no point in sucking too badly since we don’t have our draft pick next year.

PG:

Nash is, well, Nashty. When healthy, and in the right system, he is one of the top PGs in the NBA. His leadership, court vision, playmaking ability and ability to deliver in the clutch are amazing qualities at his salary. We could talk of his defensive deficiencies, but I think those will be better with a better PnR defender such as Lopez. He has shown excellent durability despite a bad back, and hopefully that should improve if he doesn’t have to play 35 minutes a game

Goran Dragic: Remember that he’s only a second year NBA player and that, just like centers, the learning curve for point guards is incredibly steep. He works hard, has a great attitude, and displays flashes of, if not brilliance, at least competence. He needs more experience and time, but stands to develop well under Nash’s tutelage (yet another reason to keep Nash around)

SG:

JRich: Much has been discussed of his inability to mold last year. I think that JRich will have a better year, as our floor spacing improves and Shaq is gone. He has the ability to penetrate, finish at the rim, and hopefully will be a better outside shooter. Given time to play with this team, I think he’ll be fine. I wouldn’t be against trading him, but given his salary, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Hopefully he will improve defensively but time will tell

LB: We know exactly what we get with LB. Constant energy, desire to improve, blazing quickness and ability to shoot from distance and finish. I think defensively, LB has improved tremendously and see no reason why in Gentry’s system, he shouldn’t revert back to sixth man of the year numbers.

SF

Grant Hill: played every game last year. Good defensively, smart, and a good mid-range shooter. May not have the ability to drive the ball as well as many years ago, however, he showed last year that he is still able to get up and dunk it in your face. He’s healthy and played every game last year. My vote for MVP of last season’s Suns. Brings a great veteran leadership for a cheap salary]

Jared Dudley: Showed some game last year. Excellent energy, good rebounder, and suprisingly (at least surprising to me) a decent shooter. Good 7th-8th man off the bench

Earl Clark: I’ll put him here, even though he’s likely a 3/4. Showed some promise in summer league, should be good defensively. Obviously he’s a rookie, so we shouldn’t expect too much

PF

Amare: He’s been discussed ad nauseum and hopefully his eye will heal and he will be a top 5 PF in a contract year. And improve defensively

Lou Amundson: Good hustle player. Horrible FT shooter. Limited offensively. But a good back up at the 3/4.

C

RoLo: Like Dragic, a work in progress. Good athlete, needs to improve by not getting into foul trouble. Obviously shouldn’t be relied on to shoulder the offensive load, but should allow the rest of the team to be better perimeter and pick-and-roll defenders.

Channing Frye: Yeah, I have no idea how good he can be as a basketball player…

Sorry for the length of the post, but I do think that the braintrust has done as good a job as possible in constructing the team for this year but not mortgaging the future, which was the D’Antoni special. Let’s see how this team gels, and the season plays out. Obviously a full rebuild may end up being an inevitability, but let’s be honest, not signing Nash for that price would have been a horrible decision. At 11 million a year, he is extremely affordable for a top level PG and also easily tradeable if that time comes.

I like Arizona Cactus’s analysis of the team as currently constructed. As he indicates, I think we’re good to go at almost every position. As he points out, I don’t know about the 5-spot. We don’t know how Frye’s going to work out. All indications are he’s a hard worker with a great attitude. He was well liked by the fans is Portland. And he was a star in college back in Arizona. And finally, he did have a solid rookie season with the Knicks. Therefore, I believe we have to assume he’ll play well for us and it’ll work out fine. If that’s true, look out western conference…..

If we run Amare, JR and Nash at the same time, we either have to drop 115 a game, or end up losing. I think picking up Nash was sort of our only move. Without him, this team has no offensive identity, but at 22 mil, we just overpaid for a used car.

Think about it… with Nash at the point, we’re asking him to defend the likes of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Tony Parker. I’ve literally seen those guys lick their chops when Nash goes 1 on 1. It’s almost a gimme. Especially Paul. I saw him shrug off picks and literally say he could take Nash without help, and then do it.. ad nauseum.

This wouldn’t be a problem, except we may see one of those three guys in the playoffs.

Amare a top 5 PF, sure. I had hope for him, especially if he had learned to extend his range on his jumper. Between that and his athleticism, he had something. But that’s also what’s so depressing. He could be a great defensive player, if he wanted to. He just doesn’t seem to get it, or care. If he puts up 25 a night, thats nice, but when his opponents are putting in 20 plus as well, really we’re not getting much. And his rebounding is embarassing. On top of that, Amare has no post game. Him and DHoward should chip in and see if they can get Hakeem to help them out.

And JR. Again, offensively, we got something, but he’s not a defender at all. And he needs the ball a lot to work his offense, which I’m sure will be ok with Amare…

So what we need is a big center who can grab 12 boards a night, block 2, and maybe kick out 2-3 assists, plus be the help defender when Nash, Amare, and JR show us their turnstyle defense.

Right now, I think we’re a tweener team. If the team can build up their offensive chemistry fast, we’re gonna be one of those dangerous sixth seeds that can take a third seed, but I just don’t see a ring. And I can easily see us not making the playoffs again. I honestly believe our basement is larger than our ceiling. Kinda sad about it.

Oh well. At least if Nash can play his style of ball, the games should be fun, win or lose.