Nash is still the same :D

[#41]

Nash has now 400 assists for the season, he had the exact same number in his first 2 season with the Suns! 2.5 Ass/To -> 3,5 Ass/To.
Very impressive IMO.

[jibikao]

Not sure if you guys read this. It's a LONG article about Suns but I cut out the part about Nash. It's quite interesting. Suns WANTS Nash so bad.
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D'Antoni was known as a coach who excelled at developing young players. More importantly, his up-tempo, fast-break style of basketball that his teams played in Milan and Treviso seemed like a perfect fit for the athletic Suns. In both places, D'Antoni shunned using a traditional low-post banger in the middle in favor of a versatile, athletic low-post player who could run the floor and even lead the break on occasion. Jorge Garbajosa was the poster child for that style in Europe.

Stoudemire, with a little development, was the perfect fit for that type of offense in the NBA.

"There are really only a handful of forwards in the league that you could get away with this type of basketball," D'Antoni said. "Guys like Kevin Garnett or Dirk Nowitzki can get away with it. Someday the rookie in Orlando (Dwight Howard) will, too. Amare just needed a better jump shot and some work on his ball handling and he was there."

That's exactly what Amare got through his work with assistant coaches Marc Iavaroni, Alvin Gentry and Phil Weber. By the time training camp hit, Stoudemire had developed a steady 18-foot jump shot and the ability to not only run the break, but also lead it.

Factor in Marion's first real experience playing the three and Johnson's improving three-point range, and the seeds to the Suns' success were sown before the summer.

"I think the learning curve that our guys went through, from Joe Johnson to Amare Stoudemire to even guys like Leandro Barbosa, is the second part of the story," Colangelo said. "Nash was the key ingredient. But lost in that great story was the fact that almost all of our young players had improved dramatically over the course of the last year.

"As painful as it was to watch the record, we were pretty entertaining. It gave us a preview of what we might become down the road."

The Pitch

By the end of the season, Colangelo was convinced that the team was just a playmaker away from being right back in contention.

Every young player on the team, from Stoudemire to Johnson, had shown major improvement. By January, the team already was leaning toward making a major push for Nash.


Bryan Colangelo (left) and his father Jerry (right) got their man in July after much pleading.
By the end of the season, the Suns' brass was convinced he was the one guy in free agency capable of helping this team reach it's full potential.

Colangelo faced a number of serious temptations to scrap the plan.

After the season, Magic GM John Weisbrod approached Colangelo about swapping Marion and Johnson for Tracy McGrady. Colangelo also was tempted by soon-to-be free agent Kobe Bryant. The Lakers' star had a profound respect for D'Antoni and sounded like he wanted out of L.A.

The team seriously considered both options before deciding to stick with the plan to go after Nash.

"We were all on the same page organizationally," Colangelo said. "There was some attractiveness to Kobe. We felt like, for a number of reasons, that Nash was a better fit. Kobe fitting into our core was not going to do for our team what Steve Nash inserted into that core would accomplish."

The plan to go after Nash also had its risks. Unlike McGrady and Bryant – who were vocally expressing their displeasure with their team – Nash appeared to be happy in Dallas. His teammate Nowitzki was a close friend and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had a reputation for overpaying players.

"Call it naïveté. Confidence. The odds were against us," Colangelo said. "But we felt we had a shot. His mom lived in Phoenix. We were close with Bill Duffy (Nash's agent). Steve had a good experience here last time. He had a close relationship with Rex Chapman. All of it worked in our favor."

Colangelo crunched the numbers and came up with a figure of $66 million over six years – a number his gut told him would trump whatever Cuban was offering.

The problem was that Sarver, the new owner, thought it was too much. Sarver officially took over the team just one day before the Suns flew to Dallas to make their pitch to Nash. He was reluctant to drop $66 million on his first day to a 30-year-old point guard.

"In my mind, I was kind of thinking five years, $50 million," Sarver said. "That's it. When we got to Dallas, they really pushed to offer more. They argued persuasively that this is who we need."

Colangelo said Sarver needed "a lot" of coaxing before he agreed to up the offer.

“ I think that Amare's plea not only blew away Steve, it blew all of us away. You just don't see that type of humility very often in today's players. ”
— Suns GM Bryan Colangelo, recalling Suns' star Amare Stoudemire's pitch to then-free agent Steve Nash last summer

"You're always better off paying money for someone who is quality than paying less for someone that you're unsure about," said Sarver.

On July 1, everyone from Colangelo to D'Antoni passionately told Nash that they believed he had the ability to turn the Suns into title contenders.

Colangelo even had a hardbound leather-covered book made called "Turning Point" that detailed what Nash's contributions would be to the franchise.

Stoudemire was the last person to speak.

"You need to come because I need you," Stoudemire said. "I'll be the student. You'll be the teacher. With you in Phoenix, it's going to be over."

"Here's a young guy with supreme talent and athletic ability coming to Steve and telling him that 'I'm you're project'," Colangelo said. "I think that Amare's plea not only blew away Steve, it blew all of us away. You just don't see that type of humility very often in today's players."

Nash was stunned. Just hours before, Cuban offered Nash a five-year, $40 million deal. Cuban justified his lower offer using statistics that said that at the age of 30, that was as much as Nash would be worth. The fact that Nash's name had also come up in trade rumors with the Lakers for Shaquille O'Neal didn't help matters.

The Suns' contract offer and presentation far surpassed what the Mavs had done and had taken Cuban totally by surprise. Nash knew almost immediately what he had to do.

"Before they showed up, I was almost 100 percent sure I'd be back in Dallas," Nash said. "But when Mark's offer came in so low and the Suns put in so much effort to it really showed the difference between their offer and Dallas' offer. I really felt wanted. I really felt like they needed and valued me. I didn't feel that at all with Dallas."

"I knew at the time it was the best situation. I was getting paid a lot of money that I felt like I deserved. Leaving Dirk and Michael Finley was tough. But I could've re-signed with them for less money and I could've been traded."

The Suns "were making a commitment to me in the long haul. I agonized over [making the decision] a little bit," Nash said. "But I knew in my heart that this organization, the players, the coaches, that it was going to be the best decision for me."

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I can see why Nash made the decision to leave. Almost everybody thought Nash would stay in Dallas but another team wants him MORE, a lot more. They see values in Nash. Nash has helped Suns to break their franchise record. Whether he succeeds in playoff or not, it still doesn't mean Nash is not worth it. Nash helped Mavs to become an Elite team. He helped Dirk to become the player he is right now.

I am not so sure why so many Mavs hate Nash.

Jimmy