Steve Nash became just the fifth player to record 10,000 assists last night, even as his disappointing Lakers team got manhandled by Houston’s backcourt of James Harden and Jeremy Lin. But Nash has always been all about the team and making other guys better, and that’s at the heart of dishing a dime. So, we decided to keep in the vein of helping teammates by coming up with five guys he made better throughout his illustrious career with first Phoenix, then Dallas, then back to Phoenix (we’ll bet Cuban regrets not re-signing him, even if he won a title in 2011), and now the Hollywood Lakers.
Regardless of the loss last night to the Rockets, it’s impressive what Nash has been able to do, especially when you consider he didn’t reach his first 1,000 assists until his fifth year in the league at the ripe age of 27. Nash might have been a late bloomer, but once he made the jump, there was no looking back, and two MVPs and 10,000 assists later, he’s still a passing wizard, getting teammates involved and doing whatever he can to help his team win.
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5. DIRK NOWITZKI
Possibly the greatest foreign born player in the history of the game, Dirk got his start alongside Nash in Dallas. Together with Mark Cuban’s gameplan geared towards outscoring everyone (and playing very little defense in the process), they pulled the Dallas Mavericks out of the permanent basement they’d been stuck in since Mark Aguirre and Derek Harper were cheered on by the Reunion Rowdies. Besides sporting similar bleached blonde tips when Dallas traded for Nash and drafted Nowitzki in 1998, both learned together, practiced together, and improved together. They became BFFs pretty quickly, and when Cuban decided to let a 30-year-old Nash walk after the 2004 Playoffs concluded, they probably wept together. But then Nash signed with the Suns, and new head coach Mike D’Antoni, and the rest is history.
4. JARED DUDLEY
The Suns’ sharpshooter and unrepentant social media fan, who’s now being mentioned extensively in the Rudy Gay trade talks, hasn’t just grabbed passes from Nash during his career. When Dudley was traded from Charlotte during his second year in the league in 2008-09, the Suns inherited a pudgy, underachieving forward unable to stay with quicker opponents and unable to keep his wind during the Suns’ sprints down the court in the heyday of SSOL. But Nash tutored the young forward on the ways of a good diet and exercise. The re-calibrated eating habits of Dudley led him to shed a few pounds, and his new, lithe physique has allowed him to become a solid starter at the three with the Suns. His scoring average increased in each of the years he played with Nash in Phoenix, and you can be sure he’s still watching what he eats for fear of the specter of Nash maligning his poor diet.
3. MICHAEL FINLEY & SHAWN MARION (tie)
Together with Nash and Nowitzki, Michael Finley and company were the offensive triumvirate who spearheaded Mark Cuban’s attack-mode style in Dallas. Finley desperately needed the help after a 1997-98 season that saw the team fail to win more than 20 games. The second-leading scorer on that team over the long haul (Cedric Ceballos and Dennis Scott got injured) was Hubert Davis (at just over 11 points per contest). So you can imagine how happy Finley was when the two blondies showed up before the 1998-99 season. It took a year – the Mavericks were a little better the next season during the strike-shortened 1999 campaign, going 19-31. But the turn of the millennium saw them get to 40-42 and into the rearview mirror of Western Conference playoff contention. The 2000-2001 squad, with Nash and Nowitzki coming into their own, saw the Mavericks go 53-29 and win their first playoff series since an undersized Mark Aguirre was terrorizing opposing small forwards in the aforementioned 1987-88 season. Finley was finally on a winner, and he had Nash (and Nowitzki) to thank for that good fortune.
Shawn “Matrix” Marion was the do-everything small forward for the SSOL Suns. His awkward-looking jumper didn’t mean a thing when he was getting wide open looks in Phoenix’s, borderline dictatorial offense (Nash would be Stalin in that analogy). The best stretch of Marion’s 13-year (and counting) carer came when he was teamed with Nash on those incredibly fun Suns teams. He averaged a double-double in consecutive seasons as he became the guy who could get you 10 rebounds and 18 points a game while serving as the only guy on that Suns team who could be considered a defensive stopper.
When Marion was dealt to Miami during the 2007-08 season, all his numbers dropped. It’s no coincidence that Nash had covered most of the glaring weaknesses in Marion’s game (an inability to get his own shot, and one of the most inconsistent three-point shots – not to mention the ugliest – in history). Steve Nash allowed Shawn Marion to do what he does best, and when he was taken away, Marion faltered. The same could be said for the next two guys on our list.
2. MIKE D’ANTONI
The mastermind behind the offense that rocked the NBA during the mid and late 2000s, there’s no way D’Antoni’s up-n-down offense, where there was no such thing as a bad shot, would have ever worked without the floppy-haired Nash to spearhead the attack. The Suns might not have ever gotten over the hump of the Spurs and their more traditional success based on defense and the interior play of Tim Duncan, but they were damn close. We can all remember those Western Conference slugfests when the Suns and Spurs did battle. Nash won two straight MVP awards (our condolences to Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O’Neal) playing in D’Antoni’s system, and he was heralded as an offensive savant. They even managed to recover from the loss of Amar’e Stoudemire for all but three games during the 2005-06 season, and still finish first in the Pacific Division and make it to the conference finals. A couple breaks their way, and we’re talking about a possible Suns title and D’Antoni’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Most, if not all, of that was due to Steve Nash.
After D’Antoni fled for New York following the 2007-08 season, he was stuck in point guard hell and only made the playoffs during the bastardized ‘Melo season. Meanwhile, the Suns recovered under new coach Alvin Gentry to make the Western Conference Finals in 2009-2010. D’Antoni only made the playoffs during one 15-game stretch with Carmelo before getting canned late last season, and there’s a solid chance he never would have been hired by the Lakers this season if Nash hadn’t fractured his leg in the second game of the season, effectively ending Mike Brown‘s tenure with the L.A. Hall of Famers before it began. Now Nash will have to save his coach one more time and get this antiquated Lakers team into the playoffs, possibly without Dwight Howard or Pau Gasol (both are out indefinitely). Yeah, you could say Nash gave possibly his biggest assist to Mike D’Antoni. Except for this next guy on our list.
1. AMAR’E STOUDEMIRE
Possibly no player benefited more from the arrival of Nash in Phoenix than Amar’e Stoudemire. Stoudemire played with one other point guard of note before Nash showed up in the summer of 2004. There was his rookie season with Stephon Marbury that saw him average over 13 points and eight rebounds a game as he claimed Rookie of the Year honors and gave us at least 10 SportsCenter anchor freakouts after one of his dunks. The next season saw him jump to 20 and nine in his averages and it became clear the Suns had lucked out by drafting him ninth overall out of Cypress Creek High School in 2002.
But things didn’t really pick up until Marbury was traded to New York during Stoudemire’s second year. The Suns failed to make the playoffs that year, but after Nash’s arrival and with D’Antoni firmly ensconced on the bench, the 2004-05 Phoenix Suns won 62 games to take the No. 1 seed into the West playoffs. Stoudemire’s points per game average jumped dramatically to 26.0 as he made his first All-Star team that year, too. The penetration and sixth sense of Nash to know exactly when and where to get Stoudemire the ball helped form the most dynamic duo in the league, and for the next three seasons (not counting the one where he was injured), even with the loss of Joe Johnson to Atlanta, the Suns dominated the Western Conference. Just look at the video below of Steve Nash’s 10 greatest assists; who is at the receiving end of the majority of them?
Yes, Amar’e looked like an MVP candidate during his first half year playing for D’Antoni in New York during the 2010-11 campaign, but he quickly broke down after logging all those minutes to save D’Antoni’s job, and by the season’s second half, in came Carmelo. So we’ve never really gotten a good chance at looking at Amar’e without his favorite floppy-headed point. That being said, he’s struggled mightily since the arrival of Carmelo in New York (we’ll see how they fit together moving forward this year), and it again lends credence to the idea that Steve Nash helped create the All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire we all know and love.
Now Steve Nash isn’t the sort of guy that would ever align with any of the beliefs we’ve stated in this piece – he’s way to humble for that – but we still think he’s dished dimes to hundreds of guys over his career, but no six relied on him as thoroughly as these guys. So, congratulations Steve Nash on your 10,000th assist. It’ll just be another milestone to put on your Hall of Fame bust (we hope it features you with the longer hair), and we hope all of these guys pay you the respect you deserve. They needed you way more than they’ll ever admit.
Who benefitted the most from playing with Nash?
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