Best player on a championship level team is a tier that’s really broad. From MJ level to Patrick Ewing to Clyde Drexler. Nash was an offensive magician. If prime Nash is on your team and you do a reasonable job as GM, you have a legitimate contender. This is a no brainer.
you could be the best player on a championship contender and never win a ring. sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles. by definition an MVP should be good enough to be the best player on a championship team. that award usually goes to the players with the best combination of numbers and wins that season. Nash was a pass-first Steph Curry. he was the best shooter in the league, with arguably the best handles at the time, and by far the best passer in the league. he was the #1 offense in the league alone. kind of like James Harden in that sense. give him the ball, don't call any plays, and you get the best offense in the league. like James, he needed the right pieces around him, and the suns were perfectly suited for his game. they were small/fast, they spread the floor (4-out when no one else was doing that, sometimes 5-out) to allow him to operate. amare and marion started their career as a PF and a SF and then played C and PF with Nash. they were too fast and too skilled for more traditionally sized and skills big men. all they needed was a little more emphasis on defense, and maybe a little extra size for certain matchups (spurs, lakers) and they could've won. like the rockets they were all in on their own identity and didn't care about being versatile enough to matchup with other teams. I think championship teams usually are able to win many different ways. the warriors can go small and 5-out and beat you in a run and gun, but they were also a great defensive team, great at protecting the rim and could win a grit and grind game. anyway that's a tangential. back to Nash, he had what it takes to lead a team to the championship, led a contender for many years, they just never got over the top. happens to lots of HOFers. doesn't make him any worse.
people forgot or recklessly ignore the suns were blatantly robbed in 07 vs the spurs. knowledgable fans know the deal and are not brainwashed by the corrupted sports media.
No shi%! If they hadn't suspended Amare and Diaw in a tight series no one would even be asking such a dumb question bc he would have a ring lol That's like asking if James Harden is good enough to be the best player on a champion ship team smh
What the hell, this is just bad information. Amare was a straight up bad defender. Suns in general didn't play any semblance of defense, their whole game plan was outscoring you by playing at a pace that no team at the time played. They will sometimes give up baskets just so they can keep running because you simply cannot score enough points in the same number of possessions. That team was all offense, and the offense was all Nash led. Plus Amare was out for the whole season in Nash's second MVP season and they still managed to win 54 games, so I don't know how you can say they would only win 40 games.
Harden was already 29/6/7 and trending up at only 26 years old before D'Antoni, a legit superstar. Nash was an all-star pure pg. That system did a lot more for Nash's career and turned him into a 2xMVP and HOF bound. That 2nd MVP will always be questioned. But, I wonder if he'd even have 1 or be HOF bound if he stayed in Dallas or went somewhere else. Probably not. I wonder what that system could turn other guys into such as Mark Price or a Kevin Johnson who at their prime were better players than Nash imo, but both remain extremely underrated or completely forgotten. D'Antoni's current system? I don't really see too many others benefitting from it other than Allen Iverson. MJ and Wade have to work on the 3 ball. KD wont work in the Harden role IMO. Jerry West got to the line a lot and could shoot and pass and played D, so maybe a modern version of him? ****in Pistol Pete?? I don't know. Not many. Lot's of pg's could have fit the D'Antoni 7 seconds or less O imo.
Pretty much every team he played point guard in his prime was a top 5 or top 2 offense. I think horry hip checking him probably cost him a ring. I think if he wins a ring both him and mda's legacy would be so different. MDA would get credit for creating the modern NBA offense.
MDA's system is to put the ball in the hands of a capable PG who can create for his teammates as well as score. His system in Phoenix is Nash. His system in Houston is Harden. To say that Nash benefited from MDA's system is like saying Harden benefits from MDA's system. Do they? Of course. But the "system" works because of those guys, more than the other way around.
Nash, like many all-stars (borderline superstar in his case) was absolutely capable of leading a championship caliber team under the right circumstances. He arguably had a championship team in Phoenix if they hadn't gotten screwed by refs against the Spurs, or just had a little bit better luck with playoff matchups or injuries. ... But he was still not on the same level of James Harden.
the 50/50 split on best and 2nd best player seems to have ended up at just about the perfect answer. nash is in that 1.5th best player group along with some other greats.
That's my point. Great offensive players make the offense great. To say that Nash was great only because of MDA's system is like saying Harden is great only because of MDA's system. That said, I am not implying that Nash and Harden did not benefit from MDA's coaching. D'Antoni's system is PG-heavy. It's not a coincidence that one of the first things he did after he became the Rockets coach is name Harden as the PG even though Harden had been doing what he did long before MDA came. He is good at maximizing the effectiveness of these great offensive play makers.
Lin looked pretty good in his offense. The guy was great offensive coach. Look at the modern NBA offense: Pace and space. Every team runs it.
I enjoyed watching him in Dallas too with Nowitzki, the supporting cast wasn't as good as in 2011. We have had tons of Harden throwback threads since the corona breakout. His debut was filled with the midrange. Totally different player, much lighter, a pure SG who occasionally passed and dunked more back then.
In Dallas the issue was their defense wasn't good enough to win the title. They were so good on offense they would outscore most teams but they could never beat the top teams because their defense was weaker than those squads.
That the Suns lost in a close series against the Spurs that one year doesn't mean that Suns team was somehow incapable of winning a championship. He was the best player on a championship-quality team. Just like Harden was.
