So sad for Steve Nash man... He is a good guy and a hall of famer. He went to the Lakers expecting to play for a great team, a championship contender, instead he got a d-league Laker team... Will Steve Nash retire or will he play another season? <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mike D'Antoni officially closes the door on Steve Nash returning this season for the Lakers. "He's not going to play."</p>— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan/statuses/444148099783471104">March 13, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ummm... this year????.... are you kidding??? Steve Nash has this year and next year GUARANTEED (9 mil) with the Lakers. He's not going anywhere, and no team will be dumb enough to trade for him this Summer before free agency when it matters to the Lakers. Nash WILL NOT retire until the end of NEXT SEASON because.... why the hell would he just give up 9 million dollars just so the Lakers can have more cap space. The NBA is not a charity league, and Nash would be an idiot to walk away from money that he is due.
The Lakers would most likely let him retire with his salary and ask the league to remove his cap hit due to career ending illness. Nash gets his money, Lakers get cap space. It would depend on medical examination but considering the situation I doubt the league would say no.
Actually, never mind this. I didn't realize he's at 10 games already. So this option is off the table.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/f60uvx2v_Ys?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Part 3 in the Grantland Series on his comeback... lakers fans smh
Seriously. That video made me a little angry. Lakers fans are so entitled. Hope he comes back next year and the Lakers keep sucking. **** Laker Nation.
If there is one guy that deserves a ring in today's game, it has to be Nash. He and the '05 Suns were such a fun group to watch and paved the way for a lot of the fast scoring teams in today's game. It's a shame that the Suns never even got to the Finals thanks to the Refs and Hack a Shaq..
I may be wrong but, apparently by Nash playing in 10 games this season, the Lakers lost out on clearing Nash's entire contract (this yr and the next), through medical retirement, off their cap. Nash would have still gotten paid... By him playing that one game, they missed out on a possible $35mill in cap space next year
As the video said "The Utah game was the tenth Steve played this season, which disqualified him from "medical retirement." Medical retirement would have allowed the Lakers to take Steve's entire salary off their salary cap." If he didn't play 10 games due to injury, does that mean that the Lakers can forfeit his contract? So does that mean Steve Nash wasn't a Laker anymore if that "medical retirement" has gone through?
The medical retirement has to be evaluated by a doctor approved by both the league and the players union, so its not guaranteed that option would have worked.
I'm not sure I understand your question correctly, but if Nash played lets say 9 games instead of 10, the Lakers could've asked the league to remove his 2014-15 cap hit. Not forfeit his contract, just make that last year not count towards cap. They'd waive him, he'd sit at home, get his salary, and the Lakers could use that cap space to chase Chris Bosh or something. Well, that's pending medical review, but I imagine that would've been a formality.
