Steve Nash's injuries

[LALakersboy24.7]

And his on the book's for next season i believe for 9 million, it will be hard to get rid of him & i doubt he will retire...Like it or not we our stuck with him....Damn it!!

 

[OutlawImmortal]

True Rule.

Hate to say it but we spent too much money for what we've gotten from Blake so far too.

 

[lakersrule]

And his on the book's for next season i believe for 9 million, it will be hard to get rid of him & i doubt he will retire...Like it or not we our stuck with him....Damn it!!

The Lakers can use the stretch provision on Nash next season which would put his salary on the books for two additional years, but those last three years would then only be $3 million each. That might be what they do depending on what they can sign in the summer.

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

True Rule.

Hate to say it but we spent too much money for what we've gotten from Blake so far too.

Thank God Blake will be gone next season...I'm real curious too see what FA we can get in 2014 & 2015 if possible.

 

[Hangman]

I wonder if they can buy out Nash. He is not worth being on the team and right now is the 3rd best PG.

 

[besaesa]

Thank God Blake will be gone next season...I'm real curious too see what FA we can get in 2014 & 2015 if possible.

What point guards are going to be free agents? Our biggest issue the past few seasons is the lack of an athletic point guard that can keep up with Rose or Westbrook. Now I realize Jordan Farmar is improved and im not tripping off of him. However we have Steve Nash which we do not know how many games he will play in this year, and Steve Blake who is beyond garbage. We need more pg help besides Farmar in my opinion.

 

[Retroram52]

We make be stuck with Nash as a player unless Don'tknowi offers him a coaching spot but we as sure as hell don't need to hang onto Blake. We can trade his ass. The problem is getting another team to take him and send us something of value. The same goes for Gasbag (Gasol).

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

We make be stuck with Nash as a player unless Don'tknowi offers him a coaching spot but we as sure as hell don't need to hang onto Blake. We can trade his ass. The problem is getting another team to take him and send us something of value. The same goes for Gasbag (Gasol).

We are in deep water my friend

 

[Retroram52]

The Lakers should hire Phil just to yell at Gasbag when he comes off the floor. Seems to me, Gasbag played quite well Phil was yelling at him. Don'tknowi just looks at him.

 

[wildturkey]

We're stuck with Nash at this point. It's really not that big of a deal cash wise. The only part that sucks is the draft picks lost in the trade. It was a risky move (far riskier than the Howard trade) sending so much for him given his age. Unfortunately for LA, he deteriorated pretty quickly. The only plus could be when Kobe comes back. Last year LA struggled with Nash running point too (again, because he's old) but if you remember, he and Kobe basically switched roles. That essentially turned Nash into a spot up shooter, which he proved to be pretty effective at last year, especially on elbow 3s. If Kobe comes back healthy and they replicate that, Nash will at least be a useful player for 15 to 20 minutes a game. But right now he's a minus player in every category.

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

Steve Nash: Day-to-day struggle

Pathetic!!

Steve Nash of Los Angeles Lakers still dealing with nerve damage - ESPN Los Angeles

 

[besaesa]

Pathetic!!

Steve Nash of Los Angeles Lakers still dealing with nerve damage - ESPN Los Angeles

Nerve damage? What the hell?

 

[Retroram52]

With his age and this type of injury, his career is all but done.

 

[besaesa]

The problem is Nash is pretty much untradeable

 

[GMATCa]

Nash obviously did not heal properly last season, meaning that he probably came back too soon. Now the effects are lingering into this season. Realistically, his body may need a year off to just rest and seek rehabilitation with physical therapy, rather than trying to heal while playing strenuous contact basketball. But at his salary and given the obligations that come with it, Nash cannot afford to just take a year off. The result is a player who resembles a cone defensively and who is not currently shooting his way out of his defensive liabilities.

And to be fair, most any thirty-nine-year old point guard is going to be a defensive liability. How many thirty-nine-year old cornerbacks do you see in the NFL? How many thirty-nine-year old shortstops do you see in baseball? The one thirty-nine-year old shortstop in MLB is Derek Jeter, who has been a mirror to Nash for the last year.

The bottom line (and I came to this conclusion by last March) was that Mitch Kupchak committed a mistake by trying to reduce Kobe Bryant's burden via a ball-dominating point guard, especially one in his late thirties. The result was that Kobe and Nash did not gel naturally and Bryant dominated the offense as much as ever, while often having to chase around Tony Parker, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook, a ridiculous requirement for a thirty-four-year old big guard in his seventeenth season. Instead, Kupchak should have sought to reduce Bryant's burden by acquiring a good young defensive guard who would allow Kobe to relax more on defense and accept weaker opponents on that end, while saving his energy for offense. Bryant is always going to dominate the ball offensively, at least while he remains an elite player. He needs the ball in his hands to generate his rhythm (at least that's how he feels comfortable), and he was never going to start playing like Raja Bell or Jason Richardson or Jared Dudley in Phoenix, a shooting guard spotting up, watching Nash, spacing the floor, and waiting for open looks. So again, to preserve his energy and enhance his efficiency as his age deepens, you ease his defensive job, much like a thirty-four-year old center fielder in baseball might move to right field. Kupchak instead became caught up in some offensive Dream Team fantasy, but the players did not mesh and Kobe needed to chase quick point guards way too often.

Of course, Kupchak could have exercised his amnesty clause with Nash, but instead he chose Artest. Maybe that choice constituted the correct one, I don't know, but I certainly think that the Lakers' GM misread matters in the summer of 2012.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

I just want to add that this is a product of him leaving the Suns terrific training staff. It's remarkable how healthy they kept him in his last couple seasons in PHX.

 

[lakersrule]

Of course, Kupchak could have exercised his amnesty clause with Nash, but
instead he chose Artest. Maybe that choice constituted the correct one, I don't
know, but I certainly think that the Lakers' GM misread matters in the summer of
2012.

They couldn't use the amnesty on Nash. He wasn't on the team prior to the new CBA. No doubt they overspent on him though!

 

[Retroram52]

The only thing we can hope for at this juncture this year is for Nash to get tired of being injured and retire and Dontknowi offer him a coaching position. Otherwise, we are stuck with a salary drain and basically a non-productive player.

 

[trojanfan12]

Nash obviously did not heal properly last season, meaning that he probably came back too soon. Now the effects are lingering into this season. Realistically, his body may need a year off to just rest and seek rehabilitation with physical therapy, rather than trying to heal while playing strenuous contact basketball. But at his salary and given the obligations that come with it, Nash cannot afford to just take a year off. The result is a player who resembles a cone defensively and who is not currently shooting his way out of his defensive liabilities.

And to be fair, most any thirty-nine-year old point guard is going to be a defensive liability. How many thirty-nine-year old cornerbacks do you see in the NFL? How many thirty-nine-year old shortstops do you see in baseball? The one thirty-nine-year old shortstop in MLB is Derek Jeter, who has been a mirror to Nash for the last year.

The bottom line (and I came to this conclusion by last March) was that Mitch Kupchak committed a mistake by trying to reduce Kobe Bryant's burden via a ball-dominating point guard, especially one in his late thirties. The result was that Kobe and Nash did not gel naturally and Bryant dominated the offense as much as ever, while often having to chase around Tony Parker, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook, a ridiculous requirement for a thirty-four-year old big guard in his seventeenth season. Instead, Kupchak should have sought to reduce Bryant's burden by acquiring a good young defensive guard who would allow Kobe to relax more on defense and accept weaker opponents on that end, while saving his energy for offense. Bryant is always going to dominate the ball offensively, at least while he remains an elite player. He needs the ball in his hands to generate his rhythm (at least that's how he feels comfortable), and he was never going to start playing like Raja Bell or Jason Richardson or Jared Dudley in Phoenix, a shooting guard spotting up, watching Nash, spacing the floor, and waiting for open looks. So again, to preserve his energy and enhance his efficiency as his age deepens, you ease his defensive job, much like a thirty-four-year old center fielder in baseball might move to right field. Kupchak instead became caught up in some offensive Dream Team fantasy, but the players did not mesh and Kobe needed to chase quick point guards way too often.

Of course, Kupchak could have exercised his amnesty clause with Nash, but instead he chose Artest. Maybe that choice constituted the correct one, I don't know, but I certainly think that the Lakers' GM misread matters in the summer of 2012.

I agree with much of this, but disagree that Mitch misread anything. The "injuries" that Nash was dealing with at the time of the trade were injuries Nash had been dealing with for years and had always managed to have few issues getting through and playing at a high level, including in 2011.

The issue is the "new injury" which was the broken leg which was kind of freak injury and apparently has resulted in some nerve damage. That's bad luck, not a misread by Mitch. Nash didn't get a chance to let it heal completely last season because the Lakers suffered many other injuries on top of his and Nash felt obligated to rush back as soon as possible.

Artest was the right choice to amnesty, imo because D'Antoni's offense just doesn't fit Artests style of play. At the least, with Nash, we have only guy who knows D'Antoni's offense as well as D'Antoni and he can and is teaching the Lakers guards like Farmar who has already been showing some moves that are "vintage Steve Nash"!!

 

[lasgop8]

Dwight Howard would fight in the UFC for $10 million - CBSSports.com