9. Revolutionizing NBA Offenses
This isn’t one moment, per se. But we couldn’t talk about Steve Nash’s exemplary career without somehow mentioning how he revolutionized NBA offenses during his time in Phoenix.
From 2001-02 to 2009-10, Nash was the floor general for the NBA’s leading team in offensive efficiency. Three of those seasons came with the Mavs, but for six straight seasons in Phoenix, Nash was the conductor of a Suns offense that changed NBA basketball forever.
The “Seven Seconds Or Less” Suns are sometimes viewed as a gimmick that rightfully never won a championship due to their defensive deficiencies. It’s easy to misconstrue or distort the truth years later, especially after watching Mike D’Antoni fail in New York and Los Angeles, but those Suns were undoubtedly one of the greatest NBA dynasties to never actually ascend to the throne.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, since Nash joined the Suns in 2004-05, the NBA’s top five offensive efficiencies belong to a Phoenix team. The only season that doesn’t qualify for the top six, 2005-06, was one in which Amar’e Stoudemrie only played three games due to injury.
Said it before: Nash and D'Antoni changed the NBA together, and forever. Just ask Pop, and any other thinking coach. Revolutionaries.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) March 21, 2015
In 2009-10, flanked by players past their prime like Jason Richardson and Grant Hill, the Suns posted the best offensive rating of the last 30 years by scoring an absurd 112.7 points per 100 possessions.
People are quick to criticize those Suns teams as poor defensive teams. While it’s true they often finished in the bottom five in opponent points per game, that’s an unfair metric to use since the Suns played at such a rapid pace, pushing the tempo and boosting the number of possessions each team had.
By looking at defensive rating, Nash’s Suns were often average to poor, but they weren’t the complete matadors everyone made them out to be. And even if they were, isn’t it damned impressive those Suns teams had such potent offenses at their peak that they made the Western Conference Finals three times in six seasons despite being defensively flawed?
Without Nash’s Suns, the offensive brilliance we’ve seen over the last few years from teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors would not have been possible.
Next: No. 8