12 days of X-Mas – Obscure stats in Suns history Day 6
By Adam Maynes
If this season the Arizona State University Men’s basketball team is Guard U, then for 50 years the Phoenix Suns have been a graduate class on point guards, the position that above all others the franchise can tout as the one they have featured the best of the best consistently throughout the league.
The Suns have been blessed as a franchise to have very good to great point guards on their roster for the majority of their 50 years in existence. Eight times has a Phoenix point guard led the league in a assists in a season, although it is the highest individual season averages in franchise history that will place us with our 6th day of Christmas obscure or lost stats in Suns history.
In 2007-08 Steve Nash averaged 11.1 assists per game, the 6th highest single season average in franchise history. This season and Nash’s particular stat line is interesting in particular because it would be the final year of the Mike D’Antoni era; it would mark the season that the Suns traded Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’Neal; and it would, arguably, be the beginning of the end of the Steve Nash era – although they would obviously make the playoffs and march all the way to the Western Conference Finals two years later.
Phoenix Suns
What makes this particular season for Steve Nash so special?
Nothing much, really. It was just another ho-hum year for the Nash Rambler in which he fell a hair behind Chris Paul as the league’s assists leader – the first season since his return to Phoenix that he would not lead the league – and his 11.1apg would ultimately prove to be only the 4th best season assists average per game in his career.
And therein lies the stat that makes this obscure list.
Steve Nash holds the franchise’s 6th highest assists per game average with 11.1 per game. He also holds the 10th highest with 10.7 per game in 2011-12, the 7th with 11.0 in 2009-10, the 5th with 11.4 in 2010-11, the 3rd with 11.5 in 2004-05, and the 2nd with 11.6 in 2006-07.
Only two other players in franchise history are currently on the franchise’s 10-ten list of assists per game in a season, and I’ll give you two guesses for who they are:
Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd.
KJ holds the franchise’s highest assists per game average with 12.2 set back in 1988-89, the only season that a Sun averaged at least 12 assists per game in a season (playing in 81 games, KJ dished out at least 10 assists in all but 17 games played). KJ also holds the 4th and 9th highest assists per game seasonal average with 11.4 the following season, and 10.7 in 1991-92.
Jason Kidd’s lone season to make the top-10 list came in 1998-99 when he averaged 10.8 per game in the lockout shortened 50 game season. His highest in an 82 game slate is 10.1 the following year, .6 per game behind Nash’s 10th place season.
In 2007-08, that year that currently places Nash in the 6th slot in franchise history, Nash recorded at least 10 assists 53 times that year, with an additional 2 in the first round playoff series loss to the San Antonio Spurs. He would dish out 20 on January 17, at the Los Angeles Lakers, in only 36:29 – the Suns only played seven players that night. In one stretch from November 10 through January 7, Nash dished out at least 10 dimes in 26 of 28 games, averaging an even 13.0 over that stretch.
Next: 12 Days of X-Mas: Obscure and Lost Stats in Suns History Day 5
Who knows who the next great point guard will be for the Phoenix Suns, but if history is any guide, one is coming down the pike.