Phoenix Suns legend Steve Nash won back-to-back NBA Most Valuable Player awards for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons — both after he celebrated his 30th birthday.
In the years since, Nash’s MVP wins have become somewhat polarizing.
Shaquille O’Neal, a former Nash teammate and Hall of Famer, has said on various occasions that Nash did not deserve to win the awards.
“[I should have won] three, easily. Kobe should have won three, too. [I should have won] the two that Steve Nash got over me. It pisses me off. [Nash] knows,” O’Neal told SI.com back in 2017.
O’Neal didn’t mince words, and even said he’s been open with Nash on his opinion that he should have won the MVP awards that Nash took home.
Aside from the Big Cactus believing Nash is an undeserving MVP winner, the former Suns floor general has always had his detractors who point out his lack of acuity on the defensive end.
But setting aside Nash’s defensive shortcomings, the two-time MVP may actually somehow be underrated by the numbers on offense.
Steve Nash led some of the best half-court offenses 2000s basketball has ever seen
According to stats from Cleaning the Glass (relayed by bballuniversity on Instagram), of the eight NBA lineups since 2004 who’ve notched at least 750 possessions together ranked by relative offensive rating, Nash was the maestro of half of them.
Both of his MVP seasons make the cut, with his 2005-06 MVP follow-up year leading the way with a +19.8 relative offensive rating. That lineup consisted of Nash, Raja Bell, James Jones, Shawn Marion and Boris Diaw.
The first iteration of the “Run and Gun” Suns lineup featuring Nash, Quentin Richardson, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion and Amar’e Stoudemire in 2004-05 ranked fifth on that list.
Nash also boasts the third-ranked offensive lineup in that time: the 2006-07 squad with a Nash, Leandro Barbosa, Raja Bell, Shawn Marion, Amar’e Stoudemire small-ball set that in part helped pave the way toward the modern NBA we see today.
Nash (and former Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni) in many ways ushered in the new era of NBA basketball that puts emphasis on running the floor, shooting 3s and having as many offensive threats out on the court as possible at the expense of playing traditional bigs in traditional positions.
The 2007-08 lineup of Nash, Raja Bell, Grant Hill, Shawn Marion and Amar’e Stoudemire clocks in at No. 7 on the ranking, just ahead of Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers during that same season.
The other non-Nash lineups making the cut included the Sacramento Kings in 2003-04 with Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Peja Stojakovic, Vlade Divac and Brad Miller checking in at No. 2 with a relative offensive rating of +18.2.
Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors, no surprise, are also represented via the 2017-18 iteration featuring Steph, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Zaza Pachulia. That squad with the Warriors’ OG three plus KD won the NBA finals.
Finally, this year’s upstart Charlotte Hornets squad featuring LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, rookie sharpshooter Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate is No. 4 on the list of those elite offenses.
That Nash has four different offensive rotations in the mix along with Curry’s Warriors, Kobe’s Lakers, Bibby and Peja’s Kings, as well as LaMelo’s remarkable recent Hornets run, really speaks to just how elite Nash was as a floor general.
Regardless of the teammates around him, Nash was the maestro who’d allow them to thrive within his offenses.
So, while Shaq may not like it, it can be argued that Nash was actually somehow underrated while winning MVPs that fans and even his eventual teammate didn’t agree with.
When it comes to running a half-court offense in the NBA, few in the history of the sport have done so as efficiently as MV-Steve.
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