Can Suns Afford to Bench Nash?

Steve Nash Wheaties box, best used 23FEB07

I read an article East Valley Tribune reporter Scott Bordow wrote last week about how Nash doesn’t know if the Suns will be good enough to sit him for a dozen games next season. “If you can get to the postseason well rested, it’s perfect,” Nash tells Bordow. “But you can’t always afford to do that.” It’s been Steve Kerr’s plan for quite a while now to rest Nash for about a dozen games this season. To this end, he traded up in the draft to get Goran Dragic and recently swung a deal to acquire Sean Singletary, who was taken a few spots ahead of Dragic. And as self-centered as it may sound to suggest that the Suns can’t win without him, Nash has two MVP trophies that back up his claims. Not that I think he is self-centered in any way – he has a pretty extensive track record that suggests otherwise.

I don’t think that Nash is saying the Suns’ new rookie PGs aren’t good enough to hold his jock strap, but realistically the Suns aren’t going to have a large margin of error for making the playoffs. Sure, the Celtics won a championship last year with Rajon Rondo starting, but they had the Big 3 who could create their own shots if the second-year guard was struggling. O’Neal has trouble doing that now, and Stoudemire, Barbosa, Diaw, and Hill are pretty inconsistent. Plus, the Celtics were playing in the Eastern Conference, where the lowly Atlanta Hawks made the playoffs with a losing record. Of course, those same Hawks took the Celts to 7 games i the first round, even with self-proclaimed “World’s Best Player” Paul Pierce playing injury-free. But I digress.

So if the Suns will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs this year in a tough Western Conference, can they really afford to sit Nash for 12 games? Maybe. I suppose it depends on who they rest him against. Against the Bucks, T-Wolves, and Grizzlies, Nash shouldn’t have to play for the Suns to win. He’s not the same player he was a few years past, when the Suns struggled against the scum of the league without him. If the rest of the team can’t post a winning record against such teams without Nash’s help, the Suns’ championship hopes are awfully dim.

I suppose another school of thought asks why Nash needs to be removed from games entirely. Wouldn’t it be enough to just lower the minutes he plays per game? Surely Dragic and Singletary can fill in for a quarter and a half each game. I tend to subscribe to former coach Mike D’Antoni’s way of thinking. Does five minutes a game really matter to a world-class athlete? Will he really be that much more rested for the playoffs if he sits on the bench a few minutes less each game?

I think Kerr’s plan to sit Nash is a good idea, assuming of course the games are strategically chosen. I don’t think it would be wise to sit Nash the final 12 games of the season. And as much as this plan has to do with winning his season, it also has a great deal to do with the Suns’ future. Stoudemire needs to prove he can win without Nash, and either Dragic or Singletary need to show themselves capable of starting in the NBA. The Suns need to start preparing for life without Nash. Take a break, Steve Nash. The team afford to play a few without you this season. The question is, can they really afford not to?

The Strawberry Trade

The Suns traded fan favorite and backup guard D.J. Strawberry to the Rockets for itinerant rookie point guard Sean Singletary on Monday. Apparently, second-year GM Steve Kerr wasn’t impressed with Strawberry’s play last season or in the summer league. The combo guard was supposed to work on becoming a more pure PG this summer, and averaged 18 points, 3 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 5 summer league games. However, his 38% shooting from the field and 12.5% shooting from behind the arc left a lot to be desired. Singletary is an ultra-quick, six foot nothing point guard out of the University of Virginia who is supposed to be able to drive and dish, as well as shoot from distance. However, his summer league scoring stats are even worse than Strawberry’s, shooting at the same abysmal rate from 3, going along with 26.7% from the field and 5.8 ppg. The good news is that he recorded 4.6 rpg in 5 summer games and 4.4 apg., with an assist:turnover ratio that is greater than 1!!! (unlike Strawberry)

When I first saw Singletary’s stats and profile, I immediately thought of Marcus Banks. Not a good trade. Then I realized that the Suns aren’t paying him several million dollars to be a backup PG. And the Suns saved about half a million dollars. (Hopefully that wasn’t the driving force behind the trade, though I suppose it doesn’t matter much to me if it was) Nice. This move makes a lot of sense to me. Kerr has already expressed some concerns about Nash’s health, and has already planned to bench him for 12 games this year to get him some rest. And for all the hoopla surrounding Goran Dragic, he’s still a foreign rookie PG who still has to adjust to the NBA after being a backup for his Euro team. In the long run, neither player is expected to become a starter, though Singletary probably has the best chance of landing a starting gig since the biggest knock on him is his height. Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this trade is that it shows the commitment of Kerr and new Coach Terry Porter to run a PG-central, uptempo offense. Singletary is the lightning fast PG, Suns fans have wanted to push the ball when Nash was resting. Hopefully Singletary can team with Dragic to provide a solid replacement for Nash, now and when he retires. Enjoy some of Singletary’s highlights at Virginia posted by hoostw on Youtube.