Remember your high school days? How about college, remember how much fun they were?
Well, I am sure some of us had more fun than others, but still, think about the moment you realized all of it was ending.
Flash back, for a second, to the overwhelming wave of unease and nostalgia that buried you. For a sizeable amount of time, you operated with the thought process of “I am ready to get out of here. It is time for a new chapter in my life.”
Yet, when that moment came — the moment to turn your back on what was — we all experienced some degree of difficulty on turning the page.
Steve Nash is having trouble turning the page.
He is trying to ignore the recent, grueling struggles of his injury-plagued time with the Los Angeles Lakers and focus on the possibility of playing past this season – despite the fact he has played 65 games in two years.
Nash is the adored high school quarterback, who never won a state championship, and now he is trying to claw at the robe of Father Time and bargain for a chance to keep his run going.
Steve Nash is hopeful to continue his career despite injuries slowing him down. Photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Okay, so maybe I am getting a little sappy, and a little Varsity Blues-ish, but you obviously catch my drift. Nash is third on the all-time assists list with 10,335 dimes, but he is trailing Jason Kidd by about 2,000 assists for second place. Plus, John Stockton is another 3,000 assists ahead of Kidd and far from relinquishing his throne – in the shadows, far from the limelight.
But there is a reason the Lakers acquired Jeremy Lin from the Houston Rockets – depth. It was for the same reason they drafted Jordan Clarkson from Missouri and signed veteran Ronnie Price.
When you have a 40-year old point guard, four months from being 41, you need place holders for when he is out.
And it is a good thing they have some bodies too. Nash recently rolled his ankle after stepping on Julius Randle’s foot in conditioning drills.
The optimist emphasizes the recovery of Nash’s back and hamstrings. The pessimist says it is the beginning of the end. The realist, in other words me, would like to point out the validity of controlled minute distribution supplementing time to an aged player’s career.
Of course injuries hobbled the two-time Most Valuable Player last year, but newly hired coach Byron Scott uses Nash’s minutes efficiently, it is more than reasonable to expect at least 65 games from Nash.
Kidd played 33 minutes or less in his final three years with the Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks. In Stockton’s final six years, he only had one year in which he averaged more than 30 minutes a game (averaged 31.3 mpg in 2001-02), and he played 82 games in each of his final four years.
The kicker, however, is that Stockton retired at 40 – Kidd at 39. Nash, well, he is closer to being Uncle Drew than Kyrie Irving is.
Maybe a more interesting point to highlight is Nash saying any potential scenario in which he plays beyond this season would have to be with the Lakers.
Nash’s bank account will see a bump of $9.7 million by the end of this season, but it is also the last year of the three-year deal he signed with the Lakers.
If he does want to return next year, it will have to be at a much reduced rate – I am talking 99-cent store type of contract.
The 2015 offseason is supposed to be when the Lakers re-tool and make a run with Kobe Bryant’s own career dwindling down. Even though Kevin Love likely will not be available any longer, because we are all expecting him to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, guys like Greg Monroe and Rajon Rondo will be looking for an X to sign on.
Tack on a former Laker, Marc Gasol, to that list as well – even though he never played a game in L.A.
Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak would probably be glad to retain Nash for the right price. At the very least, he can be a mentor to younger guards.
For all that to happen, the Lakers have to operate project “Stash Nash” and save his minutes for when they need him the most. It will prove beneficial for everyone.
And it gives the fans an extra year of no-look passes.
