When the Lakers got Steve Nash, you’d have thought they signed Oscar Robertson. TV analysts went crazy, bloggers lost their minds and Celtics fans thought they were doomed. In reality, it’s a nice signing, but not what Los Angeles needs to win a championship.
It isn’t like they were on the cusp of a title last year and lost in a heartbreaker. They lost to the Thunder in a series where the Thunder played better, it was easy to see. The Lakers were simply overmatched.
Yes, their biggest hole was that they didn’t have a point guard that could distribute the ball and run the floor, Steve Nash can certainly do that. He averaged 12.5 points and 10.7 assists last year with the Suns, and has averaged 14.5 points and 8.6 assists per game over his career. Extremely solid numbers for a player that wont be called on to score as much now that talent surrounds him, but for the 38-year-old Canadian, does this finally mean a ring?
The Lakers are improved, but unless you think they’re going to flat out win a championship in the next two years, the move was a waste. They added a player at the end of his career to try to help Kobe Bryant, who’s also moving towards the end of his career. The problem is, the Thunder were so dominant that I can’t see the Lakers beating them even with Nash. They still lack the defensive integrity to stop such a youthful and quick lineup.
Nash was never a great defender. Russell Westbrook is just too explosive for Nash to guard him. The age of both Kobe and Nash means that they plan to win now. This team will look drastically different in three years, but unless they add another star, it was a futile effort to make a wavering team relevant again, and even though they might get more fans at the game or headlines in the papers, Steve Nash is just not a big enough difference to get them a championship.
