[Old General Record] Subvert the Era! Commander of the Sun!

Although he failed to win the championship and even entered the finals, it is undeniable that the Suns wrote a glorious history of their own in the first decade of the 21st century.

Reviewed in the 2004-05 season, the Suns tied the team's best record in a single season with 62 wins and 20 losses, and won the league's top seed. In the 2006-07 season, the Suns won 177 wins in three years, tying the team record for three consecutive seasons in 1992-1995. The Suns during this period were close to the legendary team in the 1990s.

Coincidentally, the Suns in these two eras have many similarities:

The inside players are not as tall as the outside world, and the center is generally believed to be not strong enough; the point guard position is the core of averaging double-digit assists per game; the team is known for offense, but because of their poor defense, they are labeled as heavy offense and light on defense; there is a superstar who wins the MVP as soon as they appear in the team.

If you only talk about the team's achievements, the Suns in the 1990s entered the second finals in team history; while the Suns in the 21st century have won the MVP for two consecutive years. For young fans, this period of time is not only glorious, but also represents a new revolution that changed the entire NBA thinking, and the core commander of this revolution is Steve Nash.

Steve Nash was born in South Africa as a child and moved to Canada with his family at the age of one and a half. Since his father was a football player, Nash mainly came into contact with football and ice hockey when he was a child, and he really started to get involved in basketball after he was 12 years old. After middle school, Nash told his mother that he wanted to play basketball seriously and set the NBA All-Star goal early.

Although Nash was unwilling to be in North America at the time, he always believed that the opportunity would come one day.

Nash took the initiative to send his videos to several university coaches, and was eventually spotted by Dick David of Santa Clara University and officially entered the NCAA arena. Although Santa Clara is not a prestigious basketball school, Nash led the team to defeat powerful teams such as Arizona and Maryland many times in four years. He averaged 20.9 points and 6.4 assists in his junior season, and 17 points and 6 assists in his senior season, which made him a basketball name early, allowing him to join the Suns with the 15th pick in the first round of the 1996 draft.

When he first entered the NBA, Nash faced strong enemies. There was Kevin Johnson before and Sam Kassel later; the team then introduced Jason Kidd, and Nash had almost no chance to play. Despite this, he still showed potential in a limited time. In the second year of his career, Nash's appearance time doubled and his personal data was soaring. At that time, the Suns could not free up their main control position, so on the day of the 1998 draft, Nash was traded to the Mavericks for three rookies and one first-round draft pick.

At the Mavericks, Nash finally had an opportunity. He took the initiative to adjust his shooting posture to lead the team to take off. He was selected as the All-Star in 2002 and 2003 and finally realized his NBA dream.

After becoming a free agent in 2004, the long-haired point guard chose to return to his old club, the Suns, and then signed a six-year long-term contract. This is where a beautiful Phoenix Returns to the Nest begins.

But in this story, the problem still exists: no one is available at the center of the Sun.

But even so, the team soared all the way early in the season to tie the team's history of 62 wins and 20 losses to the league. All these achievements are inseparable from Nash's core position in the D'Antoni system.

has a broad vision, exquisite pick-and-roll, and first-class fast attack decisions. Even though the body disadvantages are obvious, the team's shortcomings are successfully made up for with the system bonus. In the first season, he delivered a career-high 11.5 assists, with an average of 15.5 points per game, although he is not the highest in the team, but he is the soul of the team. After defeating the transfer in the voting, O'Neal won the 2004-05 MVP.

In the following seasons, the Suns were striving for rapid progress under the leadership of Nash and D'Antoni. Even if they lost Si, the Suns remained in the Western Conference power in the 2005-06 season; in the 2006-07 season, they achieved a leading record far ahead of other teams, and Nash once again won the MVP and became the ninth player in history to have a MVP.

But the playoffs loss gradually caused changes in management. In the summer of 2007, the Suns made consecutive operational mistakes in drafts and trading. They first sold Nash's partner Marion and then introduced veteran O'Neal. They were eventually eliminated in the first round of the 2008 playoffs, ending a season with a start and a missed start. After D'Antoni left in the 2008-09 season, the Suns fell directly out of the playoffs. Until the 2009-10 season, the Suns almost exchanged for O'Neal at the cost of air, and Nash led the team back to the forefront of the Western Conference, and eventually lost to the champion of the season in the Western Conference Finals.

Nash's final glory in the Suns was in the 2010-11 season, and he won the fifth assist in his career. Although he still maintained a double assist in the following season, due to the departure of Xiao Si, the team still finds it difficult to return to the playoffs. Nash, 37, originally wanted to live the Suns, but the team had no intention of keeping him and traded him to the Lakers on the premise of respecting his wishes, ending this glorious period of nearly ten years.

Although he failed to win the final championship, the Suns' revolutionary style of playing changed the NBA. Nash and D'Antoni teamed up to prove that defense is not the only way to win, and crazy offense can also create power in the league. Under this special system, large centers in the interior are no longer necessary, and offensive space, external firepower, and counterattack speed have gradually become opportunities for small lines to fight against tall teams.

Many years later, this system, which was considered to deviate from the mainstream at the time, was finally verified. The Warriors rose in the mid-2010s, with a dynasty record of three championships in four years and a historical record of 73 wins in a single season. Warriors head coach Steve Cole later admitted:

"I admit that I regretted the deal when I was in the Suns. Now the Warriors have too many similarities with the Suns back then.. ”

Borrowing Nash's own words:

"The people at that time had many misunderstandings about D'Antoni. He was not not not defending, nor did he just need to attack fast. When people are biased against the system, they naturally cannot see the impact it brings to the entire era. ”

Under Nash's leadership, the Suns have become the most offensive team in the league for six consecutive years. They have won the assist king five times, reached the 180 club four times, and ranked first in history. If his free throw shooting percentage in the 2006-07 season can be higher, they can even reach the terrifying record of the 180 club five times. What's even more terrifying is that all these achievements were accomplished during the downhill stage of his career.

Come to the current era, more and more teams have entered the modern formation of "one big and four small", and the proportion of outside shooting has increased year by year, which makes people recall the Suns more than ten years ago; the ace point guard who commands the entire team and shuttles through the penalty area.

After leaving the Suns to fight against the Lakers, Nash was injured and played only 60 games in two seasons. On March 21, 2015, Nash, 41, officially announced his retirement.

From the perspective of achievements, Nash was undoubtedly the player with the highest personal achievements in the new era of the Suns. In addition to his personal achievements, his value is more of an impact on the NBA's era.

From the Mavericks to the Suns, he has led the team to the strongest offensive team in the league for many years, completely subverting the new offensive thinking, and allowing later teams to follow suit. This is the real value left to the NBA in the ten years of Nash and the Suns.