When Steve Nash played in his 10th game of the season this week -- which took the medical retirement off the table, his $9.5 million will be paid by the Lakers one way or another now -- there were a number of Lakers fans upset with that. They thought Nash was selfish for not putting the good of the franchise ahead of himself, while those same fans were selfishly putting what they think is best for he franchise ahead of Nash (he’s a player who wants to play, to blame him is selfish).
That said, the Nash gamble has not worked -- he was brought in a year ago to quarterback a Kobe Bryant/Dwight Howard contender, and we all know how that ended. He has battled injuries, playing in just 60 of the 135 games the Lakers have had since Nash signed, and in the ones he has played he has often looked his 40 years.
But Laker GM Mitch Kupchak told Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com he has no regrets bringing Nash to Los Angeles.“No regrets,” Kupchak said before the Lakers played the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday. “You have to recognize where you are as a franchise and we felt we had a two-year window, maybe three, to go for a championship and that’s what we did.
“Looking back on it, which nobody can do, that’s a different story. But at the time, we knew exactly what we were doing.”
First, what do you expect him to say?
Second, it was a good gamble -- the Lakers were trying to assemble a fast contender for Kobe Bryant in the final years of his career (and they thought Howard would stay and be the face of the franchise) and if healthy Nash could have orchestrated the offense and spaced the floor with his shooting. Injuries and an abrupt and radical coaching shift midseason doomed that team. That doesn’t mean it was a bad gamble.
It is possible the Lakers use the stretch provision on Nash, allowing them to let him go and spread the pain of his salary out over three seasons. Don’t bet on it, however. The Lakers are not going to use that extra cap space this summer (LeBron James isn’t coming, nor is Carmelo Anthony) and they would rather just get him off the books completely and have more money to go after their more realistic targets in 2015 and 2016.
