Steve Nash still matters to the Los Angeles Lakers.
For the most part, this aging and fading 40-year-old star matters because of what he can't do. He has played in only 65 games since 2012-13, including just 15 last season. The Nash Los Angeles thought it was getting in 2012 is gone, supplanted instead by this enfeebled, mortality-marred version of a point guard who can't remain healthy enough to run pick-and-rolls, let alone triumph over Father Time.
And because of what Nash can't do, he is but a number—9,701,000, to be exact. That's what Nash will be earning next season ($9.7 million). That's money the Lakers could have used to line their makeshift model with permanence. That's what Nash, a future Hall of Famer and one-time logic-killer, has been reduced to: a cap-clogging, reputation-maiming number.
Only what if Nash matters because he becomes something more? What if there is some fight left in those timeworn legs and nerve-nuked back of his?
What if Nash contributes to the Lakers' 2014-15 campaign as a player—as an X-factor—and not as a mercifully expiring contract?
Months ago, when forcibly formed rumors left Nash to debunk imminent retirement, the thought seemed overly optimistic. After missing just 21 regular-season contests through the previous five seasons, Nash has been absent for 99 over the last two.
Returning from these tragic series of setbacks wasn't possible. This regression would last.
Slowly, surely, away from the typical spotlight, though, Nash has apparently steadied his course, strengthened his workload and positioned himself to play next season.
Said Lakers trainer Gary Vitti, via NBA.com:
"All my conversations with (Nash) are that he has absolutely no neural issue at this point. He's playing full-tilt, unrestricted soccer. He's doing all the corrective injury and performa...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
