This phenomenon, regardless of what you choose to call it, is no myth.
Amar’e Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Boris Diaw and Marcin Gortat are just a few of the names who have played to an All-Star level with Nash as a teammate. As a result, those players have managed to make an absurd amount of money in the NBA thanks to Nash making them look good out on the court.
Could the same story play itself out with Andrew Bynum? Can Bynum become the league’s next dominant big man with Nash running the offense? Can Bynum, to give it a modern analogy, become the next Dwight Howard?
Bynum had a career year last season, averaging 18.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. The big man’s success last season can be attributed to two factors.
1. He managed to stay consistently healthy throughout the season for the first time since 2007.
2. He averaged a career-high 35.2 minutes per game, which was 11 minutes more than his 24.2 minute-per-game average during the six seasons prior.
What’s truly impressive about those numbers is the fact that Bynum was playing alongside Kobe Bryant, a one-on-one isolation scorer who shot the ball 1,336 times in 58 games a season ago.
That’s 23 field goal attempts per game for Bryant, so the fact that Bynum was able to put up more than 18 points per game with far fewer touches is a true marvel.
While Bryant shot just 43 percent from the floor a season ago on those 23 attempts per game, Bynum shot 55.8 percent on just 13.3 attempts per game.
Statistically speaking, Bynum was the more efficient scorer by a wide margin (of course, he wasn’t shooting contested baseline fade-away jumpers).
So how does Nash fit in to that admittedly awkward equation?
Well, ideally Nash will be given the freedom to do...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
