Would Bringing Back Steve Nash Limit Los Angeles Lakers’ Future?

Just as Steve Nash couldn't save the Los Angeles Lakers, the Lakers cannot save Steve Nash.

Limits always existed to what the two could do for each other, restrictions that consistently became more constrictive and have been adjusted accordingly since last season.

Where the Lakers once saw a savior, they now see a 40-year-old with nerve damage who, per ESPN Los Angeles' Dave McMenamin, will be lucky to play again this season:



Age and injuries have rendered Nash little more than an expensive impediment that's hamstringing Los Angeles' finances and future. Owed $9.7 million next season, he's a contractual burden who prevents the Lakers from making the most of their highly touted 2014 cap space.

But the Lakers have an out, and while using it is tempting, keeping Nash has the potential to aid future plans more than bidding him farewell would.

 

Stretching for Flexibility



The stretch provision was created for situations like these, where a financial albatross can be converted into flexibility. By waiving Nash, the Lakers can spread his salary over three seasons, creating more cap space in time for 2014 free agency. That is, if they decide to actually waive Nash.

According to Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding, Nash is expected to get one last chance to salvage his Lakers tenure since Los Angeles is "not planning a free-agent spending spree this summer" and is "therefore thinking it does not make sense to use the stretch provision to waive Nash."

There are going to be those who disagree.

This year has been nigh insufferable for a Lakers franchise that prides itself on winning, averting disaster and skipping rebuilds. Not one of those things has happened this season. 

Losses have piled up amid excessive injuries, putting the Lakers on pace to win fewer than 30 games for the first time since 1959-60 and third ...

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