Steve Nash NBA Career

First stint in Phoenix
Nash was selected by the Phoenix Suns 15th overall in the first round of the NBA Draft in 1996. No Canadian had ever been drafted so high. But this accomplishment meant little to Suns fans, who vigorously booed the team's selection. Despite his impressive college accomplishments, he was a relative unknown because he didn't play in one of the major college conferences. Little did it matter, however, as he sat behind NBA stars Jason Kidd and Kevin Johnson in his first two seasons in the NBA. In his rookie year in 1996-97, Nash averaged just 3.3 points and 2.1 assists in very limited playing time. With persistence, however, his minutes grew and the next year he averaged 9.1 points and 3.4 assists, playing more than twice the minutes he did in his rookie year. But it would be the last time Steve Nash would compete in a Suns uniform for six years.

Dallas
Nash's first year in Dallas, the lockout-shortened season of 1999, all but erased the gains he had fought so hard for the previous season. Missing 10 games due to an injury to his lower back, Nash averaged a paltry 7.9 points and 5.5 assists, but he did average nearly 10 minutes more per game than he did the previous season. His relationship with the Dallas fans was frosty, however, and they booed the newcomer throughout the season and lambasted the trade their team had made. [4]

Confuting his critics who dismissed his remarkable 2001-02 campaign as a fluke, Nash reprised his prior season's performance almost identically in 2002-03, averaging 17.7 PPG and 7.3 APG, again earning All-Star and All-NBA Third Team honors. Directing the Dallas offense, Nash led the Mavs from an incredible 14-game winning streak to open the season all the way to the Western Conference Finals for only the second time in franchise history, where they lost to the eventual NBA champs, the San Antonio Spurs.

This would be as far as Nash and his "Big Three" cohorts would ever get. The 2003-04 season saw a drop-off in points for Nash (down to 14.5) and he was left off the All-Star and All-NBA rosters. Ironically, however, his field-goal percentage was up from the past season, to 47.0% from 46.5%, and his assists average (8.8) and free throw percentage (91.6%) were then-career highs. Nevertheless, Dallas did not make it past the first round of the playoffs, their worst finish since they were left out altogether in 1999-2000.

Second stint in Phoenix
As the Suns' starting point guard and a veteran among youngsters, Nash was the discernible leader of the team's dramatic turnaround. While he averaged a modest 15.5 points per game, his field-goal shooting percentage was remarkable: 50.2%, a career high and a rare figure for a guard. Equally impressive was his assist total of 11.5 APG, a career best and the best in the NBA; no one else had more than 9. Indeed, the last player to average more was John Stockton with 12.3 APG in 1995. Nash's numbers affirmed his status as an unselfish, "pass first" player. Nash also ranked 6th in the league in both three-point percentage (43.1%) and free-throw percentage (88.7%). Nash also ranked #3 in the NBA in double-doubles, a statistic traditionally dominated by big men with high rebound totals, behind only Kevin Garnett and teammate Shawn Marion. Nash was the only player to average double figures in both points and assists. Nash also earned his second career triple double on March 30th, recording 12 points, 12 assists, and a career-high 13 rebounds in just 27 minutes. Perhaps Nash's greatest contribution to the team was that he made his teammates better. Many of them were posting the best seasons of their careers across the board, and both they and outside observers attributed this squarely to Nash.

In the playoffs, Phoenix swept the Memphis Grizzlies in four games, before meeting Nash's former club, the Dallas Mavericks, in the second round. In leading the Suns to a 4-2 series win, Nash played some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 30.3 points, 12 assists, and 6.5 rebounds per game, recording his first playoff triple double, and scoring a 2005 single-game playoff high of 48 points. In the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1993, the Suns finally met their match in Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs, losing in 5 games despite a solid series from Nash, who averaged 23.2 points and 10.6 assists per game. Despite the loss, Nash and the Suns were still pleased with how far they had progressed and optimistic about how far they could go in the future.