Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE
The Steve Nash era is not off to a rousing start in LA. The Los Angeles Lakers have started the season out with a sterling 0-2 record and Nash already left a game with an injury. LA fans are already in a panic but is it time to worry about Nash? Yes it is, at least in an offensive sense.
The injury issue is always going to be a problem with Nash. If you thought he was going to play 75 to 80 games this year, you were living in a fantasy land. If the Lakers can get 60 highly productive games out of him at this point, it would be a win. Remember, the training staff he left are regarded as injury gods. The guys in LA? Not so much.
The biggest reason for panic would be the Lakers offense. You can not take Nash and put him in the Princeton offense. It is like buying a Ferrari and then refusing to go past 40 miles per hour. It is borderline absurd and people should question your sanity. For whatever reason, Mike Brown wants to focus that non-sensical offense over a pick and roll based one. Nash and Dwight Howard on the PnR would murder most teams, just keep that in mind.
Lakers fans should be paying close attention to these games. There will be rough spots. You can just throw these guys out there and hope for the best. They need time to build chemistry. However, if the PnR is being ignored for long stretches, you have my permission to panic.
I still have this team penciled in for about 57 wins, but there are some signs that this team should worry. It might just be duct tape and hope holding their PG together at this point. When Chris Duhon becomes an option due to the inevitable Nash injury, you know there’s an issue.
