I would like share with my faithful Dropping Dimes readers (yes, all two of you) that I have recently tied the knot with my long time girlfriend, Vivian. She has been by my side for close to eight years and has brought out the best in me during our time together. She has endured my infatuation with fantasy sports for many seasons and understands that another season of madness will be soon upon us.

In the fantasy b-ball world, the unity of mega-talents Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash benefited many fantasy GMs for the past couple of years. But it’s Shawn Marion that will be linking forces with the two-time MVP on this fantasy team.

Nash’s trademark has been solid percentages (FG, FT and 3-pt), decent scoring and of course, an excellent source of assists. Despite some changes in personnel, with Phoenix pulling the trigger on the Shawn Marion for Shaquille O’ Neal trade last season, Nash’s assist numbers did not decline. Nash has been a pillar of consistency since his arrival in Phoenix four seasons ago; he has never averaged less than 15 points, 10 assists and 50% shooting and has played in at least 75 games each season. You can pencil in Nash for 16-18 points, 11 assists, 2 threes made with 50% shooting, 90% free-throw shooting and 45% from three-point land. 

Nash was never a big steals guy. He has only averaged 1.0 steals/game in only two of his 12 seasons in the NBA. Last year, Nash averaged 0.7 steals/game while the best PG ball hawks (Chris Paul, Baron Davis and Allen Iverson) were averaging over 2.0 steals/game. It is worth noting that if your league counts turnovers, Steve Nash was the second worst offender (first being Dwyane Wade with 4.4 turnovers/game) with 3.6 turnovers/game. Just remember that Steve Nash runs a high risk/high reward type offense in Phoenix.

Don’t worry about the pre-season talk that Suns’ management is reducing playing time for Nash this year. The Suns brought in Goran Dragic to be the backup point guard. The idea that Nash will play less despite his advancing age should be met with some healthy skepticism since the Suns play in the highly competitive Western Conference. I suspect that if/when the Suns secure a playoff spot then management will consider giving Nash some “R & R” but the Suns could be battling for playoff positioning all year long. Expect Nash to participate in at least 75 games this year which will be more than the proposed 70 games played for Nash by management.

With Steve Nash joining Shawn Marion on this fantasy team, the team can either look to solidify big man stats or go with a scorer to help compensate for both Marion and Nash being less than 20 ppg scorers in round three and beyond.