Obi Wan Nash needs a new padawan

It was clear from watching the Sun/Jazz game last night just how lost offensively the Suns are without Steve. I mean there was absolutely no flow whatsoever.

When the Jazz had Stockton, there was a similar problem which they actually managed to solve with Howard Eisley. In fact, I remain convinced that had Eisley stayed in SLC, and continued to play in Jerry Sloan's system, we'd be talking about him today as one of the better PGs of the last 10 years. But if you look at Eisley after he left Utah, he was borderline awful, because his style of play didn't fit any other system save the Jazz's.

The salient point about Eisley, though, is that he played as Stockton-lite, which is to say that he maintained the pace and flow of the Jazz's offense from the point of view of what the opposing team saw, and more importantly kept things steady for the Jazz.

That's the fundamental problem I see with the Sun's offense when Nash goes to the bench: when Steve is out, the team changes the way it plays, and it disrupts the team's flow. Now that's a thing that's easier said than done, because Nash is the most unique player, stylistically, in the NBA.

What the Suns need is a young player with the fundamental skills and temperament, who can be apprenticed to Nash. And that guy doesn't necessarily need to be spectacularly uber-good, but he needs to be a solid passing player with good court vision and decision making who can play Mike D'Antoni's scheme. You'd probably have to give up Nash's shooting with this guy, but that's something that can probably be fixed with practice.