Sources: Nash in talks to consult for Warriors
Two-time MVP Steve Nash is in advanced negotiations to join the Golden State Warriors as a part-time player development consultant, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that Nash, who was not planning to go into coaching after formally announcing his retirement in March, has been lobbied aggressively by Warriors coach Steve Kerr and team president Rick Welts to spend a few days per month with the team to work on skills with individual players.
The parties, sources said, are in the process of finalizing a deal that essentially will make Nash an occasional tutor to the Golden State guards. Kerr, Welts and current Warriors player development coach Bruce Fraser — all of whom worked closely with the 41-year-old Nash when he was playing in Phoenix — are among Nash’s closest friends in the league and ultimately persuaded him to consider joining the NBA reigning champions as a part-timer.
While out injured last season, Nash did similar work with Los Angeles Lakers youngster Jordan Clarkson and, sources say, has likewise worked out this summer with a variety of guards around the league: Jeremy Lin, Dante Exum, Kemba Walker and C.J. McCollum.
Sources said as recently as late June — when Nash played in longtime teammate Dirk Nowitzki‘s annual charity baseball game — the Dallas Mavericks were still hoping to lobby Nash to consider unretiring and reuniting with Nowitzki as a spot-duty point guard for the coming season. ESPN.com reported in March that the Cleveland Cavaliers — at the behest of Cavs general manager David Griffin and former Cavs exec Raja Bell, also former Nash colleagues in Phoenix — likewise tried last season to persuade Nash to push for a buyout from the Lakers that would allow him to team up with LeBron James in Cleveland as a third point guard.
But Nash has been adamant since October that if he were physically able, he would play for the Lakers only. Nash ultimately was limited to 65 regular-season games in two seasons in L.A. thanks to a stubborn and debilitating nerve condition that has plagued him since he suffered a broken left leg in his second game as a Laker on Oct. 31, 2012.
Nash has spent much of this month in Mexico with Team Canada at the FIBA Americas tournament in his role as Canada’s GM, with Jay Triano serving as coach.
But it’s a natural fit for Nash to work with Warriors star guard Stephen Curry, given the longstanding comparisons between the two, as well as fellow Warriors All-Star Klay Thompson, with whom Nash shares an agent (Bill Duffy).
Hall of Famer Don Nelson, who coached Nash in Dallas and was coaching the Warriors when Curry was drafted in 2009, was outspoken in his belief that the two shared a lot of similarities in their games from the moment he began studying Curry’s work at Davidson College.
After a 19-year NBA career, Nash ranks third all-time in assists (10,335) behind only John Stockton and Jason Kidd. For eight straight seasons, from 2001-02 in Dallas through 2008-09 in Phoenix, Nash’s teams ranked No. 1 in the league in offensive efficiency.
The Suns, with whom Nash won both of his MVP trophies in 2004 and 2005, recently announced they’ll induct him into their famed Ring of Honor at halftime of an Oct. 30 home game against Portland.
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