Nash Watch 4.1

Welcome to Day 4 coverage of the never ending saga that is NASH WATCH. This edition has some positive news in it. While the Lakers and perhaps Steve Nash would like to work out a sign and trade, The Suns his soon to be former team have said no thanks it would appear. Here is the tweet from a Suns beat reporter.

Paul Coro (Twitter) "The Lakers & Nash are interested in a sign-and-trade. Sounds like there's no way Sarver would do that for the Suns Rival." 

So to review the Raptors screwed the Knicks by signing fields to an offer sheet. I am not sure if this was explained fully at the time but basically if the Knicks matched they keep fields but could not sign him as he would be under a new contract. If they don't than obviously they can't trade a player they don't have. Now the Suns have screwed the Lakers. Who are use to getting screwed around with when it comes to point guards. Isn't that right commissioner Stern?  So be it for basketball reasons or other wise both the Knicks and Lakers seem to be stuck and only able to offer Nash a 3 million dollar mini MLE contract which if he really wanted to take that why not just take his talents to South Beach they have one of those as well. They also have a much better shot at a championship.

So that brings us back to the Mavs and Raptors again. The Mavericks seem to have many options to consider. The main problem for them might be term. It has not been lost on Maverick fans that Chris Paul and maybe Dwight Howard will be free agents next season. So it might be smart to just re-sign Jason Kidd for another year and go for a cheaper alternative in Lin. In any case if Nash wants a contract of 2 years this could be a very sticky problem for the Mavericks. That said they went all out after Deron Williams and failed to get him. Could they worry Paul would be the same. They also would figure to be in a serious battle with both the Clippers and Knicks at the front of the line trying to get him as well. 

Raptors obviously are not going to be in any Chris Paul hunt. They know that as much as we all do. So they are all in for Nash for better or worse. Also our friends over at Raptors Republic were saying the Raptors have made an offer on Ersan Ilyasova who would be a nice fit with a Steve Nash. They are one of several teams in the hunt for him. No indication on if the Raptors would have a competitive offer assuming they land Nash and have to keep Fields (Knicks are not matching)

In other news Sonny Weems has drawn interest from a couple of teams Cleveland being on of them. Raptors did extend a qualifying offer to Weems to maintain his rights as an RFA. But if you are worried that could mess things up for the Raptors don't be. They can just rescind the qualifying offer as they could with Jerryd Bayless.  

Canada's Wonderland has no roller coaster that come close to Nash Watch. It takes you up down and twists your brain all around. When it stops only Steve Nash knows.