Phoenix Suns: Even Steve Nash Doesn't Give the Team a Qualified Go-To Guy

If three consecutive fourth-quarter meltdowns tell you anything, it’s that Phoenix needs a Numero Uno. An Atlas to put the team on his shoulders.

A go-to guy.

For all the feel-good points on Nash’s resume, he just “doesn’t have it.” Period. He’s the best shooter of all time—and he can’t get off his own shot. That’s not blasphemy nor bashing. It’s bluntness.

Early February, it looked as though the Suns may have stumbled onto a crunch-time king in Channing Frye. The oft-maligned “big man” (for lack of a better term) hit two game-winners on consecutive nights.

But the same high-screen, away-from-the-ball set has been run for him multiple times since then, with no points or wins to show for it. In hindsight, those game-winners appear to be lightning striking twice. That’s what happens when your go-to guy’s go-to move is 20-25 feet away from the basket.

Vince Carter has been done longer than this year’s playoff hopes. Gortat is good offensively but not great and needs Nash just to be good. Dudley is showing signs of being a good starter, but let’s not confuse him as a future star player.

Not to sound like 90 percent of Planet Orange, but management has a lot to do with this. Unwilling to shell out for legit star power, Suns brass tried to be crafty with small-budget “steals,” guys like Dudley, Frye, Gortat and Childress. At times, it looks genius. Those kind of guys overachieve thanks to Mr. Canada. Let’s face it, though. Even Frye at his overachieving best is no Amar'e. Or Joe Johnson. Or even Jason Richardson.

That’s the talent management’s cost-cutting, steal-seeking strategy has lost them—as well as two postseason berths in three years along with Nash’s wholesale approval.

It’s time for Phoenix to pull the trigger on a real go-to guy, one that will make them say, “You know, we’re giving up a lot, but we know where the ball will go when we need some points.” Role players, even ones as talented as Frye, Gortat or Dudley, are always gettable.

What’s not is a bucket when those guys and Nash are your main core. Come draft day, everyone but/or Nash should be made available, packaged with our low lottery pick this year. That pick will be anywhere from No. 11-14 (a.k.a. another Robin Lopez or Earl Clark).

Maybe some other team who needs a glut of role players (or doesn’t know any better) will bite on the Suns small fries. Phoenix needs a big catch. They need an Eric Gordon, a Kevin Love or a can’t-miss lottery pick. Settling for anything less will just continue this seven-year malaise Phoenix has inflicted on itself.

And we’ve seen, slowly and inexorably, where that’s led us.

(Originally posted on WeAreSuns.com by Matt Petersen)