<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> One of them sings the best of David Hasselhoff at the free throw line to relax. The other gets mentioned in a Nelly Furtado song. Give Steve Nash the edge. Nothing against Hasselfhoff, who ranks somewhere between William Huang and William Shatner on the pop artist scale, but if Nash had stayed in Dallas, I've got to think he would have steered his friend Dirk Nowitzki in a different musical direction. A lot of things would have been different. Nash would not have collected consecutive MVP awards, joining Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Michael Jordan as the only guards to do that back-to-back. It's unlikely Nowitzki would have expanded his game to this degree since Nash would have been around to make sure the forward got the ball in his comfort zone. Both appeared to lose part of what made them special when the Mavericks let Nash walk as a free agent. The opposite has been true. Nash and Nowitzki aren't better players because they're apart. But they have increased their stature in ways that would not have been possible if they stayed together. They have been forced to assume a greater portion of the responsibility and leadership they once shared in Dallas along with Michael Finley. The Western Conference finals between the Mavericks and Suns isn't about what Nash and Nowitzki once had on the court. It's about what they have become; stars that fit into the team framework, yet they are capable of standing alone. "Both have done unbelievable jobs of moving on, or in Dirk's case staying behind, and making it work for their franchises," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. Nash will tell you he's a better shooter than he was with the Mavericks. He's figured out how to expend less energy on the court and picked up nuances of when and where to get teammates the ball. Not that he was deficient in that area. A team with Nash as its point guard has led the league in scoring the last five seasons. "He hasn't changed," Nowitzki said. "Only the athletes around him, and they fit perfectly with his game." The Suns are the Xbox version of what the Mavericks were under Don Nelson. The love of the 3-point shot is the same, but Phoenix has more athletes and players to slash to the basket than the Mavericks did when Nash was here. Nash and Nowitzki ran the pick-and-pop. Nash and Amare Stoudemire run the pick-and-pummel. Once Stoudemire was injured, Nash adapted and made sure seven players on the Phoenix roster finished the season with career scoring highs. The bigger adjustment has belonged to Nowitzki. About 80 percent of his offense came off the pick-and-roll with Nash. He estimates that has dropped to 50 percent. Nowitzki isn't the spot-up shooter he was. He doesn't get as many looks in transition. A game that once revolved around timing and rhythm is now about putting the ball on the floor, working inside-out and isolating the defender. The ball is in Nowitzki's hands much more than it was when Nash was a teammate. That's why he's spent the last two summers working on his ball-handling. "Since he is gone, I am making more plays for my teammates and I have expanded my game," Nowitzki said. Nash and Nowitzki always add something to their games in the off-season. Neither is ever satisfied. Once they were apart, they just worked on different things. </div> Source
