NBA: How good does Steve Nash make the Lakers?

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless discuss how much Steve Nash improves the Lakers. Watch more videos like this at www.espnamerica...

[@jordandowns5236]

lol it's funny looking back at this

[@giannistheoggod]

“Somebody pretending to be point guard” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@msimelelomqikwa1213]

Who was the pretender? 😂😂😂

[@rey-angarcia773]

@@msimelelomqikwa1213 ramon sessions i remember is there PG before the trade

[@Youngkingkillmunga]

@@rey-angarcia773 BRUH I REMEMBER HIM☠️

[@kingtaylor5858]

lol 😂

[@patrickmcgee502]

I thought it was Derek Fisher 💀

[@diablocls55]

Coming from a longtime Lakers fan, Skip was actually right about this one 😂

[@AM-dl7ot]

Everything that Skip said turned out to be true. Nash injured his back, roster didn't fit together and Spurs were better and went to finals and lost in game 7 to Heat.

[@brianchua4240]

Oh was skip on the dot Not 'disrespectful' skip was honest

[@Ai14106]

OKC never returned to the finals and the Lakers met the Heat in the finals 7 years later

[@kapo2012fb]

In a covid Disney tournament where half the players sit out

[@Recurses]

​@@kapo2012fbstill fucking counts and was still a good playoffs

[@kapo2012fb]

@@Recurses yeah with no travel or crowds righ

[@JDGarza824]

@@kapo2012fbso what? Every other team had to deal with the same situation.

[@kapo2012fb]

@JDGarza824 the oldest team in the nba got a 4 month rest

[@bobjohnson7746]

Stephen A has never had respect for the Spurs, and he has the nerve to call Skip disrespectful.

[@goldenstatewarriors9418]

Skip hit this one on the head. The Lakers were a disaster and ended at the 7 seed, getting swept in the first round by San Antonio. OKC was the best team in the west and won 60 games and the 1 seed but got bounced out of the second round due to Westbrook’s injury. San Antonio went to the Finals and lost in a very close 7 games to Miami including of course the Ray Allen shot.

[@finballrolling8511]

If Kobe was available for the playoffs it would’ve been competitive. And certainly not a sweep.

[@93until11]

Skip's reaction beginning at 1:11....priceless

[@e-dawwg2384]

Skips facial expressions hahaha 😂

[@PrankedOnRs]

I think Kobe's ppg will actually go up next season along with his FG% because of the mere fact that he has Nash to make it easier for him vs. him taking tough jumpers all the time.

[@BabylonGateLA]

True

[@jimmyd3277]

Kobe #2 in scoring , Nash #2 in assist, Bynum #3 In rebounding, Gasol # 7 in rebounding and World Peace can play defense. To me this is pretty tough to beat. They just need good Backup that's it.

[@1ZosoLZ]

Lol

[@wowowills]

the lakers are a disappointment in this year. nash and dwight will be a disaster filled with injuries. trust me, i am from the year 2023. oh btw,.stay at home in 2020 for there will be a global pandemic 😂

[@furiousflexL33T]

Lakers didnt have a team in 2012... plz.. they had a new coach.. and no bench players.. and the fact we made it round to is all props

[@SrustinLim]

No matter how horrible your defense is, if you have the league's greatest centre and a defensive-minded coach, you're probably going to be top 5 in the league in defense. Mike Brown has a proven track record as a defensive coach. It's their offense that will earn them their championship and Steve Nash is going to be making many people on that team a very happy player.

[@jon.wilson]

I think it's actually part of the show for them to constantly disagree. That's the purpose of debates sometimes: where even though both people agree, one takes the opposite side and comes up with legitimate points to back up his side.

[@martinowidener6463]

Guys here from the future it didn’t work

[@ThroughTheBox]

Steve Nash's D wont make the Lakers defense bad but if the Lakers can create a better offence and Kobe works with Nash

[@Chinesekage]

skip bayless is pretty smart

[@Andreas98798]

hahaha i remember that shit haha i mean sometimes hes so off or just avoids questions or bringing up TIAGO SPLITTAA even tho hes aight

[@anisahamed5193]

lol skip was right

[@jstdun]

This Lakers squad could've been so good

[@diablocls55]

They just never had the chemistry. Oh what could’ve been. I remember this era clearly too, imma long time Lakers fan and it hurts looking back on it.

[@JWhack]

Nash wanted to play soccer instead of being on the court. And Dwight’s mental and ego at the time didn’t mix with Kobe’s ego at all.

[@IsaDRayM]

Skip was trying to distract Stephen a smith when he was talking!

[@jessewebber9238]

look at what happened skip got it all right

[@VESHMusic]

6 people disliked the video, not because of the pheonix to lakers nash trade, but because of the brawl we just had here.

[@mkeets]

He is/was a difference maker. He scored 5 more points, grabbed 3 more rebounds, and shot 10% better for a stat line of 9/5/1 shooting 61% they needed that so they didn't have to burn Duncan.

[@PlaidmanUTube]

Steve and Kobe bring a clash of different styles of play, someone will be forced to take a backseat. It will be exciting to see what happens on The Lakers next year.

[@peytonlong5573]

Kobe tears his Achilles 78 games in, Gasol and Nash missed half the year, just wasn’t meant to be, Nash should’ve went to Dallas to reunite with Dirk, Kidd had just left Dallas, and the pg comp was Derek Fisher and Darren Collison

[@KristianENielsen]

Wanna see them talking about Lakers as a team now, (Included Dwight Howard)

[@TheHoJob]

3:02 "Tiiiagggo Splitter"

[@eddieneal384]

Nash was about 5 years to late to join kobe. Nash was old and slow and at the very end of Hes career when he joined the black mamba unfortunately. Can you imagine prime nash and prime kobe? Would be a nasty duo💯💯💯

[@wikiwikiwias000]

Once the playoffs come around (if they make it) I feel like Nash will play his heart out, since this might be his last season. Kobe will try free balling it when games are close though

[@IPhone69GS]

Dwight is probably the best pick and roll center in the NBA

[@Jtwentyfour]

they are getting howard :D

[@DICACIO1]

I'm a Laker fan LA Clippers gonna take OKC out the Playoffs. Blunder can't beat them and LAC will dominate Okc AGAIN like they did last year. Lamar Odom has definitely made the Clips a stronger team. OKC cannot handle these Clippers. So if your a Oklahoma Blunder fan... I feel sorry for you if Clips get OKC in 1st Round 2013 Playoffs. Lakers 2013 NBA Champs!

[@ShawnKimMusic]

i love both stephen a and skip, but I think skip probably agrees with stephen a. skip know he a lakers fan. i can kinda tell the espn producers made him be against stephen a. better tv.

[@devaniebernard-christie5307]

Skip was right lol

[@brycewilson1909]

man i was excited to watch Kobe and Nash on the same team, wish Nash could of stayed healthy...

[@EyeLoveTheStars]

LOL I'll believe it when I see it. This Laker team was game 2 in the playoffs against OKC last year from stealing homecourt advantage. That was with a suck ass roster. lol, you're either a hater or just ignorant to think OKC will be able to beat the Lakers this year. All OKC has is Westbrook and Durant. The main reason why they were able to get the better of the Lakers was they drove the ball on the inside. LOL I'd love to see them do that with a healthy Howard in the middle. lmao.

[@aykmikespike]

also you saw nash playing in phoenix ? his teammates are not even CLOSE to those in LA .. and think about it pau gasol and nash in pick and roll play? vicious i tell you this team might have problems with OKC if i should guess i would say game 5 - 6 but the will kick the western conference in the ass .. its not a long term team because of the old age but next season .. im looking foward to

[@aykmikespike]

miami is not better as lakers stephen really had a good point there now with howard in lakers miami is begging for okc to win in the western ^^ this team has kobe bryant a very good defender and perfect offensive player .. you have nash one of the best point guards no matter how hold he is ... you have pau gasol the best post player in the nba probably on of the best pf in the league right now ... you have metta with the best perimeter defense in the leage imo ... plus the bench is better ...

[@Naieazy97]

Stephen a smith said it best. If Kobe wanted to be the ball hog he would of never told Nash or Dwight to come to la. He wants a ring. He knows he will have to sit back and see Dwight and pau got to work with Nash. He fed pau and bynum alot this. But guess what they can't finish. Bynum thinks hes the best and chooses when to show up. Kobe changed since. He will pass the ball. He knows he will not get 20 or more shots this year with this team. They ran an free offense where Kobe just goes iso. Wh

[@MrSupergandhi]

Lakers are the favourites to win with howard but if kobe goes apeshit and wants to be the number 1 guy, lakers aint winning shit. Kobe and nash cant operate effectively without being the primary ballhandler and im pretty sure kobe will never let any1 else take control when hes there. Nash prolly wont have the impact that every1 thinks he will and howard will be great defensively but wont get the ball enough. They just gonna sit back and watch kobe shoot 30% while they shoot 60%.

[@therealmujtaba]

well, if you would say this like 4 to 5 years ago, i would agree. He was collecting and making some records. I think there is nothing left to be done. He has done the record things long time back. He is missing the 6th ring and he needs to retire if he could not do it this year. if he wanted to be remembered as a legend not just a an old junk who barely passes the balls and being blocked and dunked over his head by kids! LOL

[@splashty09]

stephen A said this isnt kobe from 05 whos on a mission to prove somethin. to me when i see kobe try to prove somethin he shoots a high volume of shots, im tryin to say that stephen A saying this is not Kobe frim 05 who was classified as a shot jacker(when hes on a mission), all my point im saying is he shot more last year then he did in 05 so in stephen A smiths words hes still tyrin to prove a point based on stats

[@MrSupergandhi]

lmao. Im not hating, im just saying dont buy into the hype yet. You lakerfans thought sessions was gonna b ur saviour last year, How did that work out? U guys dont realise that kobe is a player who doesnt play well off the ball and he needs the ball to operate well (like melo). Steve nash also needs to dominate the ball to play well. They gonna have to sacrifice something and if they cant, ur lakers just gonna lose again and u can continue being butthurt at objective fans like me.

[@MrSupergandhi]

lol i think Skip has a point. People are actin like nash is gonna fit in so well but they dont realise that nash needs the ball to be effective. And who needs the ball the most on the lakers? YUP, Kobe bryant. I give this a chance to work coz i think kobe might respect nash but more than likely , nash will suddenly become shit and all u lakerfans will say that its coz hes old. No, its gonna be coz kobes not gonna give him the ball and just selfishly demand the ball and brick 30 shots a game.

[@CounterCultureCantCount]

Diiiiiiiiiiiisrepectful!

[@killuminati722]

wtf is skip talking about!? Steve has been having a sore back a large part of his career. Whenever he is not playing he is making sure his back is not stiff, this is nothing new. And why the fuck does Skip have to talk how defense for, everybody and their fuckin mother knows steve wasn't brought over for defensive purposes.

[@LiqCharles]

let's see here, the lakers won 5 rings with fisher playing mediocre defense (even at his prime; 2 in a very advance age) and nash just adds playmaking, passing, orchestrating, shooting and leadership to this team, i doubt that the defense will suffer since they just got howard which will erase the lakers' mistakes at the top.

[@JoshXV2]

of course people dissing kobe for holding the ball so much his whole career...look @ his career with the Lakers and the PGs he's played with NONE of them are remotely close to what Steve Nash is. Chris Paul almost became a Laker till Dictator Stern did his deed and gave the other team in LA something to cheer for lol.

[@therealmujtaba]

Kobe and Nash will click because Kobe's goal is not to score more points and break some records, he already has it and last season he has given it to Durant. His goal is to win a sixth ring, it doesn't matter if he was the leading scorer or not. He is a leader and thats enough.....

[@ironmantis25]

skip actually made sense in this segment

[@EyeLoveTheStars]

lol u should be a comedian. any real basketball fan would know the Lakers are now the favorites out west. Heat are the favorites overall only because you have to give the defending champions that respect. LOL Lakers will destroy the Thunder.

[@furiousflexL33T]

again.. Kobe is not the same selfish player when he was young.. he wants to win rings while he can.. if Kobe and Nash click.. it is going to be a force... Nash sets up plays for paul and bynum.. Kobe can do anything he wants .. it is a win win situation

[@retiredstalker]

Lakers still suck, realistically this is similiar to to the 95-96 Rockets when they acquired Barkley Pippen Eddie Johnson with Olajuwan>results: knocked out of the western finals by the Jazz *lol*

[@ieredrum]

@senihcme what he means by the lakers would give Miami a better series is that the Miami bigs cant match up with the laker bigs. I wanna see Lebron try to penetrate down the lane with 2 skilled 7 footers.

[@iGotSmooveMoves]

Stephen A is the only one I can ever agree with. It seems that Skip argues with everyone on this show. He's always negative on impacts or players and can never admit shit.

[@RemoteControlRabbit]

Jamison Gets buckets, thats what the lakers need off the bench so yes i think hes going to help. its better than Barnes, Eyenga, McRoberts, and Troy Murphy...

[@NOVAISHEAT]

even with nash on the lakers. lakers wont match up with heat. It will make Lakers a better team

[@debuxman]

Doesn't matter much... after all, they're not telling facts, they're just giving their opinion. And it's so funny to watch them being so eccentric :D

[@Mehranrokh]

I know it was ridiculous but It is a subjective matter, u know. I personally would not trade Lebron for entire NBA, but then agian I am just a fan :D

[@rorschachwatchescb]

Skip bayless is so disrespectful but there would be no show if he wasn't. He better the basketball IQ of Kobe Bryant i know that much. He's the best

[@realEmreCetinkaya]

Heat - Okc and Heat in 7

[@Leo-jk9vt]

Well heat in 7 was right

[@kugashira101]

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA. Let's forget the discussion in this video for a second. Todd Grisham works for ESPN??? What happened with WWE?

[@mistermattyiceify]

Skip Bayless does not understand anything more than a 12 year old how do i know i just watched it. Bottom line he needs common sense.

[@ericdupree8603]

On paper this was a legit super team. People like SAS were saying they could knock of MIA, but wanna retract that statement when Lakers 2013 super team failed 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@Scotty2413]

Josh Lee injuries

[@ericdupree8603]

Scotty Hong Chemistry was the main issue

[@MH-et4bo]

Eric Dupree and Kobe demanded it

[@diablocls55]

I’m a Lakers fan and remember this era clearly and yes, ON PAPER we were a super team, but people forgot Nash was like 39 when we traded for him 🤦‍♂️

[@100spurs]

I always thought it was a dumb signing. The Lakers needed to put the ball in Steve Nash’s hands to ignite the run and gun.

[@jesselee121]

why is everyone so damn racist. smh this country is so sad. We have so much and keep repeating the same mistakes of yesterday.

[@fruckstuck]

this move ruined lakers

[@fj11ism]

Miami basically has no pg and no center. Dwight alone and even big baby used to dominate against miami when back in orlando

[@fusionsoul]

The only reason Skip Bayless even mentioned a stat at ALL in this video is because he was so badly owned by Mark Cuban lol

[@kennethreyes7854]

If I came face to face with skip and he did that face to me... Id just throw one so I can knock that wig off his head.

[@x1disxnikka1x]

skip needs to be fired off this show and replaced with a basketball. looks better and it wont say nothing stupid.

[@johnmerchan1672]

This was when skip was actually had good takes and was somewhat objective. Now he has to double down on everything regardless on what happens

[@ieredrum]

@TheMsdarkman123 and the heat can't match up with the lakers bigs. That is what a smith was trying to say.

[@MrRickJamesb]

Kobe himself said he don't care about stats.....not anymore....all he cares about is another Ring!!!!!!

[@capistons]

goddamn nba tv... if ur gonna set up a fake argument for my amusement, at least make the acting good.

[@1230Mell]

we dont need dwight , we need bench power !! and we are good

[@Leo-jk9vt]

The Lakers now need Dwight 😢

[@eddieneal384]

Steve Nash should’ve been traded to the Lakers three years earlier that would’ve been one of the best duo’s in nba history Nash and Kobe oh my lol

[@yogo3457]

Lmao didn’t work out 😂

[@rogereb09]

This team without Dwight could've been deadly.

[@raigan27]

whats is the point they cant beat okc, there is no need to talk about the heat.

[@SoulOsoLJa]

Smith should not talk about zone because Bayless doesn't know what that is

[@erikeckert564]

As soon as you see Skip shaking his head, you know he disagrees with you.

[@Juddisalegend]

I love Stephen A

[@007tubeless]

So WP is the only defense. Everybody will run over lakers for sure.

[@Nola213]

these two are rediculous. No matter what one says the other will ALWAYS disagree. I don't think I've ever seen them agree, and even if they somewhat agree, they still find things to disagree on. I find it irritating to watch them argue always. Anyhow, Nash and Howard make the Lakers formidable for sure. But OKC, and Miami are far and away better teams still I believe. I think Miami repeats.

[@Nola213]

oh definitely. But that style of debate for me personally is just bothersome to watch. Arguing just to argue, cause I guess people find that interesting. I like both these guys somewhat but I don't wan't to watch an argument all the time. I totally agree with you, they probably act completely differently toward eachother when the cameras are off. wouldn't suprise me if they are good friends.

[@WoeiFoongChen]

I don't know why Skip is even on the show and I agree with Stephen A smith on Skip being uneducated in basketball. There are so many types of basketball offensive strategies and defense. Other than that, Stephen A Smith on OKC being better than Lakers but Lakers being contenders against Heats, yes, that is how the NBA is, different basketball styles work against different teams. Obviously there are favourites in match ups, but you cannot write off a team, even the Bobcats.

[@zach4111]

Kobe will be the closer. The lakers main offense will be pick nd rolls and feeding the post between Nash Gasol and Bynum. And if they dont have anything theyll give a kobe isolation and if they double team he's got a point guard who can shoot the 3 or make a play. Lakers offense this year will be crazy good!

[@TheXtrmn8]

Pau can't finish ? He's been averaging 20 and 10 his entire career

[@mkeets]

He's saying if Nash is NOT the center of the offense he's NOT going to be as productive as he was in Phoenix and LA would basically wasting his talents. Nash can't do anything if every time Kobe brings the ball up court he just pops a 3/long jumper or doesn't run offense.

[@Andreas98798]

haha its rare i just dont think people like to admit it, i like skip i think he brings up good points sometimes and backs it up, other times tho i do feel like hes just picking the other side of the argument cus its a show but most cases im a supporter

[@MrDiamontiz]

i agree number 8 kobe would have problems trying to coexist with howard and nash but this is veteran kobe he has nothing else to prove to anyone hes not gonna have to take over a game unless his teammates arent coming through and making shots

[@raiderrocker18]

if Ty Lawson and Tony Parker were wrecking the Lakers last year... they're going to have fun against Nash. It's not like the Lakers didn't win because their offense wasn't good enough... they couldn't stop quick guards.

[@whydouneedakno]

LMAO thanx for the laugh, this team is not beating OKC... Perkins can actually guard Howard 1v1 unlike most centers in the league... Plus Howard has been terrible this season and his FT shooting in beyond horrible.. When Nash returns, there defense will be even worse

[@BloggerMusicMan]

Did we watch the same video? I thought I not only heard Stephen A. Smith defend a white Canadian basketball player, but say that he would make his team better than one of the other powerhouse teams in their Conference. From what I know about Smith, he is certainly not a racist.

[@splashty09]

o hahaha whoops i meant to put 20 fg attempts per game in 2005

[@boxingmmacars23]

loll im laughing at you now

[@01shan001]

That all sounds good on paper, remember how good the miami big three sounded on paper? It matters about chemistry . Hopefully , kobe is fine standing in the corner some plays while steve nash does his thing.

[@TreBouncee]

Great Offensive Team, Average Defensively And Old