Best NBA Jam duo for Phoenix Suns: Steve Nash + Amar’e Stoudemire
The fun of an exercise such as this one is coming up with hypothetical pairings that never happened on the court. The Phoenix Suns could put one of those together, perhaps pairing Kevin Johnson or Charles Barkley with players from the “Seven Seconds or Less Suns”. In the end, the best pairing is one we have already seen.
Steve Nash is the greatest player in Suns history, a maestro with the ball in his hands and the conductor of one of the greatest offenses in NBA history.
What often gets overlooked is that as great of a passer as Nash was, he was a better shooter, reasonably one of the best to ever play. Leave Nash open for a moment and he will drain a jumper, but step up to him and he will feed a pass to his partner in crime.
Amar’e Stoudemire is the rim-running big man who can thrive alongside a shooter such as Nash, going up for alley-oops or catching pocket passes with an open crack he can explode down for the dunk. Stoudemire is more than just a dunker, though, with ball skills to score in many ways.
Defensively, this duo would struggle, which is why they needed an elite defender such as Shawn Marion in their heyday to reach their highest level of success. Yet the offensive upside of this combo was nearly unstoppable in the “Seve Seconds or Less” era of Suns basketball and will be even more so in NBA Jam.