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Toward the end of the film “Se7en,” two detectives are driving a serial killer to a supposed location of one of the killer’s victims. The serial killer, played by Kevin Spacey, tries to convince the detectives of the lasting importance of his acts.
One of the detectives, played by Brad Pitt, dismisses the serial killer’s claims by saying, “You’re a T-shirt. You’re a Movie of the Week.”
That pretty much sums up Jeremy Lin.
It was the one-year anniversary of the eruption of Mount Stern, a moment when he made an unprecedented decision in the immediate aftermath of the settlement that ended the 2011 NBA lockout.
Commissioner David Stern squashed a trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team deal with the New Orleans Hornets and the Houston Rockets.
There was a scary knee-on-knee collision between LeBron James and Josh Smith just before halftime, but both were able to return. LBJ was tantalizingly close to a triple-double (21 PTS, 11 REB, 9 AST) as the Heat won a close one in Atlanta. Dwyane Wade (illness) didn’t play, but Chris Bosh picked up the slack, leading all scorers with 24, and Ray Allen (17) had another solid night. Jeff Teague was impressive in defeat with 20 points and 11 assists, while Anthony Morrow scored 17 in less than 16 minutes. As expected, the Hawks went back to small-ball, barely using Zaza Pachulia or Ivan Johnson. One disappointment was sixth man Louis Williams, who had been hot, missing all six of his shots.
MIL @ WAS: The Bucks are getting very little from Samuel Dalembert (2 PTS in 13:56) but Larry Sanders has been great, adding another 13 PTS, 9 REB and 3 BLK to his totals in 31 minutes off the bench. Tobias Harris got the hook early (5 PTS in 15:13) in favor of Mike Dunleavy (13 PTS, 9 REB in 32:47) and Ersan Ilyasova scored all 11 of his points in the first half. They won anyway, as the Wizards aren’t very good. Bradley Beal (22 was their top scorer) and while Trevor Ariza (15) and Emeka Okafor (11) showed some improvement, their backups barely played.
DAL @ NYK: Another 31 points for Carmelo Anthony, another 22 from J.R. Smith and the Knicks remain unbeaten. I was surprised to see Brandan Wright start at C for Dallas, but Chris Kaman got the majority of minutes anyway. Elton Brand returned from personal leave with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks, and Rodrigue Beaubois (ankle) saw 14 minutes off the bench. O.J. Mayo scored 22 points, but his 8 TO were a buzzkill.
BRK @ ORL: Not having seen the game, I don’t have much to say. The Magic got destroyed by 39 on their home court and didn’t score 20 in any quarter. With garbage time coming so early, the Nets spread the scoring among 13 players (Andray Blatche had 15 PTS and 9 REB) so we can safely ignore everyone’s stats.
PHI @ BOS: Certainly the best game of the year for the Sixers and Evan Turner, who had 25 points and grabbed 11 boards. Jrue Holiday (21 PTS, 14 AST, 4 REB, 2 STL, 2 BLK) more than held his own against Rajon Rondo, who had 20 assists to go with his 14 points. The SG pattern continues for Boston; Courtney Lee starts, plays some D, then sits for Jason Terry (13 PTS) who plays far more minutes.
If Steve Nash had a different set of skills, it wouldn’t be a reach to suggest he might have been David 
Copperfield.
Nash is perhaps the most unlikely looking franchise player in NBA history – a 6-3, 195-pound guard who seems much shorter and slighter when mingling with the giants who usually dominate NBA games.
Nash is so slick that he makes us forget how good he is. It seems, for example, that a long time has passed since the Phoenix Suns were a threat in the West.
But it was only 2010 when Phoenix won 54 games and went to the Western Conference finals. The Suns actually swept the San Antonio Spurs in the second round before falling to the eventual champion Lakers in six games.
After that season, Amar’e Stoudemire left for New York, and the Suns – who went to the conference finals three times in six years but lost each time – were no longer a contender. But they still went 40-42 with Nash and a group of role players, and in the lockout-shortened season of 2011-12, they were 33-33.
Even though they were not at an elite level any longer, with Steve Nash in the lineup, the Suns were always trouble. They may not have been able to advance to the playoffs, but because of Steve Nash, they could be a pain. And they were not a team anyone wanted to meet in the playoffs … because they had Steve Nash.
In short, for the eight years when Steve Nash was in Phoenix, if he had help, the Suns were great. And if he didn’t, they were still competitive on any given night.
So it is stunning to go to a Phoenix Suns game and see no Nash in the lineup. There’s a Dragic, a Gortat, a Scola and a Telfair, but no star of the show. No captain. No sleight-of-hand. It’s like watching an episode of Seinfeld without Jerry.
Suns coach Alvin Gentry is diplomatic enough to not say the Suns have thrown together a ragtag group of guys and are hoping for the best. But he doesn’t avoid the truth.
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS)
For the past few seasons, Phoenix Suns fans watched their two favorite players slip from peak performance as age and injury conspired to erode their skills. Steve Nash was 38 and Grant Hill was 39, which is like 76 and 78 in NBA years.
While the world marveled at TwoTime’s ability to remain effective as a point guard long after any other NBA player had done the same, Suns fans cherished each bounce, pass and shot like they were watching a re-release of an old classic on cable TV.
Hill’s ambassador-like personality was magnetic, and his lone ability to create offense not generated by a Nash pass was a revelation amongst fans who’d watched countless players live and die off those dimes for nearly a decade. On top of that, he put in more effort on perimeter defense than anyone in the valley since Raja Bell.
However, the Suns were in steep decline as a team. Despite fighting until the final days of each season for a playoff spot, recent Suns teams never posed a threat to the contenders.
Time to reboot. Here’s five reasons to feel positive about the new version:
1. The hourglass has been turned over
Suns fans knew exactly what they were going to get the last couple of years: 30-32 minutes from Nash (the last few being a struggle), above-average but slow offense from the starters, below-average defense, below-average production from the second unit, and a .500 record. It got to the point that we didn’t even need to watch the game to know what would happen. Lose to the best, beat the worst and split the rest.
“It was like watching the sands in the hourglass,” said Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby. “There was a lot more sand at the bottom than at the top. Now we’ve turned it over. We don’t know what that means yet in terms of wins, but no question we are more talented than we were a year ago.”
There is excitement inherent to any unknown quantity. With the season-long injury to Channing Frye, only two 
starters (Marcin Gortat, Jared Dudley) and three bench players remain from last season’s squad. Gortat was one of only three players in the NBA last season who averaged a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds).
In are Goran Dragic (4 years, $30 million) and Luis Scola (amnesty claim) from Houston, and Wesley Johnson (trade) and Michael Beasley (3 years, $18 million) from Minnesota. Three of those four will start this season. We have seen in preseason that the starting unit of Dragic, Scola, Gortat, Beasley and Jared Dudley can really play well together, grabbing strong leads in each game. The second unit is still a shambles, but everyone will play hard and fast, and they won’t lose games from lack of effort.
After two years of watching what appeared to be a poorly conceived “SSOL Tribute Tour,” at least the reset button has been set.
2. The best players can play the best minutes
One of the most difficult aspects of coach Alvin Gentry’s job the last two seasons was managing the minutes of his aging stars.
Even on a healthy night, Suns fans knew that whenever Nash had to play more than 24 of the first 40 minutes (to the 8-minute mark of the final period), we were asking for trouble. Nash had a kitchen timer for a body clock. Once that 30-minute mark went off (though sometimes it was set for 24 or 28 minutes), he was done. His passes weren’t as crisp, his decision-making off, his shots short. Heaven forbid that timer went off with 2-4 minutes remaining.
