More evidence that it was more Nash helping Marion (or whoever he's playing with) than the other way around. Although I will concede that my eyes tell me Marion helped Nash too. Marion was a nearly perfect 3rd fiddle in the Suns' system.

I do think Marion ultimately benefited from playing with Nash, though maybe not as much as Amare Stoudemire, but I think the situation the last year-plus has been set up to exaggerate that effect. The other thing mentioned in the previous comments thread was position, and the numbers there are pretty striking. Nash's arrival coincided with Marion playing more power forward, and he's played relatively little of it in Miami in Toronto. Then there's pace too and the missing transition opportunities Marion got in Phoenix.

The big difference between Calderon and Nash, as I see it, is that Calderon primarily sets up his teammates for jumpers while Nash creates more looks in the paint. It's easy to see how that would work better with Marion's game.

The Calderon comp was basically to say that while Calderon isn't a Nash clone by any means, his passing ability isn't that far removed from Nash -- peak Nash is assisting 50% of his teammates' FGs, Calderon is assisting something like 40%. But Marion still can't take advantage of that; it may have been part of the system in Phoenix as well, but he needs someone at PG playing Nash's style to be at his best. So I think we're kind of saying the same thing... It's not even enough that he's playing alongside one of the best PGs in basketball again in Calderon, on top of that he needs a specific type of elite PG to flourish.

http://www.82games.com/pelton13.htm

The basic gist is that everyone on L.A. averaged more points per possessions used with Bryant on the floor with them than they did without him. He made them more efficient by allowing them to pick their spots and not forcing them to create as much on their own. Somebody like Lamar Odom went from taking upwards of 23% of Miami's shots when on the floor (assisted on only 41% of his FGs) to taking less than 20% in L.A. and being assisted on almost 50% of his made baskets, and it was no coincidence that his eFG% went up 40 points and his offensive rating spiked upward by 5 pts/100 poss.

Steve created a fast tempo better than any other player in the league and got Marion plenty of great easy scoring opportunities in transition (either layups or those corner 3s he likes). Nash is also always looking for backdoor lobs and drive and kick passing angles while he probes the defense with his dribble which really played to Marion's strengths as a finisher / shooter but not a creator.

Jose plays an incredibly conservative game and rarely pushes the pace. He does not probe the defense the way Nash does and offers far fewer kick out opportunities. He also doesn't break down the d off the dribble as much and offers fewer offensive rebounding opportunities. I think his high assist / turnover ratio gets him put into discussions with guys like Nash that aren't really indicative of their skill levels or play styles.

Walter, Kevin Pelton at 82games looked at Kobes effect on his team mates in that exact season and found that he did indeed help them significantly.