He made the Conference Finals 3 times, and he could well have made the Finals last year if not for your lucky buzzer-beating bullshit. But still, bears repeating, he made the Conference Finals 3 times. In the far superior conference. He was close to a title on numerous occasions. Stop with this semantic "contending" horseshit.
He also under produced versus LA, San Antonio, and Dallas in those very times that he made said conference finals while allowing his counterparts in Fisher, Parker, and Terry to up their very averages against him.
There is no prize for not getting out your own damn conference when a team gives you talent and pays to make a run. LA paid the bill and got Kobe 1 guy who made the all star team once in his career and he got to the title back to back years and won with the youngest team in the history of the league. New Jersey paid the bill and Kidd took a lottery team along with Jefferson and K-Mart to back to back Finals. Cuban paid for Stackhouse, Terry, Dampier, and those guys to go alongside Dirk and he got them to the Finals. Miami paid for Shaq, Walker, Williams, and Posey so Wade did his damn job and won. LeBron wanted Hughes, Marshall, and Jones by his own admission to the Cavs overpaid to get them, but Lebron kept up his end of the deal and made the finals. The Spurs have paid time and time again for guys around Duncan and he got there. Boston paid for KG and Ray to join Paul and Paul delivered. Orlando played that ludicrous amount of money for Lewis, Alston, Nelson, and those guys to play alongside Dwight but he got to the Finals with them and made that bill well worth paying.
Nash did not keep up his end of the deal as management did their job (early in his stay). The difference between him and those other guys above is that when given talent, they found a way to win and carry their team to the Finals. NAsh didn't, so that is on him point blank.