Phoenix Suns Trading Goran Dragic to Miami Heat Is the Right Move
Goran Dragic didn't give the Phoenix Suns a choice.
He would be an unrestricted free agent after this season. If they didn't orchestrate his exit from the desert now, he would have done it later. And if he had to make the move himself, the Suns were getting nothing—no draft picks, no prospects, no win-now players, not even a parting gift.
The Suns could not let that happen. They had to receive something in return for their second-best scorer and setup man. So they squeezed the trade market for what they could and sent Dragic and his brother, Zoran, to the Miami Heat for two future draft picks and four players, as Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski first reported:
The Suns kept dealing from there, prying Brandon Knight away from the Milwaukee Bucks and sending Isaiah Thomas to the Boston Celtics, per Wojnarowski:
To help process the movement, Arizona Sports 98.7's John Gambadoro and Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic recapped the major moving parts leaving and entering Phoenix:
No matter how the Suns played their hand, all signs pointed to Dragic's eventual departure. They could have risked keeping him around, betting on the belief that by trading Isaiah Thomas and being able to offer a richer, longer contract than any other suitor, they could change Dragic's mind about a future with the franchise.
But the point guard and his camp seemed to go out of their way to show the foolishness in that approach. Burning the bridge back to Phoenix wasn't enough. They made sure everyone saw the ashes.
Had the Suns not traded him, ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported Dragic already had a plan for free agency that didn't involve Phoenix:
The lengthy, more lucrative offer the Suns could have made Dragic, who was named to the 2013-14 All-NBA Third Team, wasn't going to matter. The option of adding a fifth year to his next contract would not dictate his decision, a source told USA Today's Sam Amick.
In case those reports weren't ominous enough, Dragic dropped the hammer with the scathing review of the Suns front office he gave to reporters Wednesday.
"I don't trust them anymore," Dragic said, per Coro. "It happens too many times. Two, three times."
Dragic can read the stat sheet like anyone else. He knows what Phoenix's three-point guard look has done to his numbers.
Last season, he was one of only 17 NBA players to receive support in the MVP voting. This year, he didn't even make it to the All-Star Game.
Sharing the backcourt with Eric Bledsoe and Thomas plagued Dragic's production. Nearly all of his counting categories declined from last season.
"I don't feel comfortable with my situation," Dragic said, per Coro. "... Standing in the corner, it's not my game. I see that we're not going the right direction. That's why I take action and try to put myself in a better position."
A better position outside of Phoenix.
Even if the Suns valued what he brings—they reportedly preferred moving Thomas instead of Dragic, per Stein—that didn't matter. There weren't enough touches to keep him happy.
What Dragic wants, per Amick, is complete control of an offense:
"The main issue, according to one of the people, is that Dragic wants to run his own team with the kind of freedom and support given to someone such as Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. The decrease in production this season, as he sees it, is directly tied to the decrease in time spent as the lead guard with the host of ballhandlers that surround him.
"
The Suns couldn't completely change course based solely on Dragic's desires.
Thomas might be expendable, but Bledsoe is far from it. He's one of only six players in the league averaging at least 17 points, five rebounds and five assists. The other five in that group were all selected to this year's All-Star Game: James Harden, LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant.
Bledsoe, the youngest member of Phoenix's floor-general trio, looks like a legitimate building block. He has a higher scoring average (17.2), assists average (5.9) and player efficiency rating (19.7) than either of his backcourt mates.
Regardless of what the Suns did with their other point guards, Bledsoe—who signed a five-year, $70 million contract with Phoenix last summer—wasn't going anywhere.
Dragic, who turns 29 in May, will likely soon be the highest-paid player from that triumvirate.
The Los Angeles Lakers plan to make him "an aggressive four-year offer that would be valued as high as an estimated $80 million if it approaches max-contract territory," sources told Stein. After giving up so much to get Dragic, the Heat could be ready to throw even more money his way.
That's plenty to spend on a player whose biological clock suggests he's already reached his peak, though some numbers indicate Dragic could be worth the investment.
"Dragic's per-36 averages as the lone point have been All-Star caliber," wrote ESPN Insider's Kevin Pelton. "Per Basketball-Reference.com, just three players are averaging at least 20.0 points and 7.0 assists per 36 minutes this season: Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook."
Dragic's per-36-minute marks without Bledsoe or Thomas on the floor, per Pelton, are 20.9 points and 7.4 assists.
It's anyone's guess whether Dragic can maintain that production in a featured role. He only became a full-time starter in 2012-13, and last season was the first time he'd averaged more than 14.7 points per game.
That being said, there are teams better positioned than Phoenix to maximize his output. The Suns had too many hands in the point guard pot for any of the three (or four, if you count 2014 first-round pick Tyler Ennis) to reach their full potential. Even last season, Dragic lost 1.5 assists per game from the year prior.
Dragic had clearly reached his breaking point with Phoenix, and nothing could change that. The Suns were smart to cut their losses when they did, protecting themselves against coming up empty-handed when he inevitably sought out greener pastures this summer.
This isn't about winning or losing the trade. Teams that are forced to trade their stars always struggle to find anything remotely close to equal value, let alone when that player carries a) no contract certainty and b) has taken his trade demand public.
This is about making the best of a bad situation. Dragic sounded as if he'd already moved on, so it was time for the Suns to do the same.
Maybe this move weakens Phoenix's playoff chances, but they weren't looking the healthiest as it was. The Suns limped into the All-Star break having dropped seven of their last 10 games, leaving them only a half-game clear of the finally healthy Oklahoma City Thunder for the Western Conference's No. 8 seed. Keeping a disgruntled Dragic around wasn't likely to tighten the Suns' loosening grip.
Parting with a player of his talent may have been a painful move for Phoenix, but the point guard made it a necessary one. The Suns never really had a say in the matter.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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