Goran Dragic on Suns: 'They're always changing something'
Miami point guard Goran Dragic looked back at his time in Phoenix and the Isaiah Thomas experiment that didn't quite work.
It sure seems like Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic did the smart thing for his career by asking the Phoenix Suns to trade him last February. The Suns hit rock bottom when they scored 22 points in a half against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, coach Jeff Hornacek told reporters, "We're not playing worth a darn" and owner Robert Sarver told the Arizona Republic that forward Markieff Morris is "the perfect example" of millenials having trouble dealing with setbacks. Dragic will visit Phoenix for the first time as a member of the Heat on Friday, and his former team is a mess.
In an interview with Yahoo Sports' Michael Lee, Dragic looked back at how things ended for him with the Suns and offered an explanation for their continued struggles:
“It feels like they’re always changing something,” Dragic told Yahoo Sports. “They’re not like Miami, San Antonio, those teams that are really loyal when they find something.”
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“Me and Bledsoe, we built really great chemistry together, we played well and the whole team did. Everybody expected that we’re going to get some big guys that we thought we needed, but they did another move, they bring in a point guard and it was tough,” Dragic told Yahoo. “I was a little bit frustrated. It was tough, especially for me, because I was playing off the ball all the time, and I was guarding [small forwards]. That was tough for me, but they did what they did.”
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“I always believe when you find some pieces that you leave those pieces [alone]. But then you upgrade the other positions. Like San Antonio is doing. They always have the Big Three, but then it’s a good team. They always find another player at another position, so they’re always good. But that’s not my call,” Dragic told Yahoo, with an uncomfortable chuckle. “I was just there to play basketball. I tried to do my job.”
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“I wish them all the best,” Dragic told Yahoo. “I already went through the season with only [25] wins … and it’s not pretty. Most of the guys, we’re really competitive and you want to win a lot of games. And when you get to that mix where you don’t win [in] like 10 games in a row, that’s really tough. That’s really tough. Everything is worse. In your personal life. Everything. I always say I’m hurting sometimes, have a lot of injuries. But if you win a game, I feel great. But if you lose the game, those injuries, they come up. I don’t know how to explain it, winning is such a unique thing.”
Dragic stated the extremely obvious when saying that "it was tough" after Phoenix acquired Isaiah Thomas. The Suns managed to get him on an unbelievable contract -- four years, $27 million -- but it created an awkward logjam with three All-Star-caliber point guards trying to share minutes and share the ball. When both Thomas and Dragic were shipped out on trade deadline day, it left the league wondering exactly what Phoenix was thinking the previous summer. The pivot to a Brandon Knight-Eric Bledsoe backcourt could and should work out in the long-term, but the path the front office has taken has been strange.
More than Dragic, I'd love to know Bledsoe's honest thoughts on where the team is going. He chose to re-sign with the organization, probably thinking that Dragic would stick around, after the two of them almost led the Suns to the playoffs two years ago. Now only Morris and P.J. Tucker have been on the team longer than him, and it seems like Morris is on his way out. I'm guessing that Bledsoe wouldn't exactly disagree with his former backcourt partner.
