http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=zfhn444 Trade Dwight/Lawson/Tjones/Thorton to Miami for dragic/deng/whiteside/birdman Then send dekker and McRoberts to Phili for some highly protected second. Miami now has bird rights to Dwight, Tjones and Lawson and sheds McRoberts contract. Rockets have more talent for the playoff run this year. Get way below lux tax level this year. Can buy out birdman too and sign a vet that gets bought out. Next year Rockets can resign Whiteside and make a few moves and have enough room for a max free agent. Risk losing Whiteside in FA but will have enough money for alternatives.
I have a hard time seeing Dragic being happy playing with Harden. I loved Dragic when he was here. But I just don't think Dragic would be happy handing the ball off to Harden and then standing in the corner all game.
Harden gave the ball to Lawson plenty of times, it didn't work because Lawson did nothing with the ball. You guys are putting the focus in the wrong area. Don't let Lawson's bad play make you thing it's impossible to have another ball handler with James, Smoove does great with Harden.
If true that Morey would pay 90 million for an aging point guard rather than a rebounding power forward like Faried, then he needs to go! Faried solves two problems: power forward and point guard. Lawson plays great with Faried!!!
Dragic is a waste of time. Sick of seeing threads about this guy. If you thought Harden was a turnstile on Defense uou haven't seen nothing yet. Dragic is also shooting woefully from three point land this season. No thanks.
Dwight is so much better than Whiteside it isnt even funny and people wanna trade D12 for him??? lol gtfo
Dwight is better but Whiteside is younger and who knows what his upside is and what sort of chemistry he would have with Harden and Dmo.
It would shore up the defense, get younger/healthier, help financially and most importantly, shake up the team culture. Wouldn't upgrade at power forward, but Smith might fit in OK with that group. It wouldn't help much with shooting. I'd probably rather see them get Horford somehow.
It wasn't so long ago Dragic brought up how unhappy he was that he had to share the ball with Bledsoe in Phoenix. Would be even worse with Harden. I trust Lawson more as an all round scorer, though Dragic is the better penetrator. I've seen no evidence that Dragic can do anything at all off the ball, but Lawson certainly looks like he's adapting to that role at a reasonable rate. It's not impossible to imagine Lawson adjusting to playing off the ball, and Harden adjusting to having the ball in Lawson's hands by the time the playoffs roll around. For some reason though I cannot imagine Harden and Dragic being effective together in time for the playoffs while Dragic acclimates to new team, new system, new role. However, Dragic would be an incredible capture for a 3-way trade. We can turn Dragic into another asset easily. Also, why on earth is Miami trading Dragic? They just signed him and they're doing well. If they're not happy with results I find it FAAAAR more likely they shed Bosh or fire Spoelstra than trading the one young star they have under contract.
Dragić with Bledsoe worked pretty well. Dragić didn't mind at all, it's when he played his best basketball. The problem started when they got Thomas. Dragić was delegated to standing in the corner then.
The biggest plus would be that he would start AND basically be our 6th man. Harden comes out, Dragic slides to the 2 next to Bev. With a good rotation, you could have longer stretches without James and still have seriously good guard play. Then, they finish the game and you've just got a potent offense. I'd be down for this to happen.
Where did you get that info? If true, you can't blame him. After several years of bench-riding, he wanted to run his own team and he proved his worth during short sting in Houston and, of course, later with the Suns as All-NBA 2nd team. You can't build a team around him, but you can build a team with him as a primary ball handler because he's so unselfish. Unfortunately he quickly gets fazed by outside influences and loses confidence unless all the stars align just right (like in Houston and especially PHX). He would be a bad fit here because of Harden. Harden wanted some help with ball handling, but that means he has to play off the ball for stretches and he clearly doesn't want to do that, so there's that. A writer on Hot Hot Hoops posted a good article comparing Dragic's numbers with and without Wade on the court. Wade is having a very good season compared to last few years and likes to handle the rock a lot, so the situation is very comparable to Houston's: Now I don't want to say Houston is -7 per 48min with Harden on the floor like Wade is with Miami. I just wanted to show what a ball-dominant guard means for Dragic - not a good fit. Houston doesn't need another PG, but a shooter like Kyle Korver or Klay Thompson who can open space for Harden. And of course a healthy D-Mo.
I would disagree with you. There are at least two instances where Dragic has shown the ability to excel playing along side another Point Guard type. Him and Lowry were very good as I recall when on the court together in Houston. He had his best season when on the floor with Eric Bledsoe of the Suns. Both of those guys are ball dominate players and Dragic played exceptionally well with both.