There's been comments around the forums, so I thought we could discuss this prospect more directly. I've said before, why do people dismiss a starting backcourt of Lowry and Dragic. They are our top two players and the best players this organization has brought in since T-Mac. I know Dragic might not be here next year because of free agency, but I believe we should do anything outside of the extreme (max-contract) to keep Dragic. Potential negatives to starting and keeping both: 1) Size of both can't keep up with other sg's in the league. 2) Who becomes the alpha dog? 3) It's not traditional to start two pg's 4) Both need the ball in their hands Refutal of Arguments: 1) Size is good to have, but having good size only implies better rebounding and defense. Both Lowry and Dragic are good defenders and even better rebounders for their position. 2) This is an ego problem. Good thing both players have a team first mentality and are not models of the new primadonna NBA. While there definitely has been alpha dogs on championship teams, the myth of every team needing an alpha dog is just an ESPN construct. We've seen both players perform above themselves (although not greatly above themselves) in crunch time. 3) So what if it's not traditional. Sailing across the Atlantic Ocean used to be non traditional. Believing the Earth was not the center of the universe used to be traditional. A passing quarterback used to be nontraditional. Ideas can change, that's what makes the human race special. If it's working, let's be innovative rather than traditional. Let's be pioneers. 4) Both players are good with the ball in their hands. But guess what, both are good spot up shooters. Let both of them operate in the flow of the game. It's not like one would be rendered useless when the ball is in the other's hands. Pro's to starting and keeping both 1) There's really only one: they're good players who play hard and fit the Rockets blue collar culture. They fight to the end and never back down. Why wouldn't you want to root for them for years to come? Besides, like I said before, they're the best players we've brought in awhile. When you get talent, you need to keep that talent. Get ready for the Dragon Hustle era folks!
Sorry to burst your bubble but they are PGs and it's not like either one is like Abdul-Rauf who was small, could pass but a deadly scorer so played 2-guard a lot but outside of a few games in case of injury, he did not even start at SG. It's not going to work, SGs will eat Lowry/ Dragic for lunch and you need a PG fresh off the bench. I don't mind of we get a defensive monster of a PF who can block shots and stand his ground. Still who is going to play SG off the bench, since Lee and Martin will not accept a bench role again? Let's hope either player can accept coming off the bench, put the team first and make sure our PG rotation is settled for years to come, thus can be unselfish which history tells us will not happen. I don't blame them though with the way Morey and Leslie do business.
Why wouldn't Lee accept a backup role? If he's coming back next year (Morey said he will), he would just be a super backup. Lineup rotations would go something like this: start Lowry and Dragic and play for let's say 7 min, bring in Lee for Lowry or Dragic (who ever is playing better stays in), after 5-7 minutes sub Lowry for Dragic or Dragic for Lowry with Lee playing a good chunk of minutes at the 2. We would have a pg on the floor at all times, Lowry and Dragic would only be on the floor together probably 5-10 more minutes more than they usually are. We said before Lowry wouldn't be a good starter despite his success in his bench minutes. We also said the same with Dragic. The idea of them not being able to play together is just like they couldn't start. By the way, which sg would "thrash" them? Their both good defenders; you have to evaluate based on film, not on their player card. It isn't conventional, but it will work. We've seen it when they play together.
Imagine Dragic guarding Kobe. Or Wade, Harden, Joe Johnson, Ginobli. Even Evan Turner would make Dragic his son. Lowry and Dragic are PGs. Not SGs.
Dragic and Lowry have both covered elite sg's. It takes team defense to stop elite players. Remember this post when you start seeing more Lowry/Dragic lineups coming up.
When did Morey say Lee is coming back? I know he is a Restricted FA but given Morey's past, he isn't going to match an offer if another team offers him $8-$9 million a year or something...
He said it in a recent interview. There's always a chance he won't match, but the offers won't be that large, so Morey will very likely match.
It's also the correct tactical move on dealing with restricted free agents. Say that you'll match anything to maybe scare off some suitors.
Ideally we end up with a 3-man (or maybe 4-man on any given night) rotation at the two guard spots. In a perfect world, either Lowry or Dragic starts, and the other will come off the bench. But because of the fact that they can and do play well together in stretches, depending on matchups, one could easily envision a scenario where the 96 minutes available between the two guard spots gets broken up pretty evenly between Lowry, Dragic and Lee. This assumes Martin will not be here next year, and we will of course need a backup 1 & 2 in case one of the PG's goes down, or Lee goes down (heaven forbid) It's pretty clear that McHale likes to keep things steady at about a 9-man rotation. In my ideal scenario (barring Morey trading for a 'superstar' of course) would be: Lowry - Dragic - Lee manning the 1 & 2 Parsons - Budinger - Morris manning the 3, with Parsons being the 'floater' defender to check high-powered 2's, 3's and occasionally even some 4's (again depending on who it is) Scola - Patterson - Montiejunas manning the 4 Camby - Dalembert manning the 5 (praying we keep both, that is now amazingly a strength of the team, if you can believe that!! A defensive rebounding 5 in the game 90% of the time?? On the Rockets?? No way. Yes way!) That's 11 of the full roster, so maybe we can keep someone like Boykins, maybe the young big down on the Vipers, and some other warm bodies. All eleven of those guys would not regularly see the floor. I am seriously doubting that both Bud and Morris are here next year. My gut tells me that Bud will be gone, because he has a higher value than Morris right now, just because Morris hasn't been given the opportunity to show anything yet. And Montie will spend at least half a year learning.. maybe he will bust out in the 2nd half of his first year, like Scola did. In any case, Martin gone, Bud prolly gone, Montie in, Dagic & Lowry both stay, Lee stays, Camby & Samby stay. The main thing about this lineup is that is is versatile. That versatility is what will alow the team to keep both Lowry and Dragic and keep them both active enough to be happy, getting plenty of minutes, so that is really becomes kind of a moot point as to who is starting. That roster could play anythign from super small ball to twin-towers for brief stretches. Of course this also doesn't include draft picks, but as the season winds down, and particularly if we have any kind of post-season success, I can see Morey trading some picks into the future, or else we may wind up with another Morris situation, where we draft someone fairly high and then they just don't see the floor. No matter how it shakes out, it should be a fun ride.
totally agree about the 3-man rotation at the two guard positions. The Parsons-Bud SF rotation is sound. I have concerns with our 4 and 5 positions, so if we are trading guys like Martin, Llull, Morris, and Pat, I'm hoping the rotation you mention is augmented quite a bit with a couple really good front-court players. If it is, we could be on our way to real contention.
I would definitely consider convincing Dragic to be the Manu Ginobli of Houston (Sorry for making that conparison, btw)
i dont think so they both want to run the point of course they cant say that in interviews, but they are not pure sg they both point guards so i guess morey will decide to keep goran and try to put kyle in a package for a high pick or some caliber/allstar player
Exactly. I'm not COMPLETELY against using our excess PG skill to trade to upgrade to another position. At the same time, there's no reason we can't use it just to have a damn awesome backcourt. You sell it to Lowry (or maybe Dragic, but probably Lowry) like this: we love the way you and Gogi play together, but we also need a starter who can guard any SG in the league, or guard lesser SFs when Parsons takes a big SG. You and Dragic can't do that full time. BUT...on a night to night basis, Dragic can grab, say, 15 minutes of SG duty a game. Split 96 minutes evenly with Dragic and Lee, take the minor ego ding of not starting, win a 6th man of the year award, and be a part of a near-elite backcourt that will only continue to improve. If we're playing a Thunder type where you cannot ever afford to play two small defenders, then Dragic and Lowry both drop a few minutes rather than Lowry getting benched. take a single negative - the ego hit of
Do you think Kevin Martin is better at that? I am pretty sure that both Lowry and Dragic are infinitely better defenders than Kevin Martin. We have Parsons and Lee for that on the defensive side. Other than the Heat and Oklahoma, no teams really have a double punch from the 2/3 position that would not allow it for us to switch Parsons over on the defensive side of the ball.
