Swing and a miss. The point isn't comparing him to a specific player... why is everyone so insistent on doing so? Dragic is not Collison, he is not Lowry, he is Dragic. And no matter how much ClutchFans wants to feverishly hump his leg, Dragic's sample size of playing at this level (and don't give me the "he played well off the bench" argument, because it's not the same) is SEVENTEEN games. It's simply not enough.
I think they probably did and still do. Nash and Nowitzki could have been a multi-year championship legacy and an immortal duo. They got their championship, but that could have been a legendary team.
Ding ding ding. Winner. Anybody who points to Dragic's bench performance as some kind of way to explain his sudden meteoric rise is kidding themselves. While Goran played competently off the bench, nothing he did as a reserve gave anybody a substantial clue he would be this explosive 17 games into starting. As we've seen in the past, players can play amazingly for half a season (or more) and then come back down to Earth. It should give us all reasonable pause when evaluating our PG situation this offseason.
Isn't that the same thing as Lowry when he won the starting job after about 15 games when AB was hurt? This place is amazing some times...lol. DD
Not really, since a lot of people were behind Kyle from day 1 of the Brooks/Lowry debate. Plus Kyle was logging 25 minutes a game off the bench, substantially more than Goran's 17 (better quality minutes, too). We had much more data and background on Kyle, especially in a Rockets uni, when he took over compared to Dragic. People saw Kyle's natural ability from a mile away and were calling for it long before he became the starter. With Dragic, crap just came outta nowhere. Who here was calling for Goran to start late last year or early this year? (Answer: nobody) That, and Kyle wasn't/isn't a UFA. Completely different situations.
$20 to the tip jar? Though I'm not exactly sure what the bet would be. It's hard to set objective numbers across a guy's entire stat line (9 different variables).
Dragic was a decent backup, while Lowry was one of the best reserves in the league in 09-10. Lowry, IMO, played much better for us off the bench than Dragic did. So I wouldn't say its the same at all. HOWEVER, the way Dragic has been playing for the last month exceeds what Lowry did as a starter, and he exhibits more natural physical talent. Dragic has a much higher chance of becoming a legitimate all-star, though I think he is also more likely to regress to backup-level.
That's not really true. He's been very inconsistent as a backup. If he was this good, Morey wouldn't have let him become a free agent or threw him in in the Gasol trade. That said, I think Dragic is for real.
No, it's not. Circumstances are completely different. Brooks was being outplayed by Kyle. The team was always worse without Kyle, the team was always better with Kyle. Even when Brooks was on the floor. One guy was outplaying the starter before he landed the starting job, the other didn't. Then you also have contract situations and cap flexibility to look into. Apples and oranges, you cannot compare the two.
You'll probably have trouble getting me to agree to whatever that bet is anyway, for a couple of reasons. 1) I'm not going to actively root for Dragic to do poorly, or to fail to maintain this level of play. 2) I'm kind of a Goran agnostic right now. I don't actively believe that his production will taper off, I just don't think that there is enough evidence to say whether it will or it won't. You of all people should understand that.
I disagree, a lot of people saw Dragic's ability, they saw it in Phoenix, and saw it last year when he got to start. Either way Dragic is the better player with the higher upside, and good GM's find ways to KEEP the best players. DD
Bullcrap revisionist history. Show me any post where someone is calling for Dragic to start over Lowry before 2012. I'd be amazed if you can produce even one.
Lowry didn't explode. He got more minutes, and put up corresponding numbers. The only significant difference was his 3 point percentage. Goran, on the other hand, has increased his production far more than his minutes.
I'm sure there were one or two. All opinions, no matter how extreme, are represented here. Still, you're right, Lowry had a well-deserved reputation as a very good player. Dragic turned heads with his playoff performance that one year, but was disappointing last year in Phoenix and inconsistent as a backup with the Rockets. He was definitely not on a path to earn an MLE contract as Lowry did.
This board loves to fall in love with it's players as fast as they love to pile on them. From the looks of it here Dragic is the best PG free agent this offseason....wait, Williams, Nash and Kidd are all free agents this offseason?
Dragic would be number 2 on that list... 1. DWill 2. Dragic 3. Nash 4. Kidd Dragic is someone that you can build around for years.....the only other one like that is Dwill....and Dragic may eventually be better than him. DD
WTF? Lowry had never shown he could shoot the ball that well, he was shooting like 39% and when he became the starter, he increased all across the board, that is fairly unusual, and then to sustain it is even more unusual, thus the parallel with Dragic. People fell in love with Lowry because he played hard, pushed the tempo, played good D, and attacked the basket.....a lot of that went away when he got the starters gig, but his shooting went way up. DD