Dragic dumped us, because we hadn't gotten rid of Lowry, yet, no? Dragic got a better deal (from his former team), with guaranteed starter role, so he took it -- on July 5th he took that deal. He didn't really even give Morey a chance to up his offer or trade Lowry to guarantee the commitment to allow Dragic to be starter. I guess we could say the Morey already knew he was going to trade Lowry, so he should have pursued Dragic harder. But Dragic signed on July 5th. I don't think we had a chance. 00RocketsGirl and I talked to him for awhile at Summer League, and he really convinced me that it was just business and he wanted to go back to PHO. "Dumping him" is a little harsh. We would have had to do A LOT to keep him, imo.
^ and compare what the Suns did vs us, from Dragic's perspective. The Suns let Nash go ... Nash signed with Laker's on July 4th. We didn't trade Lowry until the 11th. Nash signs on the 4th and Dragic signs with his former team on the 5th. I don't think that really had anything to do with us. From July 1st, PHO was probably on the phone with Dragic constantly.
I remember most people though Dragic was better during that run he had. But I thought Lowry was definitely better, and he's proving it now. Lowry excels in all phases of the game, Dragic is more of a scorer. Anyways, this all shows that we need to be patient. Lowry and Dragic both struggled at Lin's age. Well, more Dragic because Lowry was still a net positive due to his defense, but still.
I liked Dragic a lot. The constant flopping from Lowry bugged the hell out of me and he became a huge whiner towards the end. After how last season ended, I wanted 1) Dragic, 2) Lin, 3) Lowry.
I liked both. They were about the same skill level. Both would fit well now with Harden if we could get one back.
If, just IF, Lin can improve his shooting % to say 42%, how you, or anyone else here, would compare him with Dragic/Lowry? thanks in advance
I think he would compare very favorably. His court vision is on par with Lowry's and better than Dragic's. He is a much better rebounder than Dragic. And he gets more steals than either guy. I don't think he'll be the floor general that Lowry is but he's a better penetrator. But he's gonna have to shoot better than 42%. If he can get his true shooting percentage to around 55% that would be solid.
Dragic last season was Linsanity without the media hype. He got a chance to shine when Lowry got the mysterious illness. He put up insane numbers. But Lowry was more proven.
Some of us were arguing for this point in one of meh's threads. People cried about us choosing Lin over Lowry and Dragic. That was revisionist history. Dragic was asking for more than what Morey would give, namely, the player option. So he left, besides the fact that he was not certain whether he would be the starter here. Lowry was traded because he was disgruntled, not getting along with McHale. He was also our most valuable trade asset that could get us something really good. We got Lin after we lost both of them. There was a time when it looked likely that we were going to have Douglas, Livingston, and Machado as our PGs in the coming season.
42% would actually be fine if he gets a high rate of free throws and shoots about 38% on 3-pters. I think Lowry is the only one who hasn't been benched in the 4th quarter.
