Dragic has shown himself to play effectively enough in 2 PG sets with 2 ballhandlers more effectively than Lin has shown. While Dragic does need the ball, Lin is almost NOTHING without dominating the ball. Dragic has a little more actual "combo guard" in him, which I think its a better fit on the Rockets. (But that 4th year option of his, it messes up flexibity in making moves. I dont think its THAT detrimental, but its still burdensome)
Posts like this just shows confirmation bias. Has Gogi ever played with a ball-dominated SG like Harden? Has he played in a scheme that asks him to play the two extensively? You could say it happened last season before Lowry got injured. Dragic was nothing special then either, playing behind Lowry (check his stats/splits). Lin? Did he stand around on the Knicks? Seems like the first time he got a real chance, he took over the whole team off the bench, became the starter, and took over the team until Melo returned, and still played a big role on that team. I'll concede Lin isn't a better player than Gogi right now, and Gogi has a better 3pt shot, and might fit in better if the purpose was to let Harden play iso-ball. But the Rockets aren't better as a team with Harden playing iso-ball (and Harden is quite inefficient in this role) ... so I don't know if there's any real good arguments around. Let alone a comparison about two player's confidence levels ...
The problem isn't what lin does with the ball, it's what he does without. Teams are basically ignoring him at the 3Pt line, in lieu of shadowing Harden and cutting of his lanes. He is shooting 29% while getting wide open shots. And when he does have the ball, he lack of a 3 ball is cutting off his own driving lanes. Dragic is struggling with his 3 this year, but his 3's are often contested, and teams don't ignore him. A Dragic/Harden combo would give us 2 attacking guards, which we though we had with Lin, but his 3 ball, or lack thereof is screwing everything up. Neither player is much of a distributor, Dragic is a better defensive player. I think the upgrade is significant enough to warrant the player option, because teams would be force to respect Dragic which they simply aren't doing with Lin. Harden would get even better. Not that Les would ever do this, but It would make us much better IMO.
Dragic has never shown that he is an elite spot up 3-point shooter and defensively a Harden/Dragic backcourt is a joke. Harden and Dragic are very similar in terms of skills and if Dragic was a great catch and shoot guard and that plays lock down defense along with some playmaking, then he will be in a great fit to Harden , but not in the context of Hardenball. Basically, the ideal partner for Harden is Jimmy Butler with a jumpshot.
Dragic is an excellent defensive PG, and his 3P shot is better than Lin's. I would love to have him back, but only if it's a deal along the lines of Lin + a second rounder, or Lin + Royce White (lol), or some such. I wouldn't give up much to make the upgrade.
Why can't we just accept Harden is better as a 2, and more efficient when he is set-up, and is a great playmaker on secondary opportunities? Rockets have played better, Harden has been incredibly efficient, the PG position is better (whether it is Lin or a hypothetic Dragic running it). Why must the Rockets play Harden as PG? Haven't we had enough of games 3-10 this year, and the recent losing streak? Didn't our winning streak and our last two games show that it is actually better if Harden isn't the PG? Or at least Harden the SG is pretty damn good already? I've said earlier that I don't think Lin is a better player than Dragic right now, and Dragic is definitely the better shooter. I think factoring Lin's playmaking (creating shots at rim, corner 3s), his defense (rebounds + steals + team defense) ... Dragic is not a significant upgrade to Lin, especially if we just let PG play PG and SG play SG. Factoring Dragic's usage and him being a primary option (or rather Suns not having a clear-cut primary option), I don't think he has done that well in Phoenix. I personally thought he would better, and he actually probably still is. Just a difficult situation in Phoenix. But then again, the Rocket's PG situation this year hasn't been easy either. If we had Rondo or Lowry + Harden ... probably mutiny already.
Dragic and Lowry can shoot, and they both played well with Courtney Lee and Martin who took plenty of shots on the floor. Nobody would be complaining about Lin if he could shoot worth a lick.
If Lin could create a shot I wouldn't have a problem with his game. As of now he can't he probes the lane 70% of the time and passes it to the Playmaker (Harden) while spotting up for 3. That's it. What makes it worse is he can't shoot for ****. Lin is a jack of all trades and a master of none right now. He either needs to learn how to finish around the rim ala D-Wade or figure out a 3 point shot ala Jason Kidd.
Yeah, but he's overpaid...and for 3 more years. I think Morey probably gives Lin another year to make it work, and after that, he's an expiring contract anyway. As much as I'd like to see a Harden-Dragic backcourt, I think if Morey thought he was worth the money, he wouldn't have let him walk...and that was before Dragic underperformed.
I don't agree that Dragic is underperforming though, his PER is about the same as last year with increased usage. Yeah, he's not matching his fantastic numbers from that one stretch last season, but if he were, he'd be a max player, and he's certainly not getting paid anywhere close to the max. I think he would be performing better in a better situation anyway.
They had gogi and then tried to sign eric gordon, does that say anything to you about how disorganized this club is? Two highly paid pg's!
