Yeah, I get that, but while Dragic is good and I think would work well with Aldridge, I still think that the team needs a second All-Star in order to compete soon. I'd love for Nic to step up, but he hasn't shown that he has the mental attitude to go with his physical skills to be the second scoring option on a regular basis. He also doesn't get to the line the way that we need a wing player to do. Matthews is fine as a 3 pt specialist, but I cringe when he tries to drive. We need a wing player who can score from the perimeter and penetrate to draw fouls and with enough respect around the league to get the All-Star treatment from the refs. Like I said in my post, I'm fine with getting Dragic to run the point, but that's not going to be enough even with the addition of a couple of good rookies.
That's true, but it's pretty hard to just trade for a second superstar. Especially one who isn't old and done for. I kind of look at Dragic as a potential Devin Harris/New Jersey kind of signing. He didn't pan out there because of injuries and a much more pathetic supporting cast, but he was part of the deal that landed NJ Derron Williams. (Harris was paid--you guessed it--about $8m/year.)
26 is a great age, skip the "developing years", he should be right at the start of his prime. Give him a 5 year deal, he'll ve 31 when his contract is over. Of course, Williams would be the best FA possible, but he'd need twice as much Moola as Dragic. If we sign Dragic, we could potentially have enough left over to sign someone like Brook Lopez.
I didn't say it was going to be easy to get an All-Star caliber player, but that was the goal that Larry Miller was expressing last week. It happens every year that teams move top level players for a lot of different reasons. The Blazers have the ability to do an uneven trade and are likely to have the carrots of including one or both of their lottery picks in this draft. By all means, sign a guy like Dragic if he's available, but not before exploring any available options to get a real impact player.
At 26 a player often is what he is... and Dragic has had one good statistical season in his four year career. It's great that it's his most recent one, but he's not a proven commodity and he doesn't have a ton of upside. I'm not even sure he's a starting-level NBA PG in the long run. I don't want to get stuck with a guy who's only good enough to be starting on bad teams and who has little room for dramatic improvement. Ed O.
I'm not sure that's entirely true for every player. The system has a lot to do with it. Steve Nash was 30 years old when he had his breakout and that's after he went to a system that pushed the ball and played at a fast pace. Which is why I'm lobbying for the hiring of MDA. Dragic running the show and maybe even move LMA to center as a stretch-5 with Hickson running the P&R's at the 4.
^ He was stuck behind Nash in Phoenix. I remember him dominating in the playoffs a couple years back. [video=youtube;846E4rnwOCI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=846E4rnwOCI&feature=related[/video] He's a proven commodity, just stuck in bad circumstances.
I don't think this is correct--at least not how I define "breakout". Nash had four straight years of PER over 19.5 by the time he was 30. He's also an aberration in terms of his development path. I think if we sign guys hoping for the next Steve Nash we're going to have a lot more disappointments than successes. Ed O.
I saw that but you can't deny the fact that he went from all-star to MVP when he went from a middle of the pack paced team to the SSOL system.
Some guys don't break out till they get starting minutes. As a starter this year, Gragic is averaging 19 points 9 assists,while shooting a sizzling 52/44. Those are much better numbers than Jeremy Lin put up during his "Linsanity" stint as a starter.
