Official:Goran Dragic headed to Phoenix

[MaryvalesFinest]

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/ar ... nline.html

Dragic headed to Phoenix
Paul Coro - Aug. 17, 2008 02:30 PM
The Arizona Republic
Suns second-round draft pick Goran Dragic reached a buyout agreement with Spanish club Tau Ceramica and is en route to Phoenix to sign a contract to play for the Suns this season.

Dragic ended more than seven weeks of negotiations with the Spanish club by signing a buyout agreement Saturday night, his agent, Rade Filipovich, told The Arizona Republic on Sunday. Dragic is on his way to Phoenix with a verbal agreement that he will sign a four-year contract early this week with the Suns, Filipovich said. The deal's fourth year will be a team option.

Dragic, a 22-year-old Slovenian, is pegged to become the backup point guard to Steve Nash, 34, this season and the Suns brass sees him as the franchise's point guard of the future. The Suns considered the idea of drafting Dragic with their 15th overall pick in June if Robin Lopez, their eventual first-round pick, was not available. They ranked Dragic second only to the top overall pick, Chicago's Derrick Rose, among all point guards in the draft.
"From Day 1, he wanted to end up with Phoenix," Filipovich said. "It was very important for us to put him with the team this year.

"He's very excited. People in Phoenix are going to be very happy. He's going to be a very good player for several years. The Suns fans are getting an excellent player and should be very excited because he's playing great basketball and he's a great young man."

The Suns privately were optimistic about the chances of bringing Dragic aboard this season even though his contract with Tau did not provide for a buyout until next summer.

Phoenix secretly had flown Dragic in for a workout four days before the draft and he returned to Slovenia without meeting any other NBA team.

There were hurdles to overcome for a buyout, including a court case that Dragic's former Slovenian team won against Tau to ultimately give it rights to a percentage of any buyout. Filipovich said Dragic became nervous last month that he would not be able to join the Suns this season.

Dragic would have had to pay a $1.5 million buyout to leave Tau next summer. The Suns are allowed to contribute $500,000 to a buyout. Dragic must pay the rest, driving up the price of his starting salary with the Suns. Terms of the buyout or his impending Suns deal have not been disclosed but Dragic was expected to make nearly $2 million in his first season.

"Think of all the NBA players that went the opposite direction this summer," Filipovich said. "It was very important. He's like a top-10 pick."

After initially targeting Tyronn Lue to be the backup and have Dragic come into a low-pressure role, the Suns changed plans when Lue chose a more lucrative offer with Milwaukee. The Suns wanted Dragic to be their backup point guard and chose to wait for resolution on his buyout patiently. They figured it was more beneficial to Dragic and the team to have him join Phoenix immediately rather than choose one of the available free agents who would be willing to take a veteran's minimum offer with the Suns.

"When I was a kid, it was my dream to play in the NBA and it's come true," Dragic told The Arizona Republic days after he was drafted by Phoenix. "It was my wish that the Suns pick me."

Dragic, a lefthander who is 6 feet 4 and 181 pounds, was property of Tau but was loaned to play in the Adriatic and Slovenian leagues last season. He has a 37 1/2-inch vertical leap and a 6-foot-7 wingspan.

"He's unusual," Suns Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin said in late June after Phoenix traded a second-round pick and $500,000 to San Antonio to move up three spots and take him 45th overall. "He's lefthanded and very athletic. He attacks the rim with a sort of abandon and is polished with a good feel of the game. He could be erratic as a shooter but is mechanically sound and we feel we can work with him on the rest."

Dragic's addition puts Phoenix's roster at 13 players, the minimum number they are required to keep. The Suns are not expected to exceed 13.

[jlove_26]

Before anyone says anything about the article saying we only have 12 players under contract, that was earlier, which mean the Suns after getting Dragic on board picked up the option on DJ.

The article has been changed accordingly. Now at the end of the article it say "Dragic's addition puts Phoenix's roster at 13 players, the minimum number they are required to keep. The Suns are not expected to exceed 13.

[TXSun]

now I believe it!! this is great!

C-Shaq/Lopez
PF-Amare/Diaw/Amundson
SF-Hill/Barnes/Tucker
SG-Bell/Barbosa/Strawberry
PG-Nash/Dragic

[MaryvalesFinest]

Before anyone says anything about the article saying we only have 12 players under contract, that was earlier, which mean the Suns after getting Dragic on board picked up the option on DJ.

The article has been changed accordingly. Now at the end of the article it say "Dragic's addition puts Phoenix's roster at 13 players, the minimum number they are required to keep. The Suns are not expected to exceed 13.

Thanks i'll change that.

[eastsidecrossover]

franchise's point guard of the future

Thats a good one. I personally do not see it in Dragic. I see an ok PG, but no "Franchise PG" in him. To me, this is Kerr putting his usual spin on his moves. Like last year, Marks could be the MIP, and good solid rotation player etc. He was a back up in spain at 22, and most likely, he is not going to be an amazing PG like Kerr thinks.

But thats me. Im not high no the kid as the future at all.

[Mr. Sun]

Im not high no the kid as the future at all.

Everyone said the same thing about Michael Cooper who was picked at the bottom of the 3rd round.

[Mr. Sun]

I should add Sandy Koufax was considered a bum who would never make it as a big leaguer.

[The76thDegree]

nice for you guys - i wanted him on the sixers but TS i guess - i look forward to our regular season meetings and i hope Dragon gets some PT so i can see for myself how good he is

cheers

[flanpaw42]

i like our rotation, that is pretty solid. i like the depth and i think all but amundson and tucker are legit rotation players. i mean i would be happier if we got one more vet pg. i am not excited at all to give gragic the keys if nash goes down.

i dont think dragic will stink it up, but i dont think he should be relied to play heavy minutes.

[rsavaj]

franchise's point guard of the future

Thats a good one. I personally do not see it in Dragic. I see an ok PG, but no "Franchise PG" in him. To me, this is Kerr putting his usual spin on his moves. Like last year, Marks could be the MIP, and good solid rotation player etc. He was a back up in spain at 22, and most likely, he is not going to be an amazing PG like Kerr thinks.

But thats me. Im not high no the kid as the future at all.

+1. As far as I'm concerned, DJ's more valuable to us than Dragic is until Goran proves otherwise.

[BurningHeart]

Nice!

Now, is it Dra-gich or Dra-jich?

[b-ball forever]

It's on!

DJ Strabs vs Dragic, FIGHT!


I like that we got him this year, we could really use his defense and actually having a real backup PG that lets Barbosa play his natural SG spot basically fulltime, as well as rest the aging Nash/Raja.
Terry Porter, being known for doing a good job polishing young guards, will have his hands full between Barbs, DJ, and Dragic.

The price is high for a 2nd rounder for sure, but we've def had worse as backup PG with Banks in the past. Dam the PG spot being so hard to fill out properly!

For the negatives, I'm more worried bout his ballhandling then his shooting. The guy's a turnover machine, and we're already stacked with those. His jumpshot on the other hand seems to have become pretty much decent.

The Suns management needa cut it out with the overhype of our offseason aquisitions tho (like last year with Marks, and with Banks a couple years ago).
Labelling him straight up as our future franchise PG is expecting too much and might put uneeded pressure on him.

Welcome to Phoenix Dragic (sounds like vampire name, I like)

[A.J.]

Nice signing by you guys.

[nashill]

franchise's point guard of the future

Thats a good one. I personally do not see it in Dragic. I see an ok PG, but no "Franchise PG" in him. To me, this is Kerr putting his usual spin on his moves. Like last year, Marks could be the MIP, and good solid rotation player etc. He was a back up in spain at 22, and most likely, he is not going to be an amazing PG like Kerr thinks.

But thats me. Im not high no the kid as the future at all.

i see a potential in him. its just a matter of how to bring the best in him. motivate and develop his potentials... good signing i think.

[Phoenix1977]

See...and you guys didn't believe me when I said it would probably be this week that he signed. Sheesh.

[lilfishi22]

The Suns considered the idea of drafting Dragic with their 15th overall pick in June if Robin Lopez, their eventual first-round pick, was not available. They ranked Dragic second only to the top overall pick, Chicago's Derrick Rose, among all point guards in the draft.

[/quote]

For real?? They were going to draft Dragic if LOPEZ wasn't available?? I thought there were a lot of talent left after the 15th pick. But Dragic at 15? Why did so many team pass up on him until the Sterns found out about our intentions and routed us with a deal for Dragic?

I've seen only a few videos of Dragic and I don't see a "franchise player" in him. Maybe I've just been watching too much of Spain in the Olympics and every time I think we got our Euro guy, I keep picturing Ricky Rubio, then realize it's just Dragic..

As for the rest of the roster, I see everybody making a little impact in their own way, except for Tucker. Even if he gets a half decent 3pt shot, I don't see him making a big impact for us. He hasn't got great D, he can't run a team and his best position (PF) is obviously out of the question with his size in the NBA. I've never thought he was a good pick for us, not because he was the "best" player at our draft position, but because when you make a living playing the 4 in college it's hard to learn how to play a perimeter game all of a sudden. Hopefully he does improve and proves me wrong.

DJ on the other hand, I see big things for him. He should just practice shooting like 1000 3pt's a day. He'll be a young Bell, be the perfect role player, shoot 3's and defend. If he can shoot like Bell, I can see him having a solid career in the NBA on any team.

Amundson, I'm not too sure about either. He looks like a great energy guy and a decent defender, but i haven't seen enough of him yet. However, I do like the moves out FO is making in getting defense at all our positions. We got Lopez, Amundson, Barnes/Hill, DJ and maybe dragic.

This team is starting to look real good and we have a good balance of vets and youth. We can still play small ball for a little bit as well, with a lineup of: Amare, Diaw, Barnes, Barbs and Nash. I feel like our FO has worked well with Porter to get him the defensive pieces he needs.

Now for our championship, let's get it done!

[ma_falaa_50]

so DBdynasty what can you tell us about this guy? Is he as good as kerr says he is?

[Phoenix1977]

Well...I haven't seen him all that much. Just a few highlight tapes that haven't been released to the public at the arena, but that's about it. He's definitely fearless...so that's a good trait to have. They worried that he wouldn't shoot it all that well, but if any of you saw that workout tape he has (when he came to visit) you know he can stroke it. But that's about all I've got. He's a few years out from running the team...which is good, cuz that's what Nash is for!

[NashtyNas]

FINALLY. I don't understand why there's so much hate on this guy.. just remember, he was widely considered a top-15 pick by the Suns FO, and I don't give much credit to them for their stupid moves early on, but with the amazing pickups in Grant Hill and Brian Skinner, I believe this to be a good pick / signing along with the 2 other acquisitions. I doubt Tucker breaks the rotation this year though. I think we'll look something like this rotation wise.

Shaq/Lopez/Stoudemire
Stoudemire/Diaw/Amundson
Barnes/Hill/Diaw (or Hill starts)
Bell/Barbosa/DJ
Nash/Dragic/DJ

That's 12, and the guys that will get rare playing time would be DJ/Amundson. 5 Bigs is a must on the active roster IMO though, so Amundson is on and Tucker is off for sure. 4 Bigs just wont cut it in the West, especially when 2 of them aren't natural C's and the one that can slide to center is just sh*t on defense.

[BadWolf]

Nice!

Now, is it Dra-gich or Dra-jich?

don't know how to to it
think of drag, but say a like in mars, and add ich at the end