Goran Dragic and the Suns Media Day

by Seth Pollack on Sep 21, 2009 12:29 PM MST in Phoenix Suns News

Highlights from Slovenian phenom and future hall of fame Nash replacement Goran Dragic! (too much hype?)

Goran was in street clothes today at the Suns practice facility (sponsored by some company who isn't paying me to publish their name). I was in hurry and didn't get a chance to chat with him but I am looking forward to catching up with our young prospect at some point this week and if not then certainly next Monday at the big media day scrum.

Oh, and Amare almost ran me over as I was exiting the door to said un-named practice facility. Say what you want about his defense on the court, he stopped me cold.

As for media day next week, I am VERY MUCH looking for your thoughts and ideas on what questions you want to see asked and answered.

And please leave the goofy stuff to Zona Flash. I really am interested to hear what legitimate questions you have for the team. Leave your questions in the comments below or email me directly.

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9 days till training camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by SunsFTW on Sep 21, 2009 1:10 PM MST reply actions

GO SUNS!!!!!!!!!!!

"Yeah I could have been king, but maybe I already am king. Hail to the king baby." Ash from Army of Darkness

by Turambar on Sep 21, 2009 1:36 PM MST up reply actions

West side is a wasteland

I almost hate to contribute now as my suggestions have been so discounted and marginalized as goofy.

But I am a fan, and would like to make the following suggestion.

Can you start a few interviews off like this?

“Hey, So-and-so, we care about you, so we’d like to advise you of a few things. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be repeated endlessly in a blogger court of public opinion by fanboys in their momma’s basements. You have the right to have a press agent present during questioning. If you cannot afford a PR rep, the Phoenix Suns might assign one for you. Do you understand these rights?

Now, makin whoopie on gameday – help or hurt? How much is too much on the day of the game? Enquiring minds…."

You can call it the BSotS Miranda Rights.

This season will be even better as long as I'm drinking while watching!

by ZonaFlash on Sep 21, 2009 1:43 PM MST reply actions

Wow, at 3:30 in the video, Dragic totally rejected Ricky

Now, if only Dragic played half this good during Suns games…. watching a Suns-Nuggets game this past season, I always saw Dragic as kinda like Nash without the ball-handling skills, soccer skills, crazy hair, and three-point shot.

"I always believe there's a reason why you go through everything." -John Elway

by LACK on Sep 21, 2009 3:37 PM MST reply actions

I love that language

by egp the great on Sep 21, 2009 3:42 PM MST reply actions

those were highlights?

how many games were those sampled from?

Because I don’t know if the following are considered NBA highlights: a rebound. A “steal” where the ball is passed right to you. Defensively staying in front of your defender.

I mean the best we see here is a 3 point shot and a couple steals. I don’t see anything to get terribly excited about. He still looks very awkward dribbling for a pure point guard, and gets blown by on defense with not enough quickness. Supposedly he has a pretty good vertical leap which I have seen maybe once or twice. I wonder if his size could make him a bench shooting guard, because his shot is something thaat is good but can definitely become a lot better. As for ball handling skills and quickness, he leaves something to desired.

Don’t get me wrong he seems like a nice enough kid, but there is a certain raw talent you have to have to be in the NBA and he just doesn’t seem quick enough.

Do you guys think that a boost in confidence can change some of these things? I hope so.

by PHXgp on Sep 21, 2009 4:24 PM MST reply actions

The highlight were sampled from one game of 27 Dragic minutes.

Goran Dragic is NOT a pure point guard. Even coach Zdovc wanted him to be the backup SG (with Beno Udrih and Jaka Lakovic playing PG). Beno Udrih’s injury complicated things, forced Zdovc to order another SG (Samo Udrih, Beno’s older brother) and made Dragic Slovenia’s only backup PG. He still played mostly off the ball.

by Oren on Sep 21, 2009 4:53 PM MST up reply actions

well i suppose

that 27 minutes of action isnt enough for a highlight reel. He still looks really uneasy with the ball in his hands and that is what worries me.

by PHXgp on Sep 21, 2009 7:21 PM MST up reply actions

There's a reason he barely played as a playmaker.

I believe there were at least dozen of available European PG prospects who could have been available via the draft over the last 2-3 years. In my opinion, a player like Nick Calathes will end up a much better PG than Dragic (even though he won’t come over for a while).
Dragic’s price was way too high (while also allowed the Spurs to grab DeJuan Blair the pick we traded for him), and I just don’t see him ending up a starting caliber NBA Point Guard.

by Oren on Sep 22, 2009 2:46 AM MST up reply actions

Help me out

How does one weed out the Sarunas Jasikevicius’ in favor of the Tony Parkers? Sarunas seemed highly successful in Europe, but just couldn’t make the leap to the NBA.

Any idea what NBA scouts are and should be looking for?

This season will be even better as long as I'm drinking while watching!

by ZonaFlash on Sep 22, 2009 8:03 AM MST up reply actions

I know the "Saras" case pretty well

He played 2 years for Maccabi Tel-Aviv, won all 6 titles the team was competing for (including 2 Euroleague championships), became a superstar in Europe and a fan-favorite in Israel. The Israeli media followed him very closely while playing (and mostly not playing) overseas.
Saras was the star in Maccabi although he was a bad defensive player. Maccabi could cover his defensive flaws by using a zone defense and playing him along with two great perimeter defenders (one of them was Anthony Parker).
Coming to the Pacers, Saras played a complementary role under Rick Carlisle and needed to focus mostly on shooting, ball-handling and, well, defense. He couldn’t fit that role and was benched by Carlisle.

Henry Abbott had a great post about Saras’ failure 2 years (minus a day) ago. I believe it’s worth reading, as it covers a lot of the European PG’s possible difficulities adapting to the NBA.

I think NBA scouts should be looking for a pass-first PG with a good court vision, decent shooting range and especially an ability to stand in front of extremely athletic NBA guards. European players usually aren’t blessed with great athletisicm, and their lack of lateral quickness makes most of them a defensive liability in the NBA. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Steve Nash is the most European PG ever who isn’t European at all…

Players like Nando De-Colo, Petteri Koponen, Nick Calathes (who is expected to play behind Saras this year in Panathanaikos) and of course Ricky Rubio, all look like natural Nash successors.

by Oren on Sep 22, 2009 3:47 PM MST up reply actions 1 recs

will check it out

ty for the very knowledgeable post!

This season will be even better as long as I'm drinking while watching!

by ZonaFlash on Sep 22, 2009 6:25 PM MST up reply actions

sure :)

by Oren on Sep 23, 2009 2:37 PM MST up reply actions

wow got done -

pretty damning assessment of the hopes for nba caliber european pg talent.

This season will be even better as long as I'm drinking while watching!

by ZonaFlash on Sep 22, 2009 6:33 PM MST up reply actions

ask him what he thought of “ricky business” and whether his outside shot has improved this summer.

by sunsdotcom on Sep 21, 2009 6:52 PM MST reply actions

ask him how much weight hes gained this off season

by dontTradeAaronNelson! on Sep 21, 2009 8:25 PM MST reply actions

a question.

ask what the general sentiment on clark’s level of readiness for the NBA level. i know it’ll probably be the “he’ll have to fight for minutes between amundson and dudley, blah blah blah” business, but maybe someone will say something different about the kid.

also, i’d like to know what the suns are planning on doing with the starting rotation. we may very well have to wait until the season opener to see if it’s going to be lopez starting at C with amar’e at PF, or amar’e at C and frye at PF. or even frye at C and amar’e at PF? who knows?!

Headlights, deer, and the Suns this season, the Golan Heights from Slovenia, in their own time, affecting half of the court seized Dragic is expected to come a point guard. We will be displayed.

by Trevor Paxton on Sep 21, 2009 9:05 PM MST reply actions

I heard

that on the latest Suns TV broadcast last weekend that Gentry said on camera that Frye would be the starting Center. Who knows though. I think we’ll be 100% sure when camp starts/finishes

by SunsFTW on Sep 22, 2009 10:11 AM MST up reply actions