5. This Is A Business
This is the most obvious fact. A week ago, most Suns fans winced at the idea of trading Goran Dragic and he still had their adoration as the face of the franchise. Now, the fan base seems to split in half between people that will miss their favorite player and those “Good riddance!” spit-on-the-ground-at-the-mere-mention-of-his-name types.
Whatever your position, the NBA is a business and this is sometimes the inevitable, unfortunate result of that truth. Did fans love Dragic a week ago? Yes. Would it have been nice to keep him around? Yes. But did the Suns, despite some alleged stubbornness from Robert Sarver, do the right thing by trading him? Again, yes.
It might have been tempting to side with Sarver and want to try and salvage the relationship with the Dragon:
But by bringing in a starting caliber point guard in Isaiah Thomas, and then drafting Tyler Ennis, the Suns had too much of a good thing. Not a single one of general manager Ryan McDonough’s deals in his first two years were bad ones in and of themselves, but this team’s chemistry was thrown out of wack and it resulted in the alienation of one of this team’s star players.
No one should feel the need to defend Dragic’s motives for leaving. The guy was a top-five point guard last season, earning Third Team All-NBA honors and dragging a group of role players to 48 wins in the West. His touches had decreased by 40 percent compared to last season, the team wasn’t improving, he was stuck playing minutes at small forward(!!) for significant stretches and by going elsewhere, he could play his style of basketball while also making a crap-ton of money.
No s**t he wanted out.
The last few days haven’t been pretty. Dragic said some true but harsh things about the front office that put them in a bind and McDonough lost a lot of his leverage once everyone found out the Dragon wanted to fly free.
But McDonough also didn’t mince words in this morning’s presser, fighting fire with fire:
On the idea that PHX traded its best player (Dragic), McDonough said, "Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris are still in Phoenix Suns uniforms."
— Paul Coro (@paulcoro) February 20, 2015
McDonough never saw list of teams from Dragic. Even if there had been, said it wouldn't "have been worth the paper it was printed on."
— Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) February 20, 2015
Reading those words and remembering what Dragic said earlier this week probably feels like being a child of divorce for Suns fans. I don’t doubt that Dragic loved Phoenix, and I think once some time passes, his harsh words for the franchise won’t sting as much. But Dragic was no Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire or Shawn Marion.
He was Nash’s successor, a guy that Suns fans rooted for to succeed ever since he dropped 23 fourth quarter points on the San Antonio Spurs in a playoff game. And when he wanted to go, the Suns wound up doing the right thing by cutting him loose.
Next: Lesson No. 4