In my first installment of this series–which you can access, along with all future installments, by clicking the ‘Dragic vs. Lowry’ tag below–many readers felt the ideal scenario was one which saw management re-sign Goran Dragic but rather than deal off Kyle Lowry, elect to retain him and play both guards together in the backcourt as they’ve done successfully in stints over the past two seasons.
The scenario begged one over-arching question: How would Goran Dragic feel about playing shooting guard for this team? I decided to ask him.
I had completely forgotten that Goran was a shooting guard overseas, as he told me above. Thus, I don’t think you can completely rule out the possibility of convincing him to re-sign to play the ’2′, next to Lowry.
With that said…
This logic overlooks two crucial elements. First, while Dragic at the ’2′ is nice in spurts, the Rockets probably wouldn’t want the 6’3 guard at the position full-time. Second, we don’t know how the starter/backup factor of all of this plays into the calculus.
To those who wanted to keep both Dragic and Lowry, I’m assuming the ideal scenario also includes retaining Lee. That would mean having Lowry and Lee start with Dragic backing up at both guard spots. We know from my interview that Dragic possibly wouldn’t object to staying as the shooting guard starter…but how would he feel if he thought I was asking about just getting some of his minutes at that position as a backup?
I’ve already asked him the starter/backup question in the past and he gave me the typical PC answer about it not being an issue. (Courtney Lee was also sitting within earshot of our conversation so I wasn’t about to try and induce a response from Goran about taking #5′s job.)
So the question becomes this: If you told Dragic you were keeping both Lee and Lowry and thus couldn’t offer him a starting job, but that you could offer him heavy minutes at both guard spots (by trading Kevin Martin), would he accept the offer?
I’m leaning heavily towards ‘no.’ Despite what players say to the press, very few would turn down the opportunity to start for an NBA team.
