Goran Dragic put himself on the NBA map in May of 2010. As Phoenix’s backup for point guard Steve Nash, Dragic played some very key minutes in the Suns’ run to the Western Conference Finals, including a Tour De Force in Game 3 of their second round series against the Spurs when Dragic scored 22 points in the last 8 minutes of the game.
However, when the following season began, the Suns did not increase Dragic’s role and his production slipped to where it was before the playoffs. They quickly got frustrated with him and moved him to Houston at the trade deadline for Aaaron Brooks’ expiring contract. Dragic immediately thrived in Houston with more minutes.
When the trade was vetoed, Dragic was the forgotten guy, but he went back to Houston and more than made the best of it.
He played well as part of a two-point guard look along with Kyle Lowry, but when Lowry got a bacterial infection and missed a month of the compressed season, Dragic seized the job from him and went on a winning streak with the Rockets, injecting them into contention for the 8th seed in the West. When Lowry came back, Houston head coach Kevin McHale made the decision to keep Dragic installed as the starter, which was not taken very well by Lowry. Ultimately, Lowry took on McHale and divided the locker room, so the Rockets were back in the lottery, but Dragic had made his mark.
Dragic entered free agency and was able to get a rich 4-year deal with the team he started with, Phoenix, who obviously realized they made a mistake by trading him in the first place. His first choice was to stay in Houston, but they wouldn’t pony up the 4th year. Nonetheless, Dragic landed on his feet because he put his head down and worked hard and did not allow the fact that his team chose to trade to prevent him from becoming a better payer and consequently cashing in on it.
Luis Scola’s story after the veto is much different, even though he started in the same place as Dragic and ended up in the same place as Dragic. When Scola was sent back to Houston, he was quite happy not to have to leave. He handled the fact that the Rockets attempted to trade him in a very professional, classy manner, even joking about it to reporters. As far as his on-court performance was concerned, he did not perform as well as he had the prior season. He grabbed almost two less rebounds a game, and scored almost 3 fewer points per game.
I am in no way implying that the vetoed trade was the smoking gun to explain Scola’s drop off in production. However, what’s starting to negatively affect Scola’s career is his casual attitude towars playing defense.
Kevin McHale took over coaching the Rockets last year, establishing a culture that valued defense was high on the priority list. Although he gave Scola more than a fair opportunity last season, Scola did not endear himself through his ongoing defensive indifference.
When the offseason rolled around, the writing was on the wall for Scola with the Rockets. They were totally committed to getting Dwight Howard or a superstar facsimile thereof. Furthermore, over the course of their last 3 drafts, they had drafted 4 other big forwards in Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris, Terrence Jones, and Royce White. So, the Rockets used their amnesty clause to get rid of Scola. However, Scola landed on his feet when he was picked up off amnesty waivers by the Phoenix Suns. He would be installed immediately as their starting big forward.
Scola’s honeymoon in Phoenix would only last 11 games. His defense was as bad as ever, which compounded the Suns’ problems because they are devoid of any plus defenders on the roster. Their head coach, Alvin Gentry, made a determination that if the Suns were going to defend poorly and embark on a collision course for the lottery, they should do it with their promising young guys getting the lion’s share of the minutes. So, after 11 games, Scola was demoted to the bench in favor of second-year pro Markieff Morris.
The worst part about this for Scola is that because the Suns acquired him through amnesty waivers, he’s not eligible to be traded before July 1st. Scola is a veteran player who can be a valuable bench guy on a contender, but for this year, he’ll toil on Phoenix’ bench making a limited contribution. For him, the veto set in motion a confluence of events that sent his career on a steady downgrade.
Kevin Martin’s story in the last year since the veto has won Most Interesting Twist. Martin was absolutely infuriated when the Rockets included him in that deal. He had been their best player for the prior two years, which meant more to Martin than it did to the Rockets considering they missed the playoffs both seasons. The harsh reality for Martin was that since Yao Ming retired, the Rockets were in perpetual pursuit of a superstar because they rightly believed that Martin wasn’t one.
The only reason that the Rockets kept him around through this past offseason was to use his expiring contract as salary cap fodder in a trade for a superstar.
Five days before this season began, Martin got jackpot lucky when the Rockets traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of the James Harden trade.
After sulking for an entire season on and off the court, Martin was lucky enough to be traded to one of last year’s NBA Finals contestant with a legitimate chance to return to the same level this year. Furthermore, Martin gets to replace Harden in the 6th man role, which is ideally suited to Martin’s strengths. He’s still not guarding anyone, but he’s excelling as an important piece on one of the three best teams in the league. It will be very interesting to see how much, if any, personnel executives hold the 2011-12 season against Martin when he hits the free agent market this summer.
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