Phoenix Suns PG Goran Dragic asks for trade, has lost trust with front office
Feb 18, 2015, 9:47 PM | Updated: 9:47 pm
PHOENIX — Two’s company, three’s a crowd, and now one wants out. The Phoenix Suns just learned the hard way that three isn’t always greater than two.
Goran Dragic confirmed after practice Wednesday he wants to be traded, preferably sooner rather than later.
“I don’t feel comfortable here with my situation,” he said while surrounded by reporters in the hallway outside the practice court at US Airways Center. “I was happy here but the situation as it is now is I need to think about my future, about my family and I think so that’s the right thing to do for myself.”
Dragic said he expressed his feelings to the Suns through his agent, Bill Duffy, in a meeting Tuesday.
The NBA trade deadline is 1 p.m. Thursday.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked if he expected to be traded. “You guys need to ask that to the front office upstairs. I was clear. Now what they’re going to do, they’re going to do. The only thing what I can do is practice and try to stay in shape and where my future is going to be, there I’m going to go.”
And what if the Suns don’t move him?
“Just play hard until the end of season,” he said. “Do my job, of course. Help the team, my teammates. We’re still friends. It’s nothing but personal business. Be professional, play hard as possible, do my job.”
Dragic’s frustration with his role on the team — “standing in the corner, it’s not my game” — had been building as he saw his playmaking role reduced with the offseason addition of Isaiah Thomas, giving the Suns yet another point guard to go along with he and Eric Bledsoe.
And while the Dragic-Bledsoe tag team, when healthy last season, proved to be a success — the Suns went 23-11 when the two started — adding Thomas just crowded the backcourt.
“(I want) to be a point guard, like I was in the past, all my life,” Dragic said. “To be a point guard, to run the team, to have the ball in my hands and try to make plays for others. That’s who I am.”
And who he wasn’t this season since he was now being asked to share the playmaking responsibilities.
In 52 games, Dragic is averaging 16.2 points, 4.1 assists and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 50.1 percent and playing 33.4 minutes per game. A year ago, those numbers read 20.3 points (career-high), 5.9 assists and 3.2 rebound,s with a career-best shooting percentage of 50.5 in 35.1 minutes, earning him third-team all-NBA honors.
“I see that we are not going in the right direction,” he said. “That’s why I take action and try to put myself in better position.”
Could the Suns try to change Dragic’s mind, maybe by trading one of the other point guards?
“I already make my mind,” he said.
Dragic is expected to opt out of his contract at season’s end and become an unrestricted free agent. He made it clear re-signing with the Suns is not an option.
“I don’t trust them anymore,” he said. “It happens too many times, two, three times. They give promises, OK, but — it’s hard, but at the same time, I wish them all the best. They were great to me, the past five years here. I’m always going to have a good memory about Phoenix, fans. I love this city, but it’s just hit that point of my career that it’s better for me and for my family to move on.”
