The Suns relationship with Goran Dragic has officially begun. How do I know? Because it’s on their Facebook page. Also, the illustrious Paul Coro posted it on azcentral.com. Dragic has signed his contract with the Suns and all that’s left is for him to get a work visa. Specifics of the contract haven’t been released (as far as I’m aware of), but the salary should be comparable to that of a lottery pick over the course of three years, with a team option for a fourth. So even if he’s a complete bust we shouldn’t need to trade away Amare Stoudemire and take on Stephon Marbury’s contract to get rid of him.
The honeymoon will begin next week, when he is expected to go to training camp with the team. My hope is that Suns fans don’t ruin the honeymoon. We shouldn’t expect him to be great right off the bat. The fact of the matter is, he’s a second round pick. Fans shouldn’t expect him to be the next Steve Nash, because he won’t be. Certainly not in his first season, and probably not ever. He has the potential to be a top 10 point guard in the league, but I doubt he’ll ever be considered top 5. Chris Paul, Deron William, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas when he returns from surgery should all be better than him for the next few years, not to mention various other point guards I may have forgotten or are not yet in the NBA.
With Dan Majerle’s move to the Phoenix Suns’ bench alongside Terry Porter, Scott Williams moved into the team’s vacant color analyst position alongside Tom Leander in games aired on my45. Eddie Johnson and Gary Bender will reportedly still work games on FSN AZ.
Williams has worked as a color analyst for the Cleveland Cavaliers and did pre/post game analysis for the Milwaukee Bucks. I don’t remember much about Scott Williams from when he played with the Suns, and I know zilch about his skills as a color analyst. I’ve seen a few sites that have mentioned the Bucks were sad to see him go, so that’s something I guess. The man has spent 15 years in the league, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t based on an overwhelming amount of talent, so I’m guessing he must have been a hard worker and a high character guy. Obviously, that has little or nothing to do with how well he does covering the game, but it does give him a unique perspective and one that I can respect. He’s also played with megastars like Lebron and MJ and volume scorers like Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury; shooters like Michael Redd and Ray Allen and point guards like Tim Hardaway and Avery Johnson, who now coaches the Dallas Mavericks. He also played with the Suns’ own Amare Stoudemire, so I’m sure Suns fans will hear a lot about how much better Amare is now than he was in 02-03. In case you were wondering, Amare is the only player on that roster still with the Suns now.
I’m sure Scott Williams will do a decent job as color analyst for the Suns. It would take an awfully lot for me to mute the TV during a Suns game anyways, though Al McCoy is a pretty tempting alternative. I look forward to hearing Williams’ opinions during the broadcast, if for no other reason than it means the season has started.
Also, I was able to find what is quite possibly the only Scott Williams tribute video ever made.
