The Miami Heat’s Goran Dragic didn’t even make their 6MOY voting list. Here’s why he should have been near the top.
Looking at all the names actually listed: Montrezl Harrell, Lou Williams, Dennis Schroder, Derrick Rose, and Geroge Hill, one name doesn’t even belong. With the rest of the players producing at a much higher level than George Hill, although maybe not as efficient, he is eliminated off the top.
You then look at the rest of the names and start to pick them off one by one. When looking at them all, they all have similar production, however, Schroder does it with more minutes than any of the listed names. He literally plays a starter’s load at 31 minutes per night, so you can eliminate him.
You then move on to Derrick Rose, who is having a fabulous season and especially when you consider where he is and what’s he been through. However, the Pistons are 20-46 and although the award is an individual award for which his season has been more than worthy of awarding him, team success has to be the tiebreaker for players who are so close together production-wise.
You then come down to Monster Trezl and Sweet Lou Williams, both absolute beasts for their Los Angeles Clippers. The thing that most stands out to me though is this, you play with two top 10 players right now, so isn’t this what you should be doing?
When you are playing with two guys, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, who each command double teams by themselves on any given night, it’s easy as well as expected that you get your stuff off if you’re Harrell or Williams. Goran Dragic does what they do every night while being the guy getting the double teams when he’s on the floor.
With similar production, similar team success, way more reliance, pressure, and responsibility, Goran Dragic does the same thing that both Harrell and Williams do, except his teams relies more on his to win actual ball games.
This isn’t to take away from anyone on the list, Hill, Rose, Harrell, Schroder, or Williams, but what it is to do is call out flagrantly erroneous misses by ESPN’s so-called panel of experts, based on those who are not. So, in case you didn’t hear it the first time, there is no world in which Goran Dragic shouldn’t at least be on this list and near the top if not at the very top. To say it makes any sense at all, would be completely nonsensical.