Oh, Dragic is a full class of player above Beno. better offensive player, better creater, and better defender.
But he's not a full class of player better than both Rudy and DC combined. That's a significant talent drain from a team low on that scale to start with. Calling it Dragic/Farmar for Rudy/Dc helps a little, but only a little. And who knows, us trying to pry more away to balance things may be why this has not happened.
And the talent drain next season could be heads and above worse if they hit free agency.
I would also go as far to say that it shouldn't be just looked at as Dragic/Farmar for Gay/Collison for this season. It should be seen more as Dragic/Farmar/Casspi, Dragic/Farmar/Barnes, Dragic/Farmar/Temple, Dragic/Farmar/Tolliver, etc. considering we have 12 rotational players currently on the team (Collison, Lawson, Afflalo, Temple, McLemore, Gay, Casspi, Barnes, Tolliver, Cauley-Stein, Koufos, Cousins). There are going to be a couple guys that don't get minutes on our team that can definitely help our team if we had minutes to give them.
With that in mind, it makes more sense from a talent perspective knowing that we have competent players (who wouldn't be getting minutes) picking up the void. If we moved Gay/Collison for Dragic and had a guy like Papagiannis getting minutes, it obviously makes it a much less attractive deal, and if we think this deal still keeps our team as competitive as it was before we made the trade, then we take this deal and run because of the fact that Dragic is locked up on a reasonable deal. If you don't take the deal, you run the risk of bleeding talent next year with Collison & Gay walking.
Doing a 2 for 1 like this might also help our team morale since there would be a little bit more flexibility with the minutes which would prevent us from freezing out as many players from the rotation. We want these fellas to bond & be a family. I think that is harder to accomplish if you have 2-3 guys upset with the minutes they are getting. So let's recap the advantages I've already stated (while adding in a few more minor ones).
- We reduce the risk of bleeding talent (considering Gay/Collison are expiring and Dragic is on a reasonable 3-4 year deal) giving the franchise more time to change the culture/image and make our team more attractive to FAs
- Dragic's advanced stats were very impressive last year, and he is playing very well in the preseason without a ball dominant, non-shooting SG next to him (Wade) which should result in an upgrade in our PG play
- We have two SFs who can easily slide in and account for all of our SF minutes. One of whom was a starter on two 56+ win teams (Not saying he was a key cog, but there's proof you can be a successful team with Barnes in the lineup) and the other who actually had a better RAPM, RPM, & On/Off than Gay last year (Casspi).
- We don't have to worry as much about our PG situation to start the year as we would with a suspended Collison & a risky Lawson (potentially costing us some winnable games in the beginning)
- With 12 players who could get minutes on our team currently, it alleviates some logjams which should hopefully prevent some players from being upset with the minutes they are receiving (hopefully keeping the players happy and playing hard)
- There's potentially the risk that Gay IS checked out and it may be a drag on what the coach & team are trying to move towards
There are a lot of reasons to like the deal from our perspective. Sadly, I don't think two expirings (although useful expirings) are enough to net a player like Dragic who is on a reasonable, long term deal.