How Phoenix Suns became NBA's biggest surprise

Sam Amick | USA TODAY Sports

When New Year's Eve arrives and Goran Dragic is pondering his resolutions, the Phoenix Suns guard will be hoping for one thing: more of the same.

"2013 is my year," the 27-year-old Slovenian told USA TODAY Sports by phone. "First of all, I get married, then I get a son one month ago. Everything is just falling in the right place. I don't have any worries."

Certainly not on the basketball court.

With about a third of the NBA season behind us, Dragic and his 16-10 Suns team that was supposed to spend this season in the tank are one of the few pleasant surprises in what has been an otherwise-torturous campaign.

Forget for a minute about Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant and how he's gone again (a left knee fracture will sideline him at least six weeks) or that Brook Lopez's broken right foot is expected to keep him out for the season likely means these Brooklyn Nets will go down as the most expensive failed experiment in league history. The list of fallen stars and broken blueprints continues to grow, but that doesn't mean the Suns' silver-lining story isn't worth paying attention to.

When Dragic first heard that the Suns had traded for another point guard in early July, he wasn't about to give up his job without a fight. Phoenix, which hired new general manager Ryan McDonough and rookie coach Jeff Hornacek to clean up last season's mess (25-57 record, worst in the West), brought former Los Angeles Clippers' speedster Eric Bledsoe to town as part of a three-team deal. And Dragic's role, at first glance anyways, appeared to be at risk.

"When I was back in Europe and as soon as I found out, I said, 'OK, I've got competition,'" he said. "In the end, I talked with Jeff, and he told me that probably we were going to play most of the minutes together."

They've done more than play together. They've played exceedingly well together.

With Hornacek employing a two point-guard system that is similar to the one he thrived in with Kevin Johnson during their Suns playing days in the late 1980s, Dragic and Bledsoe are having career years and the Suns — who have won seven of their past eight games — have gone from pathetic to playoff-worthy. Dragic, who entered the season with momentum after starring for Slovenia in the Eurobasket tournament during the summer, is averaging a career-high 18.7 points (career-high 48.1% shooting) and 5.9 assists a game. Bledsoe, who will be a restricted free agent next summer, is starting regularly for the first time and has more than doubled his career-high averages in points (19.1) and rebounds (6.3).

"When Ryan asked me about (the trade), I said, 'Hey, Eric looks like Kevin Johnson when he was here playing in Phoenix, and Goran is kind of like I was,' " Hornacek told USA TODAY Sports. "We turned a team that was winning 28 games (in 1987-88) to winning 55 (in 1988-89).

"I don't think either one of us ever thought when we traded for Eric that, 'Well now, we've got to figure out where we're going to trade Goran.' It was right off the bat, saying 'We're going to play these guys together and have that tempo change.'"

The unique system has made the Suns one of the more entertaining teams around, as they began the week with the league's sixth-ranked offense (106.1 points per 100 possessions). There are other factors coming into play – among them the revival of guard Gerald Green's game, the contributions of big man twins, Marcus and Markieff Morris, and the triumphant return of Channing Frye after he missed of last season with a heart problem. But the potent pairing of Dragic and Bledsoe, above all else, has led to this surprising Suns season.

"I think we saw glimpses of (Dragic's) talent, particularly in the playoffs back in 2010 (when Phoenix fell in the Western Conference Finals to the Lakers)," said the recently-retired Grant Hill, who played with Dragic in Phoenix and Bledsoe with the Clippers. "I think when (Dragic) went to Houston in the trade, and there were some injuries and he started (in 2011-12), I thought you saw a good second half of the season that year during the lockout season.

"But now there's sort of a new energy it seems in Phoenix. And you pair him with Bledsoe…and the two of those guys, it's working. They're both playmakers. They're both very athletic. They complement each other."