Eleven months have passed since Goran Dragic blindsided the Phoenix Suns with a trade demand – not enough time for him to completely find his bearings with the Miami Heat, but more than enough for the situation he left behind to already settle into rubble.

Dragic is too concerned with his own adjustments in helping Miami regain a spot among the Eastern Conference elite to be overly consumed with the situation in Phoenix. But he has his own theory for why a franchise that seemed so promising is suddenly foundering, based on his own experience with the Suns.

“It feels like they’re always changing something,” Dragic told Yahoo Sports. “They’re not like Miami, San Antonio, those teams that are really loyal when they find something.”

Dragic still has fond memories of his time in Phoenix – six seasons spread out over two stints – and is especially grateful for the opportunity the Suns provided after he chose to return for his second run with the team. They put the ball in his hands and allowed him to use his jet-ski speed and creative improvisations to earn third-team All-NBA honors during a surprising 48-win season in 2013-14 that now looks more like a mirage with the passing of time.

While claiming “no regrets” about his Suns tenure, Dragic remains disappointed by the ending, which he claims was the result of too much tinkering – primarily at point guard, a position the 6-foot-3 Slovenian had already proven he could handle. Dragic made it work after the team traded for point guard Eric Bledsoe in July 2013 and helped the Suns emerge as that overachieving darling. But Dragic was pushed away further from the ball – and inevitably, the team – the following season, when the Suns added another ball-dominant guard, Isaiah Thomas, in July.

“Me and Bledsoe, we built really great chemistry together, we played well and the whole team did. Everybody expected that we’re going to get some big guys that we thought we needed, but they did another move, they bring in a point guard and it was tough,” Dragic told Yahoo. “I was a little bit frustrated. It was tough, especially for me, because I was playing off the ball all the time, and I was guarding [small forwards]. That was tough for me, but they did what they did.”

Eventually, Dragic determined that he couldn’t commit to a team that didn’t appear sincerely committed to him, despite public and private declarations from general manager Ryan McDonough and coach Jeff Hornacek claiming otherwise. He used his leverage as a pending free agent to force a trade-deadline deal to Miami.

View photos Dragic is still looking to fit in with Dwyane Wade and the Heat. (Getty Images) More

“It’s always tough when you beat your expectation and you win 48, 49 games and you expect the next year to win 50, 55 games,” Dragic told Yahoo. “But I feel like we still had a good team, but I felt, I don’t know, the chemistry was not there like the year before.”

The Suns don’t have the NBA’s worst record this season, but they have arguably been the worst team in the league over the past two weeks. Phoenix has lost nine straight games, including a home defeat to Philadelphia and an embarrassing road loss to the Kobe-less Los Angeles Lakers. During the free fall, Markieff Morris was suspended two games for throwing a towel at Hornacek; two of Hornacek's top assistants were dismissed; and Bledsoe – the team's best player – sustained a season-ending knee injury.

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