Goran Dragic can now add “All-NBA” to his expanding resumé.
The Suns’ guard was named to the All-NBA third team on Wednesday, joining Portland’s Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridige, Indiana’s Paul George and Charlotte’s Al Jefferson.
Dragic and Jefferson were the only All-NBA honorees on the first, second or third teams to have not made the 2014 All-Star game. He is also the 14th Suns player to be named to an All-NBA team.
The honor comes after a career year that had already garnered Most Improved Player of the Year. The sixth-year guard averaged 20.3 points, 5.9 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 50.5 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from three-point range.
Dragic is the first Suns player to receive All-NBA honors since Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire were named to the second team in 2010. His Most Improved Player award was the first earned by a Suns player since Boris Diaw in 2006. Kevin Johnson was the other Phoenix recipient of the award back in 1989.
The recent avalanche of recognition comes after a considerable amount of outside doubt at the outset of Dragic’s career when he was a second-round pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. The Suns’ guard admitted it was his “pleasure proving people wrong.”
His doing so sparked the Suns to a 23-game turnaround (48-34) this season despite initial predictions having Phoenix finish with less than 20 victories on the year.
Dragic plans on representing his native country of Slovenia at the FIBA World Cup in Spain this summer. He led the team to the EuroBasket 2013 quarterfinals last summer, a run which included upsetting top-ranked Spain in the opening round of play.