[Feigan on 610AM] VSpan, Sura, and Lucas

[Tb-Cain]

per feigan on 610am

vspan most likely target now, but difficult to bring him here. best player on best team in greece and greece hosts final four next year.

bob sura been running on treadmill
bob is back on the court in the last couple of days
back is good
knee is question
even if he comes back to play this year, not sure what percentage he'll be (similar to mcdyess taking more than a year to really get back)

lucas much better than his 20 days w/Rockets last year
could be mvp of vegas summer league
losing mike james hurts lucas' chance since we need a solid backup point (ie, not rookie)

[Phil]

upon reading the title, i initially got pretty excited...but then i realized that realistically, we can't expect any of these guys to be important pieces to our puzzle next season. i'm ruling out vspan and sura, and JLIII will only be a solid 3rd pg in the league.

why couldn't feigen state more than the obvious? geez, you'd think a beat writer for the rockets would provide more than what's available to the public on the internet. however, i do appreciate the bob sura being back on the court news...regardless of how much false hope it gives the fans.

[jopatmc]

Marcus Banks is closer to 5'10"???

Hmmmmmm. Wesley anyone?

[pippendagimp]

dude is a disgrace to independent journalism

[JGifford15]

V-Span I think is not what the Rockets should be looking at for there 2ns option. They still got Marcus Banks, Fred Jones, Trevor Ariza, Lorenzo Wright, Kelvin Cato, etc. that they can look at for options with the MLE. Good to hear Sura is back doing physical work but the thing is will he be back to full form by the season. John Luca III deserves the 3rd string PG spot from the Rockets and if he doesn't get it the Rockets really must think that Sura will be good to go and they can get another PG in FA.

[Ryan Bowen MVP]

Originally Posted by jopatmc Marcus Banks is closer to 5'10"??? Hmmmmmm. Wesley anyone?

Its starting to look that way. It might not be that bad though if he's sharing minutes with Lucas. I'm all about getting the best guy too, but with how things are going, we have to start thinking about who the best guys are that are actually available to us that dosen't require a magical trade or huge amounts of money. Wesley and JL fall into that category.

[jopatmc]

Feigan's comments about the Rox not giving out the trade kicker because "it makes it so difficult to move a player" and then comparing James' case to "what if Steve Francis had a trade kicker in his contract? It would have been impossible to do the McGrady trade." are just so much garbage. Mike James made his point clear. If he was going to accept a deal like this which is below market value, it had to come with the trade kicker. Feigan even acknowledged that it was understandable for James to ask for that.

We basically lost James because we were unwilling to commit that we wanted him on our team for the next 3 years and would not trade him. If I was James, I would not show any more consideration than he did either. What in the world is our front office thinking on this?

[markus4040]

I'd like to see Fred Jones. I have been wondering about where Sura is at in his recovery. That guy brings a fire and intensity that turned us around mid point two seasons ago. He makes things happen and is an important catalyst. I hope he can come back close to what he was.

[johnkamla]

Originally Posted by jopatmc Feigan's comments about the Rox not giving out the trade kicker because "it makes it so difficult to move a player" and then comparing James' case to "what if Steve Francis had a trade kicker in his contract? It would have been impossible to do the McGrady trade." are just so much garbage. Mike James made his point clear. If he was going to accept a deal like this which is below market value, it had to come with the trade kicker. Feigan even acknowledged that it was understandable for James to ask for that. We basically lost James because we were unwilling to commit that we wanted him on our team for the next 3 years and would not trade him. If I was James, I would not show any more consideration than he did either. What in the world is our front office thinking on this?

Well said. On the topic of the trade kicker, can't they simply not disclose that there is one in the contract? Then other FA's wouldn't know that a precedence has been set, and it wouldn't open up the flood gates.

[duluth111222]

Originally Posted by Tb-Cain losing mike james hurts lucas' chance since we need a solid backup point (ie, not rookie)

What's that supposed to mean? With or without MJ, Lucas III will still be the 3rd string PG. Losing MJ only means we'd have to find a backup point somewhere else. But what does that have to do with Lucas' chance?

[JeopardE]

Originally Posted by duluth111222 What's that supposed to mean? With or without MJ, Lucas III will still be the 3rd string PG. Losing MJ only means we'd have to find a backup point somewhere else. But what does that have to do with Lucas' chance?

Yeah, I didn't quite understand that comment. I thought getting Mike James would actually hurt Lucas' chances since there was a possibility of Bob Sura being our 3rd stringer instead.

[DieHard Rocket]

I'm pretty sure Indy is planning on retaining Fred Jones.

I still think we should explore possibilities with Stephen Jackson. He's no more of a nutcase than Mike James.

[anitasri]

Originally Posted by jopatmc Feigan's comments about the Rox not giving out the trade kicker because "it makes it so difficult to move a player" and then comparing James' case to "what if Steve Francis had a trade kicker in his contract? It would have been impossible to do the McGrady trade." are just so much garbage. Mike James made his point clear. If he was going to accept a deal like this which is below market value, it had to come with the trade kicker. Feigan even acknowledged that it was understandable for James to ask for that. We basically lost James because we were unwilling to commit that we wanted him on our team for the next 3 years and would not trade him. If I was James, I would not show any more consideration than he did either. What in the world is our front office thinking on this?

But how silly is that proposition? We lost him because we did not want a trade Kicker! That is just plain stupid. So what we could not trade him, did we look at our roster for the past 10 years- we always carried deadweight- atleast Mike would have contributed for 3 years.


The funny part is the big winner is Dallas- they did not have to pay for Mike and they ensured he did not go to Rockets! But then again who knows Kevin Garnett may have offered a "grant" to build Mike's home!

[jakedasnake]

Originally Posted by jopatmc Marcus Banks is closer to 5'10"??? Hmmmmmm. Wesley anyone?

I sincerely hope the 6'2" 200lbs he is listed isn't four inches off. Come on now. Even if he is, he is a proven backup point in this league and did well when given the minutes. Why would we want Wesley back. I would much rather have Bogans at this point.

[swu]

Originally Posted by jopatmc We basically lost James because we were unwilling to commit that we wanted him on our team for the next 3 years and would not trade him. If I was James, I would not show any more consideration than he did either. What in the world is our front office thinking on this?

I also got the impression that the Rox front office wasn't sure not giving James the trader kicker would be enough to prevent James from signing with us because according to Feigan, even though James had stressed he wanted the kicker, no player has rejected a deal based on that alone.. So basically we gambled on it and lost out. Hmm..dumb I say. I didn't even want James that much.

[johnkamla]

Why 3rd PG? Why can't JL3 be our 2nd PG? If he's improved that much in his shooting and overall game, seems like the perfect fit. Earl Watson, Earl Boykins, Speedy Claxton, Nate Robinson come to mind as speedy game-changers.

[New Jack]

Originally Posted by JeopardE Yeah, I didn't quite understand that comment. I thought getting Mike James would actually hurt Lucas' chances since there was a possibility of Bob Sura being our 3rd stringer instead.

I think it was reported that the Rockets planned on starting James at the 2 if they got him, so perhaps they thought Lucas could split the backup minutes at the 1 with James. Now with James gone, they’re probably going to have to get a backup point that will take all of the minutes that would have gone to Lucas.

[duluth111222]

Originally Posted by johnkamla Why 3rd PG? Why can't JL3 be our 2nd PG? If he's improved that much in his shooting and overall game, seems like the perfect fit. Earl Watson, Earl Boykins, Speedy Claxton, Nate Robinson come to mind as speedy game-changers.

Because JVG made it clear that he wanted 3 PGs. So if we add another PG and Lucas III, you can bet the latter will be the 3rd one off the bench, since essentially he's still a rookie if you don't count those 2 10-day contracts with us last year. And JVG hates rookies.

[Stone Cold Hakeem]

Originally Posted by duluth111222 ...And JVG hates rookies.

Yeah, just ask Luther Head. He barely even got off the bench last season.

[Jeff]

Here's a question for all you budding journalists. What exactly do you expect Feigen to do? Is he supposed to rip the Rockets publically? Lest we forget, the job of a reporter is to report what happened and minimize the editorializing. That job is left to Blinebury, Lopez, Justice, et al.

Besides, how exactly do you expect a reporter to get stories if he goes around bashing the team that he is supposed to cover? What, is he supposed to run, "CD is a frigging moron" and then go in to an interview with CD and say, "So, how's it goin' buddy?"

To get good information, you have to have a measure of discretion when you write stories. You can't just blatantly rip the people you cover and expect you'll ever get information from them again.

Most importantly, maybe he's right. I'm guessing that a pack of raving fans on an internet bulletin board might not be the best source of biased information about a team. Fans don't see things as they are. They see things as FAR worse or FAR better. As a result, the loss of Mike James "clearly" makes us a lottery team on one hand, but, on the other hand, Novak could be our starting power forward based on his summer league performance and Rudy Gay is destined to be the next Shawn Marion.

I don't like many of the moves made in the offseason thus far. But, it never ceases to amaze me that the same group of people who talk about how great we are for acquiring Swift for the mid-class exception and Anderson for the veteran's exception and praise the team up one side and down the other one year can turn around the next year and say Swift was a horrible signing and Anderson was a total bust and we should've known better.