"HOUSTON -- Guard John Lucas III plans to sign with the Houston Rockets, his agent said Wednesday. The 5-foot-11 Lucas, son of former Rocket John Lucas Jr., played with the team under two separate 10-day contracts last season as a rookie. Agent David Falk said the experience formed a bond between the player and the team. "We have an agreement in principle with a few nuances to work out, which we will in the next day or two, and then he'll sign," Falk told Houston television station KRIV. The younger Lucas also played with the Rockets' summer league team. Lucas went undrafted out of Oklahoma State, where he was selected the Big 12 player of the year in 2004."
Why Rox need FOUR PGs??? If Yao injured in the mid-season, who will JVG hope to play 5??? Shane Battier? Chuck Hayes? or Steve Novak? What a stupid idea that Rox depend on one player!!! We need one more tough inside player to play 5. We need one more athletic player to play 4 and 5!!!
Sura has played the 2 for the majority of his career so that wouldn't be a concern. He is a combo guard but probably more of a SG than a PG anyways. We just didn't have anybody capable of playing it better than he could his first year. Plus you are assuming that he will even be able to play again which is definitely not a sure thing. V-Span by all reports also seems to be a combo guard capable of playing the 2 so this really isn't much of a problem at all. As far as JL3 goes, I can't wait to see how much he has improved when he plays against some real competition. He was only slightly better than a scrub last year and we seem to be putting a lot of faith into him for this upcoming season. I hope they are right. I know that he is extremely fast with the ball and has a good shot but he has never been much of a distributor even back in highschool. It used to be very easy to pressure him into turnovers too. He was kind of like a smaller Daniel Gibson but it seems like he has worked on his game a lot in the areas of ballhandling and passing. We will see soon.
He was drafted as a 2 and I remember watching him play in Cleveland and GS as a 2 for several years. He was able to slide over and give solid minutes at PG but he was definitely a 2. Both of those teams had several true PGs on the roster while he was there so I really have to disagree with that 60/40 split thing.
I would be ticked if we lost Lucas. We need young, cheap talent and he performed very well in summer league. Granted that means little, but he has just as much POTENTIAL as the other summer league studs i.e. high draft picks from this year's weak crop. The only difference is that he is cheaper.
YES!! I love JL3 (in a complete non-homosexual way)!! I wish he would see more action this season. Who still remember that cold hearted three to send it to over-time? As for getting a 4/5... be patient. The Rockets management must have something in store for us. Probably via trades. This season rosters is way better than last seasons. If we stay healthy... We'll show them.
He's a 3rd string PG, how much faith are the Rockets really putting into him? And last year, he was pretty good for a 10-day contract PG. He, having never played in the NBA before, was clearly better than Rick Brunson and probably as good as Moochie. His speed and handles alone make him a worthwhile project. The issue that the Rockets really have is that they are counting on two rookies (or nearly rookies) at PG, without the kind of star starter that will dominate minutes.
I was talking about last year on his 2 10-day contracts. For an undrafted, raw, rookie PG that's not an insult. And if you look at his Roland rating, he was marginally better than Moochie. His PER and Roland Rating were both marginally better than Brunson.
There were many times when he played PG in Cleveland for many games stretches, even some in GS and also he played PG in Atlanta and Hoyston and about 50/50 in Detroit. He played about 60 Sg 40 PG in Cleveland, about 60 SG 40 Pg in GS and the rest was mainly PG. But the thing is due to his injuries and other players injuries his minutes were mainly at PG in Cleveland much of the time despite being a 60 40 SG/PG. Much of the time in Cleveland he played the 1 and Derek Anderson played the 2. Much of the time in GS he played the 1 and Riuchardson played the 2 etc. He's definitely not a Pg or a SG he's a combo guard, so technically he's not really "more of a SG."
Sorry, some things I just hafta respond to, even if they're not exactly on the topic of the thread. In Cleveland, he mostly played PG. He backed up both Brandon and Phills for a few years, but Sura was backing up Phills more. Plus, they had another PG in the rotation for a while (Crotty and then James later)...but never really had a SG in the rotation besides Sura. When Derek Anderson finally got there, Knight/Person/Henderson were starting, and Anderson and Sura were off the Bench.. but Sura only played about 1/2 of the first year that happened. Then Andre Miller came along and he and Knight split the PG mins. So he had 3 years backing up the 2, 1 1/2 backing up the 1 (and the "1" backing up the 1 was the strike-shortened year). In GS, he started playing the 2 primarily cause Mookie and Vonteego Cummings split time at the 1. He played some 1 during Arenas' first year, but then it was back to the 2 cause Arenas and Boykins took it over 2nd year. MAYbe I could give you 50/50 at GS, at best. Atlanta, he played next to Terry. I'll give you that he's a combo guard... but I think he is more of a 2 than a 1. This "60/40" thing is untrue.
^^^I was just about to get to that. You sort of beat me to it. eh...Cleveland had Terell Brandon at PG who was an allstar both of Sura's first 2 seasons. Then they had Brevin Knight for 2 years who averaged over 8 assists per his rookie year. Then Andre Miller manned the position his last year there. He played some PG but it was very limited. All of those guys played a chunk of minutes at PG. Golden State had Mookie Blaylock, Vonteego Cummings, Marc Jackson, Larry Hughes, Gilbert Arenas, and Earl Boykins at various times while he was there. Detroit had Chauncey Billups, Lindsey Hunter, and Chucky Atkins. As far as Atlanta, I think he played a lot of point there because they wanted to take Jason Terry off the ball and let him score more. The stats he put up at the end of the season while playing PG is probably what caught the eye of the Houston Rockets management and convinced them he was capable of handling the job on a full time basis.
