But how long do you hold on to them? The idea of developing is all fine and good, but you give up an opportunity cost. Hindsight is 20/20. You don't sacrifice today for the promise of tomorrow, especially when that promise cannot be 100% now THAT is bad business. The same rational works here in Houston. Will playing V-Span NOW make V-Span a good or even great player years from now? Maybe, but can anyone be sure? No way. But what we can be sure of is the opportunity cost of playing him now (namely that we'd lose more games - which I honestly believe is true) isn't worth the risk. You may say (and have said) we don't have the pieces to make a title run this year so who cares? But if the playoffs simply went as predicted based on regular season records, we wouldn't play them. The Rockets may not look as good as Pheonix, Dallas, or the Spurs, but that doesn't mean we scrap the season and keep working until we have a championship team on paper...that's really bad business. To say that a team made a bad decision with the benefit of hindsight is just not a fair way to determine that decision as you're not looking into the cost of keeping and developing that player. As that applies to Boki, I'm sorry the cost of developing him for the last 5 years to get what appear to be medicore stats (with some good stats sprinkled in) is too much of a cost - it was also to much of a cost for the Rockets (with Rudy and JVG), for the Hornets, and the Nets until Richard Jefferson went down. P.S. To say that Detroit made a bad decision in NOT developing Darko when they won a championship along the way...that just plain doesn't make sense.
Hindsight talking is so stupid. If we traded Ralph Sampson to Portland for the 2nd pick of the draft, we would have gotten Hakeem and Jordan. But we didn't so I guess that makes us stupid. OOOOOOOoooooooh.
That would be the thinking if there was an actual minor league system in place... but Darko (being a 17 year old when drafted) is practically a TEN year project (for a big man). When these first round picks get guaranteed contracts for 3-4 years, and then are mandated to get a raise by the team trying to re-sign him (or opt out for free agency)... the teams' hands are tied if the player shows no development during his rookie contract. I'm all for a minor league system so european guys like Darko or Boki don't get exposed... but if its not there, there's no point in b****ing about it. And I doubt the Pistons (or any team) would be willing to wait 8-10 years to get the full return on drafting a teenager. They should have never drafted him in the first place (just like the Rockets shouldn't have drafted Boki...Rudy always loved those middle-ranged shooters like he was... Mirsad Turkcan anybody?)
We have a minor league system now where you can send guys down to the NBDL in their first 2 years. But JVG doesn't believe in it....if V-Span and Novak aren't going to play, then they should have been sent down to mature. DD
It is not a true minor league system... the Rockets cannot control what kind of training/tuteledge their players will get once they send them down there (unlike MLB). JVG feels they will learn more about the NBA from practicing with NBA players, discussing actual NBA teams... not hanging out with a bunch of CBA retreads, or guys who weren't good enough to get drafted.
Ya I have some thoughts. Read this article and tell me that it doesn't make you see RED! The European dream By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports March 19, 2007 Adrian Wojnarowski Yahoo! Sports DALLAS – Here was Dirk Nowitzki, eyes tired, voice soft, sitting at a table in the Dallas Mavericks' offices with his mind running through the way that Steve Nash had again broken his heart. Hours earlier, a sleepless night had been born out of the disgust of a double-overtime loss to the Suns, one of those games that rustled the spirits of playoffs past, that fed into the fury of Dwyane Wade's resounding rip on his NBA finals failure. For a moment here, though, the Mavericks star allowed himself to rewind three years to when Nash, his best friend, left Dallas for the desert. Nash's fleeing for free agency has been played out so many times, with all the reasons and regrets, but Nowitzki is forever left with, "What if?" "We both love the teams we play with, but sometimes you think of what could've been if we stayed together," he said. "Would we have won a championship or not? Sometimes, I go through it in my mind …" It wouldn't be long the other day until he snapped back that faraway gaze, because even without Nash running these Mavs, Nowitzki is still lording over the deepest, most versatile roster in the league. He's still in the midst of an MVP season, a greatness that has sculpted a prototype for the European basketball player in the NBA. ADVERTISEMENT Here in the quiet of American Airlines Center, Nowitzki reflected on growing from a lost teen, fresh out of Germany whom in much of the league's eyes had arrived in the 1998 NBA draft as something of a science project in Don Nelson's laboratory. Across his nine seasons, he has done everything a player must do for to reach a superstar's standing in this league – everything short of winning a championship. That's the threshold for him now, and he has himself and the Mavs on the cusp. Maybe most of all, Nowitzki has made America see that a European could be a franchise player, the cornerstone of a championship contender. As much as anyone in the NBA today, in his own way, Nowitzki changed the game. "You have to give Nellie a lot of credit: I don't think there were a lot of coaches then who would've let a 7-footer just dribble up the ball and jack up a three," he said. "He helped me find my game and develop it into something that really hasn't been done before. "If I would've gone somewhere else, they would've made me a back-to-the-basket power forward and tried to punch it into the paint with me. Nellie didn't think that was my game and gave me all the freedom. I owe him a lot." Without Nowitzki, there's no Andrea Bargnani of Italy getting drafted No. 1 in Toronto and getting to play beyond the three-point line at 7-foot without a disparaging word. Nowitzki gave Bargnani, gave the next wave, legitimacy. Now, he makes his bid for the final frontier for the European star. At 28 years old, he has averaged 25.2 points and 9.7 rebounds a game this season. As long as the Mavericks, 54-11 now, hold off the Suns and Nash for the No. 1 seed in the West, Nowitzki deserves to finally earn his first Most Valuable Player award. "What has changed is that they do believe that guy can come over and be franchise players," he said. "That wasn't the case before, but now, they know we're good enough to carry teams over here." After hearing Nowitzki lament letting those 2006 finals to the Heat slip away, Wade left everyone stunned with such a pointed, personal response to Nowitzki this season. The Mavs star raised his hand, took the blame, but somehow Wade decided this was a slight of the Heat. Of course, Dallas had Miami down two games to nothing, had them down double figures late in Game 3, before everything collapsed. "… Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he's the reason they lost the championship," Wade said, "because he wasn't the leader that he's supposed to be in the closing moments." Even now, Nowitzki sounds confused on how the mild-mannered Wade turned something so benign into something nastily personal. "I thought he reacted really, really sensitive to what I said," Nowitzki said. "Everybody knows we had the series in control. … I thought I said something that we all felt. "I wasn't going to go back at him again. That's not me." Of course, Nowitzki rolled his eyes and laughed when it was suggested that his boss, Mark Cuban, couldn't so easily let Wade's words go. The owner of the Mavericks hustled to Dirk's defense, blasting Wade in his blog. It was classic, combative Cuban – over the top and endlessly entertaining. "(Cuban) probably shouldn't have said what he said," Nowitzki said. "Even by responding to that, it looks like (Wade) really got to us." Beneath it all, you wonder if Wade himself still clings to those lingering stereotypes that a Euro is too soft, that he isn't cut out to burden an NBA championship. Wade wouldn't be alone in that thinking, and Nowitzki understands that none of that goes away until he's holding that trophy over his head this June, until Dirk Nowitzki goes the complete distance. Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports. FREE YAO! FREE THE TEAM!
Why doesn't anyone realize, all coachs like certain players. JVG wants ones that fit his system that he built around TMac and Yao and play HARD D. If he doesn't think Boki will fit then he wont be used, its not that big of a loss...
Hmmmmmmm, not so sure about that. Ever heard him talk about Dirk. You'd think he was his long lost son.
LOL this must be a joke... Um just heads up, talent does not always = success in NBA. Plenty of cases like that: Tractor Traylor for Dirk... People said Tractor would be a force in the NBA, people though that was steal of draft day. You can't just develop all your talent that is NOT a winning philosophy. You get a couple of guys that you think fit the system (Head is 1 for JVG, and I believe in a year or 2 Novak will be the other) and then if you happen to get an uber talent out of draft/FA you take it. You don't need to keep developing (for example Bobcats, they have all sorts of developing talent, but they need to start winning, they need a star) If you keep developing you may never get anywhere. You need your star or 2 and work around them and whatever the coach's system is.
lets be real. boki sucked here and he was traded for a guy who actually helped the rockets a lot that year. Its great that 2.5 years later he is finding his nba game but get over it. and for those pointing to this as a sign of how jvg cannot develop young talent...luther head? chuck hayes? yao ming?
Luther played because we were short with many injuries...he could be a three point specialist Yao, thats a diff story, do you think Yao with millions maybe a billion of fans would be benched? and Yao is a hard worker, he is smart and probably one of the most humble NBA players.... Hayes, Hayes showed right away what he can do and what he will do all his life, and thats offensive rebounding...he just knows where to be at the right time.....
I don't know why we're still talking about this guy, but if you look at his stats SINCE the Rockets game (approx 8 ppg and 4 rebounds per game, .8 assists per game in over 20 minutes a game - which are all about where his season averages are), he's hardly a BIG loss. He's a nice roll player - nothing special, and it took him 5 years to get to that point...not worth it.
Luther played the same amount of minutes before TMac was hurt. He was given PT almost immediately. Sorry
Two things I'm loving with this thread: -Rudy was the guy that drafted on coached Boki his first two years, getting zilch from him -JVG played him more mins/game than Rudy The guy is suited ONLY for a free-flowing, run & fun offense with no cares about D. He's smooth on breaks but is nearly hopeless in half court situations. He's in the best possible place with NJ, and will most likely never contribute on a contender unless he's traded to Phoenix (even then, it's doubtful). He averages a foul every 8 mins and a 3.3 boards/game. That's pretty sorry, but his severe deficiencies and relatively marginal development over the years aren't things I'd expect to be considered by certain members of this board. Nachbar isn't much to miss. Don't let potential and imagination completely cloud over realism. Kill Bill could really be something. He has the tools to be a gutsy, rougher version of John Starks. But HE must realize this on the court and take the steps himself. We aren't a garbage team like the Celtics or the Hawks with plenty of court time to hand over to unready rookies. Evan
good observation...he just would not fit JVG style of play...JVG would make Barbosa look like a lost chicken on the court
