Lucas did look good in summer league-much better than now. He was a cheap-available aquisition - I think JLIII should be bumped down to D league-no offense...
He isn't going anywhere, he is signed for 2 more years, and by the end of that contract will be playing major minutes, and happy to be in the NBA. This is just a challenge for Bill, he has to take on that challenge and grow as a player, becoming EVEN better than he already is.... And he IS appreciated by a good number of people.......myself included ! DD
This thread really exposes the fans that have no concept of the game and that surely never played organized ball. You can really see it.
I've said it before and will again. Assistant coach Gundy's lying about playing the players who gives us the best chance of winning is just that. A LIE.
Calm down buddy, there is no need to diss US fans. Nobody here is dissing European fans or anything. Yeah V-Span "killed" the US team but that isn't exactly a big deal. They've been lit up by guards in the past. The real question is, where was V-Span in the Championship game? His team lost to a Pau-less Spain team. V-Span was non-existent in that game. We get your point. He was great in EUROLEAGUE. Thats the problem. This is not the Euroleague, this is the NBA. A completely different game. He may be a great player over there, but here in the NBA, he still has lots to learn. He will get his chance to shine, it's just not going to happen right now.
Why not? Looks to me like the every loving chucker of 3's isn't exactly woth the heavy minutes either.
The time has come to give Billy a break in the rotation. Head is clearly not a PG and when he plays point he is not doing the thing he does well, score. JL3 is not the answer at backup point guard since he is a shoot first type player. Rafer should be the starter but the Rox need to have 10-15mins with alternative look out there and that is when V-Span comes in the equation. Play the man few meaningful minutes, let’s all see if he can handle it, my guess is that he can. All things considered the season has been pretty good so far but that doesn’t mean it cannot get better. V-span is not the ultimate answer for the Rox but I do believe playing him 10-15 mins would a first steps in a good direction. The team seems very stagnant offensively with serious lack of creativity and with defensive problems at the point in both areas Billy could be helpful. He is a creative player and a good passer, the type of player that likes to see players cutting and likes to pass while on the move (that is also cause for high turnovers) but for that he needs to have a coach that shows some faith in his game and will not be al over his case with one bad play. I like Alston's play he does run the team well but it seems unfair that when Rafer plays bad he gets to keep all his minutes but if v-span does 1-2 mistakes he is down in the doghouse forever. In the end I believe JVG will be fair and he does want to win, I just hope that a turn of events takes place this season and not the next.
NBa fans are the arrogant ones...but he's telling us how 'it' is while ridiculing others. oookkay...{backs away slowly}
Hold on, you act like V-Span is the better shooter. Skip may be a chucker, but hey, we won lots of games with Skip starting and Yao injured. I don't know if you can say that if V-Span was starting or if Skip was not starting. Remember the game where Skip got ejected? The team looked lost out there without him handling the ball. It's just too much to ask T-Mac to be the play maker and carry the offensive load at the same time. I too think that we could use some better help at the PG spot, but at this point of the season, what are you going to do? Start V-Span right out of the blue? Sorry, I don't think thats going to happen, and probably wouldn't help us because V-Span is a worst shooter than Rafer. Could you imagine V-Span in Skip's position where he has to take those wide open 3's? He'd have a worst shooting percentage than Rafer. I wouldn't mind V-Span coming off the bench but if that was going to happen, it should have been done a while back. If V-Span plays now, that means less minutes for Luther and Bonzi, and exactly 0 minutes for everyone's new favorite player, Kirk Snyder.
I think most people including JVG knows the PG issue. In his four years in Rockets, I never saw he tried to develop rookies. Head will never be such a deadly 3 point shooting without the injuries in other players last year. (Very fortunately, JVG was not the Rockets coach in Yao's first year.) But JVG did try to develop players in the way they are not good at, e.g. Head at PG, VSpan at SG. Give me a break! And he likes to be an authority and wants his players to follow his command exactly without complaints. The issues with Wells early and VSpan now I think are due to this character of him. Even the most dumb coach in NBA knows a team needs a real PG on the floor to organize the offense. JVG just wants to show VSpan who is the authority here. You can not change JVG's characters. There are only two ways out. (1) A severe game situation forced JVG to play VSpan, e.g. Rockets offense sucks badly. (2) The management office puts pressure on JVG. I heard that Raptors coach did not play the European players much either at the beginning of the season until their management "politely" told him to play them more.
I think you meant JVG forces players into his mold instead of really "develop" something... JVG develops nobody...
You\'re the one that said Bob Sura for sure, no fail, would be back, and came up with strange stories about him punking MJ. Since when did you have any credibility?
The euroleauge is NOT the NBA. Is the gap smaller than ever before? Sure, but there is still a wide discrepancy. Want proof? How about the fact that all the great stars of the euroleauge WANT to come play in the NBA? How about the fact that Bargani, who was an established euroleauge player, left there, put himself in the draft and is now playing here. Or how about the fact that players who don't make NBA teams here go on and start in Europe? The fact that the NBA stars lose at FIBA or the olympics lost to european teams, does not mean that the euroleauge is just as good. V-Span played great at FIBA, he played so well that he finally got brought over to the NBA. But, I really think anyone who wants him injected in the starting lineup of an NBA team is kidding themselves. He may be good one day, but we're a team on the brink of making the NBA championships (I hope its this year, but realistically I think we've got at least another year to wait). This is NOT the time to start rookies regardless of how much experience they have in europe. Rafer may not be the best point guard out there, but hands down, no question he's the best on our team. If JVG started V-Span over Rafer this season I would start a fire JVG thread! I think deep down the people on this board calling for V-Span know he shouldn't get playing time this year.
It's ridiculous that so many people think vspan is a scrub, because JVG told them so. Such sheep. Vsapn is better than rafer and anyone but blind JVG lovers can see that.
Should he get the starting job? No that might or might not come 1-2 years down the road. But no playing time at all ? yeah he should get some right now.
