Can't help it he had Clyde Drexler and then Peja (an all-star caliber Peja) and Turkoglu in front of them. I think Rick is very fair with giving young players a chance, so long as their isn't a superstar in the way of their playing time.
I never said Flynn was better than Brooks. As a matter of fact, Brooks for Flynn would be a terrible trade. Flynn isn't a bust though and should be given a chance to prove so.
Ok, sure, he should be given a chance -- just not w/ us. The Flynn trade rumor was for Aaron Brooks. If you are in favor of trading for him just because he is available and was a 2009 lottery pick that means parting w/ Brooks. Brooks >>>> Flynn. That's why the talks went nowhere. Rubio - si, Flynn - no mas.
You always have a choice. He could have found another over the hill veteran off the waiver wires and played him. Some of you act like JVG had this long line of Lebron James caliber players on the bench but refused to play him because they were rookies. Just because a player who wasn't getting playing time turns out to be good down the road doesn't mean they were capable of playing at that level their first year. Maybe they learned and practiced harder as a result of riding that bench? The people who deserve to play eventually get their shot and what they do with that opportunity is up to them.
It had very little to do with Clyde - it wasn't just Clyde Drexler who passed him up in Rick's rotation, it was immortals like Danny Young and Byron Irvin and Danny Ainge and a 37-year old Walter Davis. Yeah. I'm just puncturing the myth that Adelman is some sort of rookie-loving "play 'em young" aficionado and JVG would bury them on the bench - both coaches have both 1) played rookies, and 2) not played rookies - with notable successes and failures along the way to the point where it's hard to draw any meaningful distinction. If you're going to take JVG to task for not playing Frederic Weis (while ignorning examples like Hayes, Head etc), then you're just being inaccurate or dishonest.
Even though it's great to accumulate "talent" in the form of former lottery picks, I don't think you can have them all on the saem squad at the same time. Yes, they need PT, but they also need experience playing with veterans and fitting into a team concept. We've all seen way too may examples of chronically bad teams throw a bunch of talented lottery picks together and they never seem to progress (i.e. Clippers, Grizzlies). I'd rather a have a mix of veterans and young guys that can grow into a role on a team instead of throwing out a bunch of former HS and college All-Stars who have been dumped by their prior teams.
Ironically, Gerald Wallace is the EXACT kind of rookie that Van Gundy WOULD have played. Peja was an offensive load with Sac, but played mostly at the 2. Christie and Hedo were at the 3, and while Christie would have undoubtedly been a JVG favorite, Wallace would have taken Hedo's minutes. JVG wasn't against playing rookies. Jeff was against playing guys that didn't know hoe to play any semblance of defense, thus causing more pressure and eventually fouls on the interior guys. Anyone remember who our most important interior guy was? Tall Asian dude who wanted to write a check? Keeping him effectively out of foul trouble along with forcing teams to take lower percentage shots were Van Gundy's primary concerns...and rightfully so.
...but it caused us to miss out on KELENNA AZBUIKE! Journeyman swingman extraordinaire. Adelman rookie doghouse Gerald Wallace = NBA All star Drazen Petrovic = Basketball HOF, All-NBA 3rd Team JVG rookie doghouse Kelenna Azbuike = once had a ticket to the all-star game and sat in the lower level.
I thought of that too. The interesting thing about that theory is we would be a lotto team with that team that has unlimited potential and have a chance to draft another lotto player with Morey's pick. It is not super unlikely but it is a very interesting topic.
I nearly lost my mind on Monday when Adelman sent out AB, Lee, Bud, PPat and Hill late in the Celts game. What an AWESOME lineup, 5 young guns all at once was quite a site and 3 of which could actually play defense while AB and Bud were the gunners. Bud/T-Will will be a VERY interesting situation to keep up with until the deadline, I think either one could be dealt with my money saying Bud is gone by Feb.
Lets look at it this way. With 4 lotto picked players on your team, you have 4 chances of developing a star.
even though he is undersized, but why would you trade your best defensive player for free..? Hayes has been playing well before the injury, we should keep him. In order to develop your young players you should have good veterans presence in your locker room, so you should keep battier and Miller.
Still to this point I don't understand why JVG was in love with head, he got playing time here like he was a veteran.
yeah Thabeet would be great because he really just needs to bulk up and learn inside footing, otherwise he's a decent shotblocker and rebounder. yeah it would be great to get all those guys playing but it requires them to play alot of minutes kind of how durant, green, westbrook started in OKC with that horrendous season before they brought in harden.
