I am in favor of sending Vspan to the Toros in the nbdl and letting him get some floor time against American NBA-style teams and see what he does with it. He is not getting floor time here, comments were made that practices do not happen all that often especially when the team is on the road, and I think Vspan would get to see what he can do vs. other bench quality players. He is only a short airplane ride away and could be brought back quickly. It might also help to restore what seems to be shattered confidence. JVG gets rid of an irritant for a month or two plus gets to see what Vspan can do against nbdl competition.
JVG has gone on record saying he doesnt like the idea of sending a player down to the NBDL team. He feels the player gets much better coaching by staying on the Rockets team and practicing versus going to a NBDL team and playing and picking up bad habits.
Dennis Johnson (of Celtics fame) is the head coach there. I would like to think that he knows a thing or 2 about playing guard in the NBA. I also wouldn't mind sending V-Span down there and picking up BJ Elder or Troy Bell. They're both doing well with Austin (yes, I know it doesn't work that way...I'm just saying).
They can't get better in practice if they go one to two weeks with no practices. Hire another assistant coach to personally coach V-Span in the NBDL. Phil Jackson sent Turiaf and Bynum to the NBDL with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. PJ only plays rookies when there are injuries to the rotation. They were riding pine while in the NBA, do he sent them to the NBDL to get experience from hall of famer Kareem.
JVG isn't going to send V-Span to the D-League because he wants his staff to help develop him instead of the D-League. This way, he can learn our offense better as opposed to a whole different system with the Toros. I much rather have him ride the bench because he's still needs to be part of the team. V-Span needs to start thinking about busting his a$$ in practice first. It's kind of sad to hear that he JUST now had his "best practice" of the season. Remember, he's been going up against Rafer and JL3, players people claim that V-Span is much better than. If he was so much better, why did he just now have his best practice? And it comes after he whines and complains about playing time.
Why is that sad? Young players are supposed to improve over time. It is only logical that a young player would have his "best practice" well into the season. Here's looking to many more "best practices" in V-Span's future.
I like the idea, let him light up the minor leagues, show his stuff, then bring him back for the playoffs. It works in baseball. Right now, he is a waste of roster space, and his skills are probably declining from virtually "0" playing time.
Here is why it is "sad". This is coming from a guy that says he could of been Rookie of the Year if he played more and really thinks he is NBA ready. If he was as good as he think he is, there wouldn't be talk right now about him having his best practice of the season. Because he should have already had good practices from the start and him having his "best practice" wouldn't be a big deal. But it is, which is why it is sad.
I'm a laker fan and do not remember either of those players spending time in the NBDL. Kareem is a personal coach to Bynum, kind of like Ewing was to Yao. Kareem was with the lakers, not an NBDL team. Do you have a link supporting this? I'm not questioning your credibility, I just don't remember this.
He can't be...the Rockets could assign him to the Toros and he would still be their property. But, the Rockets have only sent one player to the Toros in the last 2 years....Gerald Fitch...... And he was only there because they did not know whether he was an NBA player....he wasn't. DD
Turiaf got sent to Fort Worth for a few games in January and Bynum was supposed to get sent there too around the same time, but I can't dig up any box scores to see if they played or not.
The Rockets wanted to bring V-Span over on a rookie contract last year and send him to the NBDL. V-Span said then that he wouldn't come to play in the NBDL. He wanted to play in the NBA. I understand. He is at least lower-tier NBA talent. He really is too good for the NBDL.
VSpan should learn to hit an open shot. It will do wonders for his PT Too bad he isn't a PF...then he could get away with it
