1) Lue doesn't push the ball. Just like Francis, he just refused to push the ball sometimes. While he may change, this clearly signifies an attitude problem at least. 2) Lue is short, and height is one of the KEY ingredients for passing the ball into the post efficiently. 3) Lue's defense is no good. It's not better than Francis' defense last year. Whether can't or doesn't want to is debateable, but his defense last year was not better than Francis. I urge you to ask some Orlando fans. 4) He's never played more than 30 minutes a game his entire career, which leaves 18 for his backup. Personally I think that, if he played 30 for Orlando, then he should play less for us because we're simply a better team in need of a better PG. I'm not against giving him 28-30 minutes. But that's as much as he handle with the amount of defense he has to play and our need for some height at PG. If we're going to give the rest of the minutes to Gaines, I'd be worried, because aside from the fact that Gaines isn't as good as Lue, he has no experience passing into the post, he has no experience using his height advantage, and he is bound to turn the ball over a few times just to get through the learning experience.
So, basically, the flaws you point out stem from what I pointed to as not being worth ignoring what he does offer. Being, defense being no better than Steve, and his height. As for his attitude in Orlando, do we really need to go through that again? T-mac didn't do a lot of things in Orlando himself, and Juwan just went through the motions. As I've pointed out before, those three in Orlando last year, does not equate to them in Houston this year. The key factor is, motivation, all three of them lacked it in Orlando. It was a horrible team, with horrible chemistry, excluding T-mac and Juwan. Houston is going to be a brand new start for them, and one that they're all looking forward to. They'll have four things they didn't have last year going into the season, Yao Ming, JJ along with compitent role players(Boki, healthy Pike, a resigned Padgett, Weatherspoon, Mo Taylor) that hustle and never give up, JVG, and motivation. And of course, a much better organization behind em. So, yes we really shouldn't use what they did in Orlando as a sample of what we should expect to see from them next year. As for Reece Gaines, I agree 18min for an uncoached rookie is a lot, that's why I'm all for obtaining a PG through free agency or a trade. To me, it'd be best for Gaines to have a year under the tutelage of JVG as Boki did last year. However, I don't think a Damon Jones should start over Lue simply because he had ONE noticeable season, in a T-mac/Yao oriented offense.
The Tragic at least did significantly better with Gaines on the floor than Lue on the floor. http://82games.com/0304ORL.HTM
