From the Chron: "Brooks, who should receive even more playing time after guard John Lucas' decision to skip the summer league, Landry and Brad Newley from this season's draft, along with Novak and Lior Eliyahu from last season's draft, are on the summer team." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4950923.html Is Lucas skipping summer league because he thinks he did so great last season that he is already an established veteran? Or is this an indication that he already believes he will either get no minutes or that he will be traded anyway?
I read it as he knows his days are numbered as a Rocket. Phoenix wanted him last year, maybe they still do.... DD
it's funny, when I read that last night, my first thought was that its because they are working to move him. He has a guaranteed contract this year, and could definitely use some work on his game with the new coaches if they knew for sure he was staying. also, his work in last year's summer league brought some interest from other teams (PHO was said to want him) so it would make sense for him to play to further show his summer league dominance ... which of course would serve to increase his trade value. or they just want Brooks to get some good court time before camp.
That's what I think. It seems to me that JL3 has already dominated the summer league, so he can only hurt his standing by playing again. Also, even if he did dominate again, that hurts the team, because he'd be taking too many shots away from the other guys that we're really trying to evaluate. Don't really think this means anything in terms of a trade. That's not to say it's impossible he'll get traded... but I don't think that his not playing has anything to do with that.
So we can get excited about Landry or Brooks scoring 20 points a game in the summer league, not Lucas.
Injury or trade? I hope that second option cause we don't need JL now and we could add him to our list
Umm Luther Head skipped summer league last year and he didn't exactly have the perfect rookie season. It's not a big deal. JL3 was the MVP of the Summer last year and look where that got him.
Summer League makes guards look good at scoring and PFs and centers look inept at scoring. The little guys always have the ball in their hands. JLIII probably figured it wasn't any use to dominate it again.
I think the Rockets know what they'll get out of JLIII. Why take minutes away from a guy you need to evaluate more than you need to do with Lucas?
This isn't even debatable. Since we just signed Aaron Brooks, John Lucas's days as a Rocket are numbered. How many <6'0 PG's can you have on one NBA team? These two players are exactly alike, except Brooks was drafted, Lucas wasn't. Lucas is going to be traded.
