Unlike Babbitt he's never been given a legit chance to play. Gotta be IN the game in order to take/make a shot!
When Neal was with the Spurs he was playing really well. I think he's injured now but he'd be ok as an insurance policy on the bench
Yeah, he has a bruised left shoulder and he's apparently questionable for today's game. It sounds like he should be ready to play again soon. I like the fact you brought up his playing time with the Spurs. EDIT: Wasn't he one of Pop's favorite players? I was actually thinking about George Hill. My bad.
This is unfortunate, I've always felt Victor deserved more of a shot, but at the expense of who and at what position is the problem. Not to mention when he's been given the opportunity he didn't perform. It ultimately doesn't matter how well he shoots in practice if he goes out and shoots 40% from the field and 17% from three.
If Victor played for another team and wasn't getting any time, I doubt fans would be burning up to trade for him.
Oh boo hoo. Playing time is earned, not given. This is his 3rd season with the team - all under Stotts and all in the same system. If he hasn't figured out what's expected of him and how to do it by now, he never will. He's played himself out of the rotation. He started 16 games and averaged 16.6 MPG his rookie season. It's pretty hard to argue with Stotts' decisions when the team exceeded all expectations, won 54 games last season, advanced to the 2nd round without HCA and is in first place in the division right now. Do you honestly think the team would more successful if Vic played more minutes? Remember, our offense and defense are both currently top 5 in efficiency. Do you really think having Victor in the rotation would make the team better? He's getting payed $1.37 million to work hard in practice, be ready if someone goes down with an injury, look nice in a suit and not rock the boat. I find it bad form for the 15th man on the roster to whine about PT and demand a trade when the team is winning. If the team was losing, trying other options should be considered, but right now, Victor Claver is in no position to demand anything. BNM
I don't know if the numbers bear this out. He played in 21 games last season. Of those games 9 of them were for for 2m or less, so that effectively reduces his "games played" to 12. Of those 12 games he only played >10m nine times. Here's his minutes and shooting for those nine games: 23m: 4/9 shooting 14m: 1/4 shooting 16m: 1/3 shooting 19m: 2/5 shooting 12m: 0/0 non-shooting 22m: 5/7 shooting 12m: 0/3 shooting 24m: 2/3 shooting 10m: 0/1 shooting He's certainly not lighting it up by any means, but for someone with such extremely limited playing time he's not done terribly. It's pretty difficult to make an offensive impact when you rarely see the court, and then on the rare occasion that you do it's for the final meaningless minute of garbage time. Luke Babbitt played in 40 and 62 games in his last two seasons with us, and he wasn't just picking up the final minute of garbage time. And last year Dorrell Wright played in 68 games while averaging 14mpg and shooting 37% - Claver's NBA career percentage is 39%! Claver hasn't been given a shot. I don't particularly care, but he's certainly more deserving of PT than Wright. But at least Wright isn't playing either!
So basically, in your opinion, our 15th man is better at half the game than our 14th man. Wright has only played 47 minutes all season. So, it's not like he is hogging a ton of PT that could be going to Vic. No, it won't effect team chemistry, but it's an unnecessary distraction and bad form for your 15th man to go whining to the press and demand a trade. BNM
The season isn't over yet. I'm willing to bet Victor Claver ends up playing more in the next 20 games if not then maybe the second half of the season.. Stotts has said many times "It's a process". The process is not done yet. The Blazers are only 18 games into the season. Patience would do his agent some good.
I wouldn't trade him. His agent can ask for whatever but I don't think we should trade him. He'd get a chance eventually. Right now we have 2 SGs not available, if it was 2 PFs we could really use him, and if he stays off the IR he'd get minutes in garbage time. He's still under contract, don't trade him Neil.
During his career with the Blazers he's averaged 14.2 minutes over 70 games. He's averaged 39.4% from the field, 26.7% from three and a PER of 7.3. Instead of cherry picking games last year in which he played over 10min, maybe you should instead ask yourself why he didn't play over 10min in the other games? Was it because he wasn't playing well? Did his 0 point, 1 ast, 1 rb performance against San Antonio in over 7 min of playing time perhaps not justify him playing another 3 minutes? When he played over 6 min against Atlanta and scored 0 points to go along with 0 ast and 1 rb, were you outraged that he didn't play another 4 minutes? Or when he played 6 minutes against Denver and went 1/3 for 2 points, 1 ast and 1 rb? Since you brought up Wright, who you're also glad isn't playing - Wright's PER during his career with the Blazers is 11.5 in about 13.8 min over 75 games. Not sure why you brought up Babbitt? When Babbitt played in 40 games Portland's record was 28-38. When he played 62 games Portland's record was 33-49. Comparing him to Wright or Babbitt isn't the issue. The issue is justifying playing him over the guys currently in the rotation on a 14-4 team, and he's done nothing to justify that. I think Barton, TRob and Leonard all have a better argument than Claver for playing time and they're not bitching. CJ obviously does once he gets back as well. I know it's tough to perform when you don't get consistent minutes, but this is the NBA we're talking about. You have to make the most of the little chances you get or you're going to end up in street clothes. Despite everything I just said , I'd like to see him get a chance this year but not sure if it'll happen. If he gets a chance somewhere else I hope he takes advantage of it.
Joel Freeland is the perfect example of what Vic should be doing. Joel and Vic were both rookies the same year. Both shot poorly, but of the 2, Vic looked way more promising. In spite of the poor shooting, he passed the eye test - he looked like he belonged on an NBA court. On the other hand, Joel looked completely overwhelmed and lost. Most here wrote off Joel as a wasted draft pick after his rookie season. In his exit interview, Joel asked the coaches what he needed to work on to carve out a role that would get him PT and help the team - then he worked on exactly those things and came back his second year looking much more like a legitimate NBA rotation player. Joel will never be a star, not even a starter, but he's earned a spot in the regular rotation on a team that's 14-4 and in first place. He had to adjust his own expectations and modify his game to find a niche he could fill. During their rookie season , he was behind both Vic and Meyers in the rotation. With one off season of hard, focused work, he passed them both. This is what Vic should be doing, not whining to the press about PT and demanding a trade. BNM
[video=youtube;Z_dZw1iBWL0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_dZw1iBWL0[/video] Why? You think he's the missing piece?
