He wasn't given the minutes? How about he didn't earn them. He was always injured, never consistent. Maybe if he would've played consistent in the minutes he had, he would've seen more minutes. But his jumper disappeared, his defense disappeared, he disappeared. Then he'd find himself for some games, and lose everything again after that. George was nothing more than a decent role player, I wouldn't even say key. We had Rick Fox, Derek Fisher...those were key role players. Devean George wasn't consistent enough to be a key role player.
As I said in the previous post, it was hard for him to get minutes as a starter when the players that played the same position as him were Kobe Bryant and Ric Fox. These two were going to start and get the bulk of the mintutes no matter how consistent George played. I seem to remember Phil saying George was playing the best out of the team when we had Payton, Kobe, Malone and Shaq in the team. He was an ok player that played a small supporting role which helped us win the championship. Obviously the part wasn't as big as the starters but he was one of the top bench players we had during the championship years and he shouldn't be forgotten because he's been injured the last few years.
