Remember last month when Stan Van Gundy was all like "BOO JOHN WALL BOO?"
"I said this: John Wall is a talented guy, a very good player. I don't think hes good enough that you can build a franchise around him," Van Gundy said after serving as television analyst for George Masons home game against Drexel last Thursday night. "I don't think he can be your best player, certainly not clearly your best player. You need one guy better than him or a couple of guys at his talent level for them to win."To me that's not a negative. I didn't say it as a negative. I think some people took it that way. I just don't see John Wall as a franchise player because - a lot like Rajon Rondo; I don't see him as a franchise player even though hes an All-Star - hes not a good enough shooter yet and hes not a reliable go-to scorer." In the NBA, your franchise guy has got to be a guy you can put the ball in his hands late in the game and he can get you a basket. I don't see that from John Wall at this point in his career. Maybe it will develop, but I don't see it."
via Van Gundy clarifies his critique of Wall | CSN Washington.
He's still not convinced that Wall is a franchise player, but the All-Star talk is a good sign that maybe he's starting to re-evaluate some of his assumptions about him.
Van Gundy would go on to discuss a few other Wizards, most notably Bradley Beal ("Another good player who I don't think is a franchise guy.") and Kevin Seraphin ("pretty good"). He also offered some insight into Jan Vesely's development.
"Vesely, I'm not really sure, even last year. I would see flashes of him in every game, but what I didn't see was many good games. You'd see one or two plays within a game. I think what you're really looking for young players - you expect that they're not going to be consistent necessarily from night to night offensively, but what you'd like to see is good games, not just a moment within a game and I didn't see much of that out of Vesely."
via More Van Gundy on Vesely, Wittman, Wizards' direction I CSN Washington.