Fans may have given up on Vince Carter due to his on again, off (a lot more) again season in a Phoenix Suns uniform but that doesn’t mean that head coach Alvin Gentry has.

“I’m not just going to give up on a guy because he has a bad game or something,” Gentry told the media on Friday. “We expect for him to come back tonight and play extremely well.”

Most people are probably wondering exactly why he’d stay loyal to the shooting guard who has more ups and downs than Charlie Sheen’s brain in the last three months. Gentry offered up 20,000 reasons.

“Because he’s got 20,000 points OK?,” he explained. “Somewhere along the line he’s been a guy that has come up with big plays and made big baskets. That’s why we brought him here. As a coach I keep thinking that the next one will be the one he makes for us.”

Too bad only 570 of those 20,000 points have come in purple and orange. Which isn’t hard to understand when you realize he is shooting 41-percent from the field as a Sun. That percentage would rank as the third worst of his career.

If Carter’s performance against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night was any indication, Gentry could be waiting a very long time for him to make that next one.

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