In how many minutes of time, in his how many seasons in the NBA? Give me a break. Terrence Jones couldn't get off the bench until 3/4 of the season was over.
Tierre Brown regularly failed to pass Euroleague team tryouts (numerous times in his career). He did however make the NBA. Not good enough for Euroleague, but good enough to make NBA rosters. You dare to compare the level of the D-League to the Euroleague? What is this, amateur hour here, or are you just going off on a crazy, illogical, trolling tirade, because Van Gundy is being questioned? The NBA D-League ALL STAR TEAM has spent the last few summers playing against second division teams in Europe. SECOND DIVISION teams from national leagues. They lost EVERY game they played against SECOND DIVISION teams from the Spanish and Greek leagues. They almost lost to a second division team from Lithuania (the first division in Lithuania is one of the worst leagues in Europe)..... They also lost to a Chinese league team. Oh wow, how amazingly similar the level of the Euroleague is to the NBA D-League. Average D-League salary = $20,000 Average Euroleague salary = $1.4 million Yeah, and "third rate"..........no. Euroleague is universally recognized as at the second best basketball league in the world. The D-League isn't "third rate" either.....when its all star team can't even beat second division Spanish and Greek teams, or teams from the CBA. And newsflash, Scola played for 7 years in the Euroleague. The same amount of years Spanoulis has played in Euroleague. Scola never won a Euroleague championship. Spanoulis has 2. Scola never won a Euroleague Final Four MVP. Spanoulis has 2. So this statement by you, "a middle of the pack power forward in the NBA is worlds ahead of anything V-SPAN accomplished", is false. Spanoulis has had a much better Euroleague career than Scola had. And Spanoulis does not, "put up decent numbers in the Euroleague", he is among the Euroleague leaders in rating, points, and assists. These are not "decent numbers", they are terrific numbers. Your whole post contains both idiocy and willful bias.
Beverley was a THIRD STRING point guard in Euroleague genius. He didn't win MVP of Euroleague genius. He won MVP of the European second tier league, the Eurocup. The SECOND LEVEL of European basketball. In the first level of European basketball, the actual Euroleague (where Spanoulis plays), Beverley was a THIRD STRING POINT GUARD. On Olympiacos, Spanoulis is the star of the team........Beverley was a THIRD STRING point guard on Olympiacos. The stats of the great Patrick Beverley in Euroleague and Greek League with Olympiacos (playing in Europe's top level of basketball, not the SECOND level he played at in Russia): Patrick Beverley's stats in Euroleague with Olympiacos: http://www.euroleague.net/competition/players/showplayer?pcode=001927&seasoncode=E2009 Patrick Beverley's stats in Greek League with Olympiacos: http://esake.gr/main/index.php?pl=12&lng=en&pfpar=cGxheWVyaWQ9MTgwNA== Funny, how StupidMoniker says Spanoulis had, "decent numbers" in Euroleague. Well then, Beverley had horrific numbers in Euroleague by comparison. Patrick Beverley was a scrub in Olympiacos. Yeah SamFisher, clearly Beverley was incredible in Europe. So incredible that he was a third stringer in the Euroleague and a scrub in Olympiacos, and so incredible that he had to move to Europe's second tier league to play after that. Interesting that Beverley wasn't good enough for Olympiacos, but he was good enough for the Houston Rockets.
TL; DR the latest eruption from Mount MPDopoulous. The modest success of Olympiakos legend and Euro MVP Beverley in the big leagues as a role player and the failure of Spanoulis (who shot 1-15 from three point land...IN PRACTICE! We talkin' bout PRACTICE! ) in the same role could not serve as a greater contrast/cautionary tale to aspiring small-pond players like him. It's really a tale of talent and work ethic - one guy had it, one didn't. Better make sure you have one or the other, or you'll be embarrassed like Vassilieos and forced to beat the most embarrassing retreat since the Greco-Turkish war in 1922.
Beverly shooting near 70% in that league as an undersized guard? (70% on 2's?) Who needs assists when you can do that. I was expecting to see some shooting numbers in the 30's to indicate struggle, but thats not the case. (And am I reading this right - 62 BLOCKS in 46 games with the Dnipro basketball team? Obviously Olympiacos liked what they saw in that little league to take him in) I'd say in the limited minutes sample size, Beverley did okay for himself.
If the stat-heads for Olympiakos actually had access to computers, rather than abacuses which they currently use due to Greece's ongoing economic calamities - you would have seen Beverely's dramatically high efficiency - which shows his position as one of the league's truly dominant players in his short time for Olympiakos Piraeus BC and Canned Goods Emporium.
Conveniently ignoring 18.2% from three and 2.7 ppg (in the Euroleague, slightly better percentages in the vastly inferior A1). He shot such a high percentage because he was a complete non-factor in Olympiacos' offense and only shot the random freebies. I like the guy, but he took like a shot per game. Comparing him to V-Span is ridiculous.
He shot 51.4% from the field in Euroleague, not 70%. Did you think no one would actually click on the link and you could just make up any stat you wanted and everyone would believe you? 16/24 on 2 PT FG and 2/11 on 3 PT FG = 18/35 overall FG = 51.4 % Why are you listing stats from the Ukrainian SECOND Division? Are you unaware that Ukraine's minor national league isn't the same thing as the Euroleague? Yes, Olympiacos was so impressed with Beverley that he was their third string point guard. Here are the team stats, to show how "legendary" (according to SamFisher) Beverley was on Olympiacos. Olympiacos team Euroleague stats: http://www.euroleague.net/competition/teams/showteamstats?pcode=001927&clubcode=OLY&seasoncode=E2009 Olympiacos team Greek League stats: http://basketball.eurobasket.com/team/Olympiacos_SFP_Pireus/93?page=3&Stats=2010 I guess the Van Gundy lovers can take solace in that Von Wafer was the 16th man of that same Olympiacos team. Another guy that was not good enough for Olympiacos, but was good enough for the Houston Rockets. So Beverley was not the only Houston Rockets rotation player that was an Olympiacos scrub on that team.
I guess the debate will always linger on with this board about what kind of a player V-Span could have been in the NBA if JVG would have given him a chance to develop and played him a lot more than he did. I do feel pretty certain that if he came on with the Rockets the previous season (2005-06), he definitely would have played in more than the 31 games he wound up playing on the season he ended up coming on due to the injuries that decimated that team which forced them to use 21 different players. That was really a season in which JVG had to play guys he didn't really want to have to play, and one of the guys could have included V-Span, if anything. As for V-Span himself, I think that he's got to be happy with the success he's enjoyed out there in the Euroleague. If he ever chose to give playing in the NBA another chance, I'm sure that he would want to stay away from the Rockets due to the bitter memories he has for that one season he spent with them.
OHMS.... You are funny ... #1 Dragic was 20 years old playing in the Euroleague playing for Olimpija and he played nearly 30 minutes a game, shot 50% from the field, and averaged 10/3/3/1 his first year at higher competition. His first season in the NBA? He shot 39% .... FAIL #2 Rick Rubio shot 35% from the floor in the NBA but he is ok? #3 Zaza Pachulia played a total of 4 games for gala! You are relying on that? Haha... How about this. Prior to going to the NBA, Zaza played for Fenerbahce and shot 48% from the floor. His rookie year in the NBA? 39%.... FAIL #4 Flip Murray, who shot 39% from the floor his last year in the NBA? He played 6 games in the Euroleague! #5 I already earlier pointed out your FAIL on Prigioni. #6 Concerning AK47, he was the Euroleague MVP in 2012 and he is a ROLE PLAYER in the NBA in 2013... FAIL Just give it up dude.... VSpan or Billy as he was called during his brilliant run in the NBA would at best be a combo guard coming off an NBA bench, bouncing team to team. Europe has produced some very good players, but the NBA sucks the talent to the USA and the Euroleague fights for over the hill NBA players or guys that failed making it in the NBA. Euroleague is arguably the second best league in the world, nothing wrong with that, but isn't near the NBA.
All-Star teams tend not to do well when playing against actual teams (you know, teams that know each other, have defensive and offensive sets, have practiced, etc.). The fact that a pack of scrubs that are the cream of one third rate league are inferior to an actual team from another third rate league means nothing. Second best, but still third rate. There is tremendous dropoff from the NBA to any other league. Team success is not a good indicator of individual achievement. Charles Barkley had seven fewer championships than Robert Horry. Actually it is true. Scola was a middle of the pack power forward in the best league in the world. That is worlds ahead of being a two time final four MVP in Euroleague. He scored 14.7 ppg, 5.6 apg, and 2.1 rpg. He shot 47% from the field and 32% from downtown (a downtown that is closer than NBA downtown, just to note) and had an assist to turnover ratio of 1.65:1. So yes, decent stats. For comparison, Jameer Nelson (not exactly a world beater) was at 14.7 ppg, 7.4 apg, and 3.7 rpg. He shot 39% from the field and 34% from NBA three point range. His assist to turnover ratio of 2.64:1. So the below average NBA point guard, playing in a MUCH stronger league, puts up better numbers (even adjusted for minutes played) than the "terrific" numbers being put up be V-SPAN.
Wow, the Spanoulis haters are more desperate than ever. LMAO at how freaking pathetic those last two posts were. You guys are actually making SamFisher appear smart. Anyway.....................Vassilis Spanoulis named 2013 Euroleague MVP. Amazing how those "decent stats" got him the Euroleague MVP award. http://www.euroleague.net/news/i/113134/180 Vassilis Spanoulis, named bwin MVP of the 2012-13 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Vassilis Spanoulis of Olympiacos Piraeus was named 2012-13 bwin Euroleague MVP at the EFES Euroleague Awards Ceremony held at the City Hall in London, England on Thursday. Spanoulis, a two-time Final Four MVP in as many appearances in the event, was chosen as the Euroleague MVP for the first time. Spanoulis, 30, is the ultimate combo-guard, who can lift his team with his scoring and passing, which go hand in hand to plague opposing defenses. He ranked among the league leaders in both categories, placing fourth in scoring (14.7 ppg.) and third in assists (5.59 apg.). The inability to guard Spanoulis is well represented by the fact that he led the league in fouls drawn (5.41 per game). All told, he is ninth in the league in average performance index rating (15.4). Now in his third season with Olympiacos, Spanoulis is also a two-time Euroleague champ, two-time Final Four MVP. This marks his fifth All-Euroleague selection. ----------------------------------------------------------------- So let me get this straight...........being 4th in the league in scoring and third in the league in assists are "decent stats"................... So I guess you have to lead the league in both scoring and assists to just be "barely above average".
Considering that league is made up of mediocre non-NBA players (the good ones come over, like Patrick Beverley) your answer is yes. Look at Spanoulis' "elite" company in teh Euroleague in "index rating": The top guy is...iNBA castoff, the vowel-challeneged Nenad Krstic.... He was last seen deep on Boston's bench earlier in the decade in single-digit point land 3 years ago. The Salutatorian? It's 2nd round draft pick Ante Tomic. We'll see if he makes Utah's bench next year, or pulls a Spanoulis and stays away. 3rd place? it's Shawn James (who?) formerly of Duquesne and Northeastern....an undrafted free agent in 2008 who never has made an NBA roster...but put him in the Euroleague, and he's Dwight Howard. I could go on about the rest of the elites of Euroleauge, such as scoring leader, and former late 2000's Clippers and Hornets 15th man Bobby Brown, or Los Angeles Lakers LEGEND Jordan Farmar, or, but we need somethign to laugh about later.
