he did talk to the gm about spanoulis...didnt think he was good enough and wanted the team to sign mike james. all in management agreed he was horrible in training camp and in pre season spanoulis in jvg's mindset has made up all these suppossed rifts between the two. spanoulis went off on management over a suppossed promise that the gm denied ever making jvg thought neither lucas or spanoulis was good enough, but that lucas was better you may disagree with jvg's decisions, but all he cared about was winning. if he thought spanoulis would have helped the team win he would have played him. bottom line, jvg didnt think spanoulis is an nba player. he liked him as did everyone, but no one on the team thought he should have been playing. they were just trying to support him in the papers.
lets face it, spanoulis wants to make it seem like the decision to play him was political when all it was was a basketball decision that he didnt agree with. spanoulis thought he should play. jvg thought others were better. they scrimmaged in pre season alot, but dont have alot of contact in the regular season practices. spanoulis refused to go down to the d league to get his game together because he said his fans would be embarrassed
I believe it, but good luck convincing the die hard vspan lovers it. i still never get why they think hes so good, he proved nothing
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pgMS3GI_rfc"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pgMS3GI_rfc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> and of course another should be added.............Rick Adelman "I can coach" Jeff Van Gundy "I can mope." There is a delusional obsession with American superiority that is obviously not based in the world of reality. Spanoulis is "not NBA" according to Van Gundy because he actually is a skilled point guard.
So Span wins a game with a teammates he's been around for years against young NBA stars that have a few months to get a team together. Clearly he should be an NBA starter along with Carlos Arroyo, because one game is more important than say oh 82 or 100 or so
With some fish, even if you catch them, rip their mouths to shreds getting the hook out and throw them back, they will still bite the same bait a few minutes later. See post #4 above and the very VERY ironic use of both "delusional obsession" and "not based in the world of reality". Priceless stuff!
See you only prove my point. Jacking up a bunch of jump shots during a hot streak like Sarunas or Arroyo did does not compare to endless dribble penetration and defensive domination, not to mention pick and roll execution and complete control of the tempo of the game on both ends of the floor. Anyone who thinks it does, and this is most people here because they keep using it as if it were actually an intelligent talking point, is simply exposing how little they understand about the game. It would be nice if just for once, just one single time a Van Gundy supporter on this issue, in other words someone that truly believes Spanoulis only was worthy of 31 played games and 8.8 minutes that just ONCE one of the people with this opinion would actually make a valid point to back this up. It has yet to have ever actually occurred. If you think Arroyo or Sarunas against the US was comparable post the highlights of those games then see how you look with it next to the Spanoulis game. Because at that point your argument is now totally baseless and meaningless. But it never made it any sense to begin with, it was just something that could be pulled out of thin air because it may have sounded like a rational argument to the first person who though it up, even though that person never even saw the games in question. Because if they had they would know it's not the same thing. Come on everyone please go ahead, post the 3 games together here, then let's see how everyone breaks it down and who can actually attempt to game summarize that the play was comparable.
And BTW, the real point is to those who grasped Spanoulis was shafted is that he never played in 82 games or 100 or so as you put it. 31 games 8.8 minutes of garbage time. 51 DNPCD's How in the world can anyone actually try to use the argument he had a complete NBA season? 272 minutes of PT 272 minutes of PT This proves what? It proves Van Gundy hated him that's all it proves. People act like he got Rafer's minutes the way they talk. It's absolutely absurd. That's not even 6 full NBA games. Not even 6 full NBA games. Let me repeat that not even 6 full NBA games. People here are "convinced" he "sucks" he "proved" it with a "full year of suckage" Right.................facts are not exactly easy to come by here are they? You do realize that using this same logic, looking at Novak's stats and amount of PT he got, and assuming under this same logic it's all legit a TRUE REAL LEGIT sample size........... that means Steve Novak is a POOR outside shooter. Again people with these types of arguments are calling people with an eye for talent out for their perceived lack of discernment
Vspan plays a lot like S. Francis. Both turn the ball over a significant amount but S. Francis is better offensively and has supernatural jumping ability. For Vspan to have played more, he'd have to play for a different coach that allows for mistakes and plays more of a motion offense. Both Vspan and SFrancis must penetrate to be effective. I honestly think he'd have done much better in Adelman or Don Nelson's system and even in Popovich's system.
and..of course..this thread would not be complete without one more parting shot from KillBill_Pana Billy want me to say one last thing to fans of San Antonio here. Spurs did want Billy and he was to intend to leave after this year from Greens of Athens as he has opt out after first year of his contract. But Billy tell me Greens make his buyout very big to try to stop this from happening. Billy's agent sent copy of the buyout, which is $4.55 million in the USD money to Spurs front office. When Spurs see this and since NBA team inform Billy's agent they can only pay $500,000 in the USD to the buyout, Billy realize that he would have to pay $4.05 million USD to the buyout. So because of this Billy will play next 3 years in Greece. But he tell me that while he is saying to press he will not return to NBA, he say this mostly for Athens fans of Panathinaikos benefit and assurances. He do intend to play in NBA after his 3 year contract is over, and he play with European style team. He now say he might possible still play with Rockets after he got another call from coach Adelman recently. Coach Adelman if he sign another contract with Houston would still like him. Billy and his agent finally decide only to play with European friendly teams in NBA. Spurs, Mavs, Raptors, Suns, Rockets if Adelman still there only. Billy would not play for Rockets this year or next year because he feel fans hate him, but after 3 years he say they forget. So sorry guys but because Greens gives Billy huge buyout he has to stay. Greens did this because first time they signs Billy he has small buyout and Greens lose him to Rockets for almost nothing. This time they make sure this not happen with big contract buyout. Billy understand just Rockets old coach that is so mean and biased and he feel in 3 years he be ready for NBA as starting point guard. He set goal to be undisputed top player in Europe and whole world outside NBA over next 3 years. He then signs MLE and starts in NBA.
VSpan is a natural PG, his strength is dribbled with ball, kinda like SF3. JVG tried to make Vpsan into a pure jump shooter. It just doesnt work!!!! It was like asking center Yao Ming to play Small Forward. Of cos yao gonna sucks badly in this situation!