Why not? He earned it by running the offense smoothly 90% of the time, by not turning the ball over, by getting the ball to our primary options Mac and Yao, by shooting from 3 at a decent clip. By comparison, your precious Vspan threw passes where nobody could catch, had a broken jumpshot and moped all day about his supposed "promised playing time" and being T-Mac back in Greece. Granted, he was an able penetrator when plays broke down, and was quick on defense. But that's about it really. You can say that there was nobody else on the team to snatch those minutes from Rafer, but even then, the fact that no one could means that he duly earned them. Whether or not he was wholly effective at it is another question. What's unquestioned is that he was certainly more effective than Vspan was.
What's your argument? Spanoulis should have been granted 500 regular season minutes, no strings attached, and only then would he be evaluated? That's not how a coach is supposed to run things. I agree, we can't draw strong conclusions just based on Spanoulis's numbers. But there's no hard fast rule that if you play under 500 minutes, all the objective evidence is worthless, and if you play over 500 minutes, all of a sudden it becomes relevant. It's not that black and white. Young players who are at the end of the rotation need to earn their playing time on good teams that are aiming for a high playoff seed. They do so by practicing hard, improving in the areas that need improvement, playing well in the opportunities given, and proving to the coach that they are a better option than other players at that position. That's a perfectly reasonable standard, and Spanoulis didn't cut it. Rafer is a veteran, and JVG knows his game. Yes, in the NBA, having a track record (even a mediocre one) counts for something. As erratic as Rafer could be last season, he was a safer and more dependable option than Spanoulis (or any of our other PGs, for that matter). Unfortunately, those 37.1 mpg were justified, and that's a sad commentary on the quality of our backup PGs last season.
To make this simple: f*** stats, f*** sample sizes, f*** Hollinger.... It's all about what he has done on the court. And during his time on the court, however little it may have been, I've seen nothing that would give him minutes on any NBA team.
You guys want to hear something funny? I am now tired of the V-Span and JVG stuff..... They are gone, the Rockets are better off now, time to let it die. DD
Because there's no one better! He figured out that BBScientist and myself were one and the same! <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/mirthheart/Acecopy.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S0PVgv_0gLo"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S0PVgv_0gLo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Can Alston do this? No. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/f5057E7MQPg"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/f5057E7MQPg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Can Alston do this? No. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DKTYcQYvFzo"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DKTYcQYvFzo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Can Luther Head do one skill displayed there as well? No. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qWl-JHATnP4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qWl-JHATnP4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Does Alston or Head do this? No. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bvhR30ojBy4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bvhR30ojBy4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Does Alston or Head do this? No. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dg3YbkwIzYc"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dg3YbkwIzYc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> My God he's "HORRIBLE" Rafer/Head/Lucas never played D like that in their entire lifetime Obviously Jeff Van Gundy is right in how he handled the PG rotation, I mean hell how could anyone not see John Lucas III is clearly without question better than this Spanoulis guy? How could anyone not see he only showed enough to warrant 51 DNPCD's? CLEARLY anyone who cannot see how perfectly right Van Gundy was is either a Greek, a Spanoulis "sack hugger" was personally wronged by Van Gundy, or is simply a colossal idiot.
BBScientist..how good he was or wasn't will never be known for sure. He didn't get minutes. He's gone. Let it go.
It would be nice if all V-Span and JVG threads would automatically get moved over to the NBA Dish to avoid cluttering the GARM. That way, the 3 stooges addicted to V-Span and the JVG-haters could go to town stabbing those dead horses to their hearts content. BBall Strangeperson, when did I accuse you of skewing stats? Never?
i would say that jvg is an expert when it comes to identifying talent when he sees it, but then he praises rafer and he loses all credibility!
Wow, he posted highlights of V-Span! Seriously, highlights don't mean nothing. Somebody can make a highlight mix of Ryan Bowen and put those V-Span highlights to shame. For every one highlight, theres about 2-4 bonehead plays that show why he didn't get more time. So far, I have yet to see any valid arguments as to why V-Span should have got more playing time. Sorry, the USA game and other video highlights are not going to cut it. Sadly, those are the only things V-Span supporters have to make their case.
It's surprising that a poster who claims to be all about objective data would resort to selected clips on youtube to make his case. And I didn't even see anything special in those clips. They're standard basktball plays that most penetrating guards should be able to pull off, and they mostly came in garbage time. I don't see what the big deal is.
You know, I bet if we copied and pasted "Aaron Brooks" into this thread, it'd be like time-traveling to the future!
Then you failed to read the thread. Numerous claims were made that he never finished a play, he never dribbled without a turnover, etc. You choose to ignore these posts which are 100 percent factually wrong and instead choose to call out my post which just provided the visual proof as to how they were wrong. Then you imply I am not objective........ Like I said, political style "debate" tactics don't work on me. They do not work on highly educated people.
Wait, you thought people meant that he literally never finished a play or dribbled without committing a turnover? And therefore you could disprove them by showing the counter examples? That's funny.
BBall Scatologist, please can you not get it through your thickest of skulls? You can post any myriad of links, images, stats, what have you. If you have any neural ability to learn you can readily see that the bulk of the community on this BBS will not be swayed to suddenly say "yeah, you know, maybe he's right. Maybe Spanokopitis would have been our pg of the future!" There is just not sufficient evidence to move people on this point. And your credibility is at a level you must surely acknowledge. There's just no moving the opinion here, so you are essentially masturbating in a public and disturbing way. If it is possible to hurt your credibility, you are doing so. Perhaps it is measured on a log scale (?)
No what is both funny and sad is that you say I am not objective yet it's simply ignored when people make outlandish comments like he always turned it over. See believe or not there are still some people in the world who understand that left is actually left, not right. That up really truly is up, not down. The one power that can never be defeated is the power of truth.
