I don't think you can underestimate chemistry when thinking about this team's potential going forward. I don't think you can underestimate grit, hard work, humility or attitude either. Scola has all those things in spades which is why he's such a big part of making this team (especially in Adelman's system) go. For those that worry about a sophomore slump, I just don't see it. Maybe if he relied on his jump shot, but every good thing he gets comes from his scrappy play. Shooting slumps can happen to anyone; scrappiness slumps are considerably less likely, especially when the rookie in question is moving into his late twenties. Scola's not untouchable. (I don't actually believe anyone's untouchable -- I think even Hakeem or Jordan could have been had, even in their primes, with the right deal and the involvement of enough teams.) But he's special enough -- when you consider his various upsides, his smarts, the fact that he's hard to replace as a starting 4 in the West, his relative youth, the fact that he plays so far above his natural ability and his cheap ass rookie contract -- that it would have to be really perfect. Artest is clearly a better player now than Scola, but I wouldn't do the trade straight up. Artest would be a great spark and he would give us a third star, but Scola's glue. And he's not as good as he will be. Plus, Scola loves subordinating his interests to the interests of the team. When your two top guys are relative softies like Yao and Mac, that's invaluable. There's no one-for-one deal I'd do for Scola (with the possible exception of the rookies that outpaced him in ROY voting) for the simple fact of his low money contract. If we were still trying to ditch a Cato or Juwan-style contract, I'd consider moving him in a package. But even then it would have to be a pretty compelling package. I don't feel this way about all of our role players but there are role players and then there are role players. Scola's second only to Yao as an untouchable on our team to me. He's like Elie or Chucky Brown with size and skills and we have no idea yet where his ceiling is (imagine if he made half of the high percentage shots he missed this year). That's my very favorite kind of player.
role players are ALWAYS tradeable. The Scola love is largely due to how low the bar has been set at PF over years since Barkely. Mo Taylor, Kenny Thomas, Eddie Griffin(r.i.p), Juwan Howard & Chuck Hayes.....when you see the list names you'll understand why now that Houston has a PF thats worth a damn people wanna hold on to him. Ive always felt that being the big man next to the "great" big man is one of the easiest jobs in the league. From Otis Thorpe playing next to Hakeem to Kendrick Perkins playing next to Garnett in Boston. Combine this knowledge with the understanding the number of layups and wide open 15fters you'll get playing with McGrady.....our stars mask a lot of the PFs shortcomings. Usless they're completely void of offensive talent....a la Chuck Hayes. So the question is whats more important???? A starting calibre PF or A legit 3rd scorer???
not to mention that Scola is CHEAP ! Starting PF for a good team usually goes for around 10 million a year, there is simply no better value than Scola at this point.
That's probably the most important part of this whole scenario. If you give him up for the same production, but more money, you have a net loss for the team, and lets be honest, on a Yao and McGrady team, no pf is going to come in here are get a ton of shots anyway, so we need to focus on the pg and swing position.
Duncan Allstar Nowitzki Allstar West Allstar Boozer Allstar Stoudemire Allstar Brand Allstar That´s 6 allstar PFs in West. Not a shame to be worse than those guys. Western conference in general is very strong on PFs and weak on 2/3. I´d also like to hear whom of Kobe, Tmac, Manu and Melo you have behind Artest?
landry>scola. lets trade scola landry>scola. lets trade scola don't get me wrong scola is a great palyer but he makes too many mistakes . yeah i know he was a rookie but c'mon who ever thinks his going to be or conterbute like manu they are wrong. i don't think he even fits with yao.
Seriously, you couldn't have posted this in the "scola dealbreaker?" thread? Edit: See the mods are faster than me!
I mean I like Scola but cmon man. Some of you are such homers. Scola is no better than David Lee of NY. If you can get one of the premeir defensive players in this leauge for a ROLE player you jump on it. There is absolutely no comparing the talent between these 2. In fact the talent gap is so wide you would have to throw out all the negatives about Artest and take this chance. With Artest we have a chance to be great. A 2 headed PF of Hayes and Landry combined with Artest is > a 3 headed PF of Scola, Hayes and Landry. Hell I would do Bobby Jackson plus Scola in a S&T for Artest. make it a 2 year contract and if it doesnt work out He comes of the books with Tmac. That is a lot of dough to throw at a superstar FA like Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay or Manu Ginobili and still have money left over.
It's not that Scola > Artest or anyone we want. The reason why we want to keep Scola and other teams want Scola is because he has a relatively low contract. 3 million for an above average starting PF is a good freaken deal.
{functionality} ÷ {price tag} - scola >> artest (and a lot others mentioned) this is also usually the formula when i buy personal stuff for myself.
