I disagree. I think Scola can be posted up more and I don't think he's used to stagnant ball movement that we are prone to at times, even if we are supposed to be utilizing a motion offense. It's more on his teammates not knowing how to utilize him to his strengths, which is him having great movement without the ball and spotting open moving teammates when he does have the ball. His J has been suspect and inconsistent which I'm disappointed right now, cause if he's money with that, it opens up to pump fakes and easy drives to baskets for either layups or pass off to open teammates, which I know he can do.
Here enlies the problem with having 3 all star calibur players. Sure Scola can do all that, but Tracy, Yao, and Artest do it better and have proven they can do it in the NBA for years. Scola can create but he is not nearly as good at it as u make him out to be. I think you're just shocked that someone other than Tmac and Yao can actually do something positive with the ball. That would make sense conscidering how long we've lacked the kind of support we have now.
Scola is real hit or miss. Some nights he just looks out of place and weird in the offensive sets. Other times he always seems to be in the right place at the right time with offensive rebounds and whatnot. Great player though, love the hustle.
Scola was pretty damn consistant once he was put in the starting lineup last year. And at his position, all we really need is consistant play.
I'm not asking for the offense to go through Scola, just for his teammates to utilize him better. And an occasional post up here and there, and when he does, please move around not stand around cause he is a good passer to cutting players. Give me a break on the Tracy, Yao, Artest argument. No crap they have been doing it longer in the NBA, anymore obvious insights? Artest seems to have least an eye for Scola at times, but for the most part stagnant ball movement means Scola being wasted on offense. It's like having a V-8 engine and yet you go 30mph most of the time. That's because he's not used to stagnant ball movement and superstar players holding the ball for long. It's on his teammates that he looks out of place on offense.
There's a reason we didn't lose a game with Luis and Yao in the starting lineup last year. He is a tremendous contributor to this team, and we are lucky that with him, Landry, and Hayes on this team there is nothing that whoever our Power Forward is on the floor cannot do.
Agree on the defense. I think some of it was Artest Effect, everyone using their hands going for the reacharound steal or trying to get in passing lanes all of a sudden. Scola on one defensive possession was following and chasing the ball wherever it went, hustling and being disruptive to the ball handler in the paint area...Until they simply found Scola's man Darrell Arthur on the right side wide open for a 12 footer he drained.....He showed a bunch of tenacity and all but it wasn't effective hustle. For whatever reason talking just about offense, as flat as Scola's O can be at times I'd give him the ball against the Timmy D's and Garnetts of league before Landry.
If I were to tweak the rotation that I saw last night (and include Battier in it): Starters play together for roughly half the game (mixing in Battier and Landry) Quarter of the game, play: Yao-(Landry/Hayes)-Battier-McGrady-Alston ...with standard inside-outside focus. Quarter of the game play: Scola-(Landry/Hayes)-Artest-Barry-Head ...with Adelman high post motion offense focus. I don't want to ever see the combo of Head-Barry-Artest-Landry-Hayes play extended minutes again. That was god awful. Evan
i love scola in the low post clean up. that boy does his work! he lets his guard down a bit and lets guys slip by sometimes. either way, love his hustle.
Well thats even better. I just want to see him avg. a double double. Not to many player in the leauge do it and if we can have two players him and Yao that would be very nice.
I could see the Rockets having two players over 20 ppg (T-Mac and Yao). Two players with a double/double average (Yao and Scola) Two players and half on the All-Defense teams (Artest, Battier, and Hayes) 3 All Stars (Yao, T-Mac, and Artest) 2 6th Man of the year candidates (Battier and Landry) For everyone raving about the Lakers, the Rockets have much better individual talent...once they come together...they will be much more unbeatable than the Lakers are.
I agree with everything you said. It will be great to see Tracy and Yao avg. more than 20 points, I'm hoping for atlease 22 ppg. each. And theres no doubt that the Lakers have a lot of talent and most people are picking them to win the west. But people are giving us a lot of credit too but they saying only if we stay healthy which I'm tired of hearing.
