GARM FAQs: Vassilis Spanoulis Signing Edition

Okay so it's time for another edition of GARM FAQs, where I summarize a topic into one post and explain my take on the matter. You can see my previous submission using this format here:

GARM Faq: Kirk Synder Trade Edition

That last one was pretty well received, so hopefully you'll find this one just as useful.

Cheers.


So who is Vassilis Spanoulis? How much did he sign for?

Vassilis Spanoulis (V-span for short) is our 2nd round pick from 2004. We traded up with the #55 + Cash to the Mavs' #50 pick to land him. (And for the record this wasn't the Mavs' pick. They drafted him specifically for us. So those of you who keep giving credit to the Mavs' scouting dept, STOP IT. Just wanted to get that off my chest.)

We used part of our Mid Level Exception (MLE) to sign V-Span. The Chronicle and other sources are putting the length and value of the contract at 3 years at $5-6 million. He also has a buyout that costs about 400K in Euros, which when converted to dollars is right at the $500k limit for how much the Rockets can spend on a buyout. This buyout amount is independent of the salary cap, and has no bearing on our official team payroll.

If they're incorporating standard raises into his contract then V-span's starting salary will be between $1.544 to $1.851 million. The MLE for this year is valued at $5.215 mill so that means that we have between $3.364 to $3.671 million to spend on a starting salary for a free agent.

Until we get more accurate figures, I'll just assume that we're splitting the difference and paying him a 3 year $5.5 million deal with a starting salary of about $1.7 mill. That would work out to:

Year 1: $1.7 million (Unofficially)
Year 2: $1.836 million (Unofficially)
Year 3: $1.972 million (Unofficially)
Total: $5.508 million (Unofficially)

As for our MLE, we'd have $3.5 million available. That's still a decent amount. For comparison's sake, Marcus Banks got a 5 year $21 million deal from the Suns, and Darius Songaila got 5 years $23 million from the Wizards. A full-lengthed deal starting at $3.5 million would be 5 years at $20.3 million. So that's a pretty competitive amount on the market right now.


So is he any good?

I have less to say about him than most other free agents/prospects. Most of the board has only seen one highlight video of V-Span and I'm no exception. But from that video, scouting reports, and stats we can get a basic overview of what he can bring to the table.

First off V-span plays with a herky jerky type style on penetration. He goes side to side, with stutter-steps and other "crafty" ball-handling maneuvers. His first step isn't explosive, but he seems to get the job done in his own way. The NBA's handcheck enforcement rule should be a benefit to his game since it should allow him to get that extra half-step in front of a guy which'll make the defender more vulnerable to V-Span's fakeouts.

The obvious comparison is Manu Ginobli, because he's foreign, white, flops like a fish out of water, and dribble-drives in a similar fashion. But Manu's got a few things going for him that V-span doesn't. Ginobli is taller, more athletic and looks to have a quicker first step. So unlike Manu, who is an explosive finisher that can jam it over pretty much anybody in the league, V-span's success needs to come more along the lines of floaters, finger-rolls, pull-ups and muscling up lay-ins.

The comparison that I look at is Bob Sura. They're about the same size, weight and build. They both get to the rim via craftiness, strength and determination rather than explosive quickness. And by all accounts, V-span is a major competitor, with a fiery attitude just like Bobby.

They both even have that streaky three point shot going, with Spanoulis being on absolute fire during the regular season shooting 43% on threes, having that dip to a 17.6% in the top 16 of Euroleague, and then having it bounce back to 42.8% in the quarterfinals.


Okay, but how did he get the name KillBill? I've seen that everywhere.

That is his nickname in Greece. It was picked up in some of the Greek articles that were posted here when his contract offer was just a rumor. From what I understand, Vassilis is the Greek equivalent of William or Bill. And with the proliferation of U.S. pop culture and media, I guess the movie caught on as a moniker for Spanoulis.

Oh and contrary to some posts, the KillBill nick is not the product of a babelfish translation. If you follow the original Greek language link, you can clearly see that they've written "Kill Bill" in English letters.

As for why the clutch board has taken to writing it without the space in the middle as in "KillBill", I have no idea since the original greek links show it clearly as "Kill Bill" with a space. I guess it looks cooler that way.


Geez. So this is yet another European player (Boki, Badman) that gets a nickname before doing absolutely anything? That annoys me because I have no sense of enjoyment in life. Grr.

And don't forget the little known fact that Mirsad Turkcan's nickname was "The Turkish Dreamsmasher who stomps on the chest of Houstonian prospects with their heart set on the hometown team. Yes I'm talking about you Rashard Lewis". It didn't quite take, but I don't know, I think it's kind of catchy.

As for KillBill, considering his sub 2 million a year salary, the fact that we're way over the cap, but not in Luxury tax danger unless we add 7-8 million a year in contracts, I for one will enjoy his time on our roster for his cool nickname alone.

We paid Derek Anderson about the same amount last year and his nick was of the generic "First and Last name initials" category that's lost pretty much all it's charm. Imagine if his nick was Darth Vader or something. Now wouldn't that have made his salary worth it on "Nooooooooo" jokes alone:

Darth Vader has just been traded for Gerald Fitch.
Noooooooooooooooo!!!

What? Come on, that's funny. Is this mic on?


Okay so where does KillBill fit in on the team? What is his role going to be?

Well pretty much all reports put him as a combo-guard, so he'll probably get time at both guard positions. JVG did say he likes his size and length, and Blinbury floated the idea of a V-span/Luther backcourt. I could see that working, since they'd be about half a PG each and can team up to bring the ball up under pressure.

They also say that Spanoulis is an excellent Pick and Roll player. So we'll see how he runs it with one of the best Pick and Roll big men in the league. Personally, I felt that the PnR was way underused last year with Yao, especially the side PnR. But that another topic all together.

An optimistic projection for V-span would be about 15-20 mpg, backing up both guard positions, scoring efficiently and getting to the line a lot. Obviously the pessimistic projection says he can't get off the bench due to poor defense and ineffectual offensive play, but let's not go there for now.


Okay, so what's next.

It kind of depends on JVG's insistence of having 3 PGs and a legitimate backup for nights when Rafer isn't "on". I've already penciled in Lucas onto our roster (it would take a monumental f*** up at this point to lose him to another team), so he would likely be our 3rd pg.

But going by the rest of the roster, it doesn't look like we have a legitimate backup PG (or a starting PG depending on how you feel about Rafer) unless Head can develop a left hand, Lucas can make the leap, or Sura gets a body transplant.

So are we going with backup PG by committee split between Luther, Lucas, and V-span? Or are we still in the market for a point? There was an unsubstantiated rumor about using our TE for Damon Jones, and I thought that the idea had some merit. Though I'm not sure what I think about it with KillBill aboard.

If I had to guess, I'd say that we'll go into the season with the backup PG by committee route and see if we need to upgrade during the season. Of course I didn't think there was any way we'd trade for a PG during training camp last year, so who knows what the Rockets are thinking.

As for the MLE/TE, apparently CD said that the free agent market is a bit bare and they're looking for trades more than a free agent signing. My preference is to use the rest of the MLE, since it's benefit will largely go away after the offseason while the TE can be used up till the trade deadline. There's still some useful players out there, and some can be had on a short term contract.

Course if you can get a good player for the TE now, then obviously you do it. There's been rumors about Kyle Korver, but I'm not as high on him as some other posters. I guess he would be a solid acquisition for the TE, but skillwise Novak could give us the same thing at a much cheaper price tag. I know that Korver is a proven player, but I'd rather see what Novak can do for half a season before springing for a longterm one-dimensional player like Korver.

As for my preferences, I'd be looking at adding a utility defender off the bench like Fred Jones or Jared Jeffries, and/or a backup PF/C like Lorenzon Wright or Melvin Ely.


Parting words?

I leave you with this, "KILLBILL MOTHER****ERS!"

 

I'm planning on doing one for the summer leaguers. JL3 will get prominent coverage on that one for sure. Rockets2K said that he might do a torrent of the rockets/clippers summer league game so I'll probably wait until he releases that, or if maybe if we get news on his signing.