UPDATE: San Antonio-Express New reports deal is done http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA071207.WEBspurstrade.en.6be36230.html havent seen this anywhere... http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4964549.html The Rockets could be ready to land their long-sought power forward help, but also to begin another recruiting effort with a European star. The Rockets were close to an agreement on Thursday to land Tau Ceramica star Luis Scola, one of the pillars of Argentina’s Olympic champion team and reserve Jackie Butler from the Spurs for guard Vassilis Spanoulis, a second round pick and cash considerations, a NBA executive with knowledge of the deal said. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey could not be reached for comment. Team have sought Scola for years, but found it increasingly difficult to lure him from Europe as he became a more established star with one of the traditional European powers. He had starred for Argentina along with Manu Ginobili, Fabricio Oberto and Walter Hermann. Spanoulis played 31 games for the Rockets last season, but said he would not return to the United States to play for any team.
Sweet! It's hard to get one over on the Spurs, but Scola's a much better player than Spanoulis, even if Spanoulis plays.
Anybody know anything about this guy? I mean... it's clear that negotiations weren't going anywhere with V-Span. Is this guy just another Badiane?
Wow, SWEET. We got something out of Spanoulis. Scola is a good player, and Jackie Butler is worth a few minutes off the bench or as Deke breakdown insurance.
The best player in Europe. Right now, he doesn't want to come to the NBA. But if he can be convinced, he'd be great.
I thought he wanted to come to the NBA, but the Spurs wouldn't let him, and he wasn't happy about that, and demanded a trade, but the Spurs wouldn't trade him (until now, hopefully).
I believe the Spanish team of Tau Ceramica wanted a huge buyout value...somewhere around 3 to 4 million dollars. The Spurs didn't want to cough up with the money.
wow, this is actually a LOT better than i was expecting. NBA GMs everywhere are pretty high on Scola. If the deal only includes V-Span like it says, then that also allows us to be more flexible with what to do with guys like Alston, Head and Sura. I'm still high on bringing Francis in if we can and trading those 3 for maybe another 2-guard or swingman. I could go to war with a lineup of : James, Brooks Francis, ? McGrady, Wells, Novak Scola, Hayes, Landry Yao, Deke
MVP of 2005 and 2007 for the Spanish basketball league. 27 years old. Key member of Argentine team. 6'9 PF/C. (Another PF) Lets hope VSPAN isn't Tony Parker over in SA but Scola is been said to be there best non NBA player in the world now. DO IT MOREY
So we trade the rights to a euro player who won't come back, plus cash and a second round pick for the rights to another euro player who is locked up overseas and jackie butler. So, worst case scenario, we give up cash and a 2nd round pick for a raw backup center, and Vspan decides to come back and play with the spurs. Best case scenario we get a better player, a backup center and the spurs can't convince vspan to come back and they draft a dud in the secound round. Most likely scenario is that neither vspan or scola come here, so even still cash and a 2nd round pick for a potentially good backup center is an ok trade. I don't think the spurs woud trade scola unless they believed that it would be easier to get vspan back here than him.
If they do this, does that mean V-Span has agreed to stay in the NBA? I guess his mom isn't crying anymore.
anything for spanoulis would be good. i've been worried that they rockets will let him walk, in order to have money to spend on FA's.
