Manu on Scola and Rockets excerpt from article written in LANACION.com on 07/27/07

Well, looking at the footage on him, one thing's clear: He's got some tremendous post moves. He drives to the basket aggressively, finishes well in traffic, uses his body to get contact on the defender to get separation, finishes on the break pretty well, has an array of spins and reverses around the basket and looks crafty with the variety of ways he has of putting the ball in the hole, and had some good passing to outside shooters. I can really see why a lot of GMs and coaches like Adelman and Pop like him. He's definitely not some Stromile Swift project...his post skills look pretty polished and he seems to have a good basketball IQ in terms of being very decisive on the court when you toss him the ball. He also seems pretty athletic and extremely energetic, like his motor is constantly runing.... A lot of the Europeans on that team seemed that way. International basketball has changed...the European teams looked pretty darn good. He also seems pretty big and strong. Probably the trait that was most impressive was really his post moves finishing in traffic. It's one thing to finish when there's only one guy coming after you....but he was doing these spin and reverse layups between several defenders....I don't think defenders will be able to just cheat off him and double Yao as easily as they did when Hayes, Swift, or Juwan were playing. Scola can definitley score on you.

Man, I can't wait.... We could have a Yao-Scola-Battier-Tmac lineup for years all between the ages of 27-8....with Francis, Bonzi, James only 30 and Brooks in his early 20's..... a pretty young team.

 

Jazz didn't double Yao 99% time in last playoffs. Okur single covered Yao most of the time.

 

Yes, but the refs were being paid to not call any fouls on Okur.

 

Are you kidding me? Hell yeah we had a bench last year! Some of them were even starting!

 

none of our players got called. tmac was bumped off of every pick and roll by their big men. no call.

giricek basically hand-checked everytime he guarded tmac. no call.

in game 6, ak47 basically fouled him every play in the 2nd half and no call.

the jazz got away with it b/c they are considered a "physical" team. we would have gotten those calls playing other teams most likely.

 

I hope it's just me but I don't see why people would consider him athletic. In his videos even the one on the Rockets website, he did not seem very athletic.

However with that said, his post moves, hustle and basketball IQ will make up for his shortcomings.

 

How would you describe Scola compared to Howard? Athletic and energetic. How would you compare him to Hayes? Long and a scorer, with a variety of ways to put the ball in the hoop. We shouldn't get hung up too much on individual words. I'm comparing him to what we had last season, not to Swift or Griffin (athletically). This guy is smart, seasoned, talented, and he's no slug, nor is he undersized.

I like the way one of my favorite new members describes him...

"I have seen him play since before he turned 20. I love his game and is one of my favorite players. But I reckon he won't be a star in the NBA, but a role player. He is near his peak (if he is not at it already), so he doesn't have a lot of upside. If he was some inches taller or an extraordinary defender, then it would be different.

And getting to be an All Star in the west as a forward is almost impossible. It took Gasol (a much better player than Scola) quite a long time to get to be an All-star.

I'm optimistic of his future in the NBA. I think he will be a very good role player, who will be able give a valuable contribution to the Rockets."
- scola

scola isn't trying to pump him up to be the next Nitwitski. If anything, I think he's trying to lower expectations, because all Euro players (and South American players who played in the Euro leagues) who come over have to adjust to the NBA game. Of course, being a Summer Optimist, my usual condition this time of year, I think scola will be surprised with Scola, LOL, but I like his description of him.

 

We don't need him to be a star, just a better PF than Hayes, someone who is a threat offensively and makes smart plays.

He fits the team PERFECTLY.

DD

 

that's wtf is wrong with officiating. call the damn game according to the rules!

 

nice article...thanks....at least this one has some credibiliyt unlike some of the articles that are posted from Chinese Media....

 

I don't remember who, but someone suggested that the refs should be picked at random on who will be officiating games about a day or two before the game. That should minimize those chances.

Btw, on playoffs does anyone know if a series is reffed by the same group or do they change by game??

 

Yes it is.

 

And Yao put up big numbers against Okur and that is what Utah wanted because the Rocks didn't have much other offense outside of T-Mac. Now, if Utah single covers Yao they're going to get destroyed because not only will Yao abuse them but the rest of the Rockets offense will abuse them.

 

Which is BS on the officials parts. Just call the game down the middle. Just because a team is "physical" doesn't mean that team should be able to play their style and their opponent should be called close because they're not "physical". If you're going to call a physical game let both teams play that style.

 

Swift is one of the most athletic guys in the league, but he never knew what to do with it half the time. Despite being able to jump out of the gym, he would be out of position half the time. Scola might not be as athletic as Swift, but he's a way more polished post player than Swift. Look at some of Scola's spinning post moves and tell me that he's unathletic. He's no slouch. What made Scola such a good post player in Europe was that he made these decisive one or two step power moves to the basket. No wasted steps. He would either spin to allude his defender or make contact to get separation. He has quite a variety of bag of tricks to score around the basket. It's great to have that extra weapon in the post that teams have to worry about. Before, coaches would just gameplan to stop Yao...but now they have to think about Scola driving to the hoop or hitting that midrange jumper. Scola is also a good passer and I'm sure Adelman will have him set screens so that Francis, Bonzi, Tmac, Brooks drive to the basket. Both Yao and Tmac each averaged 25 in the playoffs last year, it was the supporting cast that sometimes came up empty. Hopefully, this year guys like Francis, Bonzi, Scola, James, Brooks will give them more help.

 

A friendly tournament started today in Argentina (Argentina, Canada, Uruguay and Spain B).

Argentina beated Uruguay 82 - 74.

The Argentine team is still far away from being able to play as a team. But by the August 22th (when the Olympic qualifier tourny starts), I hope we will be better.

Delfino was the man of the match, scoring 26 points and getting 7 rebs.

Scola got some early fouls that made the coach sit him on the bench. And then as the game went on, the coach decided to give the other big men more playing time, since they were doing well, and the match was under control.

Scola had 8 pts and 6 rebs in 16 minites.

Argentina will play tomorrow against the winner of Canada vs. Spain B.

 

Scola



Delfino

 

I am happy if between Yao and Scola they pull down over 20 rebounds a game.

 

Only caught a few minutes of the Uruguay game at Retiro & missed the Spain one...are they playing again in this tourney? If so, do you know what time & channel down here? TYC? Fox? ESPN? Haven't been able to see much of Scola, looking forward very much to the Vegas tourney.

Talking to our students in class down here, we've asked "What do you know about Texas?" The first few responses were pretty much the same in all the classes: oil, cowboys, NASA, *Spurs*. This is killing me. I've been pimping the Rox with all my basketball fan peeps...hopefully the tide can turn a little bit next season.