Not me. Although I think he could have become a quality third guard in the Rockets' rotation, trading his voidable contract got us Luis Scola. For however good Spanoulis (realistically) could have been for the Rockets, Scola was better.
http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_S4-g0RUcJicCxGA2ihlTJ1.articleMode_on.html FIBA EUROPE 2012 MEN'S PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTING RESULTS 1. Andrei Kirilenko 2. Pau Gasol 3. Vassilis Spanoulis 4. Tony Parker 5. Marc Gasol 6. Danilo Gallinari 7. Goran Dragic 8. Marcin Gortat 9. Nikola Pekovic 10. Omer Asik
http://www.euroleague.net/news/i/113030/180 All-Euroleague First Team: Vassilis Spanoulis - 5th selection Dimitris Diamantidis - 4th selection Rudy Fernandez - 1st selection Nenad Krstic - 2nd selection Ante Tomic - 1st selection All-Euroleague First Team YouTube: [youtube]Pdy8W_ZtmF8[/youtube] All-Euroleague Second Team: Milos Teodosic - 3rd selection Juan Carlos Navarro - 7th selection Viktor Khryapa - 2nd selection Nikola Mirotic - 1st selection Shawn James - 1st selection All-Euroleague Second Team YouTube: [youtube]4dssjXWBfZY[/youtube] Vassilis Spanoulis, Olympiacos Piraeus Impressive as they are, statistics only tell part of the story for Vassilis Spanoulis, who is the unquestionable leader of defending Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion Olympiacos Piraeus. Spanoulis, 30, is the ultimate combo-guard, who can lift his team with his scoring and passing, which go hand in hand to plague opposing defenses. He ranked among the league leaders in both categories, placing fourth in scoring (14.7 ppg.) and third in assists (5.59 apg.). The inability to guard Spanoulis is well represented by the fact that he led the league in fouls drawn (5.41 per game). All told, he is ninth in the league in average performance index rating (15.4). Spanoulis got the Reds rolling early this season and was duly rewarded as bwin MVP for November. He scored at least 9 points in every game before the playoffs, and when his shooting slumped in the series against Anadolu Efes, Spanoulis took over to lead the playoffs in assists (6.6 apg.). Now in his third season with Olympiacos, Spanoulis is also a two-time Euroleague champ, and a two-time Final Four MVP. This marks his fifth All-Euroleague selection. -------------------------------------------------------------------- So much for Spanoulis being "T-Mac of Europe". More like Kobe of Europe. And Old Man Rock, once again, Rudy is there, and Llull is not.
Patrick Beverley came in an did what he had to do in MIDSEASON, he adjusted fine. Why isnt old Pablo Prigioni sulking? Why couldnt Spanoulis adapt who instead left sucking this thumb and sad like some emo brat? I do blame Van Gundy a bit in his (probably exaggerated) imperialistic in his handling of young players, but Spanoulis did a lot to himself. Haha
Van Gundy would have never played Beverley. Van Gundy would have quit if his GM dared to even sign someone like Prigioni. And Patrick Beverley was a third string point guard in the Euroleague. After that, he played in Europe's SECOND level league, the one below the Euroleague in level. Prigioni was a beast in his prime, without a doubt, but he was never in the All-Euroleague First Team. Spanoulis has been there twice now. Prigioni never won a Euroleague championship in all his years there, despite having teammates like: Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, Goran Dragic, Luis Scola, Mirza Teletovic, Andres Nocioni, Jose Calderon, Arvydas Macijauskas, Roko Ukic, Zoran Planinic, Pete Mickeal, Fernando San Emeterio, Ante Tomic, Louis Bullock, Felipe Reyes, Rimas Kaukenas, Darjus Lavrinovic, Jorge Garbajosa, Nikola Mirotic, Sergio Rodriguez, Kevin Seraphin, Brad Oleson, Nemanja Bjelica, Thomas Heurtel, Reggie Williams............ EVERY year he had one of the best teams in Euroleague, even in one season he played on the team with the biggest budget in all of Europe. Yet, he never won a Euroleague championship. Spanoulis, on the other hand, has won 2 Euroleague championships, and he was the MVP of the finals both times. Beverley was just considered an average player by top European club basketball standards. Prigioni was considered a star (about FIVE years ago), while Spanoulis is considered a legend there, and one of the best Euroleague players of all time. Beverley by far, and even Prigioni, really have no place to even be compared to Spanoulis. Spanoulis' career is far above theirs, especially by several country miles above Beverley's career.
VSpan showed a lot of promise here but he was treated like **** by Van Gundy and never given a real opportunity. Yes Vspan had a lot to learn but he also showed he could play. It was always JVG holding him back. I know all the JVG lovers will come out in force now. But JVG couldn't stand CD running the show and never was going to let him play. JVG didn't want him and decided he was not a playmaker and should only be a spot up shooter. Everything before and since proved otherwise. Vspan went to coach man to man privately in his office and told him he was more of a playmaker in europe like TMac and that was his role. And JVG backstabbed him and went to the media and said Vspan thinks his the TMAC of Greece but we have the TMac of America already. When Vspan returned to Greece he said that is not what he told him. He never thought he was a s good as Tmac only that was his style of play. JVG is a control freak. He wants to win but only his way. He took this team backwards when we had Yao and Tmac with all his stupid old NY knicks signings. Even Yao said just during the All Star break if JVG was his first coach he would have went back to China. Okay wheew... I have some pinned up anger towards JVG. The thing is I like JVG now. I think he is a great announcer and a good guy when he is not trying to manage people. I love what he does in the Houston community aNd think he probably be a better coach now. But I can only imagine how could we would have been if we had not allowed to control all phases of basketball operations while he was here.
Can't you read he's from Greece. He wanted his fellow countryman to play on his favorite team. Are you from Greece? Let the man have his. This has nothing to do with whether keeping Scola or Vspan would have been better.
Seeing Bev and Prigioni as solid contributors really makes me wonder about VSpan. He is one of the best players in Europe. I fully expect given his credentials that he could have been an solid backup PG in the NBA. Too bad JVG ruined it. given that he is about to turn 31. I hope Prigionis success convinces Spanoulis to give the NBA another chance. It would be best if he came over now before he is completely past his prime.
It's the truth. But the Rockets fan base has built up a legend and myth around Morey and that trade, and sadly, due to the fact that Spanoulis will probably never come back to play in the NBA (why would he after how Van Gundy did him?)................. The truth about that trade is never going to come out in the lore of Rockets history. The truth being that, Spanoulis ended up being a better player than Scola, when it was all said and done. And of course, the Rockets are still apparently looking for the right power forward, and now they don't really have the right point guard either. In retrospect, that Rockets blew that trade.
Is this supposed to be impressive? A list of NBA wash outs and former lower level role players representing the best in Europe? Not at all impressive, basketball in Europe has seen better days... Atleast they didn't pull Marko Jaric's corpse out and name him to the second team.
There was the other thing that he could not adjust to American culture. That one got overlooked. He was crying to go home after half a year or so. Well documented
V-SPAN had a 1:1 assist to turnover ratio, and that was his best statistic. He shot .319 from the field and .172 from downtown. I can't believe there are still people whining that JVG didn't give this clown a fair shot. He had a 5.4 PER. That isn't a typo, he was historically bad. In comparison, Bryce Drew had a PER of 6.6 in 98-99 and 10.9 in 99-00. In fact, Bryce Drew was better than or equal to V-SPAN in every statistical category except rebounding. When you struggle to be as good as Bryce Drew, it is time for people to stop pining over what might have been.
Yeah, kind of like Prigioni's corpse starting for one of the best teams in the NBA in the playoffs. Or kind of like Euroleague scrubs getting hyped in NBA (Rubio, Jennings). Or kind of like guys considered "among the best at their position in NBA", totally sucking to no end in the Euroleague. Or better yet, it's kind of like the NBA regularly drafting and signing players from Europe that were either cut by Euroleague teams, or failed to pass tryouts with Euroleague teams. Hey, the NBA is some impressive stuff these days.............
LMFAO that is what I thought.... A bunch of role players. Prigioni getting a whole 3 points and 2 assists this year for the Knicks this season and dropping -0- points against the Pacers last game. Awesome argument OHMSS. Jennings and Rubio were very young when they played in Europe and frankly aren't setting the NBA on fire either. Both are shooting under 40% and struggle for consistent play. I am sure you can tell us wonderful tales of other NBA Euro washouts setting the basketball world on it's ear. It is just a joke that you proudly post the first and second team lists, when it is full of former fringe NBA players that are washed up or younger players that have their rights owned by NBA teams but their NBA teams don't want to bring them over yet. Just a real down period, the NBA has really sucked away the non grunt role players.
Noooooo he was going to be Kobe Bryant. The fact he was at best a third guard on an NBA team is irrelevant. The guy sucked, his skill set did not translate against the better, stronger, faster NBA players. He played out of control, couldn't get his shot off or play half way decent. Making it worse, he was mentally weak and was a malcontent. I am glad he has had success playing in the minor leagues, but his game just didn't translate.
