"I love his hustle, energy and heart, but his basketball IQ is very low." That's completely untrue. He is a smart and skilled player. He does need to be more careful of not letting him alone, but that doesn't make him have a low basketball IQ.
I'm going to say this. The problem with international players is becoming a better athelete. The problem with atheletes is being fundementally sound. When u combine the 2, u get great players. This is the reason why gms gamble on the athelete. That's why I say unless something drastically changes, guy like yao and scola have peaked. That doesn't mean they can't improve, it just means they won't make a big jump like say a tyrus thomas or dwight can. Not saying they will. Since Scola will not get longer or more explosive, he will always struggle against long players unless he gets really strong and get a jump hook. That's a reason why people drool over landry. Eventhough he's about 6'8, he's explosive. So now, they need his hoop skills to catch up which is catching up quick. Scola is kinda like oberto/rebraca. Landry can be like Boozer/jefferson.
Scola is a finesse player around the basket. He may do a lot of pushing and shoving but once its time to shoot he doesnt have the hops to just elevate over his defender. If he tried to take the contact like you guys want him to all he would achieve is get his shot blocked. His moves are fine as they are. He just needs to learn to adjust his shot after getting shoved. That will come and he will get his 3 point plays.
You don't always have to take a shot to get foul just be in the motion and there have been several times throughout each game where Scola could go up and initiate contact but doesn't for whatever reason. This would get the fould piled up on the Utah team, get key players that guard Scola in foul trouble, and get Scola more FTs (not sure if that last one is bad or good). His shot won't get blocked and if he initiates contact it won't matter because he would draw the foul.
You are actually forgeting the fact that Scola is usually a player the refs allow to be hard on, because he is a rookie i prefer him to go to the easier shot, that the one that might get you a easier free throw.
Isn't Scola the one who blew the assignment when Okur hit that 3 at the end of the game? Didn't Scola leave him wide open???
yes he did, but i suspect it is somewhat of their gameplan on defense. They would rather have Okur jacking 3s with someone closing out on him than have Boozer pounding them inside. I think people are misunderstanding the reason for Scola's spins and pivots in the post. It is just his style of offense. Normally guys who are smaller use a series of pump fakes and moves to get their shot off against bigger players. It usually works. The difference is the Utah bigs play the same way accept they are more atheletic. The Jazz are a bad matchup for us because they do alot of the same things that we do. Whoever wins the hustle plays wins the game.
You are out of your mind if you think at that point in the game, with a 4 point lead that they would gameplan to leave Okur open for a wide open 3 pointer. He is probably their best 3 point shooter. It was a huge mistake and almost cost us the game.
IF I'm not mistaken, Boozer was diving to the basket and had the lane open. I suspect Luis saw that and was willing to make Okur hit the shot as opposed to giving up a dunk by Boozer the Loser.
I just watched the end of the game again and that is exactly what happened. Williams was pushing the ball to the top of the key and it actually looked like Landry got out of position on the pick. Scola came down to prevent the easy dunk or layup and TMac went to cover Okur. It was either blown by Landry or Rafer, depending on how they planned to cover the pick.
Yes and they he said when Milsap try to dunk and got block, Thats how Scola need to go to the rim, strong. Did he knows Scola can't jump. If he don't do what he do, he will get block every single time. and he take strong , but ppl think that taking strong means go to dunk the ball, the problem he can't unless he is wide open and have time to jump. He got foul almost in every play he attack the basket, but if they don't even call fouls on an superstar like Mcgrady what do you expect they do on a Rookie. He is fine and when Yao comeback he will have a lot of room to operate and attack the paint. Now when he goes in there is 3 Jazz waiting for him because he is the only post player we got now that Yao is hurt.
You see progress between game 2 and game 3? Game 2 he had 10 FTA, too? considering 2 of those FTAs were merely because Utah had to foul anyone with the ball at the end...he actually regressed from Game 2. that said, I'm really excited about Landry. He's looking ready to show Scola how to do it, once again. Carl "The Incisor" Landry can help the Passion Assassin.
What you have said is true and that's how teams play in playoffs; aggressive and physical. However, when a player is affected by pressure from playoffs, it doesn't mean he is not competitive. Scola has always been competitive but when he miss his rotation allowing Okur to nail a 3 and from the way he is playing, it does indicate that he is affected by the playoff pressure which is understandable as he is still a rookie in NBA. He made mistakes that he usually does not commit (and it's not only about missing lay ups) so he looked like he is probably slightly affected by the pressure of playoffs. When he used to the pressure, he will play better.
I agree with this. Scola is the last person to blame on that play. He *must* help on Boozer or it's a slam dunk. The Utah PnR has so many options. Once Landry got out of position to follow Boozer, it sets in motion a series of help defense responses. The result is someone gets left open. You need to blame it on the "help the helper" guy, which is either Landry (since he has no one to guard once he allows Boozer to release) or TMac, since he's the next closest guy to Okur.
Scola was guarding Okur. He didn't miss a rotation. Rotation means to leave your man to help. That is what Scola did. He left Okur to help on Boozer who was diving to the basket on the Utah PnR. Someone else missed the rotation on Okur. It's called "help the helper."
Luis is an old school guy. He is our only regular weapon in the paint. Fortunetely, we have Carl to give us energy and some unexpected plays.
i liked his version of the dream shake, but cmon luis...don't be nice...stuff it down their throats!!
