Very rarely are foreign players former Euro league MVPs, just entering the prime of their careers. I think he will be ready.
last time i checked the Spurs won with Oberto in the starting line up. Scola is a winner and should be our starting PF this upcoming season.
Where has he played most of his professional career? What league did he win the MVP for? That was my point when i said "European" big man. Not what country he was born in. Alright, fair point about Manu Ginobili. However, Scola is a big man and is expected to come in and fill a huge hole for us at PF. Their is a small list of European/International big men that have come into the league and done well. I can further narrow that list according to how many have European/International big men have come into the league and contributed significantly in their first year. The point is Ginobili is the exception rather than the rule, so using him as an example is not accurate whatsoever. Ginobili is a great player, but just because he is a great player doesn't mean everyone from his team is going to be a great player like him. My next point is European/International big man tend to not play great defense. Ok defense-Average defense alright, that's fine. However, I seriously believe we need a player that plays great defense to play along side Yao. WTF can't people see that? .....I don't get why no one sees that. Maybe I'm wrong, but after last year, it was painfully obvious in my opinion. Tall/athletic (taller than 6'9 at the least) shot-blocker that plays great defense and can hit the occassional jumpshot. True, Chuck Hayes did well for us last year, but Scola doesn't seem to be a player that does what Hayes did to make us a successful team last year. Remember Juwan was the one who had a good and occassionally great jump shot and played good positional defense. However, he was unathletic, not at the least a good shot blocker, and we suffered most of the time he had to take on the great PF's in the West. Perhaps, Scola will be a great defender that can defend the great PF's in the West decently and fit well next to Yao. I don't believe so because he seems to be the same type of PF we did not want playing next to Yao. Perhaps, the Euro-league MVP 2, nearly 3, years ago will come here and fulfill all of our needs at PF. But do want to bank a championship on it? Or are the Rockets so out of options that this is all we can do? Like I said, it was a great trade in terms of giving up a player that will not play here again and getting a player in the one spot we need help in. I don't believe we should look to him for the starting PF position though. Backup? heck yeah, great trade. Starter? Errr...... That's all I'm saying. We shall definitely see. ??? Lol
Scola was the best the Rockets could do.PF will be handled by committee.His strength is on offense,it remains to be seen what he can do defensively. I hope he will hustle,block a shot or two and get a few rebounds a game. I'm not expecting more than that.
Scola is considered a good defensive player in the Euroleague, so he should at least be competant on that end for us. Ideally, would we rather have a great defensive player who also has all of Scola's offensive skills? Sure. Unfortunately, none of those players (and there are only a handful of them in the world) are available.
Jorge Garbajosa, another forward who played Spanish league basketball, was a solid contributor in his first year with the Raptors last year. Scola is a much more highly regarded player.
Understood. If that was the best we could do, then great trade. If he only does what you expect then I would be happy at the very least, perhaps ecstatic when you combine that with the offensive game everyone says he has. Perhaps I had my hopes too high when I thought of what the Rockets could get at the PF position. In fact, I'm certain that is the case, Lol.
I think Adelman's offense requires 5 players on the court that can score - full stop (I'm in London). As a result, he's loading up on 4's to determine which 4 can bring some offense to the 1st and 2nd teams. Adelman believes in making the defense play all 5 offensive personnel. You know who that leaves out Deke and Chuck. The doubled Yao all night when Juwan and Chuck were in the game. Long live a 4 who can score.
I realy dont know what will happen because not all players are the same and i dont want to stereotype euro players (realy from argentina)
If the Rockets go with Chuck Hayes, a player fresh from Europe, and some rookies at the PF, there might be a painful period of adjustment early in the season. Is it worth the risk, or do we bring in a veteran PF to man the spot while our new guys get acclimated? I don't know, but I hope this Scola guy, if he does come, is as good as everyone seems to think he is, cuz he seems to be our best bet.
Scola may have some growing pains, but at some poiint in the season he will catch up and play at least as good as Garbajosa (sp?). Until then, it's not like we're going to play Boozer, KG, Duncan, Amare, Elton every day. I'm sure Yao, T-Mac et al can handle the load until Scola figures the NBA game out.
Can't believe it, it's Yao part II all over again. When Yao dominated the CBA(a league much less than the Euroleague), people can't shut their mouth on Chinese player stereotypes. Now the same thing happens on Scola, some people never learn.
Then that is good he is from Argentina and not a European country. Argentinians seem to be pretty hard nose players that don't back down easily if we are going to generalize.
Have you watched Scola? By your posts it seems that you haven't. You are talking about how all these big guys that come from Euroleagues never contribute in their rookie season (with the exception of Garbajosa whom one of the members pointed out). Yet you don't take into account their age, Scola is 27, not 20 or 21 like most others that come over are, plus he's a Euroleague MVP, don't take that too lightly. How many Euroleague MVPs have been over in the recent past? Their success also has a lot to do with getting accustomed to a new culture and lifestyle, for someone like Scola who is Argentinian and is used to being away in Spain (yes I know the language is the same)it might be easier to move to the states as he's used to living away from home. There are lots of factors that are in play to succeeding in the NBA, and for "foreigners" getting accustomed to a new culture is a big one!
My god this is an olympic gold medalist. Remember Oberto and Hermann? he is loads better than both of them. He very well could be the second best Argentine after Ginobli. Other than Delfino who is buried on Detroits bench, every other Argentine player in the NBA is a major contributer.
Too many preconceived notions of foreign players. I haven't seen him play, but Scola is highly regarded. That we're gonna land him and give up so little is fantastic. San Antonio likely gave up on the guy because Scola wanted to start and the Spurs have some guy named Tim Duncan already at that spot. I don't think we're far away at all as far as the PF spot goes. If I have a question, it's what to do with all the duplication we still have at the 1-2-3. Mike James-Rafer Alston-Aaron Brooks-JLIII (ugh)-Bob Sura (retire? trade?)-TMac-Bonzi-Kirk S-Luther H-Shane-Novak (ugh)-Justin Reed (who?)-Lior Eliyahu (not gonna be here anyway).
I agree with Max ^^^^ your generalization is largely based upon european products who are brought over at a young age on the basis of future potential. if you compare Scola to other argentinian players who are in the league and contributing your argument becomes pretty weak. Ginobli, Oberto, Nocioni, Delfino and Hermann are all players who can contribute on any team in the league and none of which I would consider "soft" as you ignorantly stated. How about other South American players? Veraejo, Barbosa, Najera...soft? no defense? How about Latin countries in general? Gasol, Garbajosa, Calderon...not much to offer there. What exactly were you basing your argument on again? I guess Dirks pretty soft...and you would definitely b**** if we added him to the roster as well. Because well...European MVPs sure do suck... great argument
from Sheridan's ESPN Blog: Rockets land Scola posted: Friday, July 13, 2007 | Print Entry filed under: San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Vassilis Spanoulis Let's have a closer look at Thursday's Spurs-Rockets trade, which basically boiled down to Houston giving up a Greek who desperately wants out of America for an Argentine who's been hoping to get to the NBA for a half-decade. The Rockets acquired the rights to Argentine forward Luis Scola and center Jackie Butler for disenchanted guard Vassilis Spanoulis and a 2009 second-round draft pick, giving Scola his long-awaited chance to come to the NBA after more false starts than he'd care to remember. San Antonio has held Scola's rights since he was the 56th player selected in the 2002 draft -- three years after they drafted Manu Ginobili at No. 57. The expensive cost of Scola's buyout was the primary factor that kept Scola from joining the Spurs in 2003. In my opinion, the Rockets got the better of this trade, giving up very, very little to acquire a player who will probably be their starting power forward on opening night. I've seen Scola play quite a bit for the Argentinian national team, and he was arguably the second-best player on the roster behind Manu Ginobili -- although some would argue that Andres Nocioni should hold that distinction. Scola, however, was a banger underneath whose offensive touch is far superior to that of Fabricio Oberto, who started alongside him for Argentina. I don't make much of the inclusion of Jackie Butler, who did not look sharp in Las Vegas. The Rockets can keep him as an insurance policy behind Dikembe Mutombo, or pawn him off on whichever team is the next to hire Larry Brown, who loved Butler when he coached him with the Knicks in 2005-06.
Is this actually a possibility? Everything I've seen (and the reason why SA traded him) says that he doesn't want to play in the NBA. Am I missing something? Edit: lol, I'm missing the post right above me
