I think we'll see a big jump in Scola's performance this coming season. I agree with you! I'll go so far as to say that if he stays healthy, his play will be so improved that we'll be talking about extending his contract during the run up to the playoffs. If Luis becomes, say, a 15/8 35 minute starter, his contract becomes even more of a steal. Heck, I really don't think those numbers are out of line, especially with Yao (please god!) healthy all season.
One thing the naysayers about the "quiet" off-season aren't factoring in is the improvement of Scola. Can you imagine what the season would have been like had the Scola from the end of the year shown up on day 1? Remember, he wasn't starting at the beginning - the team was unbeatable once he figured things out. Keep in mind there were at least 30 or so games where he didn't know what the hell was going on. With the #1 seed, Yao or no Yao, the Rockets would have advanced last year. I bet the feelings here would be a lot different had that happened.
I don't know the exact meaning of "exhibition game" in US, but if you mean it's that kind of game which only purpose is to please the crowd by the side of the court, then you are wrong. In FIBA world, there's seldom this kind of games. Most of the "not so important" games are friendly games, warmups and invitations which the players also play to win or to make themselves better as a team to prepare for the more important event. That's what all these national teams are doing now.
There was rumor in chinese forums that Luis got hugh contract offer from European club(didn't specify which one) asking him to go back. Personally, I don't think he'll do that immediately. But Rockets really should seriously think about this next offseason. Is his 3rd year an option year or not?
In FIBA this is called a Pre-Olympic Freindly. It's about as meaningful as a pre-season NBA game. That's all I meant. Scola can dunk plenty but in these games he's more apt to do so. In regular games he is more apt to lay it up because it less stressful and tiring and prevents injuries. It also helps your shooting touch. Coaches in Europe teach this. In fact, if you play basketball over there even in rec leagues you are taught this and it's true and it does work. It's just that for some reason everyone over here assumes this means guys from overseas don't dunk or are soft. It's taught in Europe to play that way to prevent every big from having multiple microfractures like is typical with US players. Also look at Yao in China. He was also taught this. Jeff Van Gundy grilled into his head to try to dunk everything and the injuries to the feet and legs have started already. He's also lost quite a bit of his shooting touch and stroke. That's why overseas they would rather you lay it up than dunk it. It's like a completely baffling concept to US coaches though. If anything coaches overseas care about their players health a lot more than they care about getting a dunk over a layup. In the NBA it's the opposite. The coaches don't care about players health long-term, they just care about win now and their own contract status.
It's time to trade scola ,as he is at a rather high level.Considering his 27 yrs age,it's hard to estimate how further will he be.I mean he will hardly be much better because of his age.Besides ,what we need is a big guy like okarfoe.SO trade him for okarfoe or any other strong guy.
why stop there? Lets also trade Boby Jackson expiring for Ginobili, Battier for Artest and Alston for Deron Williams.
scola is a good player, but i don't foresee any big jump in his production next season. the guy is what, 28 ? i think what you see is what you get.
Does Yao Ming even jump 10 inches off the gound in order to dunk? I mean... it's not like we are talking about some violent 40-in leap here. I doubt his dunking added any stress to his feet, given that he probably put way more stress on his feet from running, cutting, jumping for rebounds, etc. Jumping to dunk is a violent movement for Nate Robinson. Not so much for Yao Ming. As for shooting touch... Kobe Bryant, who dunks a great deal seems to have a nice shooting touch. Rafer Alston, who doesn't dunk... not so much.
But we haven't really seen him at his best as a Rocket. I agree with DD, he needs to assert himself more.
Yao Ming's standing reach is 9-8. Rim is 10-0 and you have to get 8 inches above the rim to dunk it. That means Yao has to get a foot above the rim to just drop the ball over the edge of the rim. And basically that's not going down as a dunk in the NBA. Even Yao is usually a good 4-5 inches over the rim with the bottom of the ball when he dunks. So even Yao is jumping 16-17 inches on most of his dunks. And at about 325 pounds that's a hell of a lot of force and stress being exerted on his legs and feet, versus just laying the ball in.
How many times doe he jump to dunk vs. the number of times he jumps for a rebound or to challenge a shot? According to 82games.com, 11% of Yao's shots were dunks last year. Yao Ming took about 15 shots per game. Meaning about he jumps for a dunk about 1.5 times a game. 1.5 times and that's the reason why you think he got injured? 1.5 times compared to how many times he jumps for these: these these and these But no... you are arguing doing this 1.5 times a game is why he got hurt:
