Good point, but if a coach asked him to improve his handles/passing because they wanted him to be a point guard, I'd put money on it that he'd improve. He would probably not be a great PG, but he'd make it work. He's not a position, he's a player.
I think it's a bit early to tell what will happen. What everyone said stands for now, and ofcourse things will change(hopefully for the team to the better) during. Obviously, this is not Europe were Spanoulis is coming from, to spend time on him improving. I think most of this season will be experience for him in trying to show his skills next year, with all the veterans around him(like Sura in particular), I'm hopeful for good things. I wish I'll be happily surprised by Spanoulis though. Cause the team really needs a player with with his style, excluding the turnovers(any team would). Let's not forget..We're talking about a fighter who managed to improve his game every year so far. Starting from low-grade teams in Greece, then better ones, then the champs then the National team... NBA is not Europe, but he's a gutsy player and I think he'll make it. Let's give him the luxury of time. He's a rookie after all(even the ref's seem to be factoring in that for their calls).
One thing Spanoulis has going for him when we look at the incredibly high number of turnovers, and I am sure JVG is well aware of this, it is that most of his turnovers come when both Yao and Mcgrady are NOT on the floor. What we get with that is a rookie playing a lot looser, less-stable game when he does not have a go-to-player on the floor with him. When the real season begins and one of either Yao or Tmac are always on the floor, Billys turnovers should decrease.
to further your point... shawn marion is a byproduct of steve nash's incredible court vision and relentless penetration. nash commands so much attention that all shawn really has to do is catch and shoot. adding boris diaw to the mix has helped to inflate shawn's #s as well. diaw is a former nba point guard playing center! in other words, marion has the benefit of having TWO point guards on the floor looking to create and kick. to his credit, marion has developed a consistent yet painful to watch jumpshot. still, the next time he creates his own shot will be the first. his inability to create his own shot is clearest when you put a defender on him that has good lateral movement. bruce bowen absolutely owns marion. battier may have the same capability. we shall find out. marion's rebounding numbers are a direct result of his athleticism, as he is simply quicker getting to the ball at its apex than others. at marion's size, his rebounding #s are absolutely incredible, imo.
Or, more likely, his turnovers could go up when he plays against first team competition instead of preseason scrubs. Either way, you don't have to defend him or make excuses. Right now, V-Span has turnover issues that will improve with NBA experience. He'll start the season as our 3rd string PG and hopefully work his way up from there. We all know improvement is coming; we don't know how much or how fast.
as for vspan, many posters have pointed out that his minutes are primarily with 2nd or 3rd unit rockets, therefore explaining (if not justifying) the high TOs. there may be some merit to that, but as my old coaches told me..."know your personnel". as a point guard you have to know who is on the court with you and how to get the most production from each of them. granted billy is new to the US and the rox, so i assume jvg is cutting him some slack. that said, he will NOT get major regular season minutes until he learns his teammates better and adjusts to the speed/tempo of the league. you will, i think, see vspan against teams that run smallball against the rox...which could get fun. something to think about, but can you imagine running a vspan head/lucas tmac bonzi hayes lineup while yao is resting? that could be one seriously quick lineup with a legit post threat (bonzi), garbageman (hayes), slasher (tmac), gunner (head/lucas), and runner (vspan). uptempo bball here we come! first, thought, billy has to stop giving away possessions. treat the ball like it's your girl! don't just pass the puddin' out all willynilly!
VSpan's turnovers are minor-league compared to the Francis/Mobley era. Now we are talking some serious turnovers! In multible flavors. I liked the off the foot dribble and the double-reverse over the head lay up for a turnover. Those were priceless. VSpan can't even come close, his are purely vanilla.
JLIII was a mistake made in summer. Vspan needs time. Head, well he had gone on games bricking. Let's hope he will be more consistent this year. WTF is with Wells?
...........the one good thing about Span's turnovers is Van Gundy is his coach and Coach will make sure he eliminates about 80% of them.
VSpan is older than JL3. This whole year is training for both. Way too early to call JL3 a mistake, he is peants above the min salary and we have an option later.
i think sura will really take vspan under his wing and teach that kid a lot. can't wait for sura to be back.
Turnovers are going to naturally go up if you're playing with players who can't create for themselves, regardless of how well you know your personnel. Same thing happened with Alston last year.
Exactly. Shane Battier will do whatever the coach asks. I remember as an incoming Freshmen, Shane was a 6'2'' shooting guard but Coach K needed a PF, so Shane grew 7 inches to become his current 6'9''. The man is just a team player.
Do you really believe the stuff that comes out of your mouth. Do you even watch the games, because if you did you would understand his turnovers aren't about the competition. They are about learning the rules and adjusting to the quickness of the NBA. In fact when he's out on the court with the starters against the starters he has been much less turnover prone. If you watched the games you would know this. He makes just as many travels and carries as any other type of turnovers and those are TO's that were not called in his euroleague career. If you subtract those turnovers what you would get is a a very respectable 2-1 assist to turnover PG, not bad. His turnovers are more about adjustment and learning which he is already improving on. The majority of the rest of the turnovers are on passing. If you watched the first 2 games you would see him throw the ball sometimes directly into the hands of the opposing team. It was as if he didn't anticipate the defensive player's ability to get into the lane to pick it off. In later games his bad passes were not thrown directly into the hands of others but still they were able to get fingertips on them. That's improvement and he will continue to improve. He has had quite a few spectacular passes and more than a few almost spectacular passes that just barely missed the mark. Again these are adjustments. Yes he has had a few bad passes where he gets himself in the air and then has no place to go and he should almost never be in that situation but even those aren't about the competition but rather about thinking before you leap. I suspect he will never eliminate all of the turnovers but know creative player ever has. And he is very creative.
Old Man Rock hit it on the head. vspan's TO's are not about competition or not being with players that can create their own shot. it's about the speed of the L, the rules of the L, and getting to know your teammates. that is all.
