Boki wasn't "developed". He improved himself through practice and taking advantage of the opportunity presented in NJ. If he hadn't taken advantage of that opportunity, he'd probably be on his way out of the league. I'm glad he took advantage. Spanoulis and Novak's liabilities outweigh their abilities at this point. Snyder too to a certain extent. They won't get any PT unless there are a slew of injuries. 5 minutes a game is practically worthless and we've seen the damage these guys can do in 5-10 min.
JLIII doesn't get any real PT and Luther has already proven himself to be valuable to the team. Spanoulis has not. Spanoulis will get another chance.
I didn't say he was negative in his response. It was more a look of surprise, like, "I can't believe that Eurorookie is hotdogging it while we got our asses handed to us."
When head doesn't make his shots, is he not more of a liability than an asset? Vspan can take it to the hoop to draw fouls, that's the type of relief we need off of T-mac and Yao. He also plays decent man defense. Novak on the other hand, is very much like Head in that they only rely on their shots, except he is even worse on defense.
How do you know Spanoulis can effectively drive to the hoop in the NBA and play decent NBA man to man defense compared to Luther Head? And yes, Luther is more of a liability when he is not making his shots. But he has shown that he is more likely to make them than not and has earned his role on the team. Everyone has bad stretches. The difference between Head and Spanoulis is that Head has proven himself when given the opportunity and Spanoulis has not.
How can you compare the opportunities that both players have been given? You're meaning to tell me that Head didn't benefit from all the injured players last year, which resulted in him almost being the only healthy 2 guard? Vspan can and is willing to drive. That's the only thing I know for certain he can do. Ask the bloody USA team, and I'm sure they can tell you a thing or two about that. Even in the bloody garbage time that he has featured in, that's the one thing that's only consistent about his game. His TO's all come from driving and dishing to teammates that aren't there.
Read JVG's comments about how well V-Span played against Agent zero.... IMO, V-Span is our best perimeter defender out of the 4 PG candidates. DD
Span couldnt and wouldnt and shouldnt have had any chance to show what he can do during the regular season BECAUSE of the injuries to our key players...we needed to maximise our chance to make it to the playoffs..NOT develop rookies now its too late call it bad luck I guess, maybe if Luther and Span swapped thier careers then right now we will have a good back up PG who can take it to the rim and who can defend and hussle but we would be complaining that we dont have an accurate sharp shooter you win some..you loose some lets concentrate on "what is" as oppose to "what if"
VSpan has playoff experience, in an even bigger stage then the NBA. What he did in the world championships proves he can play in the playoffs.
Err... giving someone 10-15 minutes shouldn't even put a dent to your record. Our winning differential has been almost 5.5 I believe, and we blew out teams more than enough times to allow Vspan to play in those games. I'm guessing if Popavich took your advice, then the Spurs would suck now, because both Parker and Ginoboli would be nowhere.
thats completely wrong giving players time on the court after having a huge lead doesnt help them nearly enough to prepare them for the real tight games i dont know whether some of you fans have short memeories...but Vspan CANNOT SHOOT and he cannot HANDLE THE BALL he may have some sort of hussle defence but he fouls too much due to inexperience, which basically elminates any defensive prowess that you may or maynot think he possesses all in all...VSPAN is still raw everytime Vspan played it was an embarrasment (except for one or two plays), john lucas at least showed that he can light up the offense on rare occasions
No one is shooting well on the team at his point, and he handles the ball fine. How do you know he commits too many fouls, he hasnt played enough for you to accuratly assess that. From what I've seen, he is the best perimeter defender of all out pgs. And he is not inexperienced. it;s not like he just came out of high school. He has played in Europefor years, made all-euro teams and all-fiba teams. he has plenty of basketball experience, and he always plays good in big games. How was it more of an embarressment than how JLIII played. Lucas is a chucker and cant makes plays, play defense, or pass. Lucas has shown nothing that justifies him having pt over Vspan.
Hell, JVG didn't play him in the regular season, what make you think he'll play him now... Don't get me wrong, we need a jump start as we just aren't getting it done...It'll change tonight, but hopefully he'll get some time...
i just think he could givew em a spark like Boki did vs the Lakers. He barely played that whole season but gave em 10 good minutes in a few playoff games.
I'm not a big v span fan, cuz i still havn't seen his play much. But first time in my life i'm eager to see him play some minutes in the playoffs, i want to see HIM defending the jazz rather than rafer. Hope vspan will develop some shooting skills too, that's how he can secure minutes with the Rox next season, if he'll still be around. Good luck V span, Good luck Rox.
Out of all the small guards only VSpan drives to the basket with reckless abandon. We need VSpan to save us!
Absolutely. The only, only, only, only thing that Luther does well is knock down the 3 ball. When it ain't falling, he has nothing to offer. He can't defend anybody. He gets posted up ad nauseum. He can't dribble drive, he can't finish and he can't dish. He consistently keeps throwing bounce passes in the lane to Yao and getting them picked off, so many times that I am sick of hearing Bill and Clyde moan about it. He gets totally crushed defensively by any shooting guard over 6'3". And watching him dribble is like watching a guy trying to catch a greased pig. He literally chases the basketball around all over the court like the basketball has him tied to a string and is just jerking him around it. Lucas??? It is so obvious from the last game that he is overmatched right now. He's a scorer, and that's it. He can't defend anybody, and he sure can't distribute. The only thing he can do is use his quicks to get off some decent shots in the lane and up to about 18 feet. But he is a low efficiency scorer and we don't need that either. We are in the playoffs. Playoff defenses are going to continue to close out our 3 point shooters. Mark it down. Even if we get past Utah, GS or Dallas in the next round is going to close out our shooters even more than Utah is doing. And they are much more athletic. And both of those teams are going to kill our Rafer/Head matchups defensively because Terry, Harris, Davis, and Monte Ellis are much too quick for our smalls to have a chance against them. They are going to get penetration past Rafer/Luther, no doubt about it. And they are going to close out our shooters, no doubt about it. The only chance we have of winning is for Yao and Tracy to be extremely efficient and to post up their guys all night long. But we're still looking for the third option. I've said it before and I will say it again. Our offensive is fatally flawed, not like Dallas' team, but our team still has a fatal flaw. And that is we lack a 3rd scorer/playmaker. Dallas lacks a post game. Everything they do comes from the perimeter and it is killing them against GS. Dirk simply is not a post player and never will be. But our offense has a 6'9" dude running it who should be the primary scorer. But he is having to pull double duty and that style of offense where you rely on 3 point shooters around your big playmaker simply won't work in the playoffs. You've got to have someone else on the floor that can upfake the long shot, drive past the defender jumping into the stands, and take it to the rack. Playoff defenses are simply too smart, too quick, and too athletic to let the opponent just chuck up the 3 ball. Collapsing the defense takes a lot more work, a lot more definitive action towards the rim and in the paint, for 3 point shooters to come open long enough to take their normal shot. We simply need a point guard that can take a dribble or two and hit the 16 footer or can break down his man and get to the bucket. Since we don't have that (better yet, since we did not develop the one option on this team that can do that), we've got to go with McGrady posting up on the high block and having Yao on the opposite block to get past Utah. And we need to pray that they become efficient enough offensively to force Utah's defense to have to double and spring open our 3 point shooters. Trying to beat Utah with McGrady running the pick and roll at half court ain't gonna work. They are forcing the pick to be set way too high and they are forcing McGrady to go way around by showing even further out than that. We are not going to be able to run pick and roll and beat Utah. We've got to post up McGrady and Yao to have a chance.
lets just say we agree to disagree 1. no one is shooting the ball on the team right now is correct but these guys HAVE shot the ball well before, which means that there is a much bigger chance of them shooting well in the next game than someone who has NEVER shot the ball well 2. STOP comparing european players to nba players..it doesnt work that way..i am sure this has been discussed to death so i wont bother 3.Have u forgotten those rare minutes that VSpan got, where he makes a turnover and you think to youself "god how did that happen", if u did indeed forget...go rewatch some of those games, cuz i certainly thought to myself that 4. JL3 is a chucker yes, he cant defend yes, but every now and then he puts on a show, consecutive baskets that usualy leads to a rally. this is something that VSPAn has never showed
