We should be developing Billy - on the practice court. For all of his talent, the guy has some serious deficiencies (by NBA standards) in ballhandling, shooting, etc. I, too, had high expectations for him, but I've watched him play and I've been forced to concede that he just isn't ready. It only takes 1-2 minuntes to lose a hard-fought lead in this game, we can't afford to lose games so Billy can get minutes.
When has that happened? I can't think of a single solitary stat of his which shows he should be playing. Again, the proof is in the hot dog. What stat is he good at? Shooting? No. Ball handling? No. Other stats like PER/Plus/Minus/Roland Rating? No No, no, no, and no. "Playing with a bunch of scrubs"? Yes, he's done that. But not taht much (not as much as Lucas). Here's his 5-man units. http://www.82games.com/0607/06HOU4B.HTM. Far and away the Unit he spent the most time with? Head-Spanoulis Battier Howard Yao 35 minutes. In fact of the top 10 units he's been on the court, 7 of them feature McGrady, Ming, or both. The true scrub units account for only 31 minutes of PT, or around 12% of his minutes. As for Lucas - again, same stats apply. He's spent a preciously small amount of time with him 12-15% or so - so low that it doesn't even show up on NBA.com's Lenovo 2 player combinations. Rather most of his time on the court came in Nov-Dec - when Lucas was firmly planted on the bench But anyway, let's say that what you suggest is true - he's victimized by the John Lucas quick shot offense. THen tell me this: how does he manage to turn the ball over so much? If you're telling me that he's posting this many turnovers, but the problem is that he's lacking touches - the logical result is that his turnovers will increase even MORE as he touches the ball more. They're already high. You're mad because they're not higher? Nice one.. That excuse doesn't help you one iota, even IF it were true - which it's not. No, it probably wouldn't be, because he's not a wannabe who runs into the middle of the lane, jumps into the air and then tosses the ball into the seats behind his back like our erstwhile, "smart" Greek McGrady. I don't want to have it both ways. You get crushed with the stats. you're the one who wants it both ways by saying JL3 domiantes the ball. Even if true - it just makes him look worse Oooooh, I get it, we FINALLY found something Spanoulis does well. Well you're right, he does have a better FT drawing average than Rafer does. Of course the reason for that is that Rafer's prolfici launching from three point range makes his unnaturally low. But hey not only that, Spanoulis is Foul Drawing % is better than McGrady himself. Maybe we should start the McGrady of Greece then over the McGrady of the US. You on board jo? LOL, well I guess I will give the Mcgrady of Greece some credit for not taking open three pointers since he's so bad at them then. Of course - thiis make things more difficult for McGrady and Yao, and, of course - the net result of this weighed against all his minuses listed above - is that his game hurts the Rockets a lot more than it helps considering that he has as many turnovers as he does made free throws. you're right, that's a terrible performance. But anyway, if you think bringing Spanoulis on the court is going to anything but exacerbate the opponents tendency to pack the lane force outside jumpers, considering that Spanoulis is a tremendously bad shooter, and can only generate offense in the lane - you must be factoring in that NBA teams are coached by a bunch of cognitively disabled zombie baboons. If by "plenty of" you mean "Foul drawing percentage" (Tsakalidis has a higher foul drawing % than Yao, LOL) then you should have another glass of Ouzo and call it a night my friend.
Vspan has skills, some of them the rockets could use from time to time. Vspan has deficiencies, like anyone, though it seems that he has several factors not in his favor now. 1) His game, like many from Euroleague, is different. I am not saying NBA is better, or they are worse, just that they are different. I am not saying they are smarter and we are more talented... or vice versa. I am saying they are different, and it was apparent when he became a rocket, in the time that he got, that his game needed to adjust to NBA tempo and tendencies, not to mention just getting acclimated to his new teammates. This takes time for any player, but as has been said here, and on any other team, you have to earn that time in practice as well as by making the most of your time that you DO get in actual games. This has all spelled 'obstacle' for Vspan, like it or not. 2) This team is based, when healthy, on TMAC and Yao. Yao is an inside presence, which, combined with a defender of any scale, limits his Vabillity to drive the paint at light speed, as he always appears to want to, and be able to, do (I like that about him, we NEED someone not afraid to drive the paint with confidence and aggression, RAFER, but it DOES need to show more control and patience for the right moments). TMAC also needs room in the paint to take advantage of his game, so spacing on our team tends to be one of expansion towards the perimeter, to provide necessary space for our MAIN STRENGTHS. This leaves the roles for our other players needing a certain amount of confidence in shooting the open shot, often from farther out that perhaps some of us would like (Especially Billy). Now MAYBE there is a way to constrict that perimeter a bit and put an offense on the floor that gets closer shots with less spacing, (some lineups might facilitate that more than others), but right now we are going with what works ... and when we're shooting our average percentages and playing good defense, we've succeeded this year more often than not... at a decent clip. Bottom line, our Stars are a big part of what determines our makeup and strategy, and part of that makeup is needing the other role players to be able to shoot with more confidence than Vspan has developed AT THIS POINT. I hope that improves. I think it will to a certain degree. 3) His complaints about the organization exacerbated this situation. It put a magnifying glass on him, made him look like he wasn't a team player, and most importantly put more pressure on himself. That pressure has seemed to perpetuate his inability to make the most of the time he has been given. So whether or not it's still an issue for JVG, regardless, this did not help Vassilability... on many levels. This was a mistake that he himself made. Maybe it's in the past, but it still has lingering effects. Anyone see him pass up those shots in the fourth the other night only to toss the ball around and dribble into trouble? I like vspan's game, and think he COULD bring something to the table, but I think it is happening as it should. I notice no one wants to be patient with Rafer when he's not playing well, but in coaching you try to do what's best for the team, and yanking people every time they have a bad game, especially in favor of unproven players, is not how you build confidence in a team. Things have been tougher lately, and Vspan rightly got SOME more time. He didn't do well, but if he keeps working hard and keeps his mouth from running off about the organization and his disappointment, he'll get more, and hopefully be able to make enough of it for us to feel comfortable letting him run the offense more often than he is currently allowed. I think it will happen, but maybe not as soon as some would like. Patience. DD, you've held the discussion to at least some standard of sense in this thread despite your [over] zealous vspan support, which is more than I can say for a few others, but I gotta say, stating that we should not have gotten rid of Boki does not help your argument. He was like a mini-vspan situation... people thought with more playing time, he'd play better. And look, it only took 3 teams and 4.5 years for him to average 15 points over a Fifth of one season on a scrub team. I know many people want JVG's head on a platter for whatever reason, but honestly, looking at VSPAN's performance in the minutes he's been given, can you really BLAME JVG for not playing him much more than he does? And that's ignoring the fact that a rookie called out the entire organization in the media, which never helps a player's standing.... right or wrong. Maybe many just don't like JVG's style of play, but there is no denying that with his roster this year he's done a great job. Like it or not. Does that mean he's perfect or beyond reproach? no. Just that things like Vspan's playing time are not the major factor in our successes or failures. The 1000% proof is in the hot dog, still... but I hope it changes too, it's just not there yet. There. I figured, if I have to read 17 pages and hold my tongue til I am done, I may as well get on a soapbox and drag it out.
I keep hearing everyone's excuse that the reason V-Span plays so poorly or the reason he hasn't been able to progress is because he is put in during "scrub minutes". While it is true that he has played a lot during garbage time, that isn't an excuse for poor play and lack of development. What some people here don't realize is that most players play their asses off during garbage time. The reason being that it may be the only time they get to see the court for a couple games and they want to impress their coach enough to get more minutes. Usually during garbage time the scrubs get in and they obviously don't want to continue being scrubs on the end of the bench. A lot of people think that V-Span would be contributing greatly and developing more if he got minutes when it counted. The fact that he can't seem to ever play well against scrubs is troubling. If he was so skilled wouldn't he be running circles around the scrubs that were out there? People claim that he is playing with bad players, which can be true, but if he's out there with a bunch of fellow scrubs on his team shouldn't he be the one that sticks out (well sometimes he sticks out in a bad way)? Maybe his assists will be down a little bit because guys won't make shots that the regulars would hit, but V-Span hasn't even showed that he is confident enough with the ball to do anything positive with it to free players up. If he's such a great slasher why can't he take it to the rack against a fellow scrub and lay it in? He looks totally lost out there against scrubs who are working their asses off, because they want more minutes. Now it is true that playing against scrubs won't help a player adjust to playing against good NBA players. But with all the garbage time he's gotten shouldn't he at least adjusted to where he's comfortable against scrubs? If he can't adjust to do well in garbage time against mostly scrubs do you really think he'll be able to play and adjust to playing against better players? People keep holding onto the fact that he's playing against mostly end of the bench guys as a reason why he's playing so bad. If he's so great isn't that kind of scary? He looks terrible against scrubs who if he was as great as some people make him out to be he'd be shining against fellow bench warmer. It is sad that against mostly scrubs he looks like he just doesn't belong.
