When those "harmless passes back out to the perimeter" are caught by Luther Head, Shane Battier and Mike James, they'll likely become "assists." Friggin' moron.
Marginal players that give Dwight Howard problems 1-on-1. This is great. Let's get a few of those - since they're marginal, I'm sure they're everywhere.
Doesn't the fact that Team USA decided to double team him suggest in it's own right that he may be considered better than 'marginal'
Scola is terrible! An old towel soaked in the sweat of Mark Madsen is worth more than Scola. A team is better to play four on five than to have Scola play for them. Rosen spelled it out loud and clear for you homers: the guy can't beat a double team of D. Howard and LeBron James and either had to force a shot or pass out. Anyone who has any connection to the NBA, even the teenage girlfriend of some ballboy for the Charlotte Bobcats, would have just slam dunked the ball with the double team hanging on her ankles rather than to force a shot, or -god forbid - pass out of the double team. Total waste and disgrace for the Rockets, they would have been better to keep V-Span. Even if he didn't play a single minute for us we would have done better than with this terrible scrub who can't even beat a double team of DreamTeamers. Just inexcusable!
I'm impressed, Rosen based his observations on Scola's actual possessions during play. I would expect this article to have started with, "Like most European players entering the league, Scola will probably have..." and then onto the general stereotypes. Instead of his usual D- reporting, he gets a C+.
Defense, staying out of foul trouble,rebounding, and free throw shooting are the keys for success. Defensive rebounding is the weakest part of his game followed by erratic free throwing.
My point is you still gotta play defense no matter how gifted you are offensively. I remember seeing Wang Zhizhi roll off 13 points in 12 minutes one game, he made 3s, posted up, even drove and made a spin move... the guy is a very gifted offensive player... but his D was so very terrible that you can't ever keep him on the floor. Now I don't expect Scola to be that bad defensively (in fact, it impressed me that he actually did somewhat of a credible job when he had to cover Carmelo Anthony), but he still has to adjust and improve to avoid becoming marginal. Hopefully his high bball IQ will show up on the defensive side of the ball, too.. and guys like Battier, Hayes, McGrady, James, Francis, and Yao would give him better help defensively than Gonazlez, Prigioni, Sandes, Leiva, etc did.
Let's see, a group of NBA all-stars found it necessary to double up Scola. What will happen when a diluted pool of NBA players has to guard him, Tracy, and Yao? Yea, marginal my ass, Battier better be ready to jack up ten bombs a night.
WHY people are still taking those moronic "so-called" analysis from this fool Rosen seriously is beyond me. I never read anything from that guy. For some reasons, he just hated Yao Ming and everything about the Rockets. Harmless assists? Luis Scola averaged 19.5 ppg/7.5 rpg and 2 assists per game in the FIBA Americas Championship, which means easily he can be up to 23 to 24 ppg. The FACT that he led a depleted Argentine national team to grab the ticket to 2008 Olympics and edged the likes of Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anothony, Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudemire and all those NBAers on the championship USA team to land the Most Valueable Player of the FIBA Amercias Championship ALREADY illustrated alot about him being MORE than just a marginal NBAer.......
Possibly Charles Rosen was meaning that Scola, a marginal player will join the other marginal players like Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming on the marginal Houston Rockets in marginal Houston, under marginal Coach A, in the marginal Mid West Division. Along with the other marginal teams!! Big question when has Rosen ever said anything nice about our Rockets? Most american writers are upset that Scola showed such skills, determination and guts and also won the MVP of the FIBA American Championships.
---------------------- Most of the early scoring for Argentina was done by Luis Scola. He's a rough-and-tough customer who spins, fakes, ducks under and mostly looks for a right-handed jump hook. When he was allowed to play one-on-one, Scola gave Dwight Howard some trouble. But when double-teamers held their ground, Scola either forced shots or was compelled to make harmless passes back out to the perimeter. What he lacked in explosiveness he made up for in sheer determination. (At best, he'll be an energetic-but-marginal NBA player who'll have great difficulty on defense.) ---------------------- This is ridiculous, why would Dwight/Amare double a marginal NBA player? and how could a marginal NBA player give first team USA bigs any troubles one-on-one?
I might also add, that at best Charlie Rosen can be an apprentice scout for a high school basketball program in Egypt.
right? accuracy, while one of the cornerstones of journalism, is something charlie rosen has never been able to get a foothold on. rosen has a unique talent for being consistently wrong while portraying the facade of being a bullish know-it-all. somehow the latter has fooled enough readers to keep his column going all these years.
People, will you PLEEEEEASE stop all this? Rosen's schtick is to write controversial, usually inflammatory, stuff that will offend fans and cause them to talk about what he writes. This is at least the 100th thread on Clutchfans that falls right into his hands. People complaining about his columns is exactly how he stays relevant and employed. Get over it and let Rosen go. You are reacting the way he wants you to. There are fans of other teams that are ticked off by him just like Rockets fans. Rosen's columns should be treated here the same as Hoopsworld garbage. He deliberately writes provocatively to elicit strong responses, not to give insight. Don't take him seriously.
Rosen just likes to play devils advocate in many cases. He is not to be taken serious in evaluating players.
Who is this Charley Rosen of whom you speak? Is he some rookie reporter for the Waxahachie Daily Light?
