IMHO, Jonathan Feigen is absolutely correct in his analysis about VSpan's current situation. So Billy if you're reading this.......... Don't bret, don't complain, don't whine, don't cry............... Just learn from Yao Ming: work, work, work tirelessly to improve your game and earn your play minutes.
"The truth is that Spanoulis did play. Let's say it again -- he did play. Not much, but enough to have had a chance to play well enough to earn more playing time. With one exception, he played his way back to the bench. In the preseason, his play was just awful. During his brief regular-season stint in the rotation, he shot 22 percent. The Rockets collapsed during his time on the floor. The team lost games." um....BS. i can't say i'm surprised, but man, the standards for journalism have really hit an all time low. i guess in order to be a professional writer, you are not required to do any research or have any factual evidence to backup your assertions. lets see.... "In the preseason, his play was just awful." really? how so? i watched every single preseason game, and watching spanoulis play in those games gave me great hope that the rockets had finally found a playmaker besides tracy mcgrady, someone that can run a break, create, and distribute to his teammates. i saw fire and competitiveness the likes of which this team has not seen since bob sura. ok, those are intangibles. here are some facts: preseason, we went 5 and 2, with vspan logging about 20 minutes a game. he was turnover prone, but anyone watching those games instead of just reading the box score could tell spanoulis was impacting the game positively overall. further, he never shot more than 8 times in a game. that alone should put him in front of rafer alston, the sharpshooter who, on a good night, goes 5 for 15. "During his brief regular-season stint in the rotation, he shot 22 percent." this is absolutely ridiculous. vspan hasn't shot great, true, but at least get your facts straight. how hard is it to look on nba.com or espn to see what vspan REALLY shot? spanoulis's regular season stats: 10 mpg, 31.1% from the field (yea this still sucks, but 22 does not = 31.1 feigen, at least not since I learned to count in preschool), 20% from the 3. the positives: vspan is 82.4% from the line, meaning he's rock steady in the one area where he can consistently get shots (drawing fouls and shooting free throws). "The Rockets collapsed during his time on the floor." really? how? the games i saw, which is all of them, vspan usually provided some much needed dribble penetration. not to mention, when vspan WAS used, he was played out of position, which is exactly what vspan is complaining about. i guess that's a good way to shoot down vspan's complaint, by completely ignoring a crucial element of it. not to mention, the rockets ALWAYS collapse as soon as tmac or yao sits down. so yeah, i guess its fair to put that all on vspan, playing sparing minutes, and out of position, spotting up for shots where he is least effective and MIGHT even be as bad as rafer. "The team lost games." well thanks for that pearl of wisdom. what game in the history of the nba hasn't lost games? are you suggesting that we lost these games BECAUSE of spanoulis? all the evidence suggests otherwise. we only lost 4 games where vspan played, winning the other 11. obviously, this could be attributed to the fact that he only gets garbage minutes, where the game is either lost or won anyways. but not really, since jvg doesn't really give garbage minutes anymore but instead likes to play our starters till the end no matter how big our lead. of the 11 wins, 7 were games that vspan logged more than 10 minutes. one of those losses was the near miracle comeback against the lakers. none of this is to say vspanoulis played particularly well, or even to deny that he struggled. but to denounce that spanoulis failed when given the chance to play is an unsupported accusation. vspan was given sporadic minutes, often no more than 1, in garbage time, where he was punished for trying to entertain the fans (remember the behind the back pass to juwan that was right on the money, but fumbled out of bounds, during the blowout against the warriors, after which jvg tore span's head off to which span complained he was simply trying to reward the fans who had been so loyal, cheering them on the whole game...i dont know about you but im willing to live with risking a turnover in a blowout if it means there's a chance of 1 spectacular play, which lately have been sorely lacking on this team). but i digress. the point is, feigen, that you should at the very least get the facts straight before you write something, and that if you really want to be persuasive, maybe you should backup your assertions with at least a modicum of evidence. it makes the condescending tone of the article that much more annoying when you're completely wrong.
I thought it was a good article. But to "Play better", you've got to play in games. It's just that simple. He has to be given the chance to play better. That doesn't happen when you are running with the 2nd team in the middle of season when the rotation guys are going through the motions and you are having walk-throughs to avoid injuries, et al, for practice.
In the preseason he had one good game. He had mostly horrible games, and one that was so-so. Of course he showed flashes. That is why everyone believes he will be a valuable to player to have in this league... eventually. Yes he could get better faster if he played more minutes. The only problem is that the team would get worse. I understand he feels a lot of pressure to do good for his fans at home who are counting on him. I understand he really wants to play and try and show what he can do. But the first priority should be the team. The team has to win. They play better without V-Span than with him. The second priority should be him improving. He needs to just work on his game. Come early, stay late, work hard. He might also be patient and try and learn what the coach wants of him.
I did not really become successful until I learned Rule #1 of Consulting. SHUT THE **** UP. Do your job well and don't make waves. VSpan needs to learn the same thing. He isn't nearly good enough to b**** like he has. Even when he is good enough, you still need to keep your mouth shut. It's only good business.
Even though this article is fairly accurate anyone else find it obvious that Feigan is an organizational stooge? He always write in order to stay in the loop. DD
but that is exactly the problem, there is NO proof that this team plays better without him. when tmac sits down, this offense becomes completely inept. so many times this team has worked hard to build up a lead only to see it vanish because our offense stopped scoring, and our defense collapsed under the pressure. vspan can help the offense as a creator, as the one player outside of tmac and yao who can get open shots for other players. vspan can help on defense bc outside of battier, he's the only one who makes SMART fouls, as in preventing easy buckets, fouling hard rather than slapping and touch fouls. he does get aggressive on the perimeter, but he will undoubtedly get smarter with game time (how can you learn to play with referees in practice, when referees call every game differently?) i agree 100% with this. if vspan ever gets consistent minutes, and this team plays worse because of it, i'll stop whining and join the 'vspan isn't ready' bandwagon. regardless, he should be working on his shot, his timing, and his attitude. but i still want to see what he's got on the court, rather than assuming he's not ready because van gundy says he's not. (no, i don't trust van gundy's judgment, even though he SHOULD be in a better position to evaluate talent than i. why? this is the guy who brought in rod strickland and rick brunson to help this team. end story.)
Were in a win now mode and if you're not ready to produce off the bat, you're on the wrong team. were not in the business of developing rookies here. this team is built to win now. billy is in a bad situation.
The only thing that Billy did wrong was speak up. Other than that, the things he said were absolutely spot on. If JVG had no plans to play him this year, then he really shouldn't of brought him over. I can't believe Feign or anybody on the board can take such a small sample of his game to even remotely conclude that he has been playing well or not. You can't improve just being in practice, that is a fact. Vspan hasn't even gotten any, and I mean any minutes that last few games. First of all, he is not given the appropriate minutes, and secondly, the coach is not even allowing him to play to his strengths. If you are talking about players playing themselves out of the rotation, the first player that comes to mind should be Rafer - at least in the starting five. Some players need to be on the court to be effective, and I believe Vspan is one of them. JVG has to be willing to make changes when things aren't working out, and to let JLIII - who can only dribble around and shoot - to be the only solution is beyond my comprehension. As much as I hate to say it, it might be better for Vspan to go to another team so that he can flourish.
How does he play better if you don't play him? How much improvement can you see when you don't use him to see it in the first place? We all know that JVG doesn't run practices every week, so he doesn't get to play there. He doesn't get to practice on game days, because there are no practices on game days. You can't earn playing time in practice, if there are no practice days. If he was in the NBDL, at least you could see he has gotten worse or better from week to week.
i agree with the article. a rookie who is only half way through his first year can't complain about PT. everyone pays thier dues. lots of good players were on the bench early in thier careers. if you work had to improve yourself, then you will get in the rotation. billy is also right about one thing. he is not a spot up shooter. he is a slasher and a creater. JVG needs to let him play his game (when he earns minutes). by the way, don't we have one of the best instructional coaches in the world at our disposal? John Lucas is right in houston. heck, his son is on our team! billy needs to ask john-john is his dad is free over the summer to coach him.
Yet he gets superstar treatment round here. I've been saying this all along. Lucas had one bad game in a game where shots didn't come easy without Yao and Mac, and everyone starts calling for Vspan as if he's the 2nd coming of Pistol Pete. He gets more hype here than Lebron James gets anywhere else. Improve your game, earn some minutes, and you'll be assessed on the court. Anything he gives his a bonus, cause I never expected much from him in the first place unlike the majority of this board.
41 games into his career...obviously he has paid his dues and deserves more time to turn the ball over
i think you mean 18 games into his career, with a total of 180 meaningless minutes playing out of position, where his turnovers have largely been from good passes to unready teammates, or fancy plays trying to entertain the paying fans.
Man, I'm so sick of this story. I mean, we're debating the thoughts and playing time on a second-round draft pick, end of the bench player who hasn't proven anything in the league yet. Billy might have been "McGrady" in Greece, but he is NO WHERE near that in the NBA. STFU, work hard in practice and show your coach that you DESERVE to get more playing time. I don't know if it's a change in society where no one has any patience and want quick results, or that most on this board are looking at this situation through "JVG/Rafer Hate" glasses, but I can't believe the responses on this. And, hello, when do you give MORE time to player not playing well? The culture of sports throughout the years, and one of the most consistent rules practiced my winning teams and programs, has been you EARN your playing time, not it handed to you. This is especially true for a second-round draft pick who has only played in international play and against international competition. Plus, we have only gotten one side of the story. I find it hard to believe that CD would gaurantee playing time. He probably said he would have an opportunity to earn his playing time. And, I really do not believe JVG has tried to convert him to a spot up shooter. Every time Billy has played, they constantly run a pick at the top of the arch for him to be able to penetrate and create for others. Plus, with two star players who constantly demand double-teams, Billy HAS to learn how to hit the open shot more consistently. Say what you will about Rafer's shooting, but he doesn't air ball 1 out of 4 three-point attempts. Billy has shown a few flashes and has some potential to become a nice player in the league, but he (and everyone else) needs to realize the situation and understand that you don't just alter the rotation for some "nurturing" playing time on a 25-16 (winning team) trying to fight for a playoff spot and have goals of making a serious run this season.
I don't think it would hurt to give Vspan consistent minutes (even 10minutes) in the rotation since management wants Vspan to be part of the Rockets team in future. Why not develop him now and give him some oncourt experience. Yao in his first couple of years had to go through some rough times, but I think without the confidence Rudy-T and Van Gundy showed in him, and allowing Yao to play through mistakes and hardship, he wouldn't be the player that he is now.
^ i agree a stupid story and is only getting talked about b/c its just another 'argument' against JVG, so the usual suspects are all over it.
