Yes! I got props from Jonathan Feigen! http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/07/vegas_jackpot_lets_make_a_deal.html#comments My post, at the bottom of the comments... Today was a good day.
http://www.nba.com/summerleague2007/players/index.jsp?player=jackie_butler 12pts, 7 reb per game...not bad. Man, I am loving this deal more and more...and by all accounts from San Antonio news sources, it seems like they were just wanting to do Scola a favor and put him on some NBA team after all the years they kept him in Europe. Is anyone else thinking this is an inside job and we're still paying Dennis Lindsey some money after his move to the Spurs as the Assistant GM?
He did post this however... Jonathan, Are you sure Luis Scola will play for the Rockets next season? Otherwise it means nothing for the Rockets. (Morey sounded pretty certain. -- Jonathan)
This has to be the best deal in the history of the Houston Rockets.... killing about 10 birds with one stone... OK, I can only find 6 so far. 1) We got rid of VSpan. 2) VSpan said that he would not come back to the NBA for any reason, not even if he was traded to the Spurs. We just called his bluff, so I desperately want to see if he was lying or not. 3) We might get the chance to boo Vspan mercilessly four times a year. 4) We might get the chance to see if VSpan is actually any good or not. 5) We get a good power forward. 6) If signing Mike James didn't do it for you, Morey just became a Houston Rocket. Only bad thing... we might get beat by VSpan four times a year, or worse, lose in the Western Conference Finals to him. ---Just thought of one more. We don't HAVE to trade Battier now to get a PF. We can do it if we choose, but it isn't a necessity.---
Lil late on getting the great news. Congrats Morey and the Rox Mgmt on a low risk HIGH reward move. Vspan can go back to mama and make his $$. I just hope we can SIGN Scola ASAP!!
awesome deal. it does make sense for both teams, the spurs do save a lot of money and it didnt seem that they were going to sign scola anyway if they hadnt already by now with oberto and bonner resigning. it would be terrible PR for them if they had a player of scola's cailber and did not do anything with them. any future player they draft overseas would be wary of the team. besides I also remember scola's saying he wanted to play in the nba but the spurs wouldnt sign him or trade his right (someone posted a story earlier in this thread too) even if vspan does stay in the nba if scola signs with the rockets its still a great trade for houston because it gets rid of a guard and gets back players who play in the area we need it the most, the front court. (besides with parker and vaughn there vspan would see limited minutes at best, even if he overtakes vaughn in the depth chart..oh and udrih too) hopefully i can meet up with morey at the summer league on saturday (if he is still there) and thank him personally and see if i can try to get more out of him
We now have 17 players on this team. Time to turn this team into a monster. I love Battier but beleive him and a package of Head and Suras contract would be to good to pass up (SAC) and could land us Artest. Also we are in the running for Steve Francis. By getting rid of Head we would be opening up a spot for Francis. That would give RA a 10 man rotation of= Ming, TMac, Artest, Scola, M James, Snyder, Francis, Wells, Hayes, Tsakalidis
My Take: PG: James (28), Alston (18), Brooks (2) SG: T-Mac (24), Wells (10), Head (14), Snyder (0) SF: Battier (24), T-Mac (12), Wells (12) PF: Scola (22), Hayes (20), Battier (6) Novak (0) C: Yao Ming (36), Mutombo (10), Butler (2) Total Minutes distribution: Starters James (28) T-Mac (36) Battier (30) Scola (22) Yao (36) Bench (in order of highest MPG) Bonzi (22) Hayes (20) Rafer (18) Head (14) Dikembe (10) Then you have Brooks, Snyder, Novak and Butler taking spot minutes. We look pretty stacked. Bonzi, Hayes and Head all could get 25+ minutes on any given night and then you have Snyder and Brooks the young guns in there also. lucas, sura, reed: waive em. There you go. 15 man roster.
Before the names the poster said, here's a possible break down of minutes - therefore the numbers mean how many minutes each player will get at the position. This is a great move. Back up C and starting PF for the end of the 2nd draft (because the Rockets will be champs in 08/09 ) and terrible spanoulis? Nice. Morey is really impressing me, Brooks looks really good and I think Harris has been a pleasant surprise. This should give even more incentive for Francis to want to play for the Rockets. All we have to do is trade Lucas and Sura for that 2nd round pick we lost and then assign Landry to the D-league. PG - Francis, James, Alston SG - T-Mac, Wells, Head SF - Battier, T-Mac, Harris PF - Scola, Hayes, Hayes, Novak C - Yao, Deke, Butler There's your 15. Maybe even get Matt Carroll somehow, and trade away Alston/Head/Hayes/Novak - we're so stacked right now its sick. Even w/o Francis.
More from Feigen in an updated article on chron.com that wasn't available in my previous quote of the article: It'd be nice if he could become a slightly better rebounder, but I'm definitely not complaining and don't want to be too picky. Starting to nitpick about Scola's rebounding is like someone saying Jessica Alba could be a little taller. What's just as good as his basketball skills is his passion. If you watch his clips and hear what others say about him, he's just a fiery competitor that's going to play balls out. WOW!!
