It makes you wonder if we are a legit 3rd place team. We don't have the star power that the Lakers have. Kind of reminds me of the Spurs, except they have more playoff experience. Reminds me a little of the Billups Pistons teams or the Jazz and Hornets teams of today, but we don't have the HOF point guard to direct traffic. It just seems like everyone kind of plays their role and we have the 1 or 2 go to guys that can make a play when it matters.
Definitely Scola, the due is double-double machine. I don't know why Dumbass Idleman would start him from the start of his NBA career.
If you have to nitpick, the only thing Scola does not possess is athleticity. But his craftiness makes up more than it needs.
Scola is one of the 6 guys that can give us 20+ on any given night..........and do it efficiently. I don't believe there is going to be a consistent definitive 3rd scorer on this team. It's going to vary depending on what the defense is giving us. We know Yao and Artest are going to get theirs. However, even their scoring roles are going to vary in an Adelman attack. Over time, they will be 1 and 2 and somebody will be the 3rd leading scorer. But we won't be able to go into most games knowing how the scoring is going to fall. Because Adelman's attack is designed to take what the defense gives it and to take it in a most efficient fashion. There are going to be some nights when the defense chooses to double Yao the whole dam night. Yao may wind up in single figures. But somebody else is going to go off. That is the mantra of Adelman's teams. Take what the defense gives you. Scola is definitely a part of that, along with Brooks, Landry, and Wafer.
i dont think Battier or Swift were ever suppose to be our third scorers. Battier was acquired for other reasons, but was seen as out third best player and the expectations of him being the third scorer came from that. Swift was suppose to finally be a legit big PF for us, balancing out Yao's below the rim play, but not as a scorer. The rockets actually didn't have a lot of trouble scoring when they acquired Swift, but that year they started to have them. The actual potential third scorers they went after were James, Bonzi, and they brought up Luther and Novak hoping they could add scoring too, but not necessarily as third options, but with complimentary shooting.
I think Scola is the third scorer, but only because he plays for the Rockets who have a 7 foot somethin center down low. We play this "inside-outside" type offense which leaves open space between Yao and the rapscallions running along the arch. With Scola able to float around and hit those mid range jumpers, we are able to really capitalize on his scoring ability. Also, after he became the go to guy for Argentina last Olympic Games, he was able to see a team really go to him and I think that he was able to really transfer that into this new year. On the flip side, I see Landry as a guy that could be (and possibly already is) Scola-esque to this team as a result of his ability to hit the mid range jumper. Holding on to those two guys is key to this team because it give us a third player to which you have to pay attention or you will get burned on every individual play.
he just needs to learn to stop fouling so much, i don't mind the fouls that stop baskets, it's the reaching fouls that annoy the crap out of me
Scola gets a lot of points because they have to pay attention to Yao, but Scola can hold his own. I wanna say it was a game against the Clippers or some random western conference scrub, Yao got injured and had to leave for the 2nd half and we basically just used Scola as our low post guy and he had a 20 point game. Thats one of the things I like about the guy. He can play a role and not have an ego about it, but when Yao goes down he can step up. He won't draw double teams automatically but he can score on his guy. I don't think you can say the same thing about Brooks. I love the guy, but I don't think his performance goes up if... Artest goes down for example.
Scola is a given but the team really goes as the production from the PG goes. This is the way this team has been ever since the days of PG by committee i.e (Wesley, Sura, James). We also looked like contenders and played our best ball when Rafer had good to *gasp* great nights. In order to go deep we need Brooks to be the 3rd scorer and create looks for others.
I wish Scola would dunk more. Does he think he will get hurt or are hit ups not very high? The Denver commentator said he can't jump high.
I actually think Scola would be more effective coming off the bench replacing Yao. I would like to see Landry and Scola reverse roles with Scola being on the floor every minute Yao is out, that is approximately 18 minutes, and then playing alongside Yao for, at most, 10-12 minutes. When you watch Scola play for Argentina, he is the primary low post attack. Playing alongside Yao simply does not allow us to exploit all of his skill set in the low block.
I agree. Defense isn't his strongest side, maybe because he is not that athletic, strong. But he flops... That may help us sometimes.
He at least doesn't make too many defensive mistakes (doesn't make stupid fouls, doesn't lose his guy). He's not going to contain Tim Duncan or anything like that, but he's not going to get completely destroyed by guys like him either.
Don't get me wrong, I think Scola is a great scorer by him self (note the 2008 Olympics, especially against the USA), but I do think having a prolific scorer in Yao greatly helps his ability. I do agree, though, that if Yao went down, like last year, Scola is very capable of picking up a lot of slack
