Yes, you are right he was 21 when he was drafted, I stand corrected on the age of Nachbar, but I still think V-Span was the more accomplished international player coming into the league. And yes D.o.D, I do realize that the Hornets were atrocious that year. DD
Nachbar: Span Span Boki has played professionally longer and played with Benneton for 2 years (where he started his second year). Spanoulis did not really reach that level until Pana, where he played for one year. VSpan obviously did better in the Worlds than Boki has done intenationally (as far as team wins go...they are pretty close in the stats department). Oddly enough, Boki was considered a "can't miss" Euro prospect while Span was seen as a long term project. Personally, I think their biggest difference is in the head. Boki is a way better shooter but he is a chump mentally. JVG has said nothing but positives about Span's mental makeup and says people like him always turn into real NBA players so I definitely put my money on Span over Boki long term. Coming in, however, Bokie was considered way above Span.
fitness milestone? come on now. He played all summer on the national team. You are pulling that out of your ... He can't play against the scrubs. He has to play with the scrubs in practice.
No doubt. If this team was healthy, I wouldnt even question them winning it all. But, the reality is that it looks like they wont be healthy. If they can hold it steady till the playoffs, they are very likely to win it all. I can see them being a # 7 or so and play San antonio in the first round. The rockets could definitely beat them, but if they are not healthy, they dont got a chance.
Yes, but it is clear that the luck is not there....Yao out for 20+ games again, Tmac missed 7 with his first back issue......got to find players that can help when the big two have their nicks and bruises. DD
When they were drafted, yes, but V-Span has played several more years of professional ball and is much more mature during his rookie year. Eh, this is all semantics....neither one of us can prove our points on this issue. I do agree with you about Boki being a mental midget....if he was tougher he would be playing very well, he has all the tools...but his mindset is weak. V-Span seems to be the opposite, and it is one of the biggest reasons I want him playing NOW....on a team full of creampuffs it really could use the emotional lift that an aggressive player like V-Span gives. DD
I'm with you DD. I'd like to see him play and develop now and be ready to make a significant contribution come playoff time. VSpan is the one player on our roster that could make us significantly more dangerous with his ability to finish and dish..........if he could get enough minutes to get comfortable with the system and get his turnovers down. He has the capacity of giving us 20 points and 5-8 assists and not take anything away from Yao and McGrady. Right now, with the injuries to 111, we are still in search of more offense. Our defense has looked pretty good, although when we go up against Phoenix and Dallas without Yao, we are going to get torched. We just don't have the horses to shut them down. So, we've got to be able to score against their mediocre to poor defense. People compare VSpan a lot to Manu and Parker, but if he gets rid of his turnovers, he really is more like Steve Nash without the 3 point jumper but with better man on man defense.
Yet had we played VSpan in those games, he could have very well lost us some games and we would be looking at a .500 record with people complaining about JVG, T-Mac, or anyone else. I'm happy we're actually complaining about VSpan not getting playing time instead of anything else. It could be much worse.
.......................up 29 points to start the 4th quarter against a team with the 4th worst record in the NBA. Yeah, we coulda lost it with VSpan out there.
Mmmm I didn't see that game, but it appears people here are complaining about VSpan not getting minutes during 'regular' games, or consistent minutes.
There are two separate issues: Some here almost want V-Span in the regular rotation to play 10-15 minutes per game with the starters. They are very small in number. I think nearly all of us wonder why he and Novak don't get more garbage time. The Hawks game was a ridiculous example of JVG keeping the regular players in way too long. The scrubs should have entered the game with at least 9-10 minutes left, or at least at the same time the Hawks scrubs came in. If our scrubs are so bad they can't be filtered in with 10 minutes left in a 25 point game, they don't belong in the NBA.
You must be on crack. 20 PPG from someone shooting 30%, 20% from 3 land. Finish, half of his shots are drives to the basket and he is inconsistent there as well. He is an average athlete that is going to have to work very hard on becoming a great finisher around the basket. And where is VSpan going to contribute to our offense with the game he has now. And please, no more comparisons to Manu, Parker or Nash. The only thing VSpan has in common with Nash is he's white and not an American.
I don't think V-Span is a 20 ppg player, and probably won't be...though that would be awesome. I just want him in there as the primary backup at PG......about 12-15 minutes a night. Less if he is screwing up, more if he is doing well. Personally, I think Rafer is better when he gets some rest, when Rafer plays a lot of minutes it seems like the Rockets get diminishing returns. V-Span's main issues right now are : 1. He is playing out of position at the 2 guard. 2. He is playing on egg shells because of JVG's tight control. 3. Lack of comfort with his teamates. All of these can be solved by small amounts of playing time. Right now, we have no backup PG....and our games are primarily decided by how well Rafer plays.....if he hits his WIDE open shots, we win, if he misses, we struggle. Teams are leaving him wide open, and he is not taking advantage by driving into the lane and utilizing his PG skills to set up teamates that are better scorers. He ends up taking the wide open 3pt shot......and fails to hit it far too often. Rafer is the team's weakest link, and I think the Rockets should be at least experimenting with other players at his position to give options to the team going into the post season, not at the expense of games, but at least giving others a chance to see what they could do....Luther, V-Span, JL3....etc... DD
Yeah, please stop comparing him to Nash....even though Yao Ming made the comparison himself. I mean come on Yao...what does he know about basketball.....????? Sheesh !! DD
Span is def not a 20ppg player... He can go off ocassionally (his 3/5 3pters in the greece v usa semifinal this summer where he had 22pts, or last year's game vs euroleague winner CSKA moscow : 28 pts ) but he is not a big scorer.. This might be of interest, it's his average statline (per game) from last year's euroleague: 27:48mins 14.5pts 61.7% 2pters 36.7% 3pters 77.9% FT 2 rbs 3.1 Ast 1.6 steals 2.6 TO 2.1 Fouls commited 4.8 fouls won His regular season stats are pretty much the same. Only very slightly worse than the ones above. This is in a season where he played 57 games. One more interesting thing to note is that the Rockets are a very defensive minded team. This is exactly the same case as his prev team which are considered one of the top if not the top defensive teams in europe. He also has the mental make-up to make the difference in big games (greece vs usa, game vs cska, last years series vs tau ceramica etc.) Also, his statline has improved EVERY single year since the beginning of his career, with a slight drop when switching teams. He only gets better the more he plays... More stats here: http://217.13.116.51/plantillas/jugador.jsp?id=JUO (btw...I've stated my opinion of the PG situation in other threads. I stand in the "try and give span an avg of 8-12 mins per game at POINT which is his natural position WITH the starters" line since Rafer is already playing more than i think he can handle... i just posted this info cause i think it might be of interest to other readers..)
