Yeah no doubt about it. I'm sure he'll start shooting soon. Once he realizes that he's gonna get minutes every night we'll see a different V-Span.
You forgot JVG is the coach. You are very restricted when playing under him. That is why every new player hardly develops any game because they are afraid of making a mistake and being benched for the remaining of the season.
I keep hearing this, but I don't buy it. I've been looking at box scores lately and seen that most teams use 10 or more, and and a few teams are always at 9. Looking at those teams that stay at 9, I'd say it's because of depth issues. The rockets have not proven that they do have depth issues yet because novak who looked pretty good in preseason hasn't seen a lick of time, and vspan who sparked, but often screwed up in preseason, is finally getting a chance. My personal opinion is that rafer needs to earn ever single minute he plays. That means he needs to penetrate, be active, and set up the open man.... And the minute he stops fighting, and relaxes, then we throw in the sparkplug. Give him just 5 minutes a game to hustle and see if rafer comes back in firing. As for Novak, I think we play him exclusively as a pf, and only against weak pfs. He'd get abused by post up bruisers like boozer, brand and the like, but against the less agressive guys at pf, give him a shot, see what he can do. I hate howard, and frankly padgett ain't that bad for what he is... but until hayes gets back, let's see what novak can do.
Give him a break. He is a ROOKIE under JVG. And he stuck on the court for 13 mins still. His defence was OK, I would take him than a tired Alston in that situation. He is not ready to run the point yet but he certainly played with tenacity, like Hayes always did. You sound like JVG V2.0.
I think it shows intelligence on VSpan's part and should impress JVG. He got on the court and will work his way into the team's dynamics w/o disrupting them. He didn't push it so hard as to make a lot of dumb mistakes... the bad pass was as close as he came. I think he did well.
My question is - after several games in which we tanked in the 4Q because the opponent's guards blew past our defenders and outscored us - WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS 4Q WHILE VSPAN WAS IN? I don't remember exactly but we outscored them by about 6-8, then when he left we gave a few back with Rafer & head in. Me and others have been saying we needed D to shut down these late drives and that is exactly what Bill provided. All recounted above by DD. And the drive to the hoop with Yao following is another example of players working together. He is gonna be like Hayes and improve with every 8-12 min played. He will get better integrated with the offense and when Hayes comes back we will really have a solid rotation. Conclusion: we won the 4Q with Vspan in. Be happy.
Spanoulis really didn't do anything, but the bottom line is that Rafer and Head CANNOT be in the backcourt at the same time.
Well Head's shot has looked real good at times but he still is making dumb mistake after dumb mistake game in and game out. Rafer is like David Carr, if the offense is flowing he looks good but if things take a turn for the worse he seems to colapse under the presure. Now that Billy is gonna get time I really think it should be a game by game decision on who plays point to end the game (last five min) Yao Hayes Battier T-Mac Skip/Bill No Head at this point IMHO
could not agree more with those two points.... when pressure starts mounting in the 3rd and 4th quarter, rafer and head seem to collapse. poor decisions, dumb mistakes, bad shots, complete lack of focus, etc. very disturbing trend, imo.
Man, I swear some of you who don't give KillBill credit for our win last night, you guys don't know a lick about basketball, perhaps when I have some more time I will give to those, whose still in the dark when it comes to winning hoops: a crash course in bball 101. Carry on!
Surprised y'all haven't mentioned that sweet bounce pass to Padget (or was it Shane?) in traffic in the paint. How did he see that? It didn't lead to an assists because Padget handed it off to Ming and he was fouled. "Game changing" is a little too strong. The 3ptrs from Head and Alston were game changing. Tmac scoring in the 4th was game changing. Vspan played *great* individual defense, I'm really surprised and impressed. I remember, before we got him, people were making the same assumptions of him as all european players- good shooter, no defense. The oppposite is true! He is a very good one-on-one defender, pesky and frustrating. Staying in front of Marbury and Crawford is no small feat. He has good court vision not only for the pass but the steal- even in preseason he seemed to get one or two a game, and he often tips the ball to disrupt the set if he doesn't get the steal, like he did this game. I've noticed that he often goes for the steal on the perimiter and open court, leading (potentially) to an easier fast break or layup. I think the jury is still out on whether he's a good team defender, and has his double teams and rotations down. He was hesitant on offense, and obviously didn't have the green light to play his game as he would like- barrel to the hoop like a running back and make the pass. I really think that a Vspan/Ming P&R or a Vspan/Hayes P&R could be really good. I understand it was his mastery of P&R that killed team USA this summer. He also displayed his weakness again by throwing a wild pass that was stolen. Vspan is a baller, and will bring it every game. I'm excited to have him playing on the court, and see how he develops- but it's not hating on him to say that his presence wasn't game-changing. Unless you think all five players on the court had game-changing presence in that time period.
Spanoulis did well because he was able to make his usual amount of good plays without his usual assortment of bad plays. He played rather conservatively on offense and did not play wild like he did earlier.
ALL RIGHT - HERE'S THE DEAL . . . . . . . Billy as his playing time increases will show a big time reduction in turnovers. In addition, to those who think he will NOT have an impact in the scoring column - you are wrong. Billy will get to the line. With his cross over and penetration he will get fouled and go to the line. He also hits free throws at alost a 90% clip. He may not hit a high % of hid FG's this year - (and this will improve in the offseason as he gets a chance to work on his 3 point range) He will get to double digits in scoring quite a bit due to the amount of free throws he will attempt. In addition, his defense, tenacity and intelligent play will keep him on the floor on most 4th quarters. All he needed was an opportunity - Unofrtunately it came at the expense of Snyder injurying himself - But somehow you just KNEW this would happen - That Billy would get a chance, a small opening - then he would take full advantage of this opportunity and never look back. Let's get on the Billy Train and start ridin'. He is an extremely important piece for this team. He has ALWAYS been on winning teams 9ALWAYS). This is NO COINICIDENCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
