Vassilis Spanoulis agrees to 3-year deal with Rockets

Finally someone sees what I see, he is slow in the video. In the other thread he was labeled "quick as Tony Parker" which is really ridiculous.

 

Slow does not mean he is not quick. Bird was slow footed but he was quick with his fakes and his first step. While this guy may not be as "quick" as Parker, he is plenty quick. Parker is one of the top 5 quickest guys in the NBA. I wouldn't put VS at that level, but he does have very good quickness.

Basketball is about deception. And this guy has deception from the fakes to the changes of direction on the crossovers to the hesitation moves and his steps when he is driving to the hoop. Everything is built on deception. He varies his steps, varies his stride, varies his direction, has very good ball fakes, and cross over moves. He can flat out penetrate to the bucket. And on top of it, he looks like a decent shooter. He doesn't have Manu's height so he can't take all those deceptive moves to the lip and finish with the dunk in traffic like Manu can, but he can get it to the rim and get off the dipsy doodle layup. I think he is a watered down version of Manu with more point guard capabilities and the ability to handle the ball in the break from the point position and distribute.

 

I am not saying he is not effective with his moves, it is just his foot speed on absoulute terms is slow. It is more of a liability on the defensive end, where being deceptive is no use. With all the flopping these days, his moves could be really effective in the paint.

 

I've seen 3 videos and watched 2 games of Vspan on NBATV and I don't know if he is slow or quick or has good foot speed or whatever. But he does seem to be able to steal the ball from his cover alot and get in front of his man for charges. Not to mention his ability to create space on his man when shooting. Yeah he has this uncanny ability to get in the lane and create space and get his shot off.

 

i really can't wait to see this team come together, as a fan im hope we excel futher than we did in 04-05. i dont think you can judge him solely on just watching a few videos, the best thing to do is to wait and observe how he plays in the NBA.

 

All the videos show him with the ball... I want to see if he can hit the open 3.

 

what about kirk hinrich?

 

You obviously haven't watched Kirk Hinrich. His defense is very good, he has smart defense, he knows how to position himself, despite the lack of athleticism, he's still a very good perimeter defender.

 

people keep saying this guy is slow..............

AGAIN I only saw 3 games of his last playoffs on NBATV

but he is hardly slow and hardly too slow to play D.

It's almost absurd that people think he is slow.

Case in point, to tell you just how good this guy is,

in one of the games he was on Casey Jacobsen.

He scored like 3 times in a row on Jacobsen, I mean literaly abused him, you could see Jacobsen was visbily getting upset and embarrased.

So casey called for the ball and tried to ISO on Span.

First he tried to shoot over him, Span was literally there in a flash to cut off the shot,

then Casey tried to drive on him, Span literally shut him down with ease, I mean like he was laughing it was so easy.

Then Jacobsen thought "I'm bigger, I'll post him up."

He tried to and I mean the very INSTANT he tried to back him down Spanoulis just literally ripped the ball out of his hands, and it was MEAN.

Then he just took the ball and went the length of the floor and threw one down HARD.

The crowd went absolutely insane.

I remember 3 instancesin that game where he absolutely punished and abused Casey, it was so bad Casey had to be benched and didn't get back in the game.

I know Casey didn't hack it in the NBA, BUT I honestly cannot ever remeber seeing him get punked like that in the NBA.

In that particular game Spanoulis looked like he was at least 10 times better than any player on the court, he looked like a bigger, more athletic, dunking the ball, (Bob Sura mentality toughness) defensive minded and good D playing version of Steve Nash.

He was throwing crazy dimes and just picking the defense apart left and right. he was was getting into the lane at will ala Tony Parker, only he was making Nash type passes out of it, he was getting wide open shot after wide open shot for teammates.

And I have to say from what I saw in those Euroleage playoffs, this guy is currently significantly better than Bargnani or any other player in Europe for that matter.

The truth was from what I saw was that his team (supposed powerhouse) was holding him back. His team actually failed to step up, the guy was CLEARLY on a totally different level thany any other player I saw in those playoffs.

All this talk about he's slow, he's playing against Euro stiffs, his game won't translate, blah blah blah,

this guy is already noticeably better than Jaric.

 

yeah the haters will say stuff like that. fluff based on absolutely nothing. i like what i've seen. as far as transition to the nba, my stance is wait and see.

 

To say conversatively, even his performance was lower than our expectations, his contract wouldn't be a big problem.

 

Very few people here are "haters" of Vspan and the "fluff" (as you call it) is based on limited videos where his competition played awful defense. There are two stances on him: (1) He will do great & (2) Wait and see. Just because many of us don't swallow Vspan hook, line and sinker doesn't mean we are "haters".

Try tolerating other opinions.

 

The whole point of this site is for people to give their opinion, so why do people get so upset with other people's analysis....Anyways, I'm hold my judgement on V-Span until we see him go against other NBA players....from what I saw (which is the same as everybody else saw), he looks decent and he needs work on his game to bring it up to NBA level but so does every other player coming into the league....I'm being optomisitc in saying I think he will be a good contributor to this team...

 

Hey,
I have a question that isn't related but would appreciate help...How does your membership level move up on this site...I'm confused. I have seen people who are labeled "members" that only have like 20 posts and I have seen rookies who have 500 posts....I'm sure it has something to do with contributions but does something else also contribute to moving up? Any info. would be appreciated...thanks...

 

still waiting for that "trade" CD has been talkin about. I wonder is it gonna happen? I feel bad for Juwan.

 

I think that general expectations for this guy are a liitle overblown as well. I do like the little Ive seen of KB but I believe it will take him most of this season to adapt to NBA. (which I have little doubt he will do) We will be doing well if he is contributing signifcant minutes by season's end. I guess the thing I like best about him is his toughness. The Rockets certainly need more of that.

 

Don't forgert Kelvin Cato... Tell him when you see that we still want our money back!!!

 

Often I agree with you, but in this case I do not. For one thing it would have made the trade less lopsided. Secondly, it would have kept Memphis (who flat out kicked our A** in every game last year..including a game with both Tracey and Yao playing) from adding to their team. Thirdly, for less cap space than we used to sign V. Span we could have with the 24th pick drafted and signed Kyle Lowery or Jordan Farmar as a back up point guard. In two years or so, we will know who looks more like an NBA player if either V. Span or K. Lowery. I do not have high expectations for V. Span given CD's previous loosing string drafting Euros and JVG pessimism about him. I very much hope to be pleasantly surprised with V. Span, but CD will have to prove it to me this time before I believe it.

 

I am a Ginobili fan and to be honest with you, it is very unfair to compare Span to Manu. Manu is a beast! He's bigger, more athletic and more aggressive. He's a Champion versus the NBA's finest. Hopefully Span will bring a mid and long range jumper, a great upside, and the fundamentals and basic skill set that most Euro players possess. We'll see what his future brings. He'll either be a great player or a dud, either way it's up to him!

 

I guess since he beat up Casey Jacobsen, he's all that. Casey is a terrible player, why are you bragging about Vassillis beating him?

No one knows how he'll translate to the NBA, besides himself. We'll wait and see.

But seriously, Casey Jacobsen?