Is that a one line post from you? Nope, just pointing out the fallacy about high turnover guys not being contributors. V-Span takes risks with his passing, as all great PGs do, and once his teamates get used to playing with him, his turnovers will go down, and his assists will go way up. He will probably always be a high turnover guy, but his assists should really sky rocket and that is what we need. DD
You are assuming his assists will sky rocket and his teammates will get used to him. What if V-Span is too reckless and continues to be a turnover prone guard? And don't you agree that we need to acquire a veteran PG this summer? If we do, don't you think there's no room for Spanoulis on the roster? Or do you honestly believe our new coach would prefer Spanoulis over Alston from the beginning?
As someone who's been pretty ambivalent all year in regards to Mr. Spanoulis, I don't really have a dog in this fight. However, I was intrigued by your statement saying that Vspan would have better numbers w/ Tracy and Yao. To test this hypothesis, I pulled some lineup numbers from 82games.com to look at two key factors: 1) How often did Spanoulis play with Tmac or Yao? How often did he play with them both? 2) What were the key statistics when Vspan was on the floor with Tmac and Yao? Here are the numbers for the top-10 lineups (that is, the top 10 most used lineups) that Vspan played in(from 82games.com): After looking at the lineup numbers, I was surprised. The top unit that that Vspan was in consisted of Head-Spanoulis-Battier-Howard-Yao, which Vspan played in for 36 minutes...by far the longest time that he spent with any unit. The number 4 unit Vspan played with had Tmac, the number 5 unit had Yao, and the number 6 unit had Tmac and Yao. The #10 unit had Yao involved as well. All in all, Vspan spent 129 minutes total with his top 10 units. Out of those 129 minutes, 79 of those minutes (61.5%) of those minutes were spent playing with either T-Mac or Yao. He spent 10 minutes (7.75%) with T-Mac and Yao. If you take his numbers for the entire season (272), it can be estimated that V-Span spent 29.04% of his playing time with either T-Mac or Yao. So did V-Span have significant playing time with T-Mac and/or Yao? IMHO, I would say somewhat. He didn't spend the majority of his time out there with the big 2, but 30% isn't anything to sneeze at. The second question was to look at the major stats while V-Span was on the floor. In his #1 lineup (w/ Yao), the combined unit had a +/- rating of -11. His #4 unit (w/T-Mac) had a +/- rating of +4, his number 5 unit (w/T-Mac) had a +/- rating of -1, his #6 unit (w/T-Mac and Yao) had a +/- rating of -3 and his #10 unit had a +/- rating of -3. What that seems to suggest is that only one lineup involving V-Span that had Tracy or Yao (Head-Spanoulis-McGrady-Howard-Deke ) had real success out there. Now is this a small sample size? Admittedly so. Could this production change if V-Span was playing point vice the 2? That's an open question. I also don't know how many of these numbers are non-garbage time minutes...which could skew +/- ratings as well. But to say that V-Span had NO playing time with T-Mac or Yao, and that he would have had better numbers with the two doesn't mesh w/ the numbers. QED.
It won't be suprise if they'll say "Van Gundy doesn't make the decision yet." I'm just tired of hearing this and I'm sure we won't hear anything new in this week
Don't you guys think it is funny? By him NOT making his decision he is essentially telling everyone that the decision has been made. By not coming out and saying "I have another year, I am ready to go, let's roll" He is letting the organization off the hook, it will be a classy departure,....the Rockets don't want him anymore, and I think JVG wants to protect his reputation for his next gig. DD
i dont see that. He wants to consider whether he will be back or not, i dont think too much needs to be read into that. Rockets dont want him anymore? says who? i dont think jvg really cares about what other people think and he certainly isnt a PR ho
it's horrible, this whole dragging thing! I hope Les is much smarter than Van Grumpy and keeps this to a minimum.... then he reads my post and gets Adelman in a package with Bibby, we ship out Alston, Head and Howard somehow, Barry comes back and signs for 2 years, Sura grows another leg through stem cell research, Mutombo decides to play 3 more years and Yaoza punches Okur is his freaking face during the 2008 playoffs
Which is a huge reason that Les doesn't want him back. Les told him to fix his public demeanor and be more personable. Les knows it is a business and selling tickets is important, he sees how JVG's attitude plays among Rocket fans. And what did JVG do? He told the press that Les asked him to be nicer, and then basically ignored it. Now, if you were the boss, and your employee did this to you, would you want him/her back? JVG is done.....no doubt about it. DD
Do all of these stats empower you? You may not have a dog but your p***y cat is pretty big. Vspan was never given a chance at the 1 and never given a real chance period. Van Gundy never wanted Vspan on his team and never wanted him at the 1. If Vspan was just another player Van Gundy would've left him on the dl to rot. But Vspan was managements choice and a fan favorite. So Van Gundy had to undermine him and make him look bad in front of the the media and the Rockets fans. He said as much when he stated he would do damage control with the media where Vspan was concerned. How much more proof do you need that JVG had it out for the kidfrom the get go. Vspan had his best game before Van Gundy was able to destroy him. And then Jeff said no to anything but the 2 guard spot and spot up shooting which was just stupid and is one reason why he should've been fired long ago. How could you not see that Vspan's best asset on the court was driving and dishing. He should have been running the team from the get go but Van Gundy wanted nothing to do with him. Oh and don't mention the Spurs where Vspan was thrown out late in the game to be fed to the Wolves. Rafer head and JLIII were all having terrible games. SA was playing superb defense and then Gundy threw Vspan out there at the point without any prior PG playing time and said let's see how you fair now you Greek Tmac. Well he didn't fair so well but no worst than any of or other lousy guards and certainly under more duress. The bottom line is the jury is still out where Vspan is concerned. But you can't base your decision on what happened this season. Van Gundy was clearly trying to undermine him in his own manipulative way. And then finally just stopped playing him period even though Vspan showed clear signs of improvement. There is no way that JLII should have received more minutes than Vspan. So let's wait and see how he fairs in the summer league and training camp before we start to pass judgement. The kid has shown in the past he is winner and plays with more heart than anyone else on the team not named Yao. I think you will be greatly surprised come next season. But if he isn't the player that most of us hope for than so be it. Let him go back to Greece, wish him well and move on. The Rockets will survive without him. Though if I had to bet on it I would put my money on Vspan making a significant contribution next year.
That cwazy JVG basing his whole season around not what is best for the team, but instead trying to make a #50 overall pick from 3 years ago look bad. No wonder Les wants to fire him. FIRE VAN IDIOT, he had a superstar point guard on the bench and was throwing away games just to show him up in the media. Also, he was trying to have as few people as possible attend the Toyota Center games through his odd strategy of winning 50+ games and buying season tickets for a section of fans. Also he eats babies and has stupid hair.
yeah. thinking a rookie euro combo guard is the answer to all the questions and the reason why the rockets arent still playing....you tell me who is dreaming
A couple of things to address: 1) No judgements were passed. I saw DD's statement, ran the numbers, and reported what I saw. Did I say V-Span sucks? No! All I said was that he had some PT with T-Mac and Yao (contrary to what DD had stated) and that the +/- stats with them weren't that good. I didn't say he needs to go back to Greece/he sucks/JLIII is the man. Please don't put words in my mouth to fuel your vitriol. 2) I clearly stated that it was an open question on V-Span's production if you let him run the point. I don't know, you don't know...we just have to wait and see how it goes. However, you contradict yourself. You say that he should have been running the show from the start, but then say let's wait and see. I agree he should have had a shot at some consistent PT to prove himself, but to say he should run the show from Day 1?? That's questionable logic, to say the least. So at the end of the day, OMR, step back from the precipice and read what is laid before you before you let loose with another pro-Vspan/anti-JVG philippic. JVG and V-Span certainly aren't best of friends...but it would seem that issue cuts both ways. JVG played him out of position (arguably) but JVG didn't put V-Span out in the press until V-Span went to the papers first. There's blame on both sides of the fence. I'd love to see V-Span do well. I just don't think he's the panacea to all the Rockets' woes the way you do.
