Yea i would love to see him dunk more often but i prefer to compare him to a young somewhat atheletic Michigan Juwan! lol BUt i think young juwan dunked more then him! All in all he is an upgrade and there isnt much in the free agent pool that even compares to him. He runs the floor extremely well for a big guy and he doesnt look afraid to take shots. I hope he stays aggressive on the rockets.
I think being the west with likes of Duncan, Boozer, Nowitzki, Amare, and Brand makes him seem sort of a by-passer. But compared to other lesser PFs....he might actually be better. compare him to say Oberto/Ellison (with Spurs), Hilario, Gooden (Cavs), Steve Hunter, Mlicic, and etc. I would say those players are about the average PF. I mean some of those guys are adquete, but most are nowhere as skilled as Scola.
If we were in the East, we could almost win 70 games and a go undefeated in the playoffs....Miami couldn't beat us with Wade and aging Shaq with group odd young players. Even though Detroit had a better defense than we did....they couldn't stop Yao in low post and he would be difference that series...and we have way to much depth for the Cavs would reminscent of Spurs series...but we score alot more points...the average score would like 102 to 88.
Scola is used to getting double teamed since he's been the franchise post player for the teams he's played for. But, he will be playing with Yao, Tmac, Francis, Bonzi, James, Brooks..... so Scola will find it pretty easy to score on one guy. When you get past the athletic defensive studs like KG and Ben Wallace....the average NBA power forwards can be scored on by an talented post scorer. I don't think Dirk can guard Scola...and certainly not the average NBA power forwards.... Scola can even score on Duncan or get some fouls on Duncan and at least make Duncan work harder than he would have had he guarded Hayes or Howard. Scola is fundamentally sound and some of his shake and bakes are amazing.
His jumper sure is prettier than Juwan's. He reminds of Brad Miller in those highlights with his beautiful stroke.
Juwan has NOT been able to make that midrange jumper consistently. His shots have been too flat and too bricky. Scola's J's seem to have more of a arc and he seems to have softer touch on his shots. What is his fg% like so far?
Another wish for Scola....how great would that be for us if turned out to be a poor man's Tom Chambers...?
Okay doesnt Scola shoot a little like Dirk ? and can he DUNK I like the way he is constantly moving.....
I wish he shot like Nowitzki. And yes, of course he dunks, but not very often. In youtube you can find many nice dunks, if you want to.
It's hard to be impressed watching him against guys shorter and without much athleticism. I mean, Juwon would probably look like a star against these guys as well. I'm going to wait until I see Scola against NBA level competition before assessing him totally. Perhaps seeing him play against Team USA will be more convincing.
Don't kid yourself. You are watching the shots MADE clip. Of course every shot in that clip was beautiful. Didn't he get most of the points in one quarter? Besides, have you notice the defense he was facing when he made his shots? Pathetic defense, indeed.
I am sorry, but I have to question whether you watched any of the games at all or just watched the highlights. Scola was playing against some huge opposition. Uruguay's center, Batista, is literally like the WWF Batista. Puerto Rico had Ramos who is also massive. I note that Scola was being double teamed in the Mexico and Panama games. Yet, he always out maneuvered his opponents and actively got himself into scoring positions. Scola not only scored on these guys while being the most / second most 'guarded' player on the team... he also actively defended the opposing big men. I suggest you read Rockets2K's post for a more informative description of Scola's defensive capabilities. Guy puts in effort on both ends of the floor. Also, many of you keep clamouring for him to perform against NBA stars. He already has played against NBA 'stars'... in many international competitions.... or are you forgetting his YouaTubed sweet rejection of Jermaine O'Neal? And in the past few international competitions, the NBA stars having been looking very 'starry' then. This guy has won the World Championships and the Olympic Medal... which is more than what can be said for some of the 'stars' the US have. Lastly, I believe that Scola will not be able to perform against the USA team in this tournament because he is surrounded by the Argentine national team's version of scrubs. However, if the core Argentine team was playing with him, I wouldn't bet my whole house on the USA team beating THAT Argentine team. I apologise if I have insulted anyone... but it is just ... amusing? to see such sweeping remarks being made of Scola... it is like you just wish you did not get him...
great post, thanks for the clips. The more I see Scola play the more my anticipation grows for the season to begin. As for the dunking, I think it may be a cultural differance between their league and the NBA. The just dont dunk on each other. On that very last plat on the clip Scola had a wide open dunk but instead he layed it up. Ultimately it dont matter because they both count for 2 points. But in the NBA Scola may decided he wants to dunk more now that other people are trying to dunk on him.
Not to mention, like, one hundred years younger. Juwan was so bad at rebounding and playing defense that we had to start Hayes and save Juwan for the Deke minutes, to make sure one of our two bigs could score without drawing a 3-second violation after catching the ball in the paint.
Well, I REALLY hope people here aren't seriously comparing Scola's mid-range game to Juwan's. JHo's jumper is simply not good. It was good at one point in his career, but that was before he became a Rocket. We're talking about a guy shooting ~45% but doesn't shoot 3s or get FTs. If Scola's spending all his time putting up jumpers, I'd expect ~50% shooting at the very least.
Let's not overrate Scola's shooting ability here before he played one game against NBA competition. It's not clear that he'll hit a higher % on his jumpers than Juwan Howard has.
