Quote:
Originally Posted by Pioneer10
Scola has been terrific for them recently. It always takes awhile for the Euroleague guys to acclimate to the NBA and he took a half a year to do it.
Damn I really wish Ferry was able to get that Bibby/Scola done this offseason. The Spurs dumping him looks more and more like a really dumb move by a usually smart franchise
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That's true. The guy they traded him for Vassilis Spanoulis is 10 times better than Scola is if you look at ability to dominate a Euroleague game. Scola was about the same player he is in the Euroleague that he's just starting to develop into now in the NBA. Spanoulis is a guy that can completely dominate a Euroleague game on both ends of the floor. He can come into a game off the bench and see his team down by 15 points in the 3rd quarter and in a matter of minutes the game is tied. It happens several times with him and also at the end of the game if his team is close it's 9 times out of 10 he either makes a huge steal to win the game or hits a huge 3 or layup to win the game or does both, where Scola did not have this ability, in fact he was more of a known choker. Similar to how in FIBA (not Euroleague but similar) Spanoulis had 15 points and 5 assists off the bench in the 4th quarter against Team USA.
In the 2006 Euroleague playoff Spanoulis a Euroleague rookie really dominated Scola head to head badly as far as individual performance.
This just highlights how important it is to have a coach like Adelman for your team that allows the GM to get these players and the coach understands and develops them out versus how Van Gundy and 90 percent of the other coaches handle them. No matter how good these players are in FIBA or Euroleague or Spanish league or Italian league or Greek league or Russian league or Turkish league all the good leagues over there, they have to have at least a full solid year of NBA until they are completely adjusted. Even now Scola's not completely adjusted. And when I say a full year I mean playing significant minutes every game, not riding the bench or just collecting DNPCD's.
Another very good player in Euroleague level that could play very well in NBA is Macijuaskus although he's not as good as Scola and nowhere near Spanoulis talent level, but he also did not get any allowance from Byron Scott with the Hornets for adjustment. The guy could be similar to a smaller Peja type player like a 6-4 shooting guard type of Peja player (a solid 15-20 minute bench guy probably - a bit better on D than Peja but who isn't it?) but the same coach that has Peja would not play him because of not understanding the adjustment factor, just like Adelman did when he had Peja. What should be a good 6 or 7 man on the Hornets even now was judged as one of the worst NBA players ever because Scott could not grasp Euros come in totally unready for the adjustment and need time.
There are some Euro players like Jasekivicius that are simply not good enough for the NBA. Way too slow, way too un-athletic, way too poor on defense and unlike say Peja or how Macijuaskus could have done not able to make up for it in other ways, etc. But I think a lot of NBA coaches have a bad habit of lumping all the Euro players into this category they all get stereotyped into being this same player, which interestingly Scola avoids because he's from Argentina, but it's the kiss of death with a lot of these NBA coaches any time they hear the words "white Euro" like they are all slow, no defense, stiffs or something.
If you have Adelman you have a great advantage in this because he's the best with developing the Euroleague players. Give Van Gundy Scola and he would have ended up being garbage (no matter what Van Gundy might say otherwise) because early on with very bad defense and tons of fouls and turnovers Scola simply would have been benched (how the coaches that don't understand the Euroleague to NBA adjustment operate) and once Van Gundy benched you it is permanent, you never get out it's just how the "old school" coaches operate, it's not personal it's just fact. Conversely, give Adelman Spanoulis and you have an all-star point guard every year, where with Van Gundy you have a guy so ticked off he's fuming all the way back to Europe.
Adelman will give the Rockets a great edge in talent if their GM can keep picking out the talented Euros, Adelman will develop them, which is huge for a team because the MLE can get them. It's a great way to build a champion team just like the Spurs did it. I suspect the Rockets can do it too, because Spanoulis is the best Euroleague player and Scola was the next best so they have a very good scouting dept. on these Euroleague players. I bet the Houston GM has already got the dibs on some Euro right now. They could be the new Spurs as long as they keep that up and keep Adelman there, that's the key otherwise the coaches like Scott and Van Gundy just bench these guys because they don't grasp the adjusting time.
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