Scola Performance on USA vs Argentina

[whottt]

Try not to take smeagol too seriously folks. He's an Argie, Scola's an Argie, look at what sorts of topics attract smeagol like attracts flies...then do the math.

[whottt]

That could be typical Adelman, but Scola could still be important. You would be more likely right if we started winning some random time after making Scola a starter; if that was what happened, we could question his value. But our huge winning roll started almost instantly; the only exception was a loss in the very first game of Scola's tenure as a starter, when Yao was out with the flu. We had a huge turnaround after making just one change: Scola. So I think he was very important to us.


We could be watching another rerun of the Adelman Show, true, but somehow I doubt it. The difference this time is that the Rockets were already a great defensive team when Adelman showed up. His previous teams sometimes played good defense, but you always got the feeling that offense was the priority. Not so on the Rockets. We were a great defensive team, we continued to be great under Adelman, and with the addition of Artest our defense could be legendary. And as you fans of the Spurs know so well, defense wins championships.

I don't think Rick Adelman is going to impose the defensive mindset like Van Gundy and I don't think they'll be as good of a defensive team...in fact they weren't.


With JVG, D came first...it does not with Adelman.


It's a lot like when Flip Saunders replaced Larry Brown and everyone was expecting them to keep playing D at the same level plus improve offensively...and initialy they did just that, until the playoffs.


Players have to be forced to play D...it is not something they are naturally inclined to focus on first, and if the coach isn't that way, the players won't be either.

Even Pop has to refocus the Spurs on D a few times per year...Adelman has never done that, and I doubt he ever will.

[Bonior]

I don't think Rick Adelman is going to impose the defensive mindset like Van Gundy and I don't think they'll be as good of a defensive team...in fact they weren't.

We were only slightly worse last season, and that could be explained by Yao's absence for the last few dozen games.

With JVG, D came first...it does not with Adelman.

It's a lot like when Flip Saunders replaced Larry Brown and everyone was expecting them to keep playing D at the same level plus improve offensively...and initialy they did just that, until the playoffs.

Players have to be forced to play D...it is not something they are naturally inclined to focus on first, and if the coach isn't that way, the players won't be either.

Even Pop has to refocus the Spurs on D a few times per year...Adelman has never done that, and I doubt he ever will.

Two of the key players on the Spurs, Parker and Ginobili, might need a kick occasionally to remind them of their defensive responsibilities, and that is probably why Pop has to do it.

The Rockets' situation is different: we're natural defenders. Yao, T-Mac, Artest, Battier are all willing and able to get stops. Yes, even T-Mac is a tremendous defensive presence when he isn't feeling the offensive burden so much -- which he won't next season, thanks to Yao's return and Artest's arrival. I think it was our players who forced Adelman to pay attention to D, not the other way around. I don't mean that our players rebelled, far from it; it was just blindingly obvious that this was how we liked to play, and Adelman, to his credit, recognized it quickly. So our defense will be great, maybe historic next season, regardless of Adelman's at ude. And that bodes well for our prospects.

[angelbelow]

in retrospect, the trade was probably a mistake.

however at the time, i didnt like the trade because of my personal opinion on scola, i approved of the trade because of the reasoning. first we needed to dump bulter, second we wanted cash to sign udoka. at the time i thought udoka was a great pick up because his offensive numbers in limited minutes werent bad and his defense was hyped. 2nd i thought splitter would indeed be a better fit.

the only reason why were having this dicussion is because splitter screwed us and udoka didnt make as great of an impact as we thought. humans make mistakes, i guess were human.

[Bruno]

Kevin Garnett passed the first round of the playoffs only 3 times in his career. So are you saying that KG was not an impact player in 9 of his 12 seasons? I think you need to revise your definition of "impact".

We aren't talking about Timberwolves but about Spurs and for a contender like them, it's all about playoffs. Who do you think has had a bigger impact for them : Rasho Nesterovic or Robert Horry ?
Scola In Europe was known for choking in big games, that's a reason why Spurs have traded him. i want to see what he will do in a NBA game with a lot of pressure before judging him and that won't be possible before this year playoffs.

As I said in the message just above, the Rockets started winning instantly upon making Scola a starter (the only exception being the first game when Yao was out with the flu). I think that's pretty strong evidence that Sola has had a huge impact on our team.

Scola starting is far from being the main reason why Rockets have ending well the regular season. You obviously don't know that well your team.

[Tmac&Luther]

Scola In Europe was known for choking in big games, that's a reason why Spurs have traded him.

So Olympic elimination games aren't "big games"........interesting, just sounds like a whole bunch of sour grapes and nitpicking to me. If Scola was such a "big choker" why was it just Scola that was sent over in the Americas tournament to even qualify Argentina for this summers Olympics?

Scola starting is far from being the main reason why Rockets have ending well the regular season. You obviously don't know that well your team.

Actually he knows his team very well, because that was one of the MAIN REASONS why Houston did so well.......especially after Yao went down. Without Scola, Houston wouldn't have had anybody who could really score in the post consistently. Scola was able to play the 4 & 5 positions, thus allowing him and Landry to be on the court at the same time, which helped out even more.

The fact that you would even question the effect Scola had on the team once he was inserted into the starting lineup basically just shows YOU'RE the one that doesn't know what the he's talking about when it comes to the Rockets or Scola.

[smeagol]

boner > scola, as one "intelligent" poster once said . . .

[kuato]

Scola trade =