NBA PM: Best Trade Ever?
Yannis Koutroupis
Hoopsworld
Scola Rubs Salt On The Wound: The San Antonio Spurs typically don't find themselves on the losing side of deals. They've been one of the league's most dominant teams over the past 10 years largely in part to their front office's brilliance and patience. They've managed to win four championships since 1999 all while staying under the luxury tax and making minor tweaks rather than major moves. Limiting spending is a philosophy that has held a lot of franchises back, but rarely affected the Spurs until 2007 when they dealt Luis Scola, the best power forward not in the NBA at the time, to the Houston Rockets. Back then it was something that the Spurs looked at as necessary, but it's something that they really regret now.
After years of failing to reach a buyout agreement with Scola's club overseas the Spurs gave up on trying to add him to the team. They felt with the roster they had in place, which featured a newly re-signed Matt Bonner and Fabricio Oberto along with Ian Mahinmi, that there wasn't room for Scola or forward Jackie Butler. So they traded them to Houston for Vassilis Spanoulis and a second round pick that eventually turned into France's Nando De Colo, who averaged eight points and two assists in the World Championships.
"As an organization we felt responsible to let Luis pursue his dream of the NBA and this was the best opportunity to realize his value," said Buford back in 2007. "With our roster intact it would appear unlikely that neither Butler nor Scola would impact our rotation."
Count that as one of the rare instances where Buford was dead wrong because since finally making his way to the NBA in 2007 Scola has been flat-out productive. Meanwhile De Colo and Spanoulis haven't played a game in the NBA. Scola has yet to miss a game and has steadily improved each and every year. He averaged a career best 16 points and eight rebounds last season and has carried over his strong play to the FIBA World Championships.
Earlier today there was a matchup between Argentina and Brazil that greatly intrigued the Spurs and their fan base. It featured Scola taking on Tiago Splitter, who will be making his NBA debut with San Antonio this season after being drafted by them in 2007. Drafting Splitter also factored into the Spurs decision to trade Scola, so a strong performance by him would have helped ease the pain.
Over the years Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has made no secret about his anger over how things played out with Scola. He once said that it made him so upset that he wanted to spit and he probably felt just as fired up today after watching the show that Scola put on.
Scola continued on his tournament-MVP pace with 37 points, nine rebounds, and three assists. Splitter put forth 10 points and five rebounds himself, but it was very clear as to who the superior player was. Splitter will ultimately determine his worth to the Spurs during the regular season, but fantasies about how great Scola could have been as Spur live on. He had 14 points in the fourth quarter to help lead Argentina past Brazil, further cementing himself as the best player in the tournament.
While San Antonio thinks about what could have been the Rockets are sitting pretty with one of the best power forwards in the league that they got for an absolute steal. Coach Popovich suggested forming a trade committee that could veto lopsided deals when the Memphis Grizzlies traded All-Star power forward Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers. But in that deal Memphis landed Marc Gasol who has developed into a very solid starting center and the cap space to trade for Zach Randolph, who had an All-Star year for them in 09-10. All the Spurs got for Scola, an ideal player to put alongside Tim Duncan inside, was some cash and two players who will never see the court with Duncan. Looking back there's no question which deal was more uneven and today just helped further illustrate that.
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