Posted by Kelly Dwyer
I struggled with a way to take this post for a while, but things are starting to make sense now. The San Antonio Spurs, fat and sassy with their fourth title in nine years and their ability to make TV magic, passed on paying the luxury tax during the 2007-08 season. Why else would they trade the right to sign Luis Scola - considered the finest overseas prospect in these here hills - and an emerging pivot talent for a player who won't spend another minute in the NBA?
After signing Matt Bonner and Fabricio Oberto to extensions that will combine to add nearly six-million caucasoid clams to their payroll next season, the Spurs sought to trim payroll enough to eke their way below the tax threshold. Scola is essentially a free agent, but all signs pointed against this potential Loy Vaught-clone (that's a good thing, cats and kittens) staying away from the Spurs due to a toxic mix of lack of minutes and lack of funds being sent his way. Enter Houston; a desperate rival stuck inside the same division, but also one that boasts an unhappy Greek point guard who can't shoot and won't shave and had Jeff Van Gundy turn him off the whole stateside appearance.
Vassilis Spanoulis has absolutely zero leverage, his name sounds like a dish that would include pine nuts, and his agent actually told the Houston Chronicle last week that the Rockets could "trade him to San Antonio and he could be the starting point guard, and he would he would say, No, I cannot.'" So, no; he cannot, and the Spurs will buy him out. Jackie Butler's guaranteed contract will lope over to Houston-town and for some reason the Spurs decided to throw Scola's rights in as a sweetener.
From there, we ask questions; to the cat, because nobody else is in the house right now.
Was Scola's situation so dire that the Spurs were about to lose all leverage and they had to dump the guy? Jackie Butler for V-Span is already a huge steal for Houston - Butler is a darn good pivot prospect whose per-minute numbers (even at power forward, which surprised me) were quite encouraging even as a part of the New York Knick mess in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Isn't that deal, even with Bonner and Oberto's extensions, enough to miss the cap threshold once you buy Spanoulis out? Why throw in Scola? Was I wrong about RC Buford? I'd never seen him with sunnies on until that column was published. Should I have gone with Donnie Nelson? Nelson's signed Devean George - twice. The whole thing just shakes my faith.
Either way, the trade is an absolute home run for the Rockets. Scola's reps already told the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen that he's well on his way toward coming over for 2007-08. I only wish the Rockets could send Butler to a team that could use his touch in the pivot. Stuck behind Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo in Rick Adelman's rotation; that's not a good start. And yet, it hardly changes what looks on paper to be one of the more lopsided NBA deals in the last decade.
