Should Scariolo resign from Spanish NT?

[HeinrichMohr]

Scariolo made some mistakes at the beginning with all rotations he made and some attack plays that didn't work. When Spain started to play again their aggresive defense, the story changed. I don't think that was impossed by players, Scariolo was smart enough to see that and change. Probably both players and technical staff talked about that, but "impossed" is not the right term maybe.

[LordOfLeyte]

If Spain lost and settled for Silver, maybe. But they won and they need to make a healthy relation and thus capitalize or better yet push for improvements of the team's tactics.

[ip84]

Look at the celebration of the Russian team 2 years ago - players lifting David Blatt.
Then look at the celebration of the Spanish team - Scariolo hugging with his crew and the players hugging each other.

Then when the team with Scariolo went to the Spanish fans, but then Scariolo alone went upstairs to the fans sitting there he went alone. Funny that in his way he crashed into me while I just stood in my place taking pictures from aside. So symbolic, as I really hate him for not taking Sergio Rodriguez a player I wanted to see very much, because of IMO non-professional reasons and also made me not really like the Spanish team also for playing style.

[Genjuro]

So symbolic, as I really hate him for not taking Sergio Rodriguez a player I wanted to see very much, because of IMO non-professional reasons and also made me not really like the Spanish team also for playing style.

Sergio Rodríguez told Scariolo that he prefered not to be on the NT this summer and to work on his game, if he was not going to have a clear role in the team. He was afraid of watching the tournament from the bench like in 2007.

[BrutalDlx]

Winning a gold and sucking the guy is insane.

That's what I call a fun weekend for Sergio.

[Captain CAAAVEMAAAAANNN!!]

"I would like to thank the Spanish Basketball Federation for allowing me to drive this Ferrari".

It sounded like a goodbye to me.

[Toxicity]

It sounded like a goodbye to me.

I don't know but in a yesterday interview with La Gazzetta Dello Sport he said he should continue until 2012... he also said, joking or not, "when things go well it's all right but when Spain loses i'm just the poor italian coach"... he made me smile...

[ip84]

Sergio Rodríguez told Scariolo that he prefered not to be on the NT this summer and to work on his game, if he was not going to have a clear role in the team. He was afraid of watching the tournament from the bench like in 2007.

I heard it but I don't buy it.
Calderon is not there, Ricky is young and never in his career played a lot of minutes average, the schedule of the tournament also make you use your roaster. No reason why he would find himself not playing like 2 years ago. Just reminder 3 years ago he played and was fantastic at the age of 18.
He always had talked in interviews in his blog and everywhere about how much he wanted to be in the team before.
And yesterday I watched in youtube a relatively new interview (in English) of him and the way he told about not being in the NT what aloud him to be early in Sacramento didn't sounds like it was his choice.

[Genjuro]

I heard it but I don't buy it.
Calderon is not there, Ricky is young and never in his career played a lot of minutes average, the schedule of the tournament also make you use your roaster. No reason why he would find himself not playing like 2 years ago. Just reminder 3 years ago he played and was fantastic at the age of 18.
He always had talked in interviews in his blog and everywhere about how much he wanted to be in the team before.
And yesterday I watched in youtube a relatively new interview (in English) of him and the way he told about not being in the NT what aloud him to be early in Sacramento didn't sounds like it was his choice.

Believe me, it's true. I didn't get that information from the media, but from the player himself through a friend. Of course you can opt to believe me or not.

And he would've loved to play for the Spanish NT, but again, he wanted some assurance that he would have a role in the team besides waiving a towel. Ricky is young, but everybody knew he would play major minutes. He's not a regular young. He's the kid who ended up stealing the show to Calderón last year at the Olympic Games. Sergio would've fought for a back-up spot with either López or Cabezas. He's an amazingly talented player IMO, but when things don't go well for him, it's so much easier to play a more orthodox guy that for him it was a big risk to end up warming the bench, like it happened in 2007.

Meanwhile, for Sergio this was his most important summer. This is easily his best chance ever to succeed at the NBA, and perhaps even the last one. He's going to a perfect situation, a team with a limited competition on his position, with a very offensive minded coach, and he needs to be as ready as possible to take advantage. If he had already settled down in the NBA, he wouldn't had any problem joining the NT for whatever situation. He felt he just couldn't afford to risk the least bit this opportunity.

[ip84]

No need to convince me about Ricky's talent and you can check that I mentioned myself in this forum that Ricky was better then Calderon in the Olympics games when everybody started missing Calderon when Spain lost some games.
What I said is that Ricky wouldn't play 40 minutes each game, he had played in Joventut about 23 minutes per game (little bit more in the end, but still not much more), and Calderon at 2007 had still higher status when Ricky today, and Cabesas was also younger then (thought also then I was angry about him being in front of Sergio after what he have done a year before), and Sergio himself had grown up since then. So I think it is still better situation then it was in 2007 and it might be the best situation he will have until Calderon will retire from the NT (even when Calderon plays bad he has some status).
And if he did have concern, why couldn't Scariolo tell him that he is not for waiving a towel -not signing about it on paper, just to tell about his plans? Or Sergio wanted more then that?

[Genjuro]

No need to convince me about Ricky's talent and you can check that I mentioned myself in this forum that Ricky was better then Calderon in the Olympics games when everybody started missing Calderon when Spain lost some games.
What I said is that Ricky wouldn't play 40 minutes each game, he had played in Joventut about 23 minutes per game (little bit more in the end, but still not much more), and Calderon at 2007 had still higher status when Ricky today, and Cabesas was also younger then (thought also then I was angry about him being in front of Sergio after what he have done a year before), and Sergio himself had grown up since then. So I think it is still better situation then it was in 2007 and it might be the best situation he will have until Calderon will retire from the NT (even when Calderon plays bad he has some status).
And if he did have concern, why couldn't Scariolo tell him that he is not for waiving a towel -not signing about it on paper, just to tell about his plans? Or Sergio wanted more then that?

Calderón didn't play that much back in 2007: about 25 mpg. Coach Pepu Hernández used to rotate players a lot indeed. Besides, I'm not sure Sergio's game has grow up significantly these years (particularly FIBA-wise), and in any case, his game still hasn't settled down, so there's a high sense of uncertainty about his performance level with the NT.

So I don't think the situation was that much different to 2007.

As for Scariolo, why would he commit to a promise he might not be able to keep? If Rodríguez plays as he did in 2007, he was not going to get any signficant playing time. He's a guy you virtually can't have on court if he's playing that bad.

I knew about Sergio Rodríguez's intentions towards the NT before he talked to Scariolo, but he was very realistic about it. He's no Ricky Rubio at this point. He's just another guy fighting for minutes. So he wasn't expecting any assurance from Scariolo.

You're right about this being his best chance to play given the fact that both Calderón and Rubio will likely return to the NT the following summers, but it was just bad timing. Sergio was concerned about this summer. If he establishes himself in Sacramento, he will report to the NT even to be the third PG.

[ip84]

Yeah, in 2007 he wasn't good. I was very disappointed and felt then that the NBA spoiled him.
But I think it was also because he didn't play many minutes and didn't have time to re-adjust to FIBA basketball and to re-gain chemistry with his teammates (which is very important to him due to his game style of looking for his teammates).
So why I think that now it could be better (though honesty, I respect the Europian PG position more then the NBA PG position and cannot be sure 100% about the FIBA-style re-adjust)
1. Ricky is playing very much similar to Sergio's style on the offense. So he is more natural replacement to him from the bench then of Calderon and Cabesas.
2. Rudy is now much more dominant in the Spanish team then 2 years ago, and his chemistry with him, that made them both be good at 2006 is even better now.

Well, then I hope he'll have another chance.
BTW, he always talked about how much he wont to play at the NT, and even when he spoke about his situation of not playing much in Portland he mentioned it's side affect of loosing his place in NT. Also there was an interview in the ACB site few days before the declaration of the roaster which main topic was his will to play in the NT. So what made him change his mind or to lose the confidence about getting playing-time in the NT? Did Scariolo told him something? When he had better opportunity to be significant in the NT more then now?

[Genjuro]

I think he was really disappointed when he wasn't selected for the Olympic Games. And I'm sure he wanted to play for Spain this summer as well, but as I've already explained to you, this summer was very important for him, he wanted to work on his weaknesses, report early to the team camp and make the best possible preparation for this new stage on his career. Keep in mind he's entering in a contract year.

[Genjuro]

Ramon Trecet is reporting on his blog that the Spanish team actually spoke with Scariolo about the team style between the games against Turkey and Lithuania. They wanted a less structured and more free offense. Scariolo was receptive.

Also, at the beggining of the preparation, with Pau Gasol injured, he chose Garbajosa (they spent a successful couple of years in Málaga together) as his link to communicate with the roster, but Jorge deferred to Navarro, who the real chief in the NT after Pau (did I ever told you guys that Navarro is called 'coach' in F.C.Barcelona by his teammates while his coach Pascual is called 'assistant coach'?). When Gasol came back, he took over as leader and spokesman with Scariolo.

It's another sample of the hierarchy and power of the NT players.

http://marcawas5.recoletos.es/blogs/Controlador?opcion=9&codPost=3692

[Fedfan]

It's also a failure of the players who refuse to adapt, having all the tools to do that...

I agree slow-paced play is not the best suited for this Spain NT but it was mainly a matter of effort by spanish players. They didn't like that style (and a coach like Scariolo, who knows) and probably didn't give their 100% or even 75%...

That being said, Scariolo made several mistakes in the first games and probably in his approach with the players... moreover the spanish federation knew what a coach like Scariolo brings to the table and the players too.

hmm..yes.It is the fault of the players of course..but then again..national teams are a bit of peculiar case.The coach hasn't so much of a choise of players that suit his strategy and game plan,and he has to adapt himself so much or maybe even more to the players he has on his own hands,as the players on his plan.That's the idiomorphy about NTs in contrast with professional teams.