By Aaron Seidlitz, Suns.com
Posted: July 20, 2012
Alvin Gentry’s knows all that he needs to about how Luis Scola is effective on the court.
The Suns' head coach has been impressed with his new power forward’s track record as a scoring forward who uses his savvy and knowledge of the game to utilize an assortment of post moves.
He’s also impressed with Scola's experience at the International level, and he’s impressed with how he’s been consistent in the NBA.
The idea’s clear: as far as performance, Gentry is impressed with his new power forward.
Although he isn’t as athletic as some power forwards, Scola has still managed to average 14.5 points per game over his five-year NBA career and has averaged as many as 18.3 points per game in a season.
Defensively, Gentry again said that he uses positioning and stays a step ahead to average between six-to-eight rebounds per game.
But away from the court, Gentry wasn’t comfortable saying what kind of person Scola is. The two just don’t know each other well enough.
But the coach had a reliable source giving him plenty of positive feedback: Goran Dragic.
While in Las Vegas watching the “Summer Suns,” Dragic was in Gentry’s ear even before his introductory – or should it be called a re-introductory – press conference at US Airways Center on Thursday.
“I do know that Goran just speaks unbelievably highly of him,” Gentry said. “The one thing that Goran said to me was, ‘Coach, he’s going to help us a lot in the locker room.’
“He told me that he practices just like he plays, and that he goes all out in practice. It’s great to have somebody who will do that for you.”
Dragic remained steadfast in his praise of the Argentine forward when he was at his press conference Thursday.
“I’ve known Scola since I played with him when I was 17 years old in Spain,” Dragic said. “We were playing together then, and more recently we played together in Houston.
“He has a lot of experience, and I think that he’s a great fit for our team.”
For as much as it’s been said that the Suns are a team in transition and that there will be a lot of turnover on the roster from last season to this season, the team has a few parts that are very familiar with each other.
It doesn’t hurt that Dragic was just in Phoenix a couple of years ago, and it certainly doesn’t hurt – for chemistry’s sake – that Scola and Dragic two have a long history to draw upon next season.