Finally … the season gets started – although still struggling to get on the NBA League Pass.

Anyway, Houston Rockets are hot this year, with everyone talking about Yao and Tmac (Tracy MacGrady) and RonRon (Ron Artest), the Big Three. But I want to give a “shout out” to my boy Luis Scola.

You may have already known that he is from Argentina, 28 years old, had played in Spanish League before, so he is experienced. But experience doesn’t count for much in this league unless you do well, and he is super underrated in this category.

First, why is he underrated?

-          He is not athletic. At 6’10”, he could barely dunk. He doesn’t run fast – in fact, he often looked laboring when running from one end to another. He doesn’t overpower opponents. In short, he has none of those things that get you on the highlight reels of ESPN Plays of the Day

-          Worse than not being athletic, when he plays, he looks like a headless chicken running around (yeah, pay real close attention next time :) )

-          Even worse, he can only shoot with his right hand – yep … really.

And Now, why do I think he is that great?

1.       He is super smart – high BBall IQ, if you will.

a.       Despite his mere 2-inch “hopping” ability, he gets many rebounds, with many of them offensive (last night’s game notwithstanding). His ratio of offensive to defensive rebounds is about 1:2, very high. This means he somehow gets to the right place at the right time, with good trick and positioning instead of with strength or athletism.

b.      In fact, most of his points come from playing off his teammates positioning, or from offensive rebounds, or other creative shots. Without the speed and agility, the only thing he can do to get away from his defender is to leverage the situation when his defender is distracted. Obviously it helps playing in a team with Yao and Tmac in it, but you still have to know how to take advantage of it (otherwise, other players like Landry or Hayes would do just as well)

c.       Even though he can only shoot with his right hand, he can somehow finds his shots, creatively.

2.       He is a worker – never gives up on a play, always goes after the ball wherever it is. He is the blue collar worker on this team, but one with the IQ. He runs around like headless chicken, but somehow gets to the right place at the right time, and gets the ball, and sometimes the scores too.

3.       He defends well, still overzealous at times, but less so than last year when he got into foul trouble all the time. Again, he uses his smarts to defend, by disruptive techniques, a bit more like Battier, instead of using strength ala Hayes. Last night he defended a 7’1” Marc Gasol well, letting him have less than 4 pts while he was defending, and Gasol is a much bigger/taller guy. Gasol got his points when Scola was on the bench.

4.       Finally, the truth is in the pudding. Last year, Rockets broke out when he joined the starting lineup, and it was absolutely NOT a coincidence.

So, Rockets really have a Big 4 – the 4 is just underrated … for now.