http://www.freep.com/article/20120704/SPORTS03/120704003/Video-Check-out-new-Piston-Vyacheslav-Kravtsov-in-action It will take me a few years to pronounce his name, for now I will refer to him as VyKra.
I wish they put a circle over I Can't Even Take a Guess at His Real Name so I knew which awkward white guy I was supposed to be watching. I really liked some of the uniforms in that league. It looked like he was playing against a team of referees at the 4:20-4:30 mark.
He gets up pretty high. Looks like his go to shot is the 2-handed power jam posterizer. Seems coordinated enough in the pick and roll and on defense. We shall see.
He needs to grow the back of his hair out in a mullet like Dwayne Schintzius. Slava certainly looks a bit stronger than say, Jake Voskuhl. He's mos-def strong enough to throw-down on a bunch of Ukrainian dudes. I felt a bit sorry for some of his defenders. The dude plays the game without much concern for his opponents and I really like that. I dig it when my C/PF simply backs his guy under the hoop, dunks in his grill and shouts off-color remarks at him in an Eastern European language. Hell yeah! I counted about 37 dunks, 1 jump hook and 1 up and under layup. I saw some good help defense and good instincts and timing to swat shots. He likes to put the ball in the stands on defense and as a fan, I have a lot of respect for this. Sure,the Bill Russel shot-blockin' method of keeping the ball in play helps win games but sometimes it's not about winning. Sometimes it's about making your opponent feel humilliated and uncomfortable with his ability to score on you.
Let Greg Monroe work on the 20-foot banker. Slava is all about: "I must break you!" Basically, what this video told me was that Slava doesn't care about anything or anybody. I really don't want to read his bio. I'd like to go on believing that he was raised by wolves in Siberia and he only started playing basketball about 6 months ago. He lives in a yurt made from animal skins and hunts bears with primitive weapons made from sharp rocks.
