Vassilis Spanoulis left Athens and his hometown fans with Panathinaikos to make the step up to the NBA, figuring his emotion, his energy, his overwhelming confidence would carry him straight to the top on the game's biggest stage.

Spanoulis came to Houston to join Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and, in his mind, put the Rockets over the top.

Now Yao is sidelined with a broken leg, and the rookie guard feels like he's hit bottom.

"I came here to help my team, to put my talent on it and do many things," Spanoulis said. "I am a patient person. But I don't want to stay on the bench for the season. I came here to work hard and to play in the games."

Spanoulis says he is puzzled why the Rockets drafted him and worked so hard to sign him to a three-year contract in the first place. He believes coach Jeff Van Gundy is trying to change him from a penetrating creator into a spot shooter.

"It is like asking a doctor to be a lawyer," Spanoulis said, smiling and shaking his head at his own analogy.

"Maybe they don't know what my strength is. Because every time I play, I don't play to my strength. I was used to playing good defense, pressing all over the court, running on offense, playing a lot of pick-and-rolls and creating. Now they want me to be a spot shooter, and this is a different experience. "

He was quoted over the weekend in a Greek newspaper as saying: "There's always the possibility that I might leave. It doesn't depend on me, but they can't keep me a prisoner either."