As I remember, he was very highly regarded by SPURSX3 as well as Reality.
I drafted him pretty early in the fantasy draft due to the high regard the scouts had spoken of him with, also. They were so impressed with pre-season they thought he had virtually locked up 30 minutes at the 4 spot nightly for Houston. He also was the best player on an Argentina team with Delfino and Nocioni (but not Ginobili and Hermann) that finished second in the Pan American game this summer averaging a robust 18 and 10. And I seem to recall he put up those kind of numbers against Team USA.
I know the international game is different from the NBA but until there is drastic improvement from Scola, it seems the hype coming from all directions was a bit premature.