i hope he doesn't become homesick and not show enough intensity when he starts playing here..... that would really suck
I've gradually warmed up to this trade. I still think we should have atleast got their #24 pick too, but I didn't want to see Stromile Swift back and I'm happy with Shane Battier as our number 8 pick. It wasn't long before we (on this BBS) were all talking about offering our #8 pick for Josh Childress or J.R. Smith. Battier is a whole lot better than those guys.
the injuries to are two best players and half our roster, exposed what exactly about van gundy? i guess the knicks last year exposed what kind of coach larry brown is. let's just throw a blanket over hisentire resume because of one season basically out of his control. i think the idea that rudy could command all these high-level free agents was a myth and the same goes to the notion that jvg can't get anyone. no free agent cares that we traded stromile swift. to the thread topic, shane is a classy guy. just watching the interview or two i've seen since the news, i've been very impressed with the way he handles himself. sure that's not a big factor on the court, but his intelligence is.
That he couldn't coach, and was willing to throw players (Swift, Barry, and Anderson) under the bus to cover that fact up. That he (LB) was over the hill.
And deep inside his heart he knows that Memphis won't make the playoff again. Welcome to Houston, Battier. Screw the Grizzlies.
oh please... swift has been a mediocre role player his entire career who couldn't earn more minutes in memphis and failed to do so here. we got him in the hopes that van gundy could push something out of him but it didn't work out. that's now three great coaches (hubie brown,fratello,gundy) that he has failed to achieve anything under. he's in his 6th season, there isn't time to wait on his potential anymore. barry retired after the rockets let him go, then went on to join our broadcast team and continued to publically praise van gundy as the best coach he's ever played for. if he had anything left he would have gone to denver who was pursuing him after we released him. terrible example. anderson didn't show much before his injury and when luther head showed he was capable of getting more playing time we traded derek. it gave luther more time to grow and i'd harldy consider getting traded to the nba champions, getting thrown under the bus. last season was a disaster but it was not because van gundy can't coach. you can't name one person that would have taken that situation and made the playoffs or anything else out of it. even more impossible would be finding an AVAILABLE coach who could have done it. if you want to argue that van gundy is part to blame for the lack of depth we had once yao and tracy went down then that's fine, but to say he can't coach is downright STUPID.
Was he supposed to be happy when Swift didn't show up on time for practice? The man needed no help finding his way under the bus. He lives there. I don't recall coach blaming Anderson or Barry for anything. But clearly neither had the capacity to carry these teams past the injuries. Is JVG to be blamed for that? How well would Riley do without Shaq and Wade. Seriously.
Now we have signed a former Duke bluedevil. At least Dick Vitale will be pleased and hopefully he won't call us dumb again to have picked Yao over J Williams.
