This is a wise comment right here. Our surprising luck with Landry and how awesome he's become makes up for what we'd have with Gay. And Battier is a stud on defense. I like us going 7 games in a series with anyone that has a good guard ( i.e. Kobe ) because of Battier.
that i am over with, but for some reason... i'm pissed at cd for not getting lowry. i wish i would know more, if cd asked for lowry, or just said no, cause he had no info on him.
I hated the trade when it was made and still hate it... We have won nothing with Battiers defense... Rudy Gay is a stud with many years ahead of him and I would take his 20 points and 6 rebounds a game over Battiers defense... Battier is not why we are going to make the playoffs, Scola and Landry are... If we did not have Scola and Landry we would be in the lottery this year despite Battiers defense...
I guess it had nothing to do with letting bonzi,posey,williams and pau missing the first 30 games right? If Shane i who everyone says he is, why was the rox 0-7 last year without Tracy? How comw one minute we're looking forward to next year, then the next we're in win now? I didnt or wouldnt expect gay to score 20 a night, but there is 12 shots and 15 pts per on that floor with Tracy and Yao both healthy. If the bets excuse we can come up with is there isnt any room, then why do we ever draft guys or players. i mean brooks and luther head are still on this roster. Why are we were we allowed to watch chuck freaking hayes attempt to develop? U gave away a #8 for a guy that was taken 6th and has been mediocre at best. If teams still had to use the best defender on the wing for mcgrady, then who is left for gay?
Gay is good because he's the star of a bad team. We don't know how he would perform on an NBA level if he had to defer to someone else.
Gay is a much better offensive player already, but Shane locks down on the other team's best player night in and night out. Can you imagine TMac or Gay covering some of those guys? They would light us up. It sucks that we had to give away Gay to get Battier, but I think his defense and hustle are more important to this team than Gay's great offensive game/matador defense
I was told this when bibby was in vancuver. I remember having this topic about how much francis was vs baron,bibby and miller. When bibby got to a team like Sact, now everyone was calling him one of the best pg in the game. One worthy enough of a max deal and reached the conf finals. Dont get it twisted, you put shane back on that team, and the record is the same. Posey was let go as well as williams and people didnt ever think williams could be a a championship team. Look at what happened. Dont over/under value a guy because of the team he plays on.
Bonzi, Posey, and Williams were not with the team in the 05/06 season, when they won 49 games. Pau missed the beginning of the 06/07 season. What happened when he returned? Where are you getting this information? The Rockets were 2-9 last season in games Tracy McGrady didn't play. That includes 4 losses in which Yao also didn't play, and 1 loss in which Yao missed virtually the entire game after getting injured (Battier scored 28 points in that game, by the way). In other words, they were 2-4 in games that McGrady missed but Yao was available. Looking more closely, they lost to the Lakers at home, lost on a buzzer beater at Golden State, lost in double overtime at the Lakers, and they lost a 2-point game at Portland. They beat the Clippers and the Spurs on the road. How terrible, right?
People forget how close we were to beating the Jazz last year. And then a pretty decent shot of taking on the Warriors with our HCA. And Spurs, well that would've been fun. Yes we were in win now and came up a defensive rebound short. With Yao, we'd be one of the favorites right now. Without him, well, we're at a big disadvantage, but this team continues to surprise everyone because of their success without "talent". A team's talent does not equals wins. A player's gaudy stats do not equal wins. There's more than what meets the eye with the Rockets and with Battier.
If we got Roy, then who would play Battier's position today? Who played it before Battier came? I really don't recall. Roy TMac ? Scola Yao
if we had traded ralph sampson for the pick that WOULD have drafted jordan AND also included clyde drexler. O WELL........
Shane can knock down the 3 ball. With Yao, as with the Dream, they wanted to surround Yao with 3 pt shooters. Also, it didn't hurt that Battier is a glue/defense guy. Good luck relying a rookie to hit down a shot after Yao gets double teamed down low and he's passing it out. Or to come off the bench and score. Basically rely and HOPE that a rookie pans out into a stud, while Yao and T-Mac's career further dwindles down.
Also, Landry is great because he doesn't NEED the ball to be effective. He rubs off the pick and roll with T-Mac. He lives in the paint and cleans up. You don't see Landry taking 15 foot jumpers all game. You can't compare a Rudy Gay who it was clear needed a ton of shots at the big level to develop (remember coming into the draft, he was the one with the most *potential*) to a Carl Landry
last year and this year considered: * = or Juwan Howard Rafer /Roy /McGrady /Hayes*-Scola /Yao or conceivably Roy /Snyder /McGrady /Hayes*-Scola /Yao or Rafer /McGrady /Sefalosha /Hayes*-Scola /Yao or Rafer /McGrady /Gay /Hayes*-Scola /Yao compared to now Rafer /McGrady /Battier /Scola /Yao Which is the preferrable lineup?
U put gay alongside tracy,scola,yao, and rafer, u put a lot of pressure on defenses. He's shooting 35% from 3 and last season it was .368. Also he goes to the ft line 2x as much as shane. In the playoffs, u need 3 reliable scorers. We see scola struggles against long atheletic types and rafer, is rafer.
You seem to be a longtime basketball fan and Rockets fan so I have been doing my best to try to understand your position, to respect your opinions and to see things from your angle. But you have really disappointed me in this thread. Do you honestly believe that Gay would have developed like that if he were on the Rockets team. Geeze he might even be having problem to crack into our starting lineup. If that's the class, I guess you would be bashing the management for using a 1st round pick on a bench warmer. Also, as a long time basketball fan, you should know that any decent player would look like a semi-superstar on a crappy team. Who else would be doing the scoring if it was not Gay? Now, back to our own Houston Rocket Shane Battier. He has proved in the last two seasons that he is a top-3 defender in this league and he is one of the few major reasons for our winning streak. He gives 110% of of his effort in every game. I can't believe you guys diss him like that after what he has contributed to the Houston Rockets. I am ashamed of reading this thread who is actually started by a long time Rockets fan.
So luther head can get off the bench, but gay wouldn't be able to. I'm not saying that he would put up 20, but 15 isn't unreasonable. I mean the reaon the spurs window has been open so long is the play and development of tony parker. The spurs decided to develop a guy while still competing. After the avery johnson era, the spurs had antonio daniels and a rookie parker. They decided to give the job to the rookie and trade the vet. So how come a team like the spurs that have been in win now mode forever, but a team that hasn't won jack can't or don't have time to develop young players? I respect what shane brings, but we're still trying to find that guy. BTW, what was our defensive rank when wesley was at the 2 and tracy at the 3 and howard at the 4 in 05. Hell take the injury season, and the rox are still top 5 defensive team. Then at the trading deadline we hear the gm talk about next season. Which is it?
The Rockets have maintained that the trade for Bobby Jackson was to improve the team this season, as well as to position ourselves better in the future. You may not agree with that assessment, but that's what they've been saying.
This is so incredibly wrong I'm not sure where to begin. Knock down the 3 ball? Based upon what? Go look at Battier's game by game splits and observe the large difference between when Battier plays a bad team or a +.500 team. The Dream/Yao comparison is old, tired and inaccurate as hell. Dream was physical freak who played in an era of the illegal defense. Yao is among the slowest players in the NBA and today's rules allow him to be double-teamed before he even has the ball. Thorpe, Drexler, Kenny Smith, a young Horry, and a young Cassell played the game at a much higher tempo. The tempo difference between the teams is stark. If you're depending on Battier's glue to get you into the 2nd round, you're sniffing glue. I'll take any high-caliber athletic rookie driving the lane and power finishing over a standstill shooter who brings nothing else to the offense 100 out of 100 times.
