One angle in this matchup is that the Rockets are playing against a couple of guys they really wanted with using guys they had to settle for. As pointed out by Clutch's write up here: http://www.clutchfans.net/game.cfm?gameID=3113 Battier was who Morey settled for after Portland stole Brandon Roy. Battier was also almost traded along with the 25th pick for Brandon Rush and Travis Outlaw. That 25th pick, by the way, turned into Batum, then Greene (and Dorsey and another pick) then Artest (and the ability to dump Francis). Rudy Fernandez, too, was stolen from the Rockets, who had to then settle for Aaron Brooks. Another thing is that Portland was able to get Roy and Fernandez partly because they had a ton of money and could eat salary. They traded Telfair for the 7th pick, while swapping Ratliff for Lafrentz. They also ate James Jones' salary in order to get the pick for Rudy Fernandez. It's the Free Spender vs. Money-Baller bowl. And yes, it pisses me off that that schmuck Pritchard gets to buy his way into so much talent. So far, the return hasn't been that bad. AB has been inconsistent, but had a couple of high scoring games. Roy is clearly their best player-- can't imagine how bad they'd be without him-- but Battier/Artest have also done a good job. It's been satisfying to hear Portland announcers, fans and now coach whining about their golden boys getting beat up.
As good as Battier is and I love him to death, if the Rockets had gotten Roy, getting past the 1st round would be a thought of the past now and we would have another championship banner hanging in the rafters. JVG would probably still be the coach because I think we would've gotten that championship that year we lost to Utah in the 1st round two years ago.
We were lucky to land Greene. Sac wanted him or else Ron wouldn't be here. Greene,Shane and Tracy doesn't sound all that great to me. Battier is doing a great job right now but Roy is far superior than him as an overall player. Ron is erratic,he can be a winner but he can also shoot you out of the game. As far as Aaron and Fernandez are concerned,the little guy has had more of an impact so far because of his greater role. I don't see Aaron progressing much as a 1,Fernandez on the other hand is more likely to improve as a 2 guard. Even if we win,that doesn't mean that they can't win against us in the future unless we get additional talent.
Interesting take. Obviously Battier/Roy is a no-brainer. But aside from that, we could have hypothetically ended up with: Brandon Rush Travis Outlaw Rudy Fernandez in place of Battier Brooks Artest Well, I'm happy with what we got.
Really? So you'd prefer Nash Richardson O'Neal Stoudemire Barnes to Brooks McGrady Ming Scola Artest ?? You could argue that Nash and Stoudemire are more talented than Brooks and Scola pretty easily. But you're doing well to convince me on any of the rest... At best it's debatable that the Suns have a more talented starting line-up... but that's at best.
Gosh would Roy have solevd so many of our PG and scoring problems, just bad luck we didn't pick him. Is it any wonder why they didn't want Gay? They had their sights on Roy from the beginning.
More talented doesn't mean better team at this moment. The whole organization was in kind of chaos last season. Coaching changes, Amare's injury, owner's saving money plan, all played a role.
OMG Brandon Roy I'm so so sad that Portland stole him from us. At the beggining of these series, people where asking what we could hate in the Blazers, because they thought it was hard to hate on such a classy organization compared to the Jazz. Well you can hate on there GM! Fernandez is going to be a great player a la Ginobli, he is clutch as hell! And Roy, OMG! I still believe Brandon Rush could turn out to be something good!
If we draft ... David Lee in 2005 rather than Head Paul Millsap in 2006 rather than Eliyahu Ramon Sessions in 2007 rather than Newley We will win Lakers. XDDD
that's all in hindsight. Any team could say that about any player that was drafted late and developed well. Are you going to moan that we missed out on Parker and Ginobili too?
Well, since Pritchard sent that email out to teams pretty much daring them to pick up Darius Miles, and Darius miles actually getting picked up and playing, doesn't he have to eat his salary now? Probably means no more buying for Mr.Prick
Its all hindsight, would we have dealt for Scola if we had Roy? IT would have ended up like this Rafer Roy T-mac ?????? Yao It would have still left us this MASSIVE gaping hole at Power Forward no matter which way we look. Hindsight is everything. And we would have had no bench. I'm sure the pick used to pick Roy would have cost us alot more then what it has turned out to be, which is essentially: Battier Artest And its given us the room to sign someone like: Scola Landry IF we had Roy, where would our cap room be?
Jeff Van Gundy and J. Howard! We could have had Roy! Roy! Roy! All over one stinking game against the Nuggets.
Portland looks to be stacked next year with Roy, Aldridge, Fernandez, Outlaw, Przybilla and Blake * under contract AND 30 million coming off the books. But they are going to have to make some decisions next year about who to keep. I see them giving a max deal to Roy and trying to lock up Aldridge long term but they will not be able to keep everyone they have now. It will be interesting to see how they play it. *note that Oden does not make this list, but he and Prybilla will not be teammates in 2 years I warrant.
