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You guys remember the way we felt exactly 365 days ago?

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Clutch City1993, Jun 29, 2007.

  1. Clutch City1993

    Clutch City1993 Bury Me In The H
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    We were all like wtf????? Gay for Battier????? And let's not forget how well it turned out for us. Granted we didn't get past the first round, but looking back at the trade a year later, it worked out for the best. We're not going to know what happens until the season starts. It could go either way, plus the offseason is far from over. I got faith. I love my team. Always have. Always will. (My 1st tat says it all) We got a few pieces we can move and only 1 or 2 empty spots left until we are fully re-loaded. Tmac...Yao...MJ...Bonzi...Batman. The glass is MORE than halfway full. Some of you guys are looking at it like it's halfway empty :cool:



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  2. kingkow

    kingkow Member

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    I just feel that we would have done better.
     
  3. Ehsan

    Ehsan Member

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    The Battier for Gay trade was a failure. We could've gotten knocked out of the first round with Gay on this team. But we'd be feeling a hell of a lot better with a 2nd year Rudy Gay on this team than Shane Battier right now.

    I KNOW that it was a risk we had to take. I didn't like that trade but I was realistic about what we needed to win NOW. However, we were knocked out in round 1. So now everyone else needs to be realistic. The risk we took FLOPPED. A good organization takes risks to get to the top and we did that. But the fact of the matter remains, if we were going out in the first round anyway, I would have a 2nd year Rudy Gay than a Shane Battier on this coming season's team.
     
  4. denniscd

    denniscd Contributing Member

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    no flop...5th best record in the league and battier will continue to outplay gay for the rest of his career...
     
  5. Chuck 4

    Chuck 4 Member

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    Im still good with the Battier trade. And, in time, I think I will be good with the Aaron Brooks pick...
     
  6. sun12

    sun12 Member

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    After the T-mac trade, Rox front office hasn't got anybody who is worth much.

    Even for Battier, didn't you hear that the front office now wants to TRADE him?

    It is the same routine, they get a player this season, and the next season, they want to trade him.

    Think about Anderson, Swift, Battier, M. James, Alston, they either have traded or wanted to trade them.

    Get real.
     
  7. Gutter Snipe

    Gutter Snipe Contributing Member

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    There's a good chance that we wouldn't have made the playoffs without Battier, and we definitely wouldn't have been in the 4th seed.

    Don't forget, the Rockets weren't taking Gay regardless. He was not their guy.
     
  8. GATER

    GATER Contributing Member

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    So "there's a good chance" that a team with two All Stars like McGrady and Yao wouldn't have been better than the Lakers, Nuggets, Golden State or even last years' Clipps with Gay and Swift instead of Battier? Right. The Intangibles Love Fest reaches a new apex of ridiculous.

    They weren't drafting Gay anyway? Any chance they (like you and 80% of this board) severely under rated the player the NBA management placed as the #3 ROY?

    You want stat geek intangibles...look at Battier's minus stats vs the more athletic, taller, stronger and quicker Jazz. And the Rockets (Morey) still haven't addressed those differences. Let me tell you in advance (like I did last year at this time when Morey thought they were a 60 win team) the outcome. If they don't find a way to get height and athleticism into their $Ball equation, they are another first round exit waiting to happen.

    I didn't think it was possible to feel worse than last year.
     
  9. morpheus133

    morpheus133 Member

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    Which is part of the problem. Their "type of guy" tends to be unatheletic or undersized players who have alot of heart, but not the talent or raw physical ability to really have a big impact on the game. See Novak, Hayes, VSpan, JL3, Luther Head, ect, ect. I mean if we are going to draft guards, how about drafting someone 6'6 or taller who is atheletic with upside rather than another 6 ft or shorter guard who is likely to be the object of as many mismatches due to size as his speed creates.

    Personally I would have preferred the size of Arron Afflalo, Tiago Splitter, or Alando Tucker at that point in the draft. Anyway I hope Brooks surprises us all, but the Rocket's haven't had anything close to a "steal" since they drafted Mobley back in 1998.
     
  10. thumbs

    thumbs Contributing Member

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    I wish I had something more than my extreme disgust to add to this discussion.

    On the bright side, I don't have to purchase League Pass next season. I can read about the Rockets losses the next morning and be enthralled with exciting comments about how close we are to winning.
     
  11. JoeBarelyCares

    JoeBarelyCares Contributing Member

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    I'd trade the playoff choker Battier back to Memphis for Gay and Swift in a second. JVG said that deal was a Morey deal. After yesterday's horrible draft, I believe him. What was Les thinking, letting this 32 year old with no real experience talk to Jerry West? How could Les not see that he would be taken to the cleaners? Our owner's front office penny-pinching is once again coming back to haunt us. At a minimum, Les should have promoted Dennis Lindsey instead of hiring this kid.
     
  12. thiuronium

    thiuronium Member

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    With JVG, anyway we'll be knocked out in the first round.
     
  13. JamesC

    JamesC Member

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    I'm still hoping the Rockets will find a way to get rid of Battier. He's one of the most overhyped players on this board.
     
  14. user

    user Member

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    How much did Battier contributed in the 1st round?
     
  15. Nero

    Nero Member

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    MAN I have such a love/hate relationship with this time of year!

    On the one hand, the anticipation and eagerness to see what bounties the draft may bring us is always fun.

    On the other hand, the Rox always seem to do things this time of year to constantly show us that the draft is not as important to them, organizationally, as it is to many other teams (and us fans).

    However, while we may not particularly LIKE what we see from the team on draft nights, we need to try to keep a little perspective.

    This was a 52-win team last year, and that was with Yao missing a significant portion of the season. Regardless of this team's 'needs', one thing it does not 'need' is to have to depend on a rookie next year for big contributions. Develop, yes, depend on, no. Morey has as much as come out and said so - they will definitely be making more moves to bring in a veteran 4 who can compete and contribute immediately.

    This draft was for the future of the team.

    Yeah we have MJ and Rafer. So? MJ is not young, Rafer won't start after this year (IF this year), and Billy and JL3 are probably gonzo in trades or outright releases, and Head could very well be gone too.

    So taking a pg FOR THE FUTURE is not a bad idea.

    And listening to what Morey actually SAID during the post-draft interviews, he's not wrong: with the rules changes in place now, where it is literally almost impossible to guard fast small players from getting into the paint and doing damage, the particular skills that Brooks apparently possess will be extremely valuable to us when he works his way into the lineup. Did we not just see Tony Parker almost single-handedly win the championship for the Spurs? Parker, Paul, Deron, Barbosa, the list goes on.. now we have a guy like that. If Phoenix snags the guy a couple picks later, everybody is hailing their GM as a genius.

    The only real downside is if the league has some sort of 'rules backlash' which could devalue players like this before we really get our money's worth.


    As for the Landry pick: There were two PF's who really stood out at the camps this year - Fazekas and Landry. If JVG had still been coach, I believe Fazekas would have been the pick. But Adelman's system is going to have different needs, and therefore, the other high-value PF pick became the choice.

    I don't believe Yao is going to stay glued beneath the basket anymore like he was under Jeff. In particular, I believe he will be utilized in the high post much more, which is going to place a premium on versatility and quickness from the 4. Hayes can hit layups from TMac feeds, but what else can he really do offensively? Landry can hit those same layups, but he can also find the open spots for short, medium, and even long jumpers. He's a high-energy guy, like Chuck, and has a high hoops IQ, also like Chuck.

    How many times have we said that our dream 4 would be a guy 'like Chuck', but who could also score? This is the guy. Also, we might even see this guy slide over and backup Yao, a-la a Diaw-type player.

    Can't argue with either of these two picks, which is one of the reasons I hate this 'after-draft snit' that people always get into. Morey knows more than we do, guys. His JOB is to find the gold where others do not see it, and considering where we were drafting, we would be foolish to expect future HOF'ers out of it. The best we can hope for is that they become contributors in a year or two, and if they become more than that, then all's the better.

    As far as Fazekas goes, wow, poor guy. He just got drafted into the worst possible situation he could have gone to. Yay. This benefits us in two ways: One, he won't hurt us any time soon, and, two, in a coule of years, he'll be a cheap FA, and if Morey thinks he's still any good, we could have him then after he has developed a bit on someone else's dime.

    That's why the NBA draft is so iffy: outside of the lottery, most of these guys are not going to grow into big-leaguers for a few years, by which time we (and every other team too) can have a second shot at them.

    The real trick for Morey now will be to go through the guys coming off rookie contracts from 2,3 4 years ago, and find the ones who have never really gotten their shot, for whatever reason, but who could still blossom here for us.

    All you guys who are screaming about how terrible this draft was, including dipwads like Chad Ford, need to just grab ahold of yourselves, and settle down. It will be two years at least before we know how this draft has really turned out.
     
  16. Ehsan

    Ehsan Member

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    My point precisely. If you're going to be knocked out of the first round regardless of who's on your roster then:

    1) It doesn't MATTER what seed you are, it's irrelevant. If anything, the lower seed you are the better the pick in the ollowing draft.

    2) If you're getting knocked out of round 1 EITHER WAY, then you would much rather have Rudy Gay on your roster right now.

    3) If you think there was any chance in hell that we don't make the playoffs last season, then I refuse to discuss this with you. That is absolutely ridiculous. T-Mac, Yao and a top 2 defense will make it every single time. No, Battier did NOT make us a significantly better defensive team FYI. Check the stats.
     
  17. Barkley

    Barkley Member

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    Good thread. I remember. We had great pick #8. And we traded it + STro for Battier. That was unbelivable, I thought Dawson was stupid. But we saw what Battier has done. He is a great guy. He can make a lot of 3, he can post up he can defend. I don't know why everybody blame Morey. Yes he picked up 2 guards and that wasn't the best decisions but come on. We had 26 and 54 so we weren't able to get good players. Morey said earlier that Rockets weren't concentrated on the Draft. We are searchin' for a good Free Agent for a good trade to get solid PF. I'm sure we'll make a deal includin' good PF. We changes the coach and that's the main event.

    I'm optimistic cause have already made some great changes and we are still a far away next season.
     
  18. Ehsan

    Ehsan Member

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    That's absolutely proposterous. I can very easily make a case that Gay's second half of last season was better than Battier's second half of last season. Forget the rest of their careers, you would have a hard time convincing me that having Gay and Swift on this team instead of Battier would cost us any more than 1 or 2 wins, if anything at all.
     
  19. Ehsan

    Ehsan Member

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    Sorry for posting again, but one more thing:

    I don't care if it wasn't Rudy Gay we were picking. There are 10-15 players in last year's draft I'd rather have over Shane Battier right now.


    HEY, it was a good risk to take. It was a good idea, and few could've predicted that it wouldn't work, since we got homecourt despite a good amount of injury problems. HOWEVER, it didn't pan out. Sometimes teams have to take that risk and I was glad we did. But here's the risky part of that deal: Gay will improve and become a top young player, while Battier will decline as he gets older. We wasted chance #1 and the window closed (new coach, new GM). So bye bye Battier, please don't call other teams and tell them that what you bring to a team can't be seen on paper, in the standings, or in playoff success. But you can see it from space on the team's payroll! Wohoo!
     
  20. PeteTheCheat

    PeteTheCheat Member

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    what about swift and sefolosha? considering we weren't drafting gay to begin with.
    I think you're short changing battier a great deal, because his impact on winning goes far beyond any box score.
    we could have swift, gay and sefolosha on this team last year, and our record wouldn't have been anywhere near what it was once Yao went down.
     

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