http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/ /4011170.html June 28, 2006, 11:04PM Rockets made the right move By RICHARD JUSTICE Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle OK, calm down. I know what you're thinking. Problem is, you're wrong. Charley Casserly was nowhere near Toyota Center Wednesday night. Leave him out of this. I know what else you're thinking. You're wrong about that, too, coach. Clip and save what I'm about to tell you. Hold me to it. The Rockets did the right thing. Roll that thought around in your head, and next spring when they're 55-27, you'll owe me an apology. Know this about Shane Battier: the San Antonio Spurs consider him their kind of guy. He's unselfish, smart, a terrific defensive player and a solid outside shooter. He's not flashy — 10.1 point and 5.3 rebounds per game — but then neither are the Spurs. He's a natural small forward who can also play power forward. The Spurs see him as a Bruce Bowen with talent. The knock on Bowen is that he's a small forward who can't create much offensively. That has been the knock on Battier, too. That's less important now that he has Tracy McGrady beside him. McGrady creates opportunities for everyone. Battier shoots well enough to help spread the floor for McGrady. Yes, the Rockets traded Rudy Gay to get Battier. Gay is 19 years old and has a dazzling package of skills. And someday, say, three years from now, Rudy Gay may be a better player than Shane Battier. He's also a risk. For all the highlight-reel plays scouts saw the last few weeks, they watched him disappear for long stretches. He's likely to disappear less and less as he matures. Good for him. Go for it, Rudy. The Rockets aren't rebuilding. Their best two players, McGrady and Yao Ming, are 27 and 26, respectively. They're in the prime years of their careers. It's time to win. Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson spent the day hoping to move into position to land University of Washington off guard Brandon Roy. Roy is more NBA ready than most of the other top picks, and that's an important factor for a team coached by Jeff Van Gundy. Dawson might have been in love with Rudy Gay's potential, but he knew Van Gundy was unlikely to play a 19-year-old. He wants talent, but also maturity, decision-making and defense. "It would be idiotic for us to run some players out there without running it through him," Dawson said. Asked about his attempts to move up and get Roy, Dawson said: "We tried everything we could. Got close once. I thought we had it." Portland is believed to have offered the fourth overall pick to the Rockets for the eighth pick. To do that deal, the Blazers wanted the Rockets to take Darius Miles, who has a huge contract and makes Stromile Swift look like an overachiever. Roy went to Minnesota at six, and Dawson went to his fallback position. Memphis general manager Jerry West had telephoned earlier, offering Battier for the eighth pick and Stromile Swift. NBA rules prevented the Rockets from announcing the trade until next month. By then, you will have forgotten all about Rudy Gay. OK, that's a stretch. You'll still be wondering who let Charley in the draft room. The Rockets have had some Charley moments, too. They've gotten little or nothing from nine of their last 11 draft picks. This time, they passed up a potential star to get a rock-solid veteran. They did the right thing.
oh and he isn't going to talk about the fact that stromile swift was the throw in? i mean come on. swift is not a throw in piece, at least on this team he was the first big man off the bench. Duh we all know Battier is a good player that will help this team, we are all upset cause we didn't get close to value on the deal.
Here's my response to that dumb piece of article from Justice: I'm glad you got your Spur type player. Will Spurs ever give Narz and #8 pick for Bruce Bowen? It will never happen in a million years.
Oddly enough, the Spurs and Shane Battier were watching the NBA Finals from their sofa along with the rest of us...
Thing is, I can understand the desire to win now, and Rudy Gay is probably not ready to contribute on a championship team, I get that. But Shane Battier?!?!?! WTF?? You're gonna trot Howard out as your starting PF, AGAIN?!?! Totally unacceptable!!
Absolutely ridiculous. I know we need to try to win now. We all know that and I don't think any of us are upset by the fact they gave up Rudy Gay for a more established player. We're upset because we got raped. Gay alone is worth more than Shane Battier, but Gay and Swift both? It blows my mind that there is anyone alive that thinks that makes any sense whatsoever. Richard Justice, you should stick to baseball.
Still Free Agency...Radmonovich, Wilcox, etc.... We have a MLE, and a trade exception to play with......the rest of the off season will tell a lot. But I think this team is more competitive with Battier than with Swift. DD
Well, Justice is right about one thing.... Spurs fans on Spursreport.com all wanted Battier when it becmae know last week that he was on the trading block. So allow me to play GM. Battier for Manu and Parker. Done Deal!
So basically Richard Justice is saying we settled for getting mediocre talent because JVG can't coach young talent? Sums it up nicely how JVG refuses to adapt to the players, and style of play the NBA is moving towards. He needs to stop living in the 90s defensive and offensive basketball schemes and learn to adapt to todays zone defense, and up tempo offensive style of play. Even the Spurs, as Richard Justice mentioned in the article, run fastbreaks, and go for easy points. The great thing about teams like the Spurs is yes they can lock down on D and play a grind it out style game, but they can also run with the best of them as well. And they can do that because they have youth in Tony Parker and Ginobli. But where is the youth that Rockets have? They just traded it away, and in turn got a slow footed defender. You don't think Greg Popovich gets pissed at Ginobli and Parker for being reckless or passive out there on the court? When the Spurs were getting eliminated by the Lakers, they lost because Parker dissapeared, but when he played a good game, they won. I'm sure Greg Popovich got frustrated with Tony Parker and Ginobli, but he didn't trade them for mediocre talent to make his job easy. So why is it ok for JVG to go that route?
Well, Justice is right about one thing.... Spurs fans on Spursreport.com all wanted Battier when it became know last week that he was on the trading block. So allow me to play GM. Battier for Manu and Parker. Done Deal!
The Rockets will be laughed at for years for making this deal. Rudy Gay is going to be better than Battier from day 1. When he's an all-star his third year and T-Mac and Yao are struggling to get out of the first round, the Rockets will be a laughing stock.
thats just it...Houston isn't a championship team. Not yet. We haven't seen the real Tmac with the new dominant Yao. We haven't seen Skip on the floor with that combo. This team has a lot of questions as well as a lot of growing to do. So I think its completely foolish to pass on a player just cause he isn't completely proven when your team isn't proven.
