You missed the mark by a good margin. The Thunder love him, he's a huge part of their team. Contenders don't look to throw away key pieces unless there's an external factor swaying them. Struggling teams are your best bet for shaking up the roster by moving non-star guys (or overpaid near-star guys).
I do agree that was a good trade at the time, plus Donte Green was a much more highly regarded prospect wing at the time. He had 40 points in his first summer league game for the Rockets which gave the Rockets the trade bait to get Ron Ron. The thing you can knock the Rockets for doing is drafting Joey Dorsey, however at the time he was the much better prospect, especially with a team already built around Yao Ming, Dorsey would have been a great fit, had he worked out and not been a knucklehead. Note that the Rockets weren't the only team to strike out on drafting a big. The Utah Jazz passed on pretty much all the mid level bigs in the draft to take Kostas Koufos.
Your opinion is just that, an opinion. You cant prove it one way or the other. It's not hard to win when you're playing alongside other hall of famers in their prime, in my opinion.
Spoken like a true homer!!...delusional/homer!!! You must have been locked up in the early 90's...Sorry for your loss!!!
I don't think it's possible to make a deal for Griffin but I agree that this is the guy the Rockets should be after when he becomes a FA.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think Ibaka contract has team options for the next two seasons before he becomes restricted free agent in the 2012-13 season. He gonna be making something like 3.5 million the year he becomes a restricted free agent. So, he is very affordable assuming we go after him in a trade
I'm not trying to start anything here, I just wanted to state two facts: 1. Serge Ibaka is a Power Forward. 2. You can't draft someone who was already picked.
Guy, go jump in a garbage can and grow up. If you think the Thunder will trade a player like him on a rookie contract for anything on the Rockets roster, you need a drug test. It's OK to be enthusiastic, but don't be upset if someone else add a little realism. Read my lips: Serge Ibaka is untradeable.
You keep listing reasons why OKC wouldn't trade him. Young, talented big - check integral part of their team - check cap-friendly contract - check multiple team options - check restricted free agent - check In what world would they want to trade all of that to us for an "affordable" amount. Grow up Peter Pan.... Count Chocula... Teams aren't out there to make us better. He's just as untradeable as Howard or Lebron. Pretty much nothing less than Kevin Martin would bring Ibaka to Houston and I'm totally not convinced OKC would do that deal.
IF youd kept reading you wouldve seen that i already realized my mistake and said so.... I didnt look up the draft i was just going off what someone else said...
When will uninformed people on this board stop posting trash like this. For those of you who don't know or still do not get it. We never picked Batum. We never picked Arthur. When a trade is made of a draft pick on draft day or a swap of positions, the team receiving the pick makes the choice. After both teams have made their picks in their new position, only then do they announce the trade. If the trade involves a contract that cannot be traded until a certain date say like a newly signed free agent or a base year contract, then that trade is not announced until the contract is able to be traded. Still, the draft picks were picked by the new team. So your ridiculous rhetoric above about "our" Batum pick is completely wrong. Portland made that pick and Memphis drafted Arthur. We drafted the players we received in those deals in the position they were picked at the time they were picked. Any other BS is completely inaccurate. If anything, you can bash Morey for not having Batum on his Radar or credit Portland for doing their homework. Morey will fully admit he underestimated Batum's development but he never picked Batum and traded him for anything!! Sorry for the soap box but I am so tired of reading post's where "wish we had Batum back" or "bet Morey wishes he hadn't traded Arthur to Memphis". Morey has stated many times those were good pick's by Memphis and Portland and they were aggressive in trading up to get those players. He has said if you want to bash him for the picks he made, go ahead, but don't bash him for players he did not pick and give the credit to Memphis and Portland!!
