Shane for thabeet + pick. Thabeet was a project big for the rockets, I think most teams would take a small gamble on the guy if he turned into a shotblocking monster. 7'3 don't come too often. The pick on draft day turned to Dmo and he is looking pretty good in Europe. So basically we got 2 7 footers for battier. IMO, it was a good trade for the rockets seeing how battier wanted to contend and it wasn't 100% he would resign.
We're basically paying for a pick and a bad gamble. Shane was not going to stay with us anyways (nor do we have any reason to keep him around), so trading him for that 0.0001% chance Thabeet will become something as well as a pick is a fair trade in my opinion. I would even say it's favoring us considering D-Mo came out of that pick trade.
Re: Offers for Shane. I recall the other teams with interest in Battier were the Celtics and Spurs, etc.-- the contending teams. The offers were likely a first round pick in 2011 or something like it for a 1/2 season rental of Shane. Given the state of these teams, the picks would most likely be late in the 1st round. In light of this, Thabeet + a 2013 first (probably a mid first rounder) was not a bad deal. Thabeet didn't work out, but the 2013 first, as has been noted, was part of what landed the team Motiejunas, who looks like a decent prospect now. So, really can't say too many bad things about the trade if your main issue we could have landed more from another team. The one complaint I have is that Morey aided the team that took the playoff spot from the Rockets with this deal. I don't know if what Boston offered would have been accepted by the Wolves as part of the Motiejunas trade, but at least Shane wouldn't have helped a division rival to land the playoff berth over Houston.
If rockets did not make the trade and let Battier's contract expire, could they later give a better offer to gasol that Memphis would be reluctant to match?
Not only did giving Battier to our direct competition help them make playoffs, the TRASH that other team dumped on us HURT our cap space and chances from snagging AWAY their player. I'm actually not too upset with the trade. It was already too late to get anything decent for Battier when they brought Battier back for his last contract year. '09-'10 was the time to do that.
Yeah, this trade and signing of Flynn really hurt cap space. Rockets could have been in a better position in FAs market without these moves.
I think Flynn was more a break-even than anything in order to get Montiejunas. That figured to involved McHale's connections to Minnesota. Like Thabeet, Jonny Flynn was the excess Rockets had to take from Minnesota so we can give them Brad Miller. If it wasnt Flynn, it might been someone else. Flynn is actually the shorter contract than Miller. So it might work as Rockets gave up #38 pick to NOT pay Brad Miller more money in 2013.
I think the main other offer for Battier was shipping him to Philly for Mareese Speights/Jason Kapono. Boston and San Antonio don't really seem like they could have possibly been real destinations; for salary purposes, Boston would have needed to dump Jermaine O'Neal on the Rockets and given them a worse pick than the Grizzlies' one, San Antonio would have needed to ship McDyess and a worse pick. Ultimately, I don't think it really mattered in terms of prying away Marc Gasol; the Grizzlies would have simply amnestied Thabeet all the same to avoid the luxury tax. I personally think that when evaluating the Motiejunas trade, it basically boiled down to a bad contract/change of scenery swap (Miller/Flynn), and a moveup in draft position (#20/#23) using the #38. Then, you can think of the Rockets making a secondary move by trading the Memphis 1st rounder for 2 high second rounders: the #38 back, and Minnesota's 2012 second rounder. Looking at it in this light, it definitely seems like Morey got the best deal he could, since Speights only was able to get back 2 lower quality 2nds earlier this year; not to mention the small chance that Thabeet was actually good. And with the Amnesty clause available, Thabeet really didn't affect the Rockets' cap space in the end.
Sure, but i mean how would they fit in this team anyways? I admit i've BARELY seen these 2 play, but speights had a nice 1st game while playing at the 4 and being backed up by gasol. If he were to come here, he would be playing center and i don't know how much more effective he would compared to hill. They're both 6'10 but speights have 20 lbs on him. Kapono, i think he's more of a 3pt specialist than a defender and i think this team has enough 3pt shooters. Again, i haven't seen these 2 play much. Comparing the two trades, i would still take the memphis trade than philly's. Thabeet(project/expiring), DMO(young talent), Flynn(expiring), getting rid of bad miller(speaks for itself)> Speights,Kapono for shane.
I LOVE the people blaming the Thabeet trade for things not working in the offseason. If an extra $5 million would have solved anything he'd have been amnestied so fast it would make your head spin...surely even if you've turned on our front office you don't think they're THAT stupid.
Since we were allegedly trying to get into the playoffs, I would have rather had the guy the coach wanted for the stretch run then the 20-something pick in the draft and a 7' bench-warmer. I was actually long advocating trading Shane (because I liked him, not because I subscribe to this ridiculoous addition by subtraction philosophy), but I did so under the assumption we'd get back something of value.
Because you can trade Shane to a playoff contending team who will give you in return another quality player for a playoff run? It's not like they could have traded Shane to a bad team. Then also remember that near the trade deadline, the Rockets had not really started to play well. It was truly after the trade deadline that they looked like they had a shot at the playoffs
when morey traded battier for thabeet did he think thabeet was gonna help us because he was 7'3 and thought he'd be big help for us
