Tracy, Yao, and Shane were healthy in the playoff series against the Jazz. They also had the home court advantage. Shane's production in the playoff series was missing. He was not producing on offense and he was not stopping anyone on defense either. Matt Harpring was abusing him. There were games where no one other than Yao and Tracy produced anything. The teams set pitiful records in terms of role players not producing. My dissapointment in Shane was confirmed in that series. It's not too much to ask a player who was aquired for lottery pick, for "Win Now" purposes, to produce in the first round of playoff series.
To me, this argument, is simply, ridiculous. so you saying every small market team will dwindle in the lottery forever not being able to keep any stars??? since when did orlando and san antonio become a huge market And just to counter what you are saying, man, they dont even need any more star marquee FAs......they've got all the young talent they ever willneed.
Rudy Gay was always destined to be a star. But that's not what we needed at the time or anytime soon after we drafted him. The way it looked back then, we could've kept him, but he probably would've been dissatisfied and would eventually leave to expand his game since Mac was taking all the shots and shine. Of course, that's how it looked when we drafted him. So at the time, Shane was exactly the type of role player that we needed, a piece who does all things that numbers may not equate to mold around supertalents like Yao and T-Mac who give number trolls their satisfaction. DCkid and most others who realize that injuries were the only reason that caused us to fail constantly understand why Shane was the right move *at the time*.
oooh oooh oohh, thanks I forgot about this, one of may main arguments against the trade was that shane falls off in the playoffs (which I have to admit one thing, he really shocked me last year in LA) but i used to argue all the time that part of shane's value throughout the regular season is that he is more focused and harder working than the avg NBA athlete, that advantage diminishes greatly in the playoffs, everyone turns it up a notch
this is what exactly Im talking about. A WIN-NOW player producing nothing in the playoffs. in fact, he didnt produce in the regular season either. so he barely produced at all
I do, however, agree with you here, as much as I love Shane, that series was garbage for any player not named Yao or T-Mac.
They have no Super Stars, but they'll have to be paid as which to keep them. Gay/Mayo/Randolph/Gasol are good players, but not in the class of Bryant/Wade/James/Duncan/Nowitzki who are true super stars. I didn't say it was something to complain about, but rather that they have nothing to laugh at the Rockets about.
to be fair, looking at the numbers shane had a bigger history of declining in the playoffs in Memphis than he has had in Houston
disagree, I think Randolph is a max player. he can get his own shot, he puts up the numbers, but getting your own shot is a major requirement for me. anytime you have a big man who can create, and will get you some boards (it would be nice if he played better D) you're in max player range
You are not answering my question. I am assuming that you mean Gay was better than Battier in Gay's rookie year. Gay scored 10.8 ppg in his rookie year, shooting .422 (.364 at 3). In the first two years as a Rocket, this is what Battier did in the two playoffs series: 10.2 ppg, shooting .448 (.456 at 3). I am not even bringing up defense, which is the most glaring contrast between the two players.
This was my thinking also. I mean when have a team with bigtime injuries to their 2 best players, get into the lotto, trade a top 10 pick for a guy averaging 10ppg and are instantly contenders? I never understood how they ever thought they were contenders adding a 10ppg guy. The lakers thought they were close and they trade for gasol. The mavs think theyre close and the trade for kidd. The celts think theyre close and they trade for garnett. The heat struggled when wade and shaq got hurt and went and got walker,payton, and williams. Something seems to be out of place.
Like I said before, I don't think that follows they would have not improved or added new pieces over the next three years. I think a role player like Battier fit better on a team that already had two superstars and a defensive approach. Agreed. But once again this is hindsight. I don't question moves based on hindsight unless I just didn't agree with them in the first place. Harpring's performance was somewhat of an anomaly that I can't explain...maybe he was just playing out of his mind making difficult shots. If we able to abuse a player who is pretty much unanimously considered to be one of the best defenders in the league, then I shudder to think what we would have done against Rudy Gay. Nope, he should have performed much better...once again, hindsight.
San Antonio and Orlando haven't been struggling financially. Now both teams have good followings. Memphis is dead last in attendance, they have no real following. If they could resign all those guys to reasonable deals, then they would be very well off, but that isn't going to happen.
I'm saying I always argued that Rudy Gay was needed for the future, especially given McGrady's injury history, which btw, put them in the position to draft him in the first place so battier was better than a 20 year old rookie, if that's your argument, you've probably lost already. okay, battier had a better year in 06-07, what's happened since. oh i know, this is when you shift to yeah, but how many games did memphis win
Did any of those teams already have a combo in the class of Yao-McGrady? How are the Rockets going to afford a Pau Gasol?
Yeah I know u weren't complaining. But I just wanted to bring out the fact that that should barely be even considered as anything like a problem when its every GM's dream to have that much talent! Thats way more good than bad! And even though none of them are superstars, the fact that they are STARS makes Memphis a legit contender. I think you are seriously underrating the impact of those players and how good they are. Most of them are still in their rookie contracts, man, even Kobe didn't do anything in his rookie contract. That core is simply, a championship core. When they hit their prime they'd be second to none. They are all true star players when legit allstar talent who trumps just having a lebron on your team anyday. And again, paying them should be a good thing and not a bad thing. Most of the GMs would love to find someone that good to pay but they dont have any one good enough to pay that much to begin with!
hmm, yes your right. They are not struggling financially. But the financial aspect will turn around once the team starts winning. Winning equals to more fan interest and more attendance which leads to more revenue. Its a fact, owners will pay for a winner because a winner will generate much more revenue and cash for the owner than a losing one. Memphis is still below the cap at the moment. Even with all those core players signed and extended (which only rudy gay is up for right now), they'd still be WELL below the cap
