Anyway Tmac will have the ball long enough to get his touch. If We can add Artest and keep Battier. We can let Tmac play PG and have Artest and Battier on SG and SF. It will be a nightmare to almost everyteam in this league both defensively & offensively.
The better the team he's on,the more valuable Shane is.One would think he's not going anywhere unless it's in a deal for an ALL - STAR caliber player.
On the defensive end, I'm pretty much sure that Artest can do much better than Hayes to guard Boozer. Offensively, Boozer will find his hard time to guard Artest or Battier. So we have advantage on both ends.
Some of you people with the Battier Love Fest are beyond belief. If Battier was worth an All Star caliber player, Jerry West would have gotten one for him instead of trading for a rookie. All Star caliber players make $10+m per year. They don't re-sign for MLE $ with the team that drafted them. Let's do this slowly because we don't want to get lost in a maze of intangibles. Battier was a #6 pick in the 2001 draft. Under the old CBA, his rookie scale contract was 3 guaranteed years plus a team option for a 4th and a Qualifying Offer 5th season. Battiers rookie scale contract paid him $2.7m in year 4 (season of 2004-05). The maximum raise under the old CBA for year 5 was 33%...or $3.6m for the Qualifying Offer 5th season of 2005-06. Now if Battier was worth an All Star caliber player, how come none off the other 29 teams made an offer for him (free agency or SnT) in 2005-06 so that he'd be making more than 5.3m in 2006-07? Answer: The rest of the NBA doesn't value him as highly as 80% of the BBS.
Battier is not the problem. I think he is and will continue to be an important part of this team's success. I would rather give up Alston or Head instead.
Wow, im glad the thread is coming along nicely. Now as for your post. It makes ALOT of sense. Lakers and Nuggets can be beat without Battier. But the ones with the monster pf's and point gods are the tough ones. But since we're getting Mike James(someone please tell me if he's a good defender) I think we can have the western point guards in a halt.. and the only problem would be stopping the pf's..how? Double teams. Because most of the guards in the west are always looking to pass first(with a few exceptions) its a matter of TEAM defence IMO. For the PF's, they all dont pay attention to how they go up, like they do not see the whole court while making their move(Hence, lebron blocking TD's shot in the finals). Its a matter of timing,game film,and having the will to do it. The rockets are in a tough spot right now. But if we play our cards right. Things will shine.
