15 years ago we drafted Rudy Gay and traded him and Stromile Swift for Shane Battier

Extremely empty stats that no team ever missed. Box score +/- isn't a perfect stat by any means, but his career 0.7 number there is pretty apt to his value. He's never been a bad player, just overhyped and overpaid relative to his actual contribution.

The Rockets wanted to win, Battier was a far more valuable player to a team trying to win.

 

battier had a prune head and was great at karaoke. rox won that trade

 

intereseting you mention blocks, battier averaged over one many times in his career including in houston. PJ's best year is .6 with us

 

I was really disappointed in this trade when it happened. I felt we got a steal when Rudy Gay dropped to our pick.

 

Gay never reached his potential. He could score, but never efficiently enough to be a true star. And he didn't impact the game enough in other areas to be the true No. 3 he would have needed to be with Tracy and Yao.

Battier was hardly an offensive weapon, but he had a tremendous impact on the floor. I'd argue he was the better player over the next decade, and advanced stats back me up.

I hated the deal at the time. Trading a first rounder with elite athleticism and crazy talent for a role playing defensive wing seemed insane. But in hindsight it was the right move. Battier is one of my all-time favorite NBA players and became a legend for his unselfish play across multiple franchises.

 

Thought the trade sucked at the time. In retrospect it probably worked out fine. Gay never became the next McGrady and if Yao or Tmac ever stayed healthy Battier was a nice fit next to them.

 

I thought I remember Kobe saying that Battier was the toughest defender for him

 

I absolutely hated the trade at the time. In retrospect, Rudy Gay probably would not have changed the trajectory of the Rockets much, if at all. I always felt that the Rockets lacked offense and Rudy Gay could have been that third option. Battier was like a glorified Bruce Bowen who mostly just parked himself in the corners on offense, which is somewhat surprising that he didn't develop more of an offensive game. He was a star in college but it didn't translate to the pros.

 

Hardly ever needed rookies with a contending team. It was a good trade for everyone.

 

I just don't think Gay gets the ball enough on a team with Yao and T-mac to develop into the ball dominant player he became.

 

I hated the deal at the time, turned out to not be so bad because Battier was a great role player. But I can't say it was the "right" deal because we desperately needed another shot creator next to Tmac especially in those '07 playoffs, I can't help but wonder if Gay would have helped out there.

 

Right there with you, bruv; I knew in my heart of hearts that Roy was the final piece that would put us over the top. And in a world where someone went into the Options menu and turned off injuries for us, I think he would've been.

Of course, hindsight is very much 20/20 in this case. Watching injuries destroy our superstars was painful enough -- can you imagine if we had to watch Roy retire due to injuries, too?

 

Stromile was in that trade? One of the biggest busts in world history.

 

Rudy Gay was essentially a worse Melo.

Even in an era where inefficient chucking was somewhat the norm he stood out as one of the most inefficient chuckers.

Smart move.

 

I wasn't thrilled at the time (and I do wonder if the Rockets could maybe have gotten more out of the deal - like the pick that became Lowry), but I ended up loving Battier as a Rocket. The problem with that era-Rockets was the total lack of depth - I went back and looked at the box scores for that 2007 series with the Jazz, and only one time did a bench player score more than 12 pts (Juwan Howard for the record). There was even a game where only 4 players scored (game 3). Rudy Gay might have helped the scoring a bit, but I doubt it would have been enough.

McGrady and Yao were always an awkward fit - I think McGrady would have done better with an above the rim type big man who could catch alley-oops and I think Yao would have done better with a 3pt shooting floor general PG who could get him the ball in the post quickly and efficiently. It seems like it took until 2007 for the Rockets to actually start adding depth and by then McGrady was fading fast and Yao was almost guaranteed to miss half the season.

I took a look at the 2006 draft to see if there were any teams with 2 or more 1st round picks with whom we could have traded. Other than Chicago (who of course swapped picks with Portland), there really wasn't much of any trade I see that would be immediately obvious.

 

Van Gundy would trade the #2 pick for PJ Tucker

 

If we bend towards the ring obsessed fan culture

At the end of the day;

Battier has 2 rings 2011 and 2012.
Gay has none

Heat liked Battier so much that they gave him a FO job after he retired.

 

yet another deal where you can tell who understands and values impact on winning around here rather than empty numbers and next to no impact on winning.

 

If only McGrady and/or Yao had Harden's consistent durability because that era's list of role players was amazing/good enough to support a championship team.

Battier
Alston
Mutombo
Landry
Scola
Brooks
Hayes

 

I was much more pissed about not getting Roy. I begrudgingly accepted that we weren't getting any highlights out of Battier, but that he was a perfect fit next to Tmac and Yao for their window of contention. It was just too bad their injuries derailed what could have been. I really think we would have beaten the Lakers in 09, even without Tmac, if Yao hadn't gone down.