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

This is part of the illusion the Rockets and we as fans created when Battier was here. Kobe seemed to have big scoring nights against Battier, the guy could easily shoot over the hand he'd put in his face.

"When he was into his farewell season, he presented Tony Allen a pair of sneakers – with an autograph that said “To Tony, the best defender I ever faced!”

 

It's no coincidence that Battier was a starter on two teams that had 22- and 27-game win streaks. His impact was tremendous. Fabricating charges out of thin air to get the other team's stars in foul trouble and disrupting their game plan. Constantly making selfless and smart plays that are difficult to quantify.
Rudy Gay was a solid player but more of an afterthought in the grand scheme of things.

 

If felt like we might have been able to get a little more but I liked giving up a prospect in Gay that I didn't like at all coming out of college for the best glue guy in the league. Gay basically ended up as one of the biggest empty stats players in NBA history and Battier was integral to several 50 win teams and later NBA champs with the Heat. It was a good trade.

If the trade hadn't occurred we were going to draft Sefolosha instead of Gay anyways.

 

I remember all the hype Stromile Swift was getting because we were such an old and unathletic team…he’d have 1 little dunk in preseason, and Bill would be going wild

he then proceeded to suck once the season started

 

At least I can say with a straight face that Evan Mobley should be a better player than Stromile Swift. Maybe. Hopefully.

 

And I was sitting in the Toyota Center during all this and watched JVG disappear from the stage like a fart in a high wind.

Juwan Howard sitting on a stool holding a microphone, bemused smile as the audience booed as if Joe Biden walking out at a Trump rally; didn't take him long to follow suit. MEEP MEEP! Whooooooosh!

SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYIT, JVG got Slow-mile Swift flushed like a turd. Jerseys on sale in the TC shop, $7.50 + half off coupon for a brisket sammich.

 

and Battier still had a better career than Gay

 

Rudy Gay > Trevor Ariza

 

he would've been an all stat had mergady not made that guarantee. jinxed it causing injury to 80% of the team.

 

It isn't even about their entire career, but more so their career post Rockets trade. Rudy Gay is still in the league and will likely play another 2-3 years, there is an 8 year age difference between the two. You can look at stats and see Rudy had the better career, you can also look at what the market decided each player was worth during their career. Rudy Gay has made $161M+ and will likely make another $10M-$20M before he retires, Battier made a total of $55M. Rudy was never given a contract that he didn't live up to either, he had three different organizations that paid him big money consecutively, so its not as if he just got paid once and ran. One of those organizations was the Spurs, who do not just throw money at players unless they show they earned it.

 

Im not an expert on the subject, but IIRC for a few years Rudy Gay was the poster boy for how advanced metrics can reveal flaws.

Even at the height of his powers when he was averaging 20 per on a regular basis, people who pay attention to advanced statistics were calling him a paper tiger for his inefficiency, here and elsewhere.

At least that is the argument that was put forth at the time. Raw, basic points-rebounds-assists stats made Gay look a whole lot more valuable than the advanced metrics suggested. I never really looked too closely at the numbers myself, but i do remember reading that argument many times, here and elsewhere.

And for Battier, the exact opposite was true.