For me, the #8 (Gay) for Battier is semi-acceptable. I could deal with that. My problem is throwing in Swift. Some say he's just a stiff to unload. IMO he was a valuable player that at the very least was athletic and added depth to our PF position and more importantly our Center position. I want to know how many of you even care that Swift was thrown in. Aside from Gay for Battier, how many of you think losing (throwing in) Swift hurts us?
Look at it this way: PF: JHo, Chuck, (Battier?, Novak?) I think we're in a bit of trouble. The trade is so completely lopsided that not even Weisbrod would've made the deal.
I agree with this, the Rockets must have really hated Swift to make Memphis take him for Battier. But, I thought that he was coming around and was contributing some, and really wanted to see him in a starters role. I guess the Rockets saw enough in one year and decided he was not worth keeping. Oh well. DD
Battier's build and height would be the type of player who can play 2-3-4 that JVG has spoke of. This a JVG trade no two ways about it. Rockets have youth, no succession plan. It's win the championship in 2007 or burn dramatically. A healthy Yao and TMac is expected to make the playoffs. If you're going to sacrafice a possible future of the team that replacement has to do more than play well in the playoffs he has to help win it all otherwise its a failure.
Hell yes, we lost one of our 3 PFs. Battier is definitely not a PF, hes SF and maybe SG if we're lucky.
I don't think it hurts our depth at PF. Hayes and Battier, while undersized, can fill in that role better than Swift. Maybe backup center, if anything.
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If you the rockets had depth at any position, it would have been PF. Jho and Swift were both serviceable players. backup for Yao was Deke...Tmac was RyBo....Wesley was Bogans but both are not with the rox as of right now...Alston was lucas then brunson (both are gone and not even all that good). We just lost any kind of respectable depth we had.
We've lost our primary backup PF & C. Deke's numbers last season weren't encouraging. Novak is a possibility in the lineup if he can get through Summer League. Rafer MLE MIN Tracy Head TE MIN Battier Novak Rybo JHo Hayes TE Yao Deke
CC - There were many times last year that Swift moved over to Center. He was third string maybe even sharing 2nd string. I can't help but think that relying on Deke is a huge mistake: unless we find something cheap and serviceable at the Center position. Hayes and JHo are not serviceable at the Center position - I wish there was a crying emoticon or a puking one...
Losing a player that had a negative impact on your team can not hurt your depth! Stro looked lost on the court, was late for practices, and missed what? 10 games with conjunctivitis (give me a break)! I say good riddance.
Some people around here crack me up, a ton of people during the season were saying that Swift was useless and blah blah and now it's like "we can't believe he's gone!" I thought Swift was making strides but I won't be missing him fumbling away pass after pass and giving us a dunk every other 4 games. I liked Swift but I don't think it's gonna be a big loss. I keep holding out hope there is more to the trade than has been revealed.
Swift was hardly a servicable center as well. Hopefully Yao plays 35+ minutes a game next year, and it's not necessary to have 2 true backup centers. If Mutombo can play around 8 minutes, and the rest of the time can be filled in with a small lineup.
well i used that term loosely. respectable as far as what the Rockets had. NOT respectable by NBA standards. look at it now though...deke, hayes, rybo, head, sura...i say sura b/c there's no one else under contract at point
WOW if the rockets dont recover from this trade, we woul have wasted two entire offseasons of chances to build the right players around yao and tmac. time is seriously running out..
