I would have loved the trade if it were JHO instead of Stro... At least Stromile showed flashes of "star" quality here and there. The chemistry between him and Yao started to look great...especially in that last seattle game. While JHO's a ballhogging wannabe superstar, why didn't CD try give him up instead?
i like the trade, would love it if we got their #24 pick or another asset. if we can sign james, we really would have no use for gay at all, and battier will look really good alongside yao, tmac and james. my concern is trying to win a championship with tmac and yao as our team's centerpieces, and attempting to develop a "young stud in the making" isn't very practical towards the larger picture. i like what we did as a first step towards turning us into a contender this offseason, and am ecstatic that i'll never have to watch stromile swift disgrace the court in a rockets uni again.
I like this Trade: Ok, ok so i realize we arent keeping The GREAT Rudy Gay(being Sarcastic), but we are getting a good player in Shane Battier, and in the proces we found someone stupid enough to take on Stro Swift, who was a huge dissapointment last season, he was soft, and he is terrible, he was always late for team meetings, was occasionally suspended for games by JVG. Lets face it, TMAC and YAO arent getting any older and we want to win now, not wait 3 years for a 19 year old to develop. So this trade makes sense, im only dissapointed that we arent getting Kyle Lowry in the deal, but ill get over it. Anyway Offseason begins today and we need to fill some holes, we have our MLE, and 2 TE's. I see us re-signing Mike James from Toronto. Also i hope we re-sign Keith Bogans, hopefully Ryan Bowen picks up his option and we pick up Lampe's Option, incase we may use them as fillers in trades, although i would like to see what Lampe can bring to the table, maybe in Summer League. Im also excited about hearing Memphis PG Darius Washington Jr. Will be playing for us in summer league, maybe if Vassilis Spanoulis(who i am excited about) doesnt come over, Washington hopefully makes it as a 3rd PG. I also am excited about John Lucas III playing for us this summer. The way i see it we have the following under contract or rights belong to us(includes the potential Battier deal). Players Under Contract: #1 SF/SG Tracy McGrady- $16,901,500M 11 C Yao Ming- $12,000,000M 5 PF Juwan Howard- $6,392,100M 31 PF/SF/SG Shane Battier- $5,393,000M 12 PG Rafer Alston- $4,200,000M 3 SG/PG Bob Sura- $3,800,000M 55 C Dikembe Mutombo- $2,210,000M 2 SG/PG Luther Head- $1,048,800M 40 SF Ryan Bowen- $998,967K 15 C/PF Maciej Lampe- UNKNOWN 44 PF/SF Chuck Hayes- $664,209K Restricted Free-Agents: 10 SG/SF Keith Bogans- UNKNOWN Un-Signed Draft Picks: 20 SF/PF Steve Novak -- PG Vassilis Spanoulis -- C Malick Badiane -- PF/SF Lior Eliyahu Players Commited to Summer League: -- PG John Lucas III -- PG Darius Washington Jr. Team Exceptions: 2 TE Exceptions- $4.2M & $1.67M MLE- Roughly $5M Im excited to see hpow we are able to improve ourselves, we seem to have some options available, i hope we dont trade away Howard and/or Head. Nor do i wanna see Mutombo traded. But if it makes the team better, than im all for it. Any Thoughts on our potential Off-Season Plans.
I'm pretty sure the rockets declined the option on Lampe's contract. It was all downhill for Lampe after that halftime incident. Anyway, JVG was never really going to play him, he said of Lampe on 610 that "CD & Dennis like him" when asked why the Rockets traded for picked him.
What about wins. James and Barry were on terrible teams in Tor and Atl but did quite well in Houston.
There is no GM in the league that would keep stro over battier straight up. No chance. Yes stro has all this athleticism. Honestly though, look at the top PF in the game: Duncan, Garnett, Dirk, Gasol and Brand. None of them are phenomenal athletes. Honestly the only really good PF who i think is noted for his amazing athletic skills is Marion and he was made by Steve Nash. Half the time all this crying for big men with potential that are crazy athletic doesnt pan out. Case in point, Stro and Wilcox. Thats why i am also not sold on Tyrus Thomas. I think Gay made highlight steals and blocks in college but also fell asleep on D all the time or disappeared. You can not just go by stats. Yao averages under 2 blocks a game but affects so many other layup attempts that dong score. IF yao and stro played the same amt of minutes stro would have better block and steal stats then yao, but no one will say he is a better defender. Also to say he would have added the scoring punch we needed is absurd, especially in the next two years. He was the most talented player on his college team and scored 15 a game. Do you expect him to do the same in the NBA versus much stronger faster guys. I know Bilas and Anthony said he deferred to other players cuz he was an underclassmen but isnt that what he would have had to do with yao and tmac.
I'm sick of hearing you need two stars and role players. Past Dynasty Celtics Bird, Mchale, Parish, Walton, Ainge role player Cornbread. Lakers Majic, Kareem, Worthy, Scott, Green, role player Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis. Yes Kobe and Shaq did it and Wade and Shaq two amazing talents. Even Jordan had three allstars Pippen, Rodman, Grant. Shane nice roll player but our team needs ballers outside of Yao and T-Mac everybody sucks. Gay was had a chance to be number one with even a endorsement from Jordan. We only have two legitmate Nba starters so we take our chances with somebody who might draw double teams. Just imagine signing Mike James cannot leave him open, Gay at 19 will take it to the rack if you arent in his grill and bury the outside shot, hell with that line up I would start Chuck Hayes is short as he is he is the best rebounder on the team and Howard defense is garbage anyway.
You might be interested to find that Charlie Villanueva had a higher efficiency rating last year than Battier. 14.00 to 13.83
First of all, this is not the Rockets biggest fiasco. Remember Steve Harris, Buck Johnson, Dan Langhi, Stevie Franchise, or the biggest buffoon Eddie " I dont want to develop my game, I just want to chuck threes all day and be lazy" Griffin, this one was especially painful because one of those 3 picks we gave up for this buffoon was Richard Jefferson. RJ would definitely look good in a Rocket uniform right now. Anyway, I originally wanted the Rockets to draft JJ Reddick because seeing our glaring problems with guards not only getting shots but actually MAKING them, it seemed like a logical pick. What some of you geniuses out there forget is this, flash and athleticism will only get you so far ... Its the ones with intellect, sound fundamentals, good work ethic and who are constantly desiring to work on their game that stick in this league. Remember Bird and Jordan at the end of his career could not skywalk and elevate but he utilized what he had plus developed a solid mid-range game that helped him maintain "superstar status". Athleticism only gets you so far. You have to be sound fundamentally and have a penchant to constantly improve your game. Perfect example: Robert Horry. If he would have played as hard in the regular season as he did in the postseason then, he probably would have stayed a Rocket because he would have been an actual asset to the team. So, Battier is good for the Rockets because he comes from a winning pedigree at Duke and he is a solid fundamental player and oh yes, he will not pull a "steve francis-deer caught in the headlights" when the game is on the line. I would hope we accidentally get a first or second conditional pick in addition for next year but we could have done a lot worse. So naysay all you want, you need more than athleticism and talent to win a championship. Ask Dallas ... they need a real center not Damp-whoosie-ier. A healthy T-Mac would be nice start though ...
It should tell you something that Gay had potential to be number 1 but was passed on by 7 other GMs and would have been 8 cuz the Rox had no intention of every keeping him. Also dont think an endorsement by MJ means much after Kwame Brown. Charlotte upper brass had to go out of their way to make sure they took Morrison even if against Jordan's wishes.
Agreed, and moreso, teams didnt seem to be offering us anything to move up and to take Gay. I wonder if we are overvaluing him as a community as compared to what NBA scouts thought.
Memphis just recently became a middle of the road team and I don't see any difference in Battier's numbers from when they were crummy and now that they are decent. He is what he is a 10pt 5 reb guy. Isn't that the point of player evaluation to examine their skillsets. Everyone is raving that Battier is a great outside shooter who hits 40% from 3pt range yet he only averages 2 attempts per game. When his attempts have been higher in his career his percentage has gone down. Besides the reply I made was to someone saying efficiency counts when comparing Battier and Villenueva. I merely pointed out that if it counts Villenueva's was higher.
I didn't mean to jump you.But consider this. Battier didn't benefit from the presence of one of the top ten cemters of all time. Battier didn't have an 80 - 90 % Tmac either. Shane will be conducting shooting drills on a nightly basis.In addition he will be drawing the monster defensive assignments. Shane is going to be a vital component in helping the Rockets achieve what we want..titles.The window is NOW.....maybe 5 years down the road too,but definitely now.I think many forget that we need solid,mostly developed pros who know their roles and are fundamentally sound.Toss out 10 and 5...Look closer.The NBA is about matchups. We are building a TEAM.
i'm beginning to come around.... IF the rockets have a good rest of the off season. if not, i will fume over this for awhile. good offseason meaning they get TWO guys in free agency... like KELVIN CATO and mike james. then i would forget about this trade and see it as us getting rid of "knuckleheads."
