I do like Shane, but I still think our cost is too much!! Gay could be a GOOD swingman!! We should package Stro with Sura!
Yes and no. Sound like a politician, do I? We trade a future stud and a decent backup 5/4. We should have received something a little more in return for these guys. Shane Battier will be great for this team, but we should have at least bagged that second rounder from Memphis, if not the first rounder. And I'm through.
There's no question Battier will help the Rockets next season. In fact, because of his hustle, he'll likely become an instant fan favorite. More importantly, he'll do the little things that must be done to allow TMac to focus more on scoring. That's huge. But like most Rockets fans, I still believe the Rox gave up too much to acquire him. He'll help the team, but his help came at a pretty high price.
I like Battier but not the trade. Our roster is depleted, and I think it's funny people use the unproven NBA talent excuse while in the same light saying V-Span is going to be a proven commidity. Gay is younger, more athletic, and would have been a decent 3rd option assuming he did develop. If he didn't develop, he'd have been no worse than Battier in my opinion. The win now excuse during the trade was bull**** given the Rockets got no win now players after the Battier trade. We got smaller this season with JL3, V-Span, as well as Battier who isn't going to cut it at the PF and will likely start at SF. I think most of you guys are delusional and are trying to shine a turd when it comes to the offseason acquisitions. Will the Rockets make the playoffs this year? Probably assuming everyone is healthy, but that's so short sighted especially when we're supposed to be a team that's a championship contender, or atleast a Western Conference Finals contender. I mean when the Rockets have to only be among the top 50% in the league just to make the playoffs, it should be a given, not a hope. That's not even a D. You could get an F. A really bad F at that, and still be in the playoffs. I still see them as no more than 1st round fodder. At best 2nd round. Last year everyone had the expectations of being a WCF contender, and now you guys are content with simply making it in the 1st round. I just don't get it. And don't get me wrong, I'm still a Rox fan, but this offseason has been one big dissapointment.
There was once a day where people would've said that 'we have Hakeem and..??' It's all about team, you don't need a bunch of all-stars (in fact, that would likely be a detriment)/
The truth about basketball is that it is not a sport totally decided by athletic ability. There are many intangibles. Battier has it, proven. Gay might have it, unproven. Swift doesn't have it, proven. The trade is not just about Battier and Gay, it is also about dumping a bad contract on Swift.
I like the trade, wish we could have gotten a little more out of it but getting Swift off the roster made me happy.
You don't save money by dumping Swift and taking Battier's contract. Last I read it would have been cheaper to have kept Swift and Gay than to keep Battier.
Ya beat me to it. I'll eat crow with Stro, cus I thought that was a good move last year. It didn't pan out. Battier knows how to play basketball, won't make rookie or 2nd year mistakes, is a team player & hustles every play. Not so with Gay. Gay will become a very good player, maybe a superstar; but he doesn't fit the Rockets for the next 3 years.
This only took, what, almost two months for people to start getting over the hangover? However, this poll is just more of the same, not meaning to knock the poll or anything, but it requires us to repeat what got everyone so upset about in the first place: SPECULATE. We were all, myself included, victims of our own lust for the hype surrounding the Draft, and we allowed ourselves to forget that this was a *weak draft*. Like everyone else, I felt like I just got kicked in the gut on draft night, being taken from such a 'high' of 'HEY!! WE'RE GETTING GAY!!', almost instantly to the nut-shriveling low of 'We did WHAT? No way. We did NOT. We CAN'T have done that! It HAS to be a joke!' Initial reaction: We gave up the guy who had been projected for a long time as potentially one of the best, if not THE best, players in this draft, AND we gave up our big free-agent power forward aquisition from a year ago, and all we got in return was some mediocre player on a mediocre team, and a rival to boot. I was absolutely sick about it. While I didn't have anything particular against Battier, it just seemed like an awfully high price paid for a product which could have been had much cheaper; or at least we could-have/should-have gotten more for what we paid. We had gone from feeling incredibly fortunate directly to feeling like stunned victims, with the abuse being done to us by our own organization. But time has passed now - people have gotten to know what and who Battier is, and have done nothing but like him more and more every day, before he has even set foot on the floor for us. Heck, at this rate, he'll be as popular here as he ever was in Memphis by Opening Night. So now, looking back, and analyzing this through the filter of sanity and being over the post-draft hangover, we get a clearer picture: yes, we lost Gay, but we picked up Battier. Yes, we lost Swift, but the only likely result of that is that he will be saved the indignity of having Houstonians surrounding his house at midnight in the middle of the season, carrying torches and demanding his blood, because he is never going to be the NBA player that everyone wants him to be. So Swift is no great loss, 'addition by subtraction' in other words. We didn't get James, but in retrospect, it may be best that we didn't if his psyche is so fragile that he could u-turn that fast and that completely, I personally am glad we are not stuck with a guy like that for the next several years. We got some intriguing new players - Novak, JL3, V-Span, Snyder, and of course, Battier, to go along with the best big man and one of the best wing players in the league, and up-and-comers like Hayes and Head. At this point, I am eager to see what this team, with these players, can do. Yes, we still have Howard, and Methuselah Mutombo, but that's ok. I am getting good vibes from this team right now. Just like every summer, I can't wait for the season to start. However, back to the trade, and the problem with this poll. The problem is, we really won't know how this trade has truly worked out, possibly even for years to come. The fact is, it could go down a few different ways: 1) We could take off and be a title contender for years, with Battier being an integral cog for the next 8 years of so, AND, Gay could just end up being another 'potential' player, just like Swift was, and never amount to much. Big win for us. 2) We could still be very good, and Battier could be a good solid addition for us, AND Gay could turn out to be something really special. Or 3) (worst case) We continue to flounder around, Battier is 'just another guy', injuries keep happening, and Gay turns into the next TMac/Lebron/Dwyane . Or anywhere in between all those points. My personal guess is that we will be good, Battier will be good/great for us, and Gay we become a decent-to-good player too. So while I voted 'Good' in the poll, honesty should force us to say that we just DO. NOT. KNOW. YET. Something else though. This is just idle speculation on my part, and we will probably never hear anything about this from the organization one way or the other, but I still can't shake the 'we didn't get enough' aspect from the trade. But if I break it down, it just makes me wonder. We know a few facts from the trade: Fact - We traded Pick #8 and Swift straight-up for Shane Battier. Fact - We did not receive ANYTHING else from our trade partner in that deal. Since it seems to make such 'common sense' that we could have a should have gotten more for that price (either from Memphis or from another team who might also have been hot for Gay), the question then becomes *WHY* did the Rockets apparently overpay for Battier? The problem is, we don't know if we really overpaid or not. I know it's hard, but it must be remembered that this was a weak draft. I suspect that JVG and Morey both were able to keep that fact in mind. It makes me wonder if we could very well have been able to get more, but just didn't WANT anything more.. in this weak draft, perhaps we simply did not see any reason to take on another 3-year guaranteed contract for a rookie in this weak draft, where in a stronger draft, that same player at 24 might have been only a second-rounder at best.. maybe we got exactly what we wanted, and simply did not feel the need or the desire to get anything else out of this draft. Maybe we just 'cherry-picked' and got only what we wanted, and didn't want to 'get more' just for the sake of 'getting more'. Maybe we could have had their second-rounder too, but again, in this weak draft, maybe they just didn't see anyone out there that had much chance of making the team, past Novak anyway, and just said 'Don't bother.' (The only thing about that which gives me pause is Alexander Johnson and Lior. I thought the Rox liked what they saw in AJ, and it surprised me that they let him slip by AFTER spending cash to get that extra pick. Obciously they like Lior better; enough to spend money on his rights. Maybe they simply thought he would never be available at that spot, and perhaps Morey used his supercomputer brain to decide that he was a better 'value' pick at that point. Certainly low-risk at least.) To conclude - it is entirely possible that the Rockets got over big-time on Memphis in this trade.. and it is also entirely possible that Memphis got over big-time on us. It may also turn out that both sides come out of it well. Only time will tell.
we didnt give away much just potential thats 6 years late and a rookie that might follow in his footsteps i was happy about getting Battier from the begginig
I like the deal. But with that said if we could have gotten Hakim Warrick in the deal as well i would have loved it.
Thank you. Short-term this is a no-brainer trade. Long term, only way this is a bad trade is if Battier turns out to be useless (unlikely) AND Gay turns into an all-star caliber player (doubtful but possible). I do wish we'd have gotten a draft pick in return as well but I wasn't at the negotiating table.
I am surprised that so many people change their minds in just about 1 month, even before Battier or Gay plays a game. I still think it is bad as we give out too much, at least we should have got their first round pick. The entire trade was trying to cash out a gamble----but instead of cash out, Rox gives the other party 50% discount for getting the cash.
Bad. I like having Battier on the team. I don't think we got equal value for Rudy Gay + Stromile Swift. At the very least, some sort of future draft pick should have been involved.
I agree with most of what you say including that we won't know who got the better end of this deal for years to come, but that is always the case in a business deal. It's much more like poker than chess-- you have to make the best decision at the time given incomplete information. Even if other cards come up later that cause you to lose the hand, it doesn't mean you made the wrong decision based on the information you had at the time. The other question you raise is whether we gave up too much in the deal. There seems to be a big debate over whether we gave up Swift or we were trying to get rid of him. I personally think that the Rockets were probably glad to be able to let him go. Even though we got him for pretty cheap based on what we thought he'd perform, I still don't think he even cleared that bar. We already have more than enough power forwards at this point, so the only question would be whether he whether Swift was a enhanced or diminished the trade value of future trades. I think we were probably happy to clear the cap space at that point, so we actually preferred Swift being part of the deal, instead of just a straight up trade of Gay for Battier.
I love this shane battier is proven logic. I know he's proven, that's why I don't like the deal. and he didn't play that well in the WC's particularly shooting, which the rockets need of him.
