What if Rudy Gay became an all star but not a super star?

Did you ever think this way? If we keep Rudy Guy, with Yao and T-Mac around, he will never have chance to be 1st and 2nd choice, at best 3rd.

Maybe he has the potential, but without the chance, can he fully develop into a superstar or even an all-star? If not, potential is just potential, who knows ........

 

Similarly, the Blazers were never going to draft Michael Jordan. They were taking a big man regardless. I don't know why people continue to criticize their selection of Bowie; there was no chance of Jordan ever becoming a Blazer.

 

If they selected MJ, with their team setting, managering and coaching, would Michael Jordan become the MJ known later on?

 

STOP GAY THREADS

 

"Rudy Gay will never become a super-duper star."








-Shane Battier

 

Battier means more to marketing the Rocket's that Gay ever could, he's that "good image" guy that all teams want out front, yet he is still a really good player. I wish the Texans would have been as smart.

 

Shane Battier has stepped in and become the heart and soul of the team. He plays better team defense than anyone else in the league. He's changed the Rockets from a good defensive team to one of the all-time great defensive teams. He almost never makes a mistake.

Have a great career, Rudy Gay. The Rockets are better with Battier than anyone in last year's draft.

 

thank you for making sense.

I think the Battier deal was a good one for the rockets, but there's no logic in the argument that the rockets were never going to draft gay anyway. they had the opportunity and didn't.

 

quite honestly, we need to start a campaign to make Battier the Defensive Player of the Year.
his work goes so unnoticed by the league, and, without a campaign, the top 5 will look something like this:

1) Bruce Bowen
2) Ben Wallace
3) Andrei Kirilenko
4) Tim Duncan
5) ____ _____

Battier won't be anywhere in there. such a travesty.

we need to do something to get his name out.

 

what if fruit bats and monkeys fly out of my butt?

 

and a bonobo shows up at my doorstep??

 

what if rudy gay..is gay?

 

I don't see Gay becoming an All Star. He reminds me of Al Harrington. I know that isn't an obvious comparison but both guys are tweeners between SF and PF. Both guys are tremedous athletes but lack the ability to put the ball on the floor consistently and lack the size to dominate in the post.

I know Gay is young but he has played enough minutes for people to see if he has the fire in his eyes to improve. He doesn't appear to have it IMO.

I expect he will be a good player (16-18pts, 6-7 rebounds) but he he lacks the intangibles to be anything other than a good pickup on a fantasy team.

 

It doesn't matter if they were never going to take him or not. They SHOULD have taken MJ. Considering how good MJ became vs how good Bowie was, the obvious choice was MJ. The only way you can say Bowie was the better choice is if you say that maybe MJ would've injured himself in Portland or maybe the system in Chicago was better for Bowie, ect. But when you start talking about **** like that you can really question any decision ever with facts that probably wouldn't have occured.

The fact of the matter is, if Gay ever becomes anything, people are going to be questioning that trade. It doesn't matter if Houston never intended to draft Gay. Thats like saying the Texans Management is off the hook for not drafting Vince Young because they were never going to draft him in the first place. They aren't off the hook. People are still going to question trades and draft picks regardless of what the true intention of the FO was because they think they made the wrong decision.

 

So can we go back and pretend that the Rockets selected Jordan over Olajuwon as well? In fact, lets pretend the Rockets took a whole host of other players than they originally had. Where does it end?

I've been lurking for weeks and, no offense to the original poster, but this topic has been beat to death. If the Rockets were never going to draft Gay then why pretend like they did? Why not discuss how the Rockets would look today if they had selected Brandon Roy?

 

People underrate Battier even now, I'd say he's been easily as valuable to his team as most "second tier star" guys like Rashard Lewis, Richard Jefferson, Caron Butler, Jason Richardson, etc, if not more so.

Look at what happened to Memphis:

When Battier was around, they lost Gasol for 30 or so games in 04/05 and managed to make teh playoffs.

This year, with no Battier, they absolutely fell apart in Gasol's absence. Even with Gasol back and putting up his usual numbers the Grizz has still struggled without Battier.


The guy makes a huge impact in games, easily comparable to many 20 ppg types.

So, even if Gay turns out to be like Caron, JRich, etc, I would not regret trading him for Battier.

 

People do this all the time. If they pass on a guy who turned out to be a real good player people are going to question the pick. Lets just say we didn't make the trade and picked someone else, and then Gay becomes an All-star. People are going to question it still. Doesn't make a difference that we were never going to trade him or not draft him or whatever. The same thing with Chris Paul. Maybe a couple of those top 3 teams are wishing they had picked him instead. Washington is probably still hating that Kwame Brown #1 pick a couple of years ago. Just because they didn't plan on picking any of those other guys doesn't make it any difference.

For the record. I'm for the trade. But I'm just saying its a legitamite arguement.

 

I totally agree. All-Stars are a dime a dozen. Anyone who may have caught some of the past games that were shown on ESPN Classic this last week could only come to the same conclusion. Rik Smits would be a good example. I think the topic is worth revistinga couple of years from now when Battier may be gone and Gay has had a chance to show who he is. Again though, the real discussion should be about Roy/Battier.