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

Rudy Gay ended up being the higher value asset, if you hold onto him you could have flipped him for an upgrade later. Battier was a good player, it honestly always felt like super stars like Kobe were still putting up big numbers on him, but there would be some advanced stat that said he did a good job. No stars ever said that Battier was a tough guy to play against, I think we over valued his actual performances because the guy put in so much effort into knowing his matchups. PJ in his prime in Houston just passed the eye test more for me as a defender. PJ would snatch the ball out of your hands or force a turnover taking a charge. I just remember Battier putting his hand in elite players faces just to have them still make the shot, it was only effective against average players. I'd rather a defender be more physical or actually go for the block instead of some gimmick hand in your eye site defense. He will be a better GM one day than a player.

 

I think In retrospect it was probably the right move .

Our best team of that era was in 09 and battier was better than gay at that point .

 

Rockets would’ve been better with Gay.
But I liked Battier.

 

Should have gotten another pick with Battier.

 

The GARM was like a freaking hornet's nest that night. People were beyond p*ssed.

I considered it a bad move but understand the brass thought Shane was the missing 'glue guy' on an otherwise championship ready squad.

 

Mostly remember missing out on Brandon Roy. It still stings to be honest. Oh man, I had championship dreams for that would be big three.

 

Jerry West was very high on Rudy Gay. He said he was the best rookie since Kobe. They had the 24th pick which they used to acquire Lowry. The Rockets could have easily acquired Lowry and Battier for Gay. CD said he had a big 3, in Yao, Tracy and Battier. This was even posted on the Rockets website. It was obvious to many fans, that wasn't true. Even Les said the Rockets didn't get enough back for Rudy Gay.

 

Rudy Gay could've had a very diff career in under different circumstances. He was basically borderline all-star but I he could've gone to the next level if he wasn't rotting on the Grizzlies. This guy was super clutch and wasn't afraid of big moments. I guess he didn't fit the Rockets timeline.

 

Brandon Roy is who we wanted and thought that would have been amazing. Poor guy didn’t have the career because of injuries. I remember being happy about Battier, I never cared for Rudy Gay much.

 

I remember the trade wouldn't be announced for a few days and we had petitions on here trying to stop it from going down.

That year we all wanted Brandon Roy but were happy to see Gay fall.

 

Glad I wasn't around and looking at that roster and the year we just had I cannot believe they thought Battier was somehow our missing piece. Now, I get it from a standpoint of a proven defensive monster - yes he was really good - and he turned out to be important for us in 2007-08 with the streak and in 2008-09. We had Yao & Tracy so having another guy who can take pressure off of those guys makes sense, couldn't just wait on any rookie to develop. Just unfortunate Battier provided so little on offense aside from some threes. Had Battier been here with Harden, now that would've been interesting to see. He would've let it rain and probably would've had more impact on offense for sure.

 

Battier was ok, but there were so many more "one last pieces" during those mismanaged years that his intangibles were overshadowed by underwhelming 1st rnd disappointments. He was truly vindicated in his Heat years when the hype matched expectations the team had for him as the true last piece.

Those years had tons of bad mojo:
3 picks for Eddie Griffin
3 picks not for Rashard Lewis.

 

Rudy Gay has always been garbage.

Battier was the right move.

 

Rudy Gay was a great fantasy player.
Didn't translate to real life wins
Something of a low efficiency scorer who was never quite good enough to be a main player, but was too bad defensively and needed too many touches to work as a viable role player.

Battery was a better fit, but probably didn't perform as well as we might have hoped.
I am more bummed by the Batum trade, but then again, that lead to Ron Artest.

Same old story, but for health, we could have contended with either of those scenarios. Probably didn't have a big enough star to win it all, but we gave it a shot

 

Shane Battier trade ended up being the correct play at the time but ended up being the worse move looking back.

I was mad when it happened, we needed more talent literally just had Tmac, Yao and NYC castoffs. Battier contributed a lot to winning however the lack of talent on the team couldnt get them past the 1st round hump until the very end. I mean, yeah Battier turned out to be the better player, but since the Rox couldnt even get out of 1st round getting a vet turned out to be kinda useless.

If we had Gay we would have sucked and would've gotten higher picks to surround YaoMac instead of 15th pick 5 times in a row or w/e. Or maybe we could've traded him for a better piece, 2 yrs in Shane Battier's trade value was at role player level while Gay was seen as a star level player.

I personally just think its a lesson you dont keep going all in, you need to keep an eye on the future as well.

 

70-89 one of the ugliest playoffs performances of all time.

 

You also have to factor in the huge haul we were able to get for Battier later on, the #2 pick of the draft on his rookie deal!

 

F that was 15 years ago?!?!