I was just wondering if there was anyone out there who still wanted to make an argument the Rox made a mistake on draft night. I know it has been said that the trade can not be fully analyzed for a few years or the Rox should have gotten more. What I want to see is if there is anyone right now that would reverse the trade if given the chance, after seeing the first 37 games. The big argument was that Battier was a 10/5 guy. Right now he is at 11/4, but his impact has been huge. Just look at the last three games. His huge block on Ben Gordan helped seal that game, his 5 threes and defense against Kobe, and his five threes and finish against Denver helped win those games. I know there were a ton of critics, I just want to know if any still exist.
Actually, it's not Swift and Gay, it's Swift and the number 8 pick. The Rockets have made it clear that they would not have drafted Gay for themselves. I actually think this was a great trade for both teams. The new run and gun Grizzlies are getting the most out of Swift now, and Battier would not have been best utilized in that system. Given Swift's current production, if Gay ends up being a rotation player, the Grizz didn't get robbed. It just so also happens that if you asked God to make a perfect player for a JVG team, he'd give you a Battier. You couldn't ask for a better fit than Battier to this team. If only he had two brothers, a big one that could play power forward and and a smaller, faster brother to play point guard, we'd be the most dominant team on the planet.
GATER still wants Swift and Gay. We'd have a potential all-star in the future had we kept Gay! But noooooo, we have Battier. GATER and I really wanted to wait 2-3 years so that we could have had a potential all-star in Gay and some improvement in Swift. That would have really been sweet. A potential all-star in 2-3 years. I really could wait. Really!
Actually, the big argument was why would we trade a future all star for a role player. Did we pay too much? Add to that we have a current all star who has a gimpy back that we might need to replace at any point in time. Based on that it is still completely up in the air. We won't really know until we see how Gay develops, and how quickly he does it. Right now, he can get his shot off against anyone in the NBA... he just can't make them. The one thing you can say that the Rockets definitely got right was that Battier was going to help us RIGHT NOW. Obviously, he has done that. Next major question to be answered... Will Battier have an impact in the playoffs? If we get to the finals with Battier, you can forget about the Rudy Gay side of the trade.
GATER has lost all objectivity. He is so entrapped in what he thinks is right that he deems no other way possible. His opinion has lost its validity.
The question needs to be will Battier be a bigger impact in the playoffs in the next 3 years of the Yao/Tmac Rockets than Rudy Gay? The answer is yes. He will be defending the best player, he will be knocking down open 3's, he will hustle, he will rebound, he will be a difference maker. This trade was a no brainer. I personally think that Rudy Gay won't even come close to the caliber of Tmac. People make it sound like he has this unlimited potential, but at Gay's age Tmac was leading a team. Gay seems to lack that confidence of being the Nr 1 man and he doesn't nearly have the tools. Mediocre in passing, ballhandling and shooting. Rudy Gay has been playing high level basketball for 3 years. I don't see some extraordinary leap in his game. Dwayne Wade, LEbron, Tmac, Kobe were all great ballhandlers when they came onto the league before they ever played. Tmac said that the reason he's a such a great ballhandler is because he was relatively short and he handled the ball a lot at age 13. Then he hit a growth spurt before he went to high school and he continued to fine tune his ball handling. So in my opinion, even 2 years down the road, Gay will not be a whole lot better than Battier and he will defintely not contribute as much as Battier does.
I will say this -- Battier is definitely proving me and others wrong. I don't know anyone who thought the Rockets wouldn't get a very good player in the deal, but I personally did not think he was this good. Last night in particular he was incredible. It has been a great deal for the Rockets at this point because Battier is probably better than expected and fits this team perfectly while Rudy Gay (who I personally wanted but the Rockets would not have picked) is not having the kind of season I thought he would have in year one, even at 19. But, how many of you were thinking this way when Yao went down again and McGrady was still out with back problems, and many were screaming T-Mac was cap deadweight? Be honest. This deal was always a plus in the short-term. What bothered me about it then was it seemed the Rockets were overpaying for a JVG guy and not looking out for the best long-term interest of the franchise (which I've never felt was JVG's cup of tea). It was a "win-now" move and still is -- you still have to assume that Yao and T-Mac remain healthy. The book hasn't been written on this one yet. Throw in the fact that we had the 8th pick courtesy of a very frustrating season full of injuries and weren't likely to pick that high again for years only to find out seconds before the pick that we dealt it away, and there was also a lot of hot/high emotions that day. Not really excuses... just laying that out there. But I definitely concede that the Rockets did right with this one at this stage and look to be proving us wrong. Battier has no doubt earned a tremendous amount of respect in Houston.
How about Shaq for Butler, Odom or Rasheed to Detroit? Some win-now trades have worked out well. The future ones are a dime a dozen with teams that end up with Kobe, T-Mac-type players.
The T-Wolves kicked sand in the Grizzlies faces and it worked. Rudy Gay got benched 4 minutes into the 2nd half last night for not being tough enough. After 37 games averaging 23 mins, 9 pts, 4 rebs, shooting under 40% and no 3 point shot at all, Gay sure doesn't seem like an upcoming star to me. Looking at his game log, he hasn't even improved since Barone took over, with just one decent game in his last six. Saying Gay is soft and has little passion basketball seems a fair statement. IMO, the trade was strictly about Gay vs. Battier since Stro is nothing more than a warm body. Looks like the Rockets did well. Maybe Gay will take a big step forward his 2nd year. http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/grizzlies/article/0,1426,MCA_475_5277604,00.html Garnett gets tough as Griz fall Timberwolves 116, Grizzlies 110 By Ronald Tillery Contact January 13, 2007 If it hadn't been apparent before, then Grizzlies rookie Rudy Gay found out in the second quarter. Minnesota All-Star Kevin Garnett just got a piece of the basketball, deflecting Gay's dunk attempt. Garnett then gave his first-year adversary a shove and an earful. Griz guard Dahntay Jones got caught in verbal jousting with Garnett and Ricky Davis at different times. No matter what was said, Minnesota's actions were clear. The Timberwolves had no interest in a fast-and-free affair, and instead forced the Grizzlies to try and grind out a win. No such luck, as Griz interim head coach Tony Barone Sr. eventually benched his franchise player and hot-shot rookie for not meeting the Timberwolves' "physicality" during a 116-110 loss Friday night in FedExForum. Griz center Pau Gasol went to the bench with 8:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, and didn't return. Gay took a seat just four minutes into the second half, and was done for the night. Memphis, which trailed by 16 points with eight minutes left, mostly battled in the fourth quarter with Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, Alexander Johnson, Dahntay Jones and Chucky Atkins. That group got no closer than seven points. So irritation surfaced in the aftermath of the Griz again failing to establish their first two-game win streak this season. When asked why Gasol didn't play down the stretch, Barone snapped and refused to answer the question directly. "I already answered that question. I'm not answering that again," he said despite never mentioning Gasol's name in his postgame remarks. Gasol delivered a more diplomatic response even though he was clearly bothered by being benched. "I think you would imagine that I'd be disappointed," said Gasol, who finished with 20 points, five rebounds and three turnovers in 30 minutes. "I'll try to do a better job next time so they can keep me in the game and help my team like KG did." Garnett did the most damage. He led the Timberwolves with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Davis added 27. Garnett also came away with clutch baskets and rebounds as Minnesota controlled the glass from start to finish. Miller's 23 points paced the Grizzlies, whose NBA-worst record dropped to 9-28. The Griz remain the league's only squad without double-digit wins. "Garnett is a superstar," Barone said. "You expect superstars to get it done and he did." Garnett led Minnesota's intensity from the start, which set the tone, translated into a 20-point first-half lead and accounted for Minnesota's season-high point total. "It's not that we were scared," Gay said. "I guess we just got caught off guard. ... Garnett tried to intimidate me. But that's how he is." Garnett said they were intent on not allowing the Griz to run and gun. "They don't specialize in defense," Garnett said. "We were able to crash the boards and we got our butts back down the court. That's how we controlled it. Offense is not what we worried about." The Griz appeared to threaten with a gritty group when rookie Johnson connected on back-to-back jump shots with his second cutting the Grizzlies' deficit to 104-95 with 5:54 left. It was the first time in the second half that Minnesota didn't lead by double digits as Johnson buried both shots over the reach of Garnett. Minnesota's rebounding effort, though, negated Memphis' rallies. The Griz lost the rebounding battle, 41-32. The Timberwolves grabbed 13 offensive rebounds and outscored the Griz 18-6 in second-chance points. Minnesota's rebounding advantage was 22-9 midway through the second period. Gasol had three rebounds, rookie Tarence Kinsey owned two and no other Griz had more than one. -------------------- Grizzlies at Bulls When, where: Tonight, 7:30 p.m., United Center TV, radio: WMC-TV; WRBO-FM (103.5) Podcast: Grizzlies Game Day with Ronald Tillery, TheMemphisEdge.com
Kobe didn't do anything for the first couple of years. Lakers still had to sign Kobe to a 80 million dollar contract as a free agent. Kobe could have signed with another team. How did the Raptors benefit from drafting Tmac? They got hosed What if Gay sucked here in Houston for a couple of years and then decided to sign with another team when his first contract is over? And that's ASSUMING he will be a star. You always take the sure thing over uncertainty in business. In the meantime, Battier continues to be a difference maker and he will do so for each of the next 400+ games as a Rocket.
I was under the "wait and see camp". I now like what I see very much. The overreaction and hate towards the Rockets by fans about this trade saddened me just like people jumping all over the Texans saddens me. Things change. The future is always unclear. Go Rockets.
The trade has obviously worked out for this season, and I'm convinced it will work out in the long term as well. Fans had a problem with the deal initially because it's hard to get excited about a player like Battier. He's solid, consistant, and versatile, but he has already reached his cieling of potential. Gay on the other hand has phenomenal athletic ability and potential at the age of 20 years old...Draft day is all about getting the fans excited about the future of the team, and Battier failed to deliver that excitement. This, of course, is meaningless to JVG and CD. The way you have to look at it is how will Gay's potential translate into game winning plays on the basketball court. Right now, it doesn't at all. Battier in his short career with the Rockets has already proven that he is capable of doing whatever it takes to help this team earn tough Ws. He takes charges, he deflects passes, he knocks down open jumpers, he scores inside, he hounds the other team's best player, he secures loose balls, he collects rebounds, he makes the extra pass, and he inspires his teammates. Right now, you have to consider Battier one of the best role players in the NBA, and he has also proven that he can be more than a role player when needed. Battier is a winner, and it's not like he is 32 years old. He has atleast 4 or 5 good years left in him. As long as JVG is our coach, Battier will be here, and we will be a winning basketball club. That is all you can ask for. CD is a genius.
How can you possibly equate Rudy Gay to Kobe. Yes Gay is young, but you are comparing him to one of the absolute best players in the world. Kobe, who I do not like, has an incredible will to be the best. Gay seems to be the exact opposite. He has skills, but it almost looks like he doesnt care most of the time he is playing, and his defense is pathetic. Yes he gets some highlight blocks, but most of the time he is getting abused.
Well, Rafer Alston is also very good at getting his shot off, but as we have all learned, that is only half the battle.
