what was so incredible about swift's "potential"? dunking over yao in one game makes a believer out of people on this board? athletic brain cramp basketball players aren't that fun to watch. unless all you watch is ESPN. which also goes to say what SF was, and still wishes he was... and people still think of the glory years, ...sigh...
my gawd...an honest soul! good step up....more people should in all areas of life..... go rockets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
right on, NIKEstrad! The whole "win now" "short term" argument is just *that*...an argument invented to 'splain one of the poles of the debate. it is a contrived argument. Yao has two perfect teammates roughly his same age. that's all that matters!
If Swift is so good and has so much potential, and retains all this value, how come he was never traded before. How come no team thought he was so great they gave up something significant to get him. How come memphis let him become a free agent. how come he only signed a MLE deal and not a giant contract. How come Memphis has not been able to trade him yet even though other teams might have been interested. It is because no one believes he is worth that gamble because simply put he isnt that good. Besides my question was would anyone reverse the trade today if given the chance. Not whether people think we could have gotten more. So i ask you, if you could trade Battier right now for Gay and Swift would you. You seem to respect what Battier has added so I dont think you would.
I've always liked Shane Battier and thought he would be a good fit for the Rockets. However, like most people I felt the Rockets gave up too much to acquire him. I have now changed my mind. I should have never doubted CD and his staff for the trade. Someone should change that photoshop picture of West punching CD the other way around. We got the better end of the deal.
If you look at his recent record though, it really isnt that good. He was the GM that made the trade that helped the Heat win the title. It didnt do much for Memphis. He is also the GM who was responsible for turning recent first round picks into Drew Gooden, Dahntay Jones, Troy Bell, and Hakim Warrick and none of them have done much for Memphis. He was great in the past, but I dont think he has had the same success recently.
this trade will only be worth it if we can win a championship. we traded for battier so we could win now. if we can't, it defeats the whole purpose of trading away potential for a player that could play now. if that is the case, we should have just kept gay because he could develop into an amazing player.
My views on the trade haven't changed. I think Battier is the perfect compliment to T-Mac & Yao. However, we overpaid. I still don't believe that Swift couldn't get at least a 2nd rounder.
Yeah, I do not understand why you guys are always talking about potential. What if gay turns into a bust?
So far I've been pleasantly surprised. My frustration boiled over on draft night after thinking, first Mario Williams and now this??? Battier is doin his thing so I'll give him his props to this point in the season. However, I do think that Rudy Gay's development would be much further along if he were learning from Tmac. Memphis is a pretty bad team right now.
I admit I was wrong. Looked liked the wrong move at the moment. I was ecstatic to have Battier on the team, but just thought we gave up too much. If five years down the line, Gay is a superstar and we have not won a championship it will look like the wrong move, but eh....
Agreed. And here's how sad it is - Griffin at Seton Hall was a significantly better player as a freshman than the sophomore Rudy Gay. Griffin at least put up numbers (something like 17-11 with 4 blocks iirc vs. Gay's 15-6-2-2). rayrocket - You just don't know what you're talking about. Gay didn't exactly light up the world at UConn. Gay will never be able to take over a game like Wade. Rudy Gay currently has a 0.62 AST/TO ratio. He's not even close to 1. Can anyone find ANY big time wing player who as a rookie (or later) averaged anywhere near that? There are very few wing players (post players are different) who become great who at any point in their career have a sub 1 AST/TO ratio. Kobe as a rookie had a .82 but upped it to 1.27 his 2nd year - and keep in mind, Gay is coming out of 2 years at a great program, not high school. Even with the HS jump, TMac was never below 1. He's a good guy, I don't doubt it. But it doesn't look like he loves basketball, or that he has any innate court sense that have made big wings like Kobe, TMac, and past stars like MJ and Quitten great. That severely limits how great he can become.
I always knew Battier would fit in like a glove. I knew his defensive intangibles would help us in a great deal. The problem to me, at the time, was that I thought we should of gotten more. A draft pick at least. I' am not so sure about that now as Battier has had a bigger impact than I thought he would.
I was fine with the trade. To me swift was a non factor that too many people got hung up on. Here's the thing, shane battier is exactly the kind of role player this team needed around t-mac and yao. He hits open shots, he knows his role, plays good D, and does tons of little things well to win you ballgames. So what they overpaid, if they really did? They got what they needed desperately. If they had a PG who could hit his shots more consistently and a way to combine juwan's jumper with chuck hayes defense and speed, that would be the optimal lineup. It's the same reason I supported mike james coming back here. James and Battier taking the open looks off double teams would have been a lot better and more consistent than alston and whomever they put at sg/sf last year. In this offense with yao-tracy healthy, the other guards are essentially used in the same manner as kenny, sam, vernon etc when we ran the offense through hakeem. Park your butt around the perimeter, and hit your shots, along with being able to occasionally drive when necessary. And be able to make a simple entry pass. Plus both guys(james and battier) were good on the defensive end.
Like you, Icehouse, and many others, I thought we should have gotten a draft pick out of the deal. Either their 1st in that draft, or a 2nd. We should have, in my opinion, but now I don't care!
I'll admit it ... I didn't like the trade at the time, but I severely underestimated all that Battier does on a nightly basis. I was wrong.
I don't know, johnrox -- is it roughly the same as if we had Brandon Roy (41% shooting, 19% three), who the Rockets would have taken over Battier? In fact, according to some reports, they also would have given up Luther Head to get him. How about Randy Foye? Shelden Williams? Tyrus Thomas? Adam Morrison? LaMarcus Aldridge? Hell, Andrea Bargnani? So was Battier worth the #1 overall pick AND a player? CERTAINLY not at the time, but you could make that argument today. It's not likely you will be able to soon as, more than likely, someone will pan out big. I felt Gay would have an immediate impact as a sidekick AND give you a high ceiling down the road. He's had quite a few Rafer nights this year however while Battier has been outstanding. If we had Gay instead of Battier right now we would not have this many wins.
its only half a season so I still want to see how it plays out. but battier's offense has been a lot better than expected. I think his defense is still overrated. everyone was raving about what he did against gordon and deng but both those guys still had good games. but his offense has been clutch and very effecient since yao went down. really surprising.
