People tend to overrate players, especially ones on their team, when it comes to trading them. Do you thing you could have gotten more for gooden then what the magic have. Out of all the Magic rotation players guess who had the worst +/- stats, Drew "I should be worth more" Gooden. Teams spend millions on scouting and fans think they know everything about all the players. Gooden has a rep of a lazy and unmotivated player around the league. Orlando got some good contributors that can help them with what they need, defense.
Battie has 2 yrs @ $10m. Gooden 3 yrs @ $12.6m. IMHO, the trade is probably a "fit' thing. CLE need a starting PF, ORL needs a power type backup C-PF. (I don't count DeClerq and Garrity as quality power backup's). Gooden has potential, but if he ever reaches it, it wouldn't have been in ORL backing up Howard. Silas is just the kind of coach who may get something out of Gooden. I think it's a fairly balanced trade as long as the Cavs' future picks aren't both 1st rounders and/or unprotected.
Orlando's future rests solely on the shoulders of Dwight Howard. I think Weisbrod is trying to surround him with high character guys that can protect, support, and mentor him. Battie can provide that. Gooden would not. He would have been a bad influence on him, especially if he's not getting playing time. That's why the Cavs traded away Ricky Davis for Battie. Even though Davis was clearly more talented, he would have been a bad influence on LeBron.
The guy has good size, shot 45% on a terrible team, put up almost 12 & 7, and is only 22. A lazy an dumotivated rep might hurt some, but in now way makes up the talent difference from Battie. Orlando got a back-yp 5/4 who put of 5 & 3 last year and is 28. (Hunter and the Orlando pick should have been about equal to value as Battie). Orlando also got two mid 2nd round picks. They more than likely only get one bench contributor from the deal. However you spin it Cleveland killed them on value.
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/roger_brown/index.ssf?/base/sports/1090747941123831.xml Roger Brown BROWN'S TOWN Gooden has plenty of baggage in tow Sunday, July 25, 2004 While Cavaliers manage ment publicly dances around the issue, why - really - is newly acquired forward Drew Gooden now on his third team in just two years? Word is it's because Gooden has wasted little time earning a rep around the NBA as one of the league's biggest partiers - a guy who seems more enthusiastic about hitting spots after games than he does hitting the boards during them. And Gooden also comes with a sizeable personal entourage, one that causes constant headaches and ranks among the NBA's most obnoxious. To be fair, Gooden, a college All-American at Kansas, hasn't been a total NBA flop. During his two pro seasons, he's recorded a respectable 12.0 scoring average. But for an overall No. 4 draft pick in 2002, Gooden has been an underachiever. And that's a big reason why neither of Gooden's previous two teams, Memphis and Orlando, could tolerate his off-court baggage for long. The Cavs acquired Gooden from Orlando in a multiplayer deal that sent Tony Battie to the Magic. Cavs big man DeSagana Diop, now entering his fourth season, has the look of a soon-to-be-former Cav. The kiss of death for Diop surely came when General Manager Jim Paxson recently admitted the player isn't ready to be a starting NBA center. Previously, Paxson - who made Diop a 2001 first-round pick - would make endless excuses for the center's slow progress. You can bet Cavs coach Paul Silas shed few tears when the team traded reserve swingman Kedrick Brown and backup point guard Kevin Ollie to Philadelphia for guard Eric Snow. It's no secret Silas regarded Brown as a complainer and a growing cancer in the locker room. And, fairly or not, Silas never seemed to forgive Ollie for performing poorly last year, especially when starting point guard Jeff McInnis got hurt late in the season. Snow, part 2: The Cavs deserve credit for acquiring the veteran point guard. Snow, a former Canton McKinley High star, approaches basketball with a coach's mentality, and many think he's future NBA head-coaching material. The jury's out on how much impact Kenny Natt, the new Cavs assistant coach, will have on Silas' staff this season. Word is one reason former Cavs assistant coach Bob Donewald was fired after this past season was because the team's other two assistants, Mark Osowski and Stephen Silas, weren't happy that Donewald had so much input on game strategy, and privately lobbied for his dismissal.
And they can like it when opposing PFs shoot 60% on Gooden next year, too. That's Gooden's 2003-04 defensive "prowess" for you - opposing PFs shot 60+% against him over the course of the year. Orlando gave up more talent, but Gooden would not have fit anyway behind Howard. He wanted to start, and that just wasn't going to happen. He sulked last year, and the team didn't want that influencing the development of the rest of the team. It's all about fit. Sure, Cleveland got more talent. But it's a good fit for Orlando.
