the Knicks are probably now the best team to play against (from a fantasy standpoint). Hmm, I've got a couple of Knicks games coming up for my league.......looking forward to big nights due to Isiah.
After reading this rave review, I was expecting a blowout win by Mempis over the "Knicks" led by this rookie sensation Rudy Gay. Last time I checked Yahoo score box, Knicks won the game
Gasol is out right now. Other than Gay, Memphis has no one who can create their offense. Right now all Memphis is concerend about is his growth. The Grizzlies will gladly take the losses right now at the expense of his growth and a high lottery pick in the offseason. Keeping that in perspective I would say Gay was pretty good in his first game as a pro wouldnt you? How exactly did Yao or Tmac perform in their first NBA game when they came into the league? Let me know when you pull out their stats. *laugh* Rudy gay is only going to improve and he is going to make the Rockets look like idiots. The rest of you can live in a state of denial.
if any of you actually saw the game, the player on Memphis that actually was impressive was that Lowry kid. He was hustling grabing boards, playing good D, and he's the PG!
How are you able to be a fan, and not live with what the team does? that makes you fairweather. Sorry kid, you're a buster. and Gay wont come out for a while....at least not as a rookie.. It might be a few years before he admits he's Gay. Battier is the ****. get over it.
Yao did not perform like this in his first game because: 1. There is this guy called Steve Franchise who is supposed to be the main dude back then, and his right wing called Cat. And they were not injured. 2. He is coming from a different culture and needs to adapt a lot more compared to Gay. The reason Gay seems to do well is... like what you said before, because Gasol is injured and nobody else can carry Memphis, since their lone "star" is injured. Comparing Gay to Battier is just stupid. We don't need a guy who needs to score 20+. We have Yao and T-Mac for that. We need a role player, someone who plays solid, knows his roles well, makes minimum mistakes, and can complement our star players. Get over it. The deal is good for both sides. Memphis needs another scoring threat, we need a solid role player.
I said in the other thread: One thing for sure, this year's rookie class is not sloppy. So if some of you said are true, that Rox was never really interested in anyone in the draft and they traded their draft pick to Memphis long before the draft day, well, that means they are more stupid!!!
Gay is a good player, but let's be real here. One of the Rockets problems this game everyone b****ed about is guys who can't make Js taking too many shots and Yao didn't take enough. Rudy's 8 for 21 chucking would not exactly have helped.
It was a good trade regardless. Battier is getting adjusted, and he was made to play a position he wasn't used to playing against a good 4. Gay hasn't proven anything other than he's a chucker and had a decent 1st game. He wouldn't have helped us at all. He knows he's a star caliber athlete, and playing under the shadow of two guys who are bigger than he ever will be isn't something that wouldnt exactly inspire the kid. The move was best for everyone.
My unpopular opinion is this. The real problem was never about making shots. It was IMHO and continues to be about players that can get their own shots. The Rockets have (with the exception of Bonzi Well falling into their laps) built a team of role players that for the most part can't get their own shots. The consequence of the methodology is when the players who the role players are supposed to compliment stink it up, the role players stink it up exponentially worse. If you only focused on the efficiency level of an 8-21 stat line, then you'd miss things like picking up Steve Francis in a PnR, forcing a TO and going coast to coast with it. Or winning the 3OT jumpball against Eddie Curry. Or going from David Lee to Q Richardson to Steve Francis on alternate defensive possessions. But maybe none of those are $Ball stats.
hopefully my reading of the boxscore is up to your standards and I wonder if rudy's rebounding would have helped, considering battier had 0 or 1, can't remember and boozer damn near matched the entire starting five on the boards.
With due respect, GATER, I think yours is revision history. The problem last year was not creating shots. It was missing wide open shots. You are right. We only had three guys who could create, TMac, Yao, and Alston. Alston's shot sucked. TMac and Yao were hurt. But we still generated enough open shots for guys like Bogans to shoot. They just couldn't make them. And Battier did make open shots last night. It was TMac who missed too many shots. And the missed FTs hurt too. But the loss had little to do with creating shots. I like how people would jump out after ONE game and declare Gay is a better player than Battier. He may one day be better, much better, or he may not. Let's wait a little longer before we judge. As I said in the past, I am still not sure whether the trade was a good one. The uncertainty is not about how good Rudy Gay will be. It is about how valuable Swift is. I have no problem trading a #8 pick (again, this is about the value of the pick, not about Gay) for Battier. It was a gamble, of course. It was a gamble for Memphis too. It's a gamble when ever a high pick is involved in a trade because you never know how that pick will turn out. but I do have a problem with throwing in Swift if he still has some value.
Very nice post. We may have signed 10 new players, but last night we looked EXACTLY like last year's team, which couldn't get their own shots or make shots. McGrady was playing poorly and no one was there that could create offense except him. This logic goes double for Mike James.
wow...all these people talking about how much that Battier/Gay trade sucked. Funny, I remember these people saying that when the trade was made, but as the preseason progressed all those people suddenly disappeared. But then, bam, after 1 game...that's right ONE game, they're back telling everyone what a terrible trade this was. Maybe, just maybe it might be a good idea to wait more than ONE GAME to make that decision.
EXACTLY, everyone must realize that and calm down! We were leaning towards taking a scrub like Thabo Sefolosha I believe, not Rudy Gay. That was Memphis' selection, not ours... We passed on him, as did a bunch of other teams that selected before us. Do you guys realize how many other good players the Rockets have passed on in recent drafts!?!?!?! Let's start another "Rashard Lewis" thread while we're at it...
if you saw the game, you also saw David Lee playing his ass off. The Knicks frontcourt is pretty decent.
