Battier: It's nice to hear from your wife you still got it every now and then...

Sometimes its not the best players that stay around the longest, but the midrange players. Sometimes its the Derek Fisher types that stick around, and the Larry Hughes-Ricky Davis types that get bounced around.

Matt Bullard is 8th in Rockets history for most games played with them. Allen Leavell is #5 on the rank. He played the entire 1980's with Houston. He was a starter turned backup point guard (you seeing that, Aaron Brooks?)

http://www.basketball-reference.com...stat=&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=g

Not saying Battier should stay on the team. I'd like to see a real small forward prospect for the future. Though it wouldnt surprise me if he's one of "those" guys.

 

As much as I dislike Fisher, he's a had quite a few games in the playoffs, including the Finals, where he's come up with key buckets including game winning ones...most, it not all of them, on the road. That's the reason he's stuck around. Shane Battier has never done anything like that. Like the mental midget that he is, he usually shrinks in the playoffs, especially on the road. Just go see how many playoff games the Grizzlies have won in their entire history as an organization. The only way Battier can contribute to winning here in Houston is for the Rockets to trade him for a player that fills a need. I always laugh at all you people who call Shane Battier a winner even though he's won nothing as an NBA player (sure I know many of you are referring to his attitude, so-called work ethic, etc.., but you got to be able to produce to be called a winner). In my mind he's a loser and will always be one. No team with Shane Battier playing a significant role will go anywhere. A guy like Stephen Jackson is always getting trashed on this website, but he, unlike Battier, is a winner. If you don't believe me, just go and look at the teams that he's been on...Spurs, Pacers, Warriors, he even took the Bobcats to the playoffs. I'd much rather go to war with Jax any day over Battier...At least that way I'll know Captain Jax will always have my back and will step up when it counts the most instead of shrinking like Battier.

 

Battier frustrates me by not being ambitious enough. It makes him a great team-player and all, but you can see the liability where he doesn't assert himself on the court when he should. And, it feels to me like his preference to stay in Houston and be content to be a mentor for a lotto team instead of heading out and trying to win a chip is just him forsaking ambition again. Maybe it annoys me because if I were an NBA player, I'd probably be Shane Battier. It'd be great for the Rockets if he stuck around and played mentor; but I think the best thing for Battier would be to jump to a contender, and I wish he wanted it.