Ok, Bowen's 05-06 stats on NBA.com: 7.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.5 APG, +9.39 EFF. 3 X (7.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.5 APG, +9.39 EFF) = 22.5 PPG, 11.7 RPG, 4.5 APG, +28.17 EFF. Holy ****! We are getting Kevin Garnett! 2007 Championship here we come!!!!
Those look like Bruce Bowen's stats. I'm sure he was talking about Ryan Bowen. Course it's not that hard to be 3 times better than Ryan Bowen.
What kind of talk is that? Are you suggesting we do not have TVs? Wait until some of you actually watch Rudy Gay play? What does that mean - that what we watched him do at Uconn (albeit not mind blowing) was just an illusion? I ask this because you bring up the highlights. I thought that line was just not appropriate. Anyway, I am begining to turn the corner and deal with reality even though I do not necessarily like it and likely will never. Houston Rockets is my team and will be here long after Shane, Rudy and JVG's careers are done. This fall/winter is going to be very interesting as it concerns the Texans and Rox.
If you read the above posts we were comparing Bruce Bowen to Shane Battier. Since Shane is supposedly our new "defensive stopper" and all. Whoop dee do.
Fegwu: I referred to the highlight clips because they can be incredibly misleading. You can make almost any player in college basketball look great through picking and choosing select highlights. Too often people look at 30 seconds of a guy dunking and making a couple of treys, and assume that he does it all the time. In reality, it could be six or seven plays out of almost 40 games. I watched Rudy Gay play this season. A lot. I saw a guy who underachieved based on his preseason hype. I saw a guy who had elite talent, but never fully utilized those gifts. I saw a guy who was too comfortable deferring to others and did not assert himself enough for someone with his talent. When the games were on the line - Washington, George Mason and Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, for example - it was Marcus Williams and Rashad Anderson making the plays. Rudy Gay was nowhere to be seen. He didn't want the ball in those situations. He certainly has tons of talent, but the intangibles are very questionable... much like they were a few years back with a guy named Tim Thomas. A lot of people here talk about his athleticism, but they don't refer to specific plays. They refer to a clip here or there on Youtube or something like it. Highlight clips don't tell the whole story, especially on players whose primary question mark is motivation. I know some of you did watch him play at UConn. But, having read the board the last week, it's my opinion that a majority of Rockets fans really haven't seen him play other than in highlight clips and a game here or there. No, I can't prove it, but many of the pieces of analysis do not read like someone who has regularly watched Rudy Gay.
The Cat, I strongly believe the Rocks front office blew it, but putting my feelings aside for a moment, don't you think we could have gotten a better deal for our pick? For moving Swift? We didn't have to draft Gay. There were others available, some of whom people here were very high on. There was also the fact that Swift could have been moved in another deal. We no longer have that as an option. I respect your opinions... what do you think? That this is the best we could do? The best we could hope for? No lottery pick, and Swift gone, with Battier here instead?
Loved JJ. He's going to be an awesome fit in Orlando. He's the anti-Gay, in many ways... didn't have all the talent in the world, but found ways to make plays (not always through his shooting) and always wanted the ball in his hands when the games were on the line.
I remember calling Russ Small before that year's draft (when he was still on 610) and predicted on the air that EG was going to be the biggest bust in the entire draft. Yeah, I was HOPING that he would do well for us, but everything I read about him before the draft sent up red flags. Frankly, if I am totally honest with myself, I was not all that enthused about Gay - I am mostly upset that we got so little value for the trade. I guess the giddiness was more of a 'Yay! We got one of the 'Top Six'!' kind of thing than any particular happiness about Gay himself. I suspect we would all be complaining just as loudly if we had traded away any of the other non-Roy top picks (with the possible exception of Foye) in the same trade deal for Battier. It just smacks of being taken for a ride. At least it cost the Griz a pretty heavy price. Now let's hope Battier does not have some injury or something that made West want to let him get away.
This is nothing but my opinion... I have no sources to back this up. But I really don't think the deal was contingent on Swift. To me, it seems like the Rockets voluntarily put him in to keep them as far from the luxury tax as possible and give them increased flexibility this summer. Now, is Swift's value low enough that we can't get any return for him, or that it's negative? I didn't think it was, and that's where I question the front office. But I have no way of knowing for sure. As for choosing someone besides Gay, I don't think that was ever really an option. Gay, regardless of what I think of his desire and intangibles, is significantly more talented than alternatives in that spot such as Carney or Brewer. Carney and Brewer aren't bad players, and they have some potential, but I'd bet that a vast majority of NBA teams would prefer Shane Battier to those guys. With Gay, even though he's a tremendous risk (one that I wouldn't take), the potential reward makes him worth gambling on. With Brewer and Carney, not so much. Not when the alternative is someone as rock solid and dependable as Shane Battier. I do think we gave too much and didn't get enough back (why didn't we get pick 24?), but I'm not all that upset about it. In the end, it's really hard to get too worked up over losing Stromile Swift, at least for me. I'm disappointed in the sense that I don't feel we maximized the pick's value, but at the same time I also feel that we are a better basketball team for the next 2-3 years with Battier as opposed to Gay and Swift. So it's not all that bad, for me. But I do agree that it's not the best we could've done. I really doubt this deal would've fallen apart if we had insisted on pick 24 being included, and I'm disappointed CD didn't play hardball and hold out for it.
You ask the same question I asked myself, and a lot of other people asked as well: Why didn't we at least get #24 in the deal? I think people are forgetting the elephant in the room here: JVG. There was really only one rookie in this entire draft that JVG apparently was satisfied with us spending a high price for - and that was Roy. CD came right out and said point blank that once Roy was gone, JVG was not going to accept having a high pick, especially someone 'questionable' like Gay, on his team this year. I am pretty sure that's why we never really sniffed Redick, Carney or Brewer at that spot either. So, the logical conclusion is that the Rockets didn't even bother to ASK for the Griz' #24, because if JVG was not going to spend any effort on a supremely physically gifted athlete like Gay at #8, he sure as heck was not going to bother giving teaching or playing time to whoever may have been there at #24. Second-rounders, well, whatever, because those contracts are not guaranteed. But it just looks to me like picks #8 through #31 had absolutely zero value to this organization in this already-'weak' draft. Sad to say it, but I think we all just wasted a bunch of time, energy and enthusiasm over the last couple of months, getting all worked up over this draft; the Rockets clearly were not impressed. Perhaps these guys we were all hot for would have been little more than second-round picks in a 'strong' draft class - who knows? But the evidence sure points to us simply taking a pass in this draft and, in their minds, probably feel like they got over on Memphis, instead of the other way around.
