[Chad Ford Insider] Hou working on 4 team deal [Update: Done Deal - Ariza for C Lee]

as the resident Pacers fan, who hasn't checked in here for quite awhile, I am stunned and overjoyed.

Larry Bird actually got us a PG. For a PF who lives at the 3-point line and cannot defend his shadow.

Amazing!

 

Rockets didn't get Ariza to replace Battier.

Ariza was a great contributor to a championship team....that's why they signed him....Morey goes after assets.

Anyway, I bet Ariza wishes he would have signed with Toronto for more money.

 

Who wants Battier as a Starter? 31 years old, 7 million dollars, no-stat guy.

 

It's August. Without seeing Lee play a game as a Rocket, it's hard to say whether he makes the team better or worse.

It's not like the Rockets got an obvioius upgrade like Kobe Bryant or a clear downgrade like Ryan Bowen for Ariza.

 

If LEE doesn't played great defense...i would be disappointed. We don't need anymore 1-dimensional player where you can shoot but can't play D.

From what i seen in the highlights, Lee looks like a superstar in the making. But i think there are several reasons for this trade to happen:

1. Battier is who Morey want to start. I am in favor of Battier start too because who's going to guard Kobe and Lebron?? As much as people talk about how great Ariza's defense is...i don't know man. Remember, 2 years ago, it was Battier that started for this team. And i think Battier and Scola on the court just gelled.

2. Salary dump to create more $$ for Melo??
3. Courtney LEE ain't a bad player...maybe have the potential to be even better than we thought.

 

1. Salary Dump
2. Younger player
3. C. Lee has to be able to handle the ball better then Ariza

I didn't hate Ariza, but this move makes sense. Others have said it but

Battier, Budinger
Martin, Lee
Yao, Miller
Brooks, Lowry
Scola, Hill, Hayes, Paterson, Jefferies, Johnson .....

 

From the "insider" on RealGM, not sure if the guy is reliable.

Seemed like Brooks to me since you could always see Ariza waving his arms for the ball, and Brooks would brush him off. They both seem to have high tempers to me.

 

our SGs and SFs are not undersized in my opinion

 

I go by results

Orlando with C.lee = Finals

Orlando with VC = How do we get rid of VC

 

I don't understand New Orleans.

They basically just traded for a younger James Posey, and got rid of a promising young point guard.

 

I am so worried Battier and Martin are starting. This is the exact same crap lineup that Rockets would love to go back to and usually put out there. Some lineup with Battier who hinders us to go With Yao again in that horrible three point kick out offense. If its Budinger I understand because he is making the move to get his starter minutes and has huge upside. Real big upside. Thats not how our team operates though. They usually stick some guy like Battier in there to mess up the offensive flow of the game and stink it up on offense because of veteran love. So its not that I dont trust Morey with this move. Its that I dont trust Adelman who will start Battier and that plain old vanilla no Championship lineup thats soft when we could be starting Budinger to move forward with his considerable skills developing perhaps to almost a better player than Ariza. So if this is for Budinger to start? I am going to be ok with it. If its for Battier to start? I am going to lose it on the team this year as soon as Battier starts chucking up threes and not scoring this season. Gonna absolutely lose and roast the Rockets if they dont have another move coming later. Budinger alright. Battier not.

 

How long are you going to hold onto this "Battier is terrible" misconception? Its okay to say you were wrong.

Battier is better than Ariza in every facet of the game, despite being less physically gifted. He was never going to be Battiers replacement. He was brought here simply because Toronto wanted him and we wanted Bosh. As soon as Bosh was off the table, the Rockets had no use for him because he is a hype player, not a good player.

You can pout about money or whatever, but the Rockets just improved tremendously. And I don't know if you realize this, but the Rockets have already started rebuilding, just not in the only way you seem to think is possible.

 

I love this trade. I liked the Ariza signing last season, but with the emergence of Bud, I think I appreciate the Rockets saying they are relying on Bud for the future. I really think this brings more balance to our team and Lee is an awesome defender that is very capable of filling in as a starter if Martin were to get injured.

Many on this message board are going to underestimate this move, but personally this makes us better. I know part of the motivation for this deal had to be lowering our tax bill, however this is also letting us Rockets fans know that they value Budinger and they want nothing to get in the way of him being our future starter. I love Battier staying on this team now as well.

I'm really happy with this trade. More balance and a more potent bench. Lee is athletic as hell and he is going to be huge for us this season.

 

I could see your point, but you have to agree it at least makes the team a little deeper at every position now.

Before we were stacked at SF with rotational players.

Imagine Adelman trying to juggle 3 or 4 SFs?

Which guy do you think would handle getting less minutes a game the worst?

Trevor
Shane
Cbud
Jeffries

It is fairly clear to me that a move had to be made to clear some of this glut...that was over $20 million in salaries at one position and not a clear head and shoulders player better than the other ones.

Good move for the team overall, IMO.

DD

 

Interesting that Hollinger's rankings has none of the four teams improving or getting worse due to trade.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=262n42j

We'll see how trade effects team. Until then, I am not set on Battier and Budinger getting all the 3 minutes.

If Budinger improves his defense to a respectable level, then it would work. Until then, wish there was another three here.

 

I don't like this trade... Ariza's length is the only thing we had on containing Kobe. Last year, Kobe struggled scoring Ariza because of his length. He'll more than likely never be a super-star or even an all-start, but he was a good piece to our puzzle.

Courtney Lee, i'm not that big on, but unlike us here on Clutchfans, Morey isn't thinking about JUST THIS YEAR, but he's also thinking about NEXT YEAR and the YEAR AFTER. Ariza's signed for another 4 years for more than $5.6mil, Lee at under $2mil with a team option.

 

This team is locked into perpetual mediocrity with les as the owner.

 

I think Battier fits better with the starters. Spot up 3's and tough D, plus he runs the offense very well. Bud still needs to grow into that, but he's not quite there yet. Remember that Battier's shots with Yao/Martin will be a lot different than Battier's shots with Ariza/Chuck Hayes.

 

Jeffries is a 3 as well.

DD

 

False logic....

a.) First of all, he didn't realize that players like Luke Ridnour would get 4 year 16 million dollar contract and other guys like Travis Outlaw and Darko Miliic would get terrible contracts for their services....no one would have guessed that...as a result, Morey didn't dictate what was paid to Scola and Lowry, but rather the market played a significant factor in how much they were paid

b. even if he did admit he made mistake, the reason he makes the trade is to fix it, while getting us depth at a position we didn't have depth at just yesterday....