[CHRON] After draft day dealings, Rockets ready to take on West

Except Battier is not the missing piece to a championship. Even if you didn't want to keep gay, you could have gotten better pieces then Battier.

 

I don't know. Many criticize Swift for not living up to his potential, but then they still wanted to keep him and put him in the starting lineup? It sounds like Gay is just another Swift, and what he can do in the NBA is unknown. I think it was a good trade in that we got someone with a very high BBall IQ and not just 2 guys with incredible power and hops with limited BBall IQ and as history has shown, disappear when things arn't going their way. This shows that Morey put the risks against the rewards, and you'd have to be in denial to not see that Battier is much more reward than Rudy + Swift are in potential. Maybe Gay will become a powerhouse down the road, but then he may become another Swift. At this moment, it was the better choice although fans love potential because it tips the scale of the chances of a championship.

 

It's not about comparing the solid play of Battier to the potential of Gay. It's about the fact that we didn't get back fair value for what we gave up. It's about the fact that the Rockets got ripped off. I wish the sports writers would understand that. We should have at least got the Grizz's first round pick.

 

DaDa

Many intelligente posters on this board get that, too. What we question is why the Rockets didn't get more out of their asset. Trade Juwan for Shane and Hakim instead of Stro for just Shane. Get the 24th pick, a future first, cash considerations, a BJ from Jerry...something!

Further, the win now mentality only works IF you win now. If the Rockets don't put together a championship (not a WCF or Finals run, winning it ALL), then the trade is a flop.

I'm still mad as hell about the trade, but am willing to concede that it MAY have been better for the win-now attitude (short of the fact that Memphis should have given up more). But if the Rockets don't put it together - for any reason - than I will be mad.

Will it be CD's fault next year if Shaq bowls over Yao in a game, twisting his ankle and causing him to fall into T-Mac's knee, taking them both out for the season? Of course not, but the point is in those situations I'd rather have kept Gay.

If this trade is all about winning now, the Rockets MUST win now. We can't look at all their moves in a vacuum. They can't get a free pass every off-season. Wasn't last year about winning now, too??

 

Figures that'd be the word I mis-spell

 

Look, I don't like the fact that we gave up 2 for 1 esp. since we had a top ten draft pick.

Bat can really help us next season. Some on here are acting as if Bat is 30+ years old which is just silly. Some people on here are going ballistic though, acting as if Gay is the next coming of MJ.

At the end of the season and coming up to the draft everyone was talking about how there were no real superstar level talents, hence no one could get a real read on how the draft would play out.

I've read some just downright sillythings on this thread, from "if Tmac goes down and we would have had Gay we would have been alright" to "Players are the worse judge of talent".

The truth of the matter is that unless something happens this deal is done. T-mac seems happy, good for him and the team. In the end we all want to win now.

Lets see what the Roxs do in Free Agency and see how the rest of this offseason plays out.

The trade wasn't the best possible scenario and I was just as pissed off about it as anyone but its done, let see what else comes down the road.

 

you're supposed to cover yourself and just say that you took a spanish class here and there.

 

WTF~~

 

Vince Carter said the same thing about Chris Bosh.

 

how about we stop with the "t-mac likes the deal, its awesome" quotes. that's what needs to stop. you're right, of course he's gonna say that, so people using that as a validation of the deal is ridiculous.

 

I'm hoping Battier will be a new (maybe even improved) version of Mario Elie, one of my all-time favorite Rockets. Some of Elie's Rocket career stats: 9.76 ppg, 2.68 RPG, 36.29 3P%. I'm on the Battier bandwagon-- let's hope it'll be part of a championship parade. Jump on, guys, there's plenty of room.

 

San Antonio did not trade away their valuable assets around D. Robinson and T. Duncan when making a run for championships and winning them. They kept their young talent in E. Ginobili and T. Parker and when D. Robinson retired the Spurs kept rolling.

We have a window with T-Mac, but we need to win now and the in the future with young talent as well. T-Mac has hopefully 4 more good years. Rudy Gay would definetely have helped by then. We are not going to win the Championship next year. We are still 2-3 years away. While Van Gundy was here we should have been developing are young talent, but now we have nothing because of him.

 

Just like when McGrady, Van Gundy and CD thought Derek Anderson and Stro would take them over the top... or to reach farther back, when McGrady thought that Gordan Giricek and Drew Gooden would take the Magic over the top. Mac has a history of having "a real good feelin', man." I think he just buys into his GM's sales pitch too easily, not that its a fault.

 

if tmac stayed with orlando they might have gotten into the playoffs with dwight howard in his first year..

 

Sometimes getting rid of our young, valuable assets is the best thing a team can do

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/sports/14934519.htm

Griffin served with civil suit
Plaintiffs seek $50,000, say player crashed into car while drunk, watching p*rn
BY JOHN SHIPLEY
Pioneer Press
While the Timberwolves were introducing their 2006 draft picks at Target Center on Thursday, current center Eddie Griffin was served with a civil suit accusing him of crashing his SUV into a parked car because he was drunk and watching a pornographic DVD.

The suit seeks $50,000 in compensatory damages and could be amended to include punitive damages, said Mike Padden, attorney for plaintiffs Jamal Hassuneh and Lindsey Hassuneh.

Griffin did not return a phone message seeking comment, nor did his lawyer, Jeff Wernick of Los Angeles-based Wasserman Media Group. A WMG spokeswoman said Griffin would release a statement today and declined further comment.

Timberwolves spokesman Mike Cristaldi said team officials would not comment because they consider it a matter between Griffin and the plaintiffs. Team owner Glen Taylor did not return a message seeking comment.

On March 30, Griffin was cited for inattentive driving and driving without a license after he rammed his Cadillac Escalade into a parked Chevy Suburban at about 2:30 a.m. The incident took place at the Hassenuhs' grocery store, Santana Foods, at 601 University Ave. S. in Minneapolis. Griffin was released at the scene and, according to Griffin, driven home to St. Paul by Minneapolis police who responded to 911 calls.

The owner of the damaged car, Jamal Hassuneh, and his brother, Lindsey, are suing Griffin, saying he was drunk and tried to bribe them into canceling a 911 call to police. They also are suing acting Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan and responding officers Daniel S. Anderson and Matthew Lindquist, accusing those three of violating their civil rights.

The Hassunehs want Griffin, or his insurance company, to pay for damages to their car in excess of $25,000, plus attorney fees and other related expenses. They say their rights were violated because officers Anderson and Lindquist improperly investigated the accident, specifically because they did not give Griffin a field sobriety test despite "conduct that made clear to witnesses at the scene that he was under the influence of alcohol."

The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial. Among evidence claimed in the suit is video surveillance footage from the Hassunehs' store on which Griffin allegedly admits to being drunk. The case could be settled out of court. Padden said the sides had been negotiating a settlement but declined to say whether talks are ongoing.

"All I can tell you is we did attempt to settle before filing suit and were unsuccessful," he said.

Griffin told the Pioneer Press a day after the accident that he crashed his car because he was reaching for a cell phone that had fallen off his lap. The complaint, filed in St. Paul District Court, alleges the crash occurred because he was "under the influence of alcohol" and masturbating while watching p*rnography on a TV set in his dashboard.

Two witnesses interviewed by the Pioneer Press said Griffin did not attempt to stop before hitting the car. One witness who called 911 said Griffin asked him to cancel the call immediately after getting out of his car, which the witness did. That claim is substantiated by 911 transcripts obtained by the Pioneer Press.

Jamal Hassuneh declined to comment Thursday.

The Wolves acknowledged they were taking a risk when they signed Griffin in October 2004. He had previous legal issues and was treated for substance abuse. When signing Griffin, team officials said they believed he was ready to, in the words of general manager Kevin McHale, "close one chapter in his life and get on to another one."

Griffin was New Jersey's first-round pick, seventh overall, in the 2001 draft after playing one season at Seton Hall, where he infamously punched a teammate. His rights were traded to the Houston Rockets, where he played two seasons before his off-court behavior became a problem.

In fall 2003, he was suspended from the Rockets for missing practices and a team flight. The same week, he was arrested for possession of mar1juana. Later that year, he was charged with felony assault for allegedly beating and shooting a gun at a woman in his Houston home.

The last charge was plead down to a misdemeanor deadly-conduct charge, but he violated his probation by being in the parking lot of a Houston nightclub and was sentenced to 15 days in jail last summer. He was under contract with the Wolves, and general manager Jim Stack called it "simply an unfortunate incident."

The following month, the Wolves signed Griffin to a three-year deal reportedly worth $8.1 million.

John Shipley can be reached at jshipley@pioneerpress.com.

 

I'm really getting sick of the "Rudy Gay is teh suxx0rz because he dropped to #8!" crowd (tinman, I'm looking at you).

Fact: Most experts agreed that this draft had a "Top 6".

Fact: Rudy Gay, according to these experts, was a part of this group.

Fact: According to published reports, both Toronto and Charlotte had Gay in the mix for their respective draft slots.

Fact: The draft was considered unpredictable, due to supposed parity among the Top 6, thus the order could have gone in a number of combinations. In the final version (i.e. the actual draft), Gay drew the short straw of the Top 6 players. The end.

Fact: Some teams drafted BPA. Some teams drafted for need. Some teams drafted with a trade in mind. The machinations of the NBA draft affected where Gay was drafted, thus Gay's "drop" to #8 should not be considered an indictment against his talent level. (Okay, so that last sentence was more of an opinion.)

Fact: A Top 6 player dropping to #8 does not constitute a big drop, anyway, especially given that Atlanta's GM (picking at #5) and Boston's GM (Ainge was picking at #7) were not thought of in the highest regards for their drafting prowess. See: "Williams, Marcus" for an example of an actual freefall.

Fact: Because the Rockets picked at #8, ANY of the Top 6 that happened to drop into the Rockets' lap would be considered "falling." If Brandon Roy was still on the board at #8, would the forum be critical as well? Would there still be posts about "how the other teams ahead passed on him, so he must suck"?

Fact: Landing a supposed Top 6 player with the #8 pick, without the need for a trade, makes that team lucky. In an efficient draft, the Top 6 would go... in the top 6 slots. The Rockets were lucky to be in a position to grab Rudy Gay, plain and simple, and should count their blessings.

Hey, I could go on and on with this, but hopefully you get my point. There are a multitude of reasons why Gay was selected at #8, and a majority of them concern outside factors rather than Gay's abilities.

 

1. I agree. No player should be the source of validation. I never said this- I just feel it's dumb to criticize a player for supporting a trade- just as if a baseball player stuck up for Bonds.

2. Anything you say regarding T-Mac is going to be negative. Would you have made this comment if Yao had said that? Hmm.

 

What? Tmac saying it is VERY important, if he did not like it he would speak up.

Remember Dwight Howard? Tmac did not want to wait aroound for him to mature, well...same thing here.

DD

 

The Chron puts out the same rehashed article every summer, they just replace the names.

I don't want to say I don't believe TMac because he had similar feelings about Dwight Howard when the Magic had the #1 Pick, but it doesn't sound like damage control by the Rockets. Gay for Battier is already in favor of the Grizzlies, adding our backup PF to the mix just makes things that much worst.

As far as the Charlie V comparisons, I think it's almost right on. Both were considered raw athletes that didn't do anything great but did everything well enough. I would say Charlie V had better ball handling skills but Gay is just an unbelievable athlete.

And for the posters hating on Battier, just know that it's not his fault.

 

I totally agree, as for giving up too much, I think the Rockets gave up Gay for Battier and forced West to take back Swift.

I believe they had seen enough and deemed him a lazy player, who will never reach that supposed potential he has, and would rather free up the time for a FA or Hayes to fill in as the backup.

I don't think there are too many players in their 6th year who magically GET IT, so Swift, IMHO was not asked for by Jerry West, but rather was thrown in by the Rockets to get his cancerous butt off the team.

DD