http://www.storytellerscontracts.info/resources/05-06salaries.htm Stro signed a 4 yr 22.4mil deal Battier...6yrs 33mil (roughly) Rudy Gay is vastly more talented than Luther...which is why it took Luther 4yrs to get drafted at 24 while only 2 years in college for Gay to be a top 10 pick. Aside from being more talented and gifted as an athlete he is also more skilled. I'll let you connect the dots as to how those things make up for inexperience.
If you were ripping off a team so badly like the Grizz are, I would be pretty giddy too. I bet the Rockets expected some negative reaction like Clutch posted. There's a nice pole on Chron.com about which was the bigger draft blunder "Mario over Bush" or "Gay for Battier," Gay for Battier was winning by a large margin last time I checked.
Here is the thing with Gay and I'm really suprised Morey didn't pick up on this being a "stats guy".... I seem to recall recently an interview where Morey was discussing breaking players down by their productivity versus the amount of money they make. I guess based on that he can developed some sort of player value matrix to aid in deciding the worth of trades. Anyway, it's financially a wash in the trade for Battier & Swift. By Morey's method it only makes sense that Battier is the more productive player for the money. He averages just over a point more, a rebound more, and an assist more a game(according to realgm.com's trade checker) making the same amount of money. As for Gay, as long as the Rockets don't sign him before the trade (hence they trade "draft rights"), they can ship him off for nothing. This is how the Rockets avoid paying the guaranteed contract lotto players are offered. By being the eight pick, someone has to pay Gay. Here is the thing though - Gay will be on the rookie salary scale meaning he makes the same money every 8th pick does - same money Araujo, TJ Ford, Wilcox, and Diop have made being the last 4 picks at the 8 spot. Well, there is wiggle room for their agent to get them a better contract, but there is a cap(I believe it's 120% of what the scale price for the pick is). It's a bargain in that the same amount of money the 8th pick in the draft gets(roughly 3 mil a year) gets you only the bottom rung of talent in the NBA - certainly not anyone who would help the Rockets this year. By that reasoning, a player like Gay could easily become a bargain considering free agents signed to similar contracts are certainly bench depth at best. Are we saying we can't count on Gay for at least that? It would seem Gay could at least statistically match and easily exceed the productivity of a similarly paid player while Battier(on paper) doesn't do that much more than Swift. In that sense, I think it's a safe play financially to keep Gay and Stromile around even if Stromile is an underachiever and Gay only puts up Kwame type numbers. I know the game isn't played on paper, but for a team trying to get better while saying under cap I think it's a significant point to make. So that begs the question. If you don't want to spend the 3mil on Gay with all the upside in the world, what type of a splash are you going to make in the FA market with that 3mil? We have Wesley coming off the books this year and we have the MLE. Is that 3 mil going to make a difference? Have you seen the FA market this year(ESPN.com just spotlighted the top 25 today)? Outside of a couple of names at the top(whom we certainly can't afford), I don't see anyone there who can really help us and that we will need that extra 3mil/year for. Besides, in weak FA years, teams tend to overpay for marginal players and I don't think that extra 3mil will make the difference given the players we will likely be after. I think the money is better spent on keeping Gay and hoping he turns into something special... And a few random questions I want answered by the Rockets management... Have we forgot it's a fluke an aging player like Juwon didn't have signifigant injuries last year? His old Fab 5 team mates are breaking down - why are we placing the PF duties for 82+games on a 33yr old? Why trade one of our youngest, most atheltic players(Swift) after harping on how much we need youth and athleticism on this team? If after two years Gay looks lost, he still has trade value because he will be 21 with a cheap contract. Why NOT keep that? And finally - Dear Rockets Management, why do you hate me? Do you know the ridicule us Houston fans face daily? If it's not an entire rosters of Rockets players getting injured when they shoujld have been playoff bound, it's winning a meaningless game against Denver that cost us Roy, it's passing on Reggie Bush, it's losing to Buffalo's backup QB in the playoffs after leading by 30, it's complete failure in the World Series, etc. By the way, your Rockets fans seem to forget that we still have rights to bring in Spanoulis from Europe if he is ready to come to the NBA...
By the way, I didn't take into account the "veteran player who wants to win a championship" rule -also called the "Karl Malone/Gary Payton(x2)/Michael Finley" rule.... I don't think that should count as to what you can normally get for the kind of funds Gay's contract is likely to cost.
i hope the rockets redeem themselves after this ****ty ass draft. the rockets organization is really ******g up right now. i wished cursing was allowed on this message board, because im really pissed off.
I DISAGREE WITH YOU COMPLETELY... while i'm not saying this trade was great (only time will tell) i do think you're overlooking that CD got west to TAKE BACK the guy they let walk in the first place. i mean that would be like us trading for stro again! HELL NO! west let the guy walk! i mean houston might have done themselves a favor trading away TWO headcases... and battier is WAY BETTER than miller overall. miller is soft, but a little better offensively. battier is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered. we just have to hope the rockets did the right thing giving up so much to get him.
It would be great if CD had something up his sleeve and managed to snooker Jerry West before this thing is announced on July 12. Kind of like a Dukes of Hazzard episode, with the Logo as Boss Hogg, sputtering and turning red when he realizes he's been duped. Unfortunately, I'm thinking CD is probably the bumbling sheriff in this scenario.
