Does the Battier/Gay trade still bother/frustrate/infuriate you to this day?

I love what Battier brings to the table but that was, and still is a bad trade. A defensive stopper at the wing position is overrated in this league. Who is the defensive stopper for the Lakers? Posey is arguably Boston's best defensive stopper, and he chose to go to there because of their Big 3. The Celtics other defensive wing was acquired on the cheap (Allen). The Lakers wing stopper was also acquired on the cheap (Ariza). You don't give up the #8 pick in the draft for defensive stoppers...you just don't...not when they can't bring more offense to the table. Not to mention our "team defense" was just fine before we traded for Battier.

Gay in his 2nd season is a better player than Shane. You can at least try to build a team around him, as the Grizz are doing. Yeah, their record sucked last year but is Battier capable of being a #1 option and carrying a team any further?

I'm happy to have Shane on the team and he played his heart out for us this postseason, but we overpayed for him. You only trade for players like him when they are the missing piece and he clearly wasn't at that time. And yes, I know the Rockets were going to take the Theo dude but that just goes to further show their incompetence when it came to that draft.

 

Well that really rewarded them didn't it. LOL.

#2 picks even becomes a bust, same for JW (#2 after Yao). That #8 is looking good right now but at the time, it's a gamble the Rockets did not want to take. They did NOT consider Ruday Gay to be their pick, decided to go with the deal with Memphis and the rest is history. The deal did throw out Swift's useless contract (less anyone think it was worth anything). Really.

 

Again WTF on the "greatness" of a #8 pick. Give it a break will you. BTW, Battier was a little better than OK on defense. Now you are showing your true colors. You just can't stand the guy and thinks Rudy Guy is the next coming of.. Wait for it. (for the Rockets, it was the fear of the next coming of Eddie Griffin...) I don't really care at this point. The game is played on both sides of the court. I would be nice if Battier gets more 3pt shots because he's the best 3pt shooter on the team (Novak needs to play more to earn that). And many here agreed he was cheats out of DOY. Now isn't that worth just a little something?

I actually see the fear of EG a very real reason for not going Rudy Gay. Rockets got burned, bad and didn't want to take the chance, 7 other teams didn't either. Now is Gay better than Roy? Don't think so. Was the Rockets shooting for Roy, yes. That shows they evaluated talent and decided to go less risk when Roy was gone. It's really simple and it's 2 years ago. Give it a break.

 

One more thing. JVC shot the team in the foot with that one meaningless win that cost the team the #6 spot. Roy was picked #6. If there is anyone to blame for not maximizing the lottery for the Rockets, it's JVC for playing to win when getting a lottery pick was the sure thing. That now sucked.

 

I've actually been through with this and I respect what u say Verbatim, but I'm puzzled by some of ur logic. Why would a organization be scared of a player because they failed on a totally different player type of player. Gay, Griffin and Swift are 3 different players who play different positions. if that the case why would the rox draft yao when the last guy over 7'2 was injury prone? I've been consistent that Battier is a ok player, but will never be worth the #8 pick and a player. I mean u could compile a all star squad of players taken 8,9. Battier was overvalued and the team is tryingh to correct it.

Like I said, they didn't have to pick Gay. It couldn't been Brewer or traded for Childress. The Wizards got jamison for their top 10 pick.Boston got Ray Allen. Say what u will, but Battier hasn't played well in any playoffs. Posey and guys like that aren't traded for high lotto picks.

 

The trade still bothers me because they should have also gotten the, #22 pick that the Griz used on Lowry in that trade.

And then as much as I thought Novak would be decent, I just had a feeling Milsap would be good and we passed him up twice.

 

Soooooooooo sick of all this Rudy Gay nonsense! We were looking at a window of opportunity (which is rapidly closing) to which Battier was a PROVEN COMMODITY who could provide instant impact vs POTENTIAL DOWN THE ROAD... The world needs ditchdiggers, too... and championship teams need DEFENSE and ROLE PLAYERS! It's not 'draft the best player' or even 'get the best player' its get the guy whos gonna most HELP YOUR TEAM! For all the b****in i hear on this site about chemistry.... Battier is the man! ANYONE WHO THINKS WE WOULDA WON 22 IN A ROW WITH GAY INSTEAD OF BATTIER - NEEDS TO GET A CLUE.

 

I hated the trade when it was announced. I was at the draft party and I walked out furious, not even waiting for the 2nd round pick to be called. Now, it's been two years and even though I still think of what could've been, I am no longer angry about it.

 

I like the handle that Appeared after the trade. GAY4WHO?

 

These polls frustrate me more than any trade or bloated contract (mo taylor, brent price, etc.) ever will.

 

It's not that trading the pick for a proven veteran was bad. It's that the Rockets got so little in return that was really hurting. A lottory pick that high should at least net you an All-Star, not a role player like a Battier (abeit a good one). Just go check Boston trade for Ray Allen or Kevin Garnett. Or the Lakers trade for Pau Gasol.

Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, Gilbert Arenas, Corey Maggette, Jermaine O'Neal, Elton Brand, Shawn Marion, Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton. Those are the kind you should shoot for. And those kind of talent would suddenly look or have looked way more gettable now with a No 8 pick or a lottory-picked young player than Shane Battier as our asset. Not to mention the chance of that No 8 pick turning out to be as good as Rudy Gay, we might not even want to trade him for a more proven player if the whole thing was undone right now.

 

I think it is very safe to say that Battier was tremendously overvalued by Rockets management, especially by Jeff Van Gumby.

 

Gay would have been able to replace McGrady once McGrady gets injured/old.

 

not the trade of gay for battier so much as the price we paid for battier that infuriates me. we couldve gotten a little more albeit they were taking swift off of our hands.

 

wow back from the dead...

I think many people fail to realize that if we kept Gay, there is a chance he would never have turned into the player he is today. With the Rox, he would have probably ridden the bench or seen very limited minutes and stagnated his growth. In Memphis, he instantly became the star and the go-to guy with the green light on any shot he wanted to. Plus there wasn't much talent on that Memphis team, so he was forced to score and got ALOT of touches. For instance, look at Rafer and Mike James during their stints with at-the-time talentless Toronto. Look at the rockstar numbers they put up... and look at them now..

Think Kwame if he wasn't in Washington, or Darko if he didn't get stuck in Detroit. Could have been VERY VERY different for them if they went somewhere and developed differently. For all we know.. Rudy on the Rox might have turned into a Gerald Green..

 

i think if we kept him, he'd be moded into some sort of super defensive stopper by van gundy...