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

The Rockets took a gamble now they may have regrets on trading Gay as he is proven to be a good offensive player. Before that the Rockets traded Richard Jefferson, so there is a history a trading away some talent. This issue is old stuff, we should focus more on this draft and possible trades.

 

Not getting Brandon Roy frustrates me. I'm indifferent about Rudy Gay. Not convinced that we gain anymore offensively than we would lose defensively. The last couple season, Memphis got younger, more athletic, swapped Battier for Gay, and they had Gasol and Miller (their two best players) active for a good portion. What happened to their record?

 

Fricken JVG and his win at all costs in meaningless games mentality.....

DD

 

It's not like JVG was playing his star players. We had a team full of over-the-hill veterans and young players. I put more blame on George Karl for the blatant tank job (kept Carmelo sitting on the bench to end the game, even when they had a chance to tie or take the lead). Our scrubs just happened to outplay their scrubs.

 

The Rockets could have targeted a defensive forward or guard later,offense is harder to obtain especially when you don't have or can't afford to trade pieces for additional scoring. I'm not trying to say it's easy to get a Battier or that Gay was perfect by any means but I'm talking about a philosophical approach to improving the team. Gay was never my 1st choice,I wanted Roy but we were trumped. I was sure he would be gone by the 8th pick and that is more frustrating to me as well.
I think Gay's scoring would have been quite good because of McGrady's passing.That doesn't mean I'm trying to down play the need for defense. I just hope that management won't do the same thing again.

 

I would rather have gay than battier, but if the rockets were serious about picking Thebo Sefalsosha, morey or whoever was drafting should have been fired on the spot. Didn't we learn anything from Turkshan?

 

We had plenty of scrubs sitting on our bench that could have been playing.....

Put out the Ryan Bowen express and let him shoot....

DD

 

I know you carry some weight here, and I agree with you on some things, but it blows my ef'n mind that people are still posting this as if it is a logical response.

YES: Rudy Gay was among the most talented, if not the most talented player in the draft

NO: two seasons after the trade, Shane Battier has done nothing to push the Rockets farther in the playoffs than they previously had gone.

YES (and this is the kicker): as of this moment, Rudy Gay is already the superior player. the agrument for Battier WAS he's not the type of player you have to develop, he can help you now. people said it would take years for Gay to develop if he ever develops at all. nothing could be more off base.

I have never heard anyone make the argument that it's okay that the Trailblazers took Sam Bowie back in the day because they wanted a big man. They shouldn't sweat it because management never wanted Michael Jordan, Sam Bowie was their guy. I'm certain this argument doens't help anyone in Portland sleep easier.

 

Riiiiiiight

You do remember that the year BEFORE we got Battier, we didn't make the playoffs???

And Gay is the superior player??? Please.
Pretty well the same lineup for Memphis in 06-07 as in 05-06. 22 wins compared to 49 the year before.
And the year after? (still with Gasol, Miller, Stoudamire on board) 22 wins...

defence aint sexy, but it wins games. Good defensive leaders are kind of rare - and we got a real good one in Battier.

In a few seasons, Gay may well be leading the Grizz to the playoffs - but that's no big deal. We might have had 4-5 50 win seasons with Battier by then. And then we just find the next peice and keep on going.

Gay isn't going to be a top 5 player in this league ever, so it's no big deal.

 

I believe this is the main reason Les fired him. Had he tanked a litte, we would be looking at one of the best trios in the NBA. Then there's the fact that he couldn't get passed Utah/Dallas with 2-0 leads.

Juwan Howard managed to find a way to lose while hitting a gamewinner. Losing is in his DNA.

 

Fail.

Defense is harder to obtain - particularly wing defenders who can shoot the 3 pointer at 39%.

Name me 3 of those who we could 'have targeted' 2 years ago - or even right now?

 

yeah, I also remember that was the year our two stars missed the majority of the season due to injuries. DO YOU REMEMBER THAT? we didn't get a lottery pick because Yao and T-Mac suck, we got a lottery pick because they were injured. Battier was stop gap role player, not a god send savior.

the Gasol injury factors in here, and the line-ups were hardly the same, but we've already established you take facts lightly, so why bother.

Yeah...we might...but guess what...50 win seasons aren't getting us out of the first round. That was what Battier was supposed to do. He was supposed to be the difference maker this team couldn't wait for. Guess what.....he hasn't lived up to that. I like Battier, and I know he's a good defender, but he's not the player that Rudy Gay is.

He wouldn't have to be. If he ever makes one all-star game, then it will be blatantly obvious that the Grizz got the better end of this deal....that's assuming that it isn't clear already.

 

I bet Morey regrets not picking up the team option on Landry now. Players like Pietrus,Barnes can play perimeter defense and are UFA's right now even if they aren't as good as Shane. Pietrus isn't a great 3 point shooter but 37% with athletic defense isn't bad. He could be a player who could complement Tracy instead of Luther Head.Barnes isn't as good as him but he isn't a bad option either.The reason why we couldn't target anyone 2 years ago was because Juwan Howard was our 3rd best player and had limited trade value. I only mentioned these 2 players because they are UFA's.Players like John Salmons and Franscisco Garcia could be targeted but it would cost us Scola which shouldn't be done IMO.

 

In every interview JVG has made since he stopped being the Rockets coach, he has contended that Battier is better than Gay. Is it true? Who knows. All I know is that if we had Gay that first year, guess how much time JVG would have spent playing him. That's right, zilch. He would have been our own version of Gerald Green, as he has shown in Memphis that he can't play defense and you can't play in JVG's system until you can play defense, or are named Luther Head.

And now his brother is "developing talent" at the same rate down there in Orlando. Hello, goodbye JJ Redick. Oh and then there's that incredible 2007 class that consists of...well no one, because the Van Gundies love telling their GM's to trade draft picks away because those scrubs won't be getting any PT anyways. Detroit got Stuckey with Orlando's 1st round pick, and we were able to get Carl Landry using their second round pick, traded for a bag of cash. Thanks, SVG!

 

My bad, I forgot that it was Seattle's pick for Landry and Orlando's later. Nevertheless the argument that JVG wouldn't have played Gay much in the season he was Rockets coach stands. Gay is a defensive liability to this day; have you seen how he gets picked on every time we play Memphis? And honestly, who is to say how Gay would fit on a winning squad, because it hasn't happened yet. He's getting points and showing off his athleticism on a team that has no better options.

And finally the Redick/SVG argument is a chicken and egg debate. Are Gortat, Keyon Dooling, Keith Bogans, and Maurice Evans better than Redick? Maybe, but we know basically the skill level of those other guys whereas Redick is still in his second year. And by playing veteran scrubs over and second year rookie that was picked in the lottery and hasn't gotten a full chance to showcase his abilities (healthily) is a trademark Van Gundy move and a stupid stupid idea if you ask me.

 

Yeah. I'm still mad at the T-Pups for letting Mark Madsen shoot 8 treys in one of the most despicably obvious tank jobs ever. That doesn't happen, then we have Roy. Ugh.

But Rudy Gay? I second the "meh."

 

U know I've heard that excuse when we were comparing miller vs francis vs bibby vs terry. I used to always say it doesn't really matter because good players adjust to other good players. If u put shane on the same memphis team without gasol, the coach gets fired and the results are the same. I think people forget we were a top 5 defensive team with wesley guarding 2's. I personally think Gay with good coaching can be a really good defender. Once tracy left his defensive stopper role in toronto, no one thought of him as a good defender, but ask dirk and stackhouse who he shut down whenever he was on them. I think if tracy didn't have to do as much offensively, he would start playing better defense again.

Like I said, it wasn't just about Gay, what was wrong with Brewer? He was a multi tooled long arm atheletic swing guy. They could have had him and he could have filled that role. I actually thought of giving that pick up for childress would have been a good idea.

 

Double fail.

AT starting position, a young athletic forward with offensive talent >>> glue shooting 39% at the 3pt line, esp when glue cant do anything else but defend.

PS. see last 3 offensively challenged playoffs.