Does the Batum/Arthur/Greene/Artest/Dorsey trade haunt your dreams to this day?

Now that we've seen this team 15 games without Battier...
Next question is: are we going to be better with Battier or with Rudy Gay. We have at least two great promising young fellas in Landry and Brooks. Pair them with Gay, it could be interesting.

 

The OP fails to list the boxscore of those Artest is guarding vs those Batum, Greene, and Arthur defend.

 

It meaningless to discuss it now, the pt/g is not everything and nor is the reb or ast. Would batum or Greene or Arthur play that great if they were on rockets team? they would even have no game time. I bet Dorsey would also do a great job if he played for a team like griz or kings. Batum seems pretty good in portland where he's the best SF, so he's got plenty of time at 3 and played such great games. These three guys are more potential than artest and are gonna have a brighter future, but none of them is as good as artest right now.
I still think it was a good trade that brought us artest. Personally I don't think V-Span is not as good as scola, but JVG blocked his way to becoming a NBA star rather than a FIBA star. If scola was coached by a coach like JVG, then his situation would be no better than V-Span's. I've nothing againest JVG, at least he brought us great defense you know ( nothing more than that though). Ric hasn't shown his diplomacy in offense by now, but fortunately he's done a great job in cultivating younsters like scolandry and brooks. Even so, our rotation is still so crowd that ric can hardly share the yousters enough mins to let them grow up. I think they should feel grateful instead of dissatisfied towards morey and rockets team, b/c morey leased them from the rockets cage so that they could fly to a bigger platform to show their talents. Btw it's pretty unfair for dorsey. Play Dorsey some minutes, Ric, he isn't gonna disappoint you.

 

It can't be haunting, we have at least equally traded values. We honestly cannot expect Greene to perform the way Artest does can we? We cannot expect to be relying on Bobby Jackson as our backup PG can we?

As far as I know, Donte Greene has yet to show half the defensive abilities Artest has. We all know that rookie players like Donte Greene cannot really contribute in a more complex system that requires a lot of team work. Players out of high school or college play high school and college ball, and we all know what kind of game plans they have...........

We want to win, and we want to win now. Our window is closing fast, and if we keep going like this we'll be hanging in the middle of nowhere, not competing for the Champ, nor rebuilding, just like Dallas.

We gotta push it to the limit, now.

 

A big fat greek (shout out to VSpan ) NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I'll take Battier/Ron over those young players anytime. I repeat, anytime.

 

Simple question to ask yourself VANGUNDY; Which player would any contending team choose. Arthur, Greene, Batum or Artest. I can assure you even today that answer would be Artest. If you are trying to win now Artest is the only real choice. Greene is pathetic on defense and inconsistent on offense. You have him down for averages at 36 minutes but he may never get 36 minutes in his career. Arthur couldn't beat out Scola and Landry and Batum is the best option but can't hold Artest's jock on defense.

Out of the 3 Batum appears to have the brightest future but none bring it today on Artest level. That is not even including Dorsey in the deal. He may be a better project than Greene when it is all said and done. So it seems relatively stupid to lose sleep over the trade. If it is haunting your dreams I suggest you quit the late night pepporoni or see excorcist.

 

It huanted me that after we traded Mike James to Toronto, he exploded there.
Stats of the first season after the trade: MJ: 20.2ppg, 5.8 apg, 2.7pf
RA:12.1ppg, 6.7apg, 3.1pf

And now I need a microscope to find M.James in the league. And I cant believe the fact we almost begged him to be back.

Does the deal haunt you today??

 

Ha. Good stuff. I think all the newer posters who don't recognize the name Van Gundier -- and don't remember his spirited, then-contrarian, articulate defense of the Battier/Gay trade...which was also his very first post -- will not get this thread.

(For the record...I still don't like that trade. But since then, Morey's unrelenting brilliance has allowed me, finally, to let it go.)

 

if we just kept batum without making any trades then no, he wouldn't have helped nealrly as much as ron. same for trading him for greene and dorsey.

i mean is this really a serious question?

 

Here's the thing that should give people hope: Morey is a stud GM. Period. End of story.

He may not be 100% perfect, but he is better than anyone the Rox have had, and is one of the very best in the entire elague, already.

Look back not at the trades but at the blunders. I mean, go a long way back - would Morey have given up Horry, Sam and Chuckie V 1.0 for Barkley?

Would Morey have passed on Rashard not once, not twice, but three times?

Would Morey have hired a coach who refused to play and develop rookies? Don't get me wrong, I liked JVG ok, but his stubbornness over the young players killed a lot of the future of this team.

Would Morey have essentially wasted the 15th pick on Boki?

Would he have drafted Bryce Drew? Paid Maloney and Cato stupid money long term?

Think back folks.. hehehehe very little of those things which TRULY have haunted this franchise will be happening again, not for a long time.

Yeah it would have been interesting to have seen what Gay could have done here, but Battier brings a lot too. Most important, he does not make boneheaded plays that keep you from winning. Maybe this is just my own perception of Rudy's play when we have played the Griz, but every time we play them, Gay has decent stats, but always seems to make stupid plays near the end of games to guarantee that Memphis loses.

Battier does not do that.

Don't worry, be happy!

 

Just imagine what would have been our record without Artest.

 

If anything, I'd give more mad props to Morey the Wizzard. You need to realize that any trade until materialized may potentially fall through. What that means is any of those players might have ended up being a Rocket had other trade partners (POR/MEM) balked in the last minute. Judging from what they have done so far in a very short season, I say Morey and Co. have eyes for good talent.

We're in good hands.

 

No........just the Eddie griffin trade...........

 

PER's

Batum - 15.17 and shoddy defense
Artest - 13.46 and all-NBA defense
Arthur - 12.51
Greene - 7.19

How up ****'s creek would we be without Artest doing everything Battier does and more? And taking the burden of making tough shots late in games off Tracy's shoulders?

It might affect us later but for now, there is no question.

 

hahaha mine was when i went to pick up something and shaq came up behind me

 

I wouldn't call Batum's defense shoddy. Greene definitely fits that description. But neither of these two or Arthur is ready to contribute much to a contending team. If the Rockets do another one-and-done and Artest is gone after this season, the Rockets made a mistake in not keeping Batum.

 

There's more to life than STATS.

 

None of them would have played this year. When healthy T-Mac/Battier/Barry was our designed 2/3 rotation thus eliminating any immediate need for Batum or Greene.

Arthur wouldn't have played over Scola, Landry or Hayes either. Back up center? I mean, I guess maybe some spot minutes but he's not exactly a rugged big man. He's more finesse.

 

Not a chance..most the of the helpful things Artest does, don't even show up in the box score. All the rookies are playin on teams taht might not even get to the playoffs. We are planning to win a Championship, not raise and develope rookies.

 

Yeah, where in the boxscore does it show that Artest guarded Wade the entire game and limited him to terrible shooting?

Nowhere.

And how about all those times Battier did the same thing?

Until we are at full strength (I don't mean T-Mac, he'll never be 100%, but atleast with Battier fully back), the jury is still out.