I had a thought regarding if we actually do get Chris Bosh. Realistically, we're going to have to give up Battier most likely in the deal which hurts our defense. Now, our defense was lax at times to begin with last season and without a strong perimeter defense, Yao can only help so much because let's be honest who knows what kind of shape he returns in. Has anyone else thought about this?
Aside from the Chuck Wagon, Bosh would be our best Pick and Roll defender. His help defense is decent and we'd still have Ariza for the perimeter/wing defense. We'd be able to compensate without Battier.
The real question is, is losing batteir enough for us to get Bosh? I say Toronto will probably want brooks too or chase and Hill
they have very little say with what they get back. the team losing the star player isn't in a position to make demands. the whole thing is orchestrated by the player and his agent.
if battier is included (your your right that is likely), i would bet that battier gets bought out and resigns here. the rockets can have the raps agree to this in the negotiation process. maybe the rockets can throw in some cash to help pay for the buyout, and throw them a future second round pick for their inconvenience. the raps have no need for a guy like battier. if they lose bosh they go into rebuild mode. they won't care about winning games next season. battier won't help them in the future, he's already in decline. i think they wouldn't mind buying him out.
The only problem with that might be that the NBA might tighten these buyouts (at least, there were rumblings of the league clamping down after the Ilgauskas fiasco). I also think that the Raps might be looking at Battier as a kind of veteran locker leadership presence to counteract or even keep in check Hedo. There are some impressionable younguns in that locker room (Derozan, Bargnani) that might benefit from his leadership and intangibles. Even if the Raps go into full rebuild mode, keeping Battier around for a year to tutor/mentor Derozan might be a good move for them. At the very least it'll give them an identifiable fan favorite. EDIT: Premature submission, doh... As far as the Rockets defense goes, we might lose the ability to lock down a premier player, but I think the help defense will become substantially better. Bosh can play the pick and roll well and the mere addition of someone over 6'10" in the starting lineup will help in and of itself. I think it becomes a wash or even a marginal upgrade in team D for the Rockets by getting Bosh and losing Battier. People tend to forget that Ariza is actually a pretty decent defender, and hopefully he can expend his efforts on that end of the floor when he's not called on to be a primary scoring threat.
good argument, we'll have to wait and see. in the end bosh is infinitely more valuable than battier. between him and yao we would be as big as the lakers which is really the key to their success.
Whether or not Yao is able to play significant minutes next year its imperative that we get a legit C to log some minutes defensively. Bosh and Scola can play there when the matchups are right, but if Yao only plays 24 minutes one night, and Howard plays 40....well...
Regardless of whether we acquire Bosh next season, the bigger question for me regarding our defense is this: Can Brooks and Martin stay in front of their opponents well enough to protect Yao from opposing wing men driving into the paint? If not, Yao will deal with foul trouble all season. It seemed to me we were burned quite a bit in this way last season, which contributed a good bit to our poor all around defense down the stretch.
Not likely. Battier can help them out only so much. Martin will have to do much better,Aaron is too short and not strong enough against most PG's. If Aaron puts on some muscle without losing his speed,he might be able to do somewhat better. Getting a genuine backup center,can help Yao or Bosh out(assuming we get him for a relatively cheap price). No easy tasks by any means as we all know.
Can we just automatically rookify anyone who starts a thread about the following people: LeBron Bosh Tracy McGrady (I'm still a bit bitter) ??? I think that should be a new rule. Seriously, we all have thoughts and feelings about Bosh, can't we keep that in one thread?
shane is getting older and is no longer the defender he once was although he still is a good defender not nearly as he was long ago
You can't be arguing against Bosh trade, because of Battier's defense. Unless, he turns into Hakeem/Rodman hybrid by the time free agency starts, it's time to say good-bye.
This. Frankly, I just don't get anyone on this BBS making the "Battier will get bought out and re-sign with Houston" point as any sort of likelihood. For the reasons stated by tierre_brown above, Toronto has some reason to keep Battier. Hell, if they didn't want Battier (either as a valuable contributor next season or as an expiring contract to trade by February 2011), then why the hell would they want to take on his $7.4M salary? For Chase Budinger? Chase is good and all, but he ain't worth that financial outlay. Also, even if Battier is bought out (again, not likely), who's to say that Shane would even choose to re-sign with the Rockets? I mean, I bet several teams would come out of the woodwork trying to sign Battier on the cheap for a year or two. Hell, teams like the Lakers, Magic, Spurs, Mavs, Suns and Celtics would LOVE to add a Shane Battier. It's not like with Ilgauskas, where he was a Cavs lifer. Shane has only played four seasons in Houston. He played longer in Memphis. Bottom line: I just don't see Battier being a buyout candidate, except if the February 2011 deadline passes and the Raptors decide to do Shane a favor to let him catch on with a playoff contender next season. Even then, there's no guarantee that he comes back to the Rockets. If the Raptors are even going to agree to ANY sign-and-trade deal, it will need to be for salary that they can use. Not some guy they don't want who will be bought out. Shane ain't going to give them a discount.
Do we really need Bosh? We are 8th in the NBA in scoring. But 21st on points scored on us. There will be a rate of diminishing return on our offense if both Chris Bosh and Yao ming are in our team. For example, if lets say we're 20th in offensive points scored and then we add both yao and bosh to our roster we would probably go up 10 slots. But since we are already 8th we might go up 2 or maybe 3. Since we already have great offense, when bosh or yao are taking shots they are taking from our great offense so the difference in scoring potential is significantly reduced. So is adding Bosh really a good idea. I don't think that you can purely outscore a team to a championship. A balance needs to be made with defense and offense. The beautiful thing about having high quality centers like yao is that they give you both offense and defense. Both our offense and defense will improve by adding yao next year. This is why I don't think we need bosh in our team. We need a solid lock down defender who is not an offensive liability but doesn't have to put up 15-25pts per game. Don't get me wrong, it will be an amazing year with bosh, yao, martin, and brooks (assuming we trade scole and some). But our defense will be horrendous. Especially since battier is getting older. Having yao, martin, and brooks with a solid bench and a great defense will give us a much better chance to a championship. What do you guys think? Do we really need Bosh or do we need a great defender with an average offensive game? Please excuse my lackluster writing
