Or he might turn into a Yugo instead and completely flame out. He has shown promise, but that does not mean he'll emerge. Stromile Swift has been showing promise for years.
Haven't you seen The Fast and the Furious, all a Civic needs is a little love and they can be slick machines. Do not dis my car or Battier by saying a Civic isn't a cool vehicle! Rudy Gay is athletic, but his ceiling isn't as high as yall seem to think. The Battier trade was a good move for a franchise that needed a consistent contributor. Just because he's not flashy doesn't mean he isn't just as important and valuable as a lottery pick in a week draft year. Just think what the Rockets could have gotten if the draft rule had not been put in place last year, forcing the high school kids to spend a year in college. Would have been a lot more interesting of a draft in 06.
You know stupid thing in my opinion. The Rockets got Battier because they wanted a PF, thinking he could fill that role, instead Battier ends up playing the 3 anyways, and we move Tmac to the 2. If we were going to do that anyways why not get Rudy Gay (I know they didn't want but this was reason they didn't want because they had a SF named Tracy McGrady). Rudy Gay is 6'9" with 7'2" wingspan, uber athletic, sure a project, but if TMac retires soon, Rudy Gay can fill in, something that cannot be said of Battier. Just a thought...
rudy gay wasnt going to be a rocket, period. Battier trade or not...i thought this has been talked about already
Correct me if i am wrong on this but didn't Novak score like 30 or 40 points against Gay in College? Why do we need Gay we have our own ball hog here T-Jack!
I'm glad you mentioned that, DM, because I somehow missed it in the FIVE times it's already been said in this thread. Thanks for bringing it up.
If Battier is a Civic, then Rudy Gay is 1981 Corvette. It's certainly less useful than the Civic, but from the curb, it looks like a sportscar. It's just when you realize that it is down on power and 1970s suspension technology and can be beaten just about anywhere by a new Civic that you know that you've been had.
I had no problems with you before but you are a troll now. You guys will be last place in the division again this upcoming season.
It matters about as much as his solid first game (i.e. not at all), but I wonder why people aren't talking about how amazing Rudy Gay is after his 3-16 for 11 points with 5 turnovers today? The parts that I watched he looked like an excelent athlete who was totally lost on a basketball court.
you guys are forgetting that Rudy Gay didn't get his first assist until like the 20th game of the season.
There should not be a single person who has complained about how poor a player Spanoulis is complaining about us trading Rudy Gay for Battier.
Almost 3 full pages and none of you noticed this? You guys are slipping and I am incredibly dissapointed in all of you. To the poster, please tell me you're kidding. Stromile Swift will be lucky to be in the league at this point next year at the rate he's going. It's almost that alone which leads me to believe the Rockets fleeced the Grizz. They actually took that contract back. Idiots.
haha I had this post in mind as I got to the 4th page, thinking 'oh my god nobody has quoted and responded to that.' also on the first page that that said that gay will be better than tmac next season made a post saying someone else was posting under his name, what is up with that??
I'm not as certain that Rudy Gay will be as good as originally projected, but if he only rises to the level of say Rip Hamilton, then I'll be impressed. As far as "where we might be" - Those of you projecting GREAT things for the ROX either with or without Rudy Gay are NOT paying close enough attention. The margin for victory in the top tier of the West is razor thin. At this point, we need Battier. If I had thought we would wind up as the 4th seed hosting Utah before the trade, I would have signed up for it immediately (which means I was wrong about Gay, not about Battier), but now that we're SOOOOO close, why in the world are we not bringing in every 6'10" 250 PF we can find to see who can play D against the Duncan, KG and Boozer? We need to find someone/anyone who can give up 12-18 fouls guarding Boozer & Duncan. That's the bar now, regardless of who approves of Battier as a Rocket (which I do). Unless trading Battier nets us someone who can play D against WC All Star PF's as well as score a little on Offense, then Battier should stay. He makes up for a LOT of defensive mistakes by Rafer and even TMAC!!
My biggest gripe against the CD era was that he went into every draft and free agency acting like we were one player away from a championship. Thus he was willing to pay too much for lesser talent with the idea that an extra $4 mil for Mo Taylor is worth a championship ring. Rarely would we draft a non college senior. Thus he traded a potential allstar caliber player in Rudy Gay for a solid defensive player in Battier who can help out right now. (The fact that Thabo was two years older and more experienced may have been more important to CD than future potential) Now I have nothing against Battier. I would love to keep him on this team and build towards a championship. There is nothing the Rcokets can do about bad decisions of the past. But the decisions for the last ten years of mortgaging the future for the present has kept us in the second tier of teams and will likely keep us there for the next couple of years.
