Is Battier a better player now than he was when we traded for him?

What's funny is my buddy always laugh when I talk about Wagner. When he was drafted I said he will be out the league in 3 yrs. I never thought he was as good as they thought, but people had the undersized sg fetish then.

Kaman is a really good player, but his injuries have really held him back. Johnson wasn't that good or good enough to come out anyway and the car wreck early kinda did him in.

Yi actually has good skills, but when I watch him play it seems like he's in between. I don't know what he does in the offseason, but he's really a good offseason away from being a good player. Maybe not a all star, but a guy that can do some things and people are surprised by.

Roy, nothing more needs to be said other than had mchale kept him, garnett wuld probably still be in minny.

Galanri, is the flavor of the month in terms of teams trying to find the next euro thing. Childress is a good player that is multiple and probably undervalued for what he can't do. He's quicker and more athletic than many think, has a good bbiq, and is still developing. He's a ced ceballos type of guy.

Last, but not least, the teflon don, shane. I watch a lot of college ball while I do my psuedo scouting thing and what impressed me about shane from his freshman yr to his senior year is he got better every yr and added to his game. Then he has a productive yr as a rookie and i'm thinking, next yr he will be about 16ppg with the solid defense and all the other stuff, but then something happened. I don't know what because with his size and work ethic, I thought by year 3 he would be around 18 ppg and tipping all star status, but he never got better. He stopped improving his game and settled on just being a specilialty guy. I will say that because he has a great attitude and is a great talker in the public, he'll have a contract till he gets tired of collecting checks. I think he will play another 6 yr or mayhbe longer, but I don't think he will make as much as he does now or will ever bring back good value unless packaged.

 

The point I was trying to make is that, even amongst a pool of other players that were picked at about the same spot, from a career-perspective Battier would be middle of the pack. You can go back 20 years, and I still think that's where he'd be.

So the argument that it was just foolish to give up Battier for a lottery pick, because obviously Battier isn't at the same level as a lottery pick -- well, that argument never held much water to me. Battier doesn't put up big time numbers or anything, he doesn't have a lot of upside, but relative to other "lottery picks" picked roughly at his spot he's been a decent player.

 

This is EXACTLY why I say lotto picks out of the top 5 are not as valuable as some people think...

Look at all those picks......only Brandon Roy is a stud, you could easily see Shane being the 2nd best one out of all of those.

And Leeb you are being disingenous, Shane has gotten a LOT better over time, but it is on defense.

I think Shane realized that he would be better off if he was an elite defender and worked at that....and he is.....

DD