Jason Quick discusses Portland and the draft

And management opinion, for both Morey and Pritchard, was the same: That Brandon Roy was better than Rudy Gay.

Was that the managemnet opinion for the rest of the league? I don't know. I think Jerry West may have thought otherwise. I recall he was specifically targeting Gay when making the Battier trade.

Also, remember that it's not consensus that Brandon Roy was going to be as good as he is. Multile GMs in the league preferred Bargnani, Tyrus Thomas, Adam Morrison, Shelden Williams, and Randy Foye to him.

But it there is not evidence supporting your statement that "most people felt that way."

 

Let me put it to an end.The bottom line for all of us is to see the Rockets win. You feel very strongly that Rudy Gay was the wrong player for us,that's why you keep on bringing it up again and again.

I felt that Roy was the best player for us,and had Foye as the 2nd best player who could have ended up at 8 for us,Gay was my 3rd choice at the 8th.
I still feel that we got too little in return by getting Battier for the 8th pick. You have the right to your opinion and I to mine. But I want to make things very clear to you,I couldn't care less if the Rockets traded the entire team including a hypothetical Rudy Gay as long as we win another championship.

 

There was a lot of support for Roy on this board leading up to draft day.

Also in today's Oregonian, Pritchard said there was a deal in place with an Eastern conference team for a point guard in exchange for the #13 and a player, but he hasn't pulled the trigger yet.

 

If you were the one preferred Roy above all others, then kudos to you. And frankly, the Gay v. Battier debate has nothing to do with this.

My original point was that Pritchard and Morey saw things the same way in the instances the article refers to, so GATER's "Golden Gut vs. Golden $Ball" argument was baseless... both methods, to the extent they were different, led to some of the same conclusions:

Both liked Fernandez, both preferred Roy to Gay (we have no knowledge of how Pritchard viewed Battier v. Gay based on that draft... but apparently both Pritchard and Morey preferred Roy to Battier, too, back then since Morey tried for Roy as the first option and Pritchard didn't pick Gay and deal him to Memphis for Battier).

 

I think James Jones made a mistake. With his knee, teams would be foolish to offer him a worthwhile multi-year deal. He was a great fit on the Blazers and I'm sad to see him make this decision. He needs to have an injury-free year before he cashes in on his $10-15 million. This helps the Blazers some because it frees up a roster spot at SF even though they lose a "glue" player who shoots 3s and FTs with icewater in his veins late in games.

 

Well said.I didn't realize James Jones had an injury some months ago and thought of him as a potential FA for the Rockets,but I would rather get a healthy player from the draft instead of him.

 

I'm sorry if I offended you with my comments.