Like I've said earlier, it is a short-term win for Rockets, but a big gamble for this offseason (C.Butler contract). Here's what happens, for the Rockets, they'd have lineup, like this in the home-stretch (if this trade really happen): C - Blatche PF - Scola SF - Butler SG - Battier (or Ariza) - one obviously goes to bench PG - Brooks Lowry Landry Hayes Andersen Taylor The Rockets can reach the elite 8 with that lineup and possibly steal a series, maybe a 2nd one, especially if we can reach something higher than 8. I'd feel confident in that lineup above, Blatche is not a true center, but he is bigger than everyone we have (6-11 vs. 6,9 and shrinking), and does have the body to get tough rebounds. And in a sense, we are getting a young player who is improving (and is only 24) - player right out of high school. I've seen comparisons all over the place from Benoit Benjamin to DeMarcus Cousins, and even Lamar Odom (being able to play multiple positions with a rangy set of skills). I've only seen him play a couple of times, very talented basketball players (esp for a big body), though like the article said below, he seems disinterested at times. http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Andray-Blatche-232/ There are several questions around him, but at 3.3 million a year...he is already more valuable than Cook ever will be. Probably, could start for the Rockets, this year (immediately) and possibly next year with or without Scola. Though, biggest problem is we would have too many power forwards in a sense (Hayes, Scola, Landry, Blatche) without a true backup center.
This should be locked. To the OP: there's a long-standing rule that we don't start threads based on the RealGM/ESPN forums. If you see a rumor there, try to follow it to the original source instead of posting what they say on other message boards. Usually, it's some 9th grader who has nothing better to do than make up what he "heard Stein say".
