I was really confuse. I thought it was Stephon Curry and I was wondering who Q was. Thank god we didn't do that trade.
Lol...I can't get enough of this. The Rockets want Rudy Gay back for Battier and Memphis says NO...Haha. I can't believe the Griz don't want the "no stats" all-star!
It makes no sense for Memphis. Their core players are all young and they're still far from contending for a championship. Why would they want Battier who is a veteran role player? However, many contending teams would love Battier, but we're also trying to contend for a championship.
I'm not really understanding all the "LULZ" in response to the mention of inquiring about Gay as if that somehow invalidates the whole justification for the initial Battier trade. The offer was Battier and Landry for Gay and the #2. Considering that the prime target was the #2 pick, it's likely that they simply felt that the total value of their offer exceeded the value of the #2 pick. In wanting equal return on their package, they needed an additional player off Memphis' roster who they felt had sufficient value. With O.J. Mayo untouchable, and the rest of that roster complete garbage, enter Rudy Gay. Now consider that Shane Battier has greater trade value than Carl Landry and you can see how this isn't exactly some 'egg on the face' admission of prior wrong. And I say this as someone who still feels Carrol Dawson was completely shafted in that trade.
They better not send his ass back to orlando Howard, Lewis, T-Mac, Carter and Nelson.... Orlando will win the title with that line up.
the idea for the knicks is that it doesn't hurt their 2010 cap and it sells jerseys. tmac will play next season, even if its only half a season. half a season of tmac is better than a whole season of their outgoing players, especially with the hype / ticket and jersey sales it would create for them.
I honestly don't think there are ANY teams in the league, contenders or not, who would take Battier over Gay at this moment in time. 3 years ago, possibly, but not now. People defending that trade is one thing, but what boggles my mind is the notion that we're still better off with Battier, even after Gay has shown what he can do at this level. If I went back in time and told you Gay would be averaging 20 and 5 on 45% shooting by his second year, and you STILL would accept that trade, I really don't know what to say...
A few years back Lewis, Carter and Tracy were considered soem of the best players in the eastern conference. It´s amazing how thing changs no? That lineup would breeze through the weak eastern conference with like a 73-9 record though.
That wasn't dawson's trade. That was all morey. You have been a rockets fan for awhile and have you ever known dawson to give a high upside talent for a flatliner. That was one of dawsons strong and weak points. He never would given up a high lotto for battier, but since the new guy was about to take over, you try to help build it the way he wants it. You think lindsey and those other scouts that had to watch the torture of being small and unathletic would give that up?
I believe leeb is correct. Dawson usually went for the big, flashy moves, see Francis, Clyde, Barkley, et al. The Gay/Battier trade was the antithesis of CD and had moneyball written all over it. I think Morey simply got too cute with that trade, thinking that Battier was some kind of unearthed and undervalued gem. In truth, he was correct about that. Battier is more than the sum of his numbers. But he still did not, and does not, equal up tp Gay. If you go back to Morey's Boston days, they had another guy like that in Brian Scalabrine. He was also rated as one of the metric-wonders when, in truth, he was (as shane is) just a glue guy. Glue guys are a dime a dozen...see Posey, Ariza, Battier, Bowen, Haslem (prior), Prince, etc. They are absolutely necessary to have a championship level team, but not equal to upper echelon talent. That was the Morey miscalculation.
lee/verse: i wholeheartedly agree that battier was morey's move. i meant that the actual trade was dawson's - ie: i meant that my main complaint about that trade wasn't that we gave up gay but that we didn't get enough value for the pick; dawson got robbed. so while battier was morey's guy, getting JUST battier, as opposed to battier and perhaps the #24 (kyle lowry) was dawson. my reasoning is not just that carrol dawson had a history of getting worked over in trades but more that i find it hard to believe that an organization would allow an assistant GM (morey) to conduct the primary negotiations for a trade on the biggest night of the NBA trade season when a man who had over 20+ years of experience in the industry was still at the helm. no chance. as a tangent, dawson was essentially a puppet that had no voice in the direction of the franchise. the prime evidence for this is the sudden and distinct shift in organizational financial policy the minute jeff van gundy was hired.
In the summer of Stro, CD was giddy in his attempts to sign Bobby Simmons. That's another defensive, no stats guy at the 3. Then there's Aaron Brooks and John Lucas III, again similiar players. CD gave Dean Cooper the credit for finding Carl Landry. Chuck Hayes was Dennis Lindsey's pick who was calling him a future All Star early on. So it's not like the Rockets didn't seek unknown or unheralded players before Morey came along.
Beating a dead horse here, but it was a stupid trade that was done mostly because JVG worshipped veterans (for playing his kind of ball, gosh darn it), and was notorious about being impatient with rookies. This is why I didn't cry any tears when JVG left, because I was fed up with his stubbornness and one dimensional coaching philosophy. Seriously, is there anyone here that wouldn't like a mulligan on that trade, anyone?
When Rudy was around, we had that habit of passing over good players who might have appeared to be projects (or might have actually contributed right away) for either 4 year college guys (because who wants to waste time teaching basketball, ay, Rudy?) or guys that reminded Rudy of himself and then turned out to be busts (see also Langhi, Dan; Turkcan, Mirsad; and was Rudy here when we drafted Novak or had he been ushered out already?
I still like the trade. Getting out of Stros contract and getting a solid 3 for multiple years was worth it.
