That is what I have been saying dont break up the team chemistry. Who cares if the Rockets dont make the playoffs this year. They make get a great draft pick next year and will have one of the best chances out of all the teams to get high priced free agents. Scola, Landry, and Battier are hard players to replace, they have a lot of intangibles that allow teams to win championships.
Battier? 30 years old, right? Not much of a scorer. You can't really have Ariza and Battier on the team together. You'll have good defense, but neither is much of a facilitator. Apparently they want Ariza to learn that; he's 24 and has some room to grow, I suppose. But Shane becomes too redundant. Scola? Love the guy, don't want to see him go. But if you HAD to trade him, he's 30 years old, after all. If you could get a younger better PF with Scola (or center, for that matter), you do it---although I'd hate to see Scola in a Jazz uniform, I really would. I don't think Morey is whistling Dixie out his a$$ as far as making another run with Yao Ming, let alone Tracy McGrady. That's fastening your anchor to the Titanic. The fact that he was trying (and may still be, who knows?) to move Shane AND Aaron for Ricky Rubio speaks volumes about Battier's future here in Houston.
Your expecting a lot. Brooks still has a few things to learn on defending PG's. He as decent last year, but not great. Battier will likely be as good as last year, and while Ariza is an extremely good defender, both have trouble with size to some extent on the wing. Even with good wing defense, our front-court defense will be very weak. First, we have no shot blocker. Our best shot blocker will be Dorsey if he even gets minutes. Teams will not have to fear going to the basket on us, and despite our good wing defense, it is still very possible for decent players on opposing teams to get to the second level. Second, Scola & Landry still get into foul trouble at times. Scola has been fairly good about it recently, but Landry is questionable at times. Hayes as good as he is, does not get calls for him some games making him unpredictable, and Dorsey will have foul trouble initially likely. Third, only Hayes is true post-up defensive player. Scola can make do at times, but against Gasol, Duncan, Stoudemire, Jefferson, he cannot defend them. Fourth, defensive rebounding is huge for defense. We have only 1 really good rebounder in the blocks, Hayes and he is still undersized. Landry and Scola are decent rebounder, but so much due to position as to hustle, smarts, and athlecism. While Yao was not a natural rebounder, he still decent at boxing out, clearing out at least 1-2 players from getting an offensive rebound, and averaged nearly 10 rebounds a game, most defensive. I would not be surprised to be in the negative in rebounds consistently this year, and no matter how good your defense is, with more opposing possessions means more points allowed. Fifth, if we are going to play faster, up-tempo games, you are taking away from your set defense. Our players hustle and can get up the court well, but their is a reason that defense is forgotten and ignored in track-meet games...you have to react more, and given the pace it is much harder to do that unless you have great athleticism. Also, in fast-tempo games, a shot blockers are even more important because it helps to disrupt what would be easy hoops due to the tempo and difficulty in reacting that quickly. I'm not saying we will be horrible defensively next year, but we will not be as well off as you think we will.
Who do you want back from trading Battier/Scola? That's the real question. I'll not trade scola for amare, probably for a healthy Boozer, or a bosh. That's his value.
camby is a dream, for what ive read from Morey, we are looking to add a center via trade, and by that i understand we are trading mainly T-Mac huge expiring. In order to acquire camby we would haave to get also Randolph horrid contract which is not gonna happen.
The best trade we could hope for is trading Landry and T-Mac for Bogut and Redd, while it would be crazy for Milwakee to do that, if they are hemoragieing money as they seem this must be their only way to get themselves rid of Bogut´s contract.
With the new possibility of David Anderson, this thread's title seems as if it will hold more true even still.
Bingo. I love our position right now... vaguely reminiscent of the Spurs having the "misfortune" of their 1997 season.
With David Andersen now in the fold I can now safely assume we are playing for 2011 and just survive 2010 so Il change my tune on Scola...Keep Scola and to help out at a high level and try to resign him. However Battier I believe can get you extremely valuable pieces so he I would trade him with Ariza already on board.
No one said we wouldn't make the playoffs. It's the actual contending with the top teams that we might have a problem with.
Scola is like top PF in the league, almost close to amare, but seriously lets trade him wtf, I dont get it anymore.
the only way that Yao will ever work out is if they find a way to play him half a season with a decent back up. Yao can't go full season and a deep playoff run--it's inevitable that in the 2nd round or heck the first round he'll start limping.
scola battier and brent barry are championship calliber role players they go out and do their jobs every night and none of them are 1 dimensional
They still could be an ok team with no major stars. Look at the pistons 2004 championship team. But Battier just can not provide the scoring we need at the two. So I know this has been discused more then once I think this is probaly the last trade you do before we truly have a competive squad. Battier,Brooks for Fernandez,outlaw,blake portland gets a hometown favorite and some leadership We get all expiring contracts if they do not work out its more money for the summer of 2010
I completely agree with the thread starter. All these people who are panicking and want to get rid of Battier and Scola will learn that they were wrong when Yao comes back and when T-Mac will be traded for a go-to guy. We WILL have a competitive team, and we need Battier and Scola for that.
The Rockets are going to be fine this season because the real leaders on this team were Battier and Scola. No other team in the league is capable of losing its stars and still competing as the Rockets have and will do. This is because usually when a team loses a star they are also losing an on the court leader. Yao came into the leadership role some last year but not enough to be missed greatly ( Not to say we won't miss everything else he brings). We should and will not trade these guys unless it is for true All Star quality talent.
Man I think Bosh would be one of the only players I would yes instantly without thought. But isn't Toronto only thinking of giving up Bosh due to the fact of him maybe not resigning and expiring? Isnt Scola in this same position being FA (r). Would we have to give up some other key pieces to make salaries match?
