because I saw the 05 team and I knew that battier wasn't enough. do I have to go back i dig up posts from that year to get you off my back about this question.
I with you on this as well. When arguably the most talented player in the draft falls into your lap, you take him no matter what your plans for draft night are. Such a piss poor decision to think a role player like Battier would help you "win now," given the fact that the starting lineup was made up of offensively impotent players like Hayes, Alston, and you add another in Shane. Like I said, everybody was healthy and the Rockets still got bounced in the 1st round of the 2007 NBA playoffs with Battier doing nothing to help the Rockets "win now." You don't trade lottery picks for role players like Battier. The Celtics got Ray Allen for their lottery pick. Players like Shane are readily available through minor transactions and free agency. Memphis is laughing at us right now.
Winning to the tune of a lottery pick that will hopefully translate to a real wing player so that he can be shipped out of here. I'd love the guy as a coach, he has a phenomenol basketball mind, but I don't think that you can argue against the fact that the guy's just about done at this point. I'll never understand how other players are hated on, but you always defend this guy? His intangibles are nice, sure, but he doesn't bring what this team needs to the table.
what's also interesting is that these calls you'd be willing to make on Gay in the right scenario...use the same logic that the Rockets used when they traded Battier for Gay. Not exactly the same obviously, but in saying "well, it might not be worth it on the surface and certainly not 4 years down the line.. but it still might make sense for *this* team at *this* time"
Find me one, and I'm sure we would have signed him for a "minor" contract rather than Ariza for the MLE
Battier's not injured, he's just done, despite the fact that I like him as a player, I can't stand all these Battier nut-huggers .
So it automatically follows that they wouldn't have improved or added more pieces over the next two years with a healthy McGrady and Yao? You know guys like Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry, Ron Artest, Luis Scola, Kyle Lowry, etc.
mate, they are all over the place....look at how boston picked up posey....just chucked a couple of million in FA to him and Posey was onto it like a bone to a dog......now memphis got their defensive stopper(although not elite yet) in demarre carroll for all kinds of defensive purposes...THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF THE FIRST ROUND RUBBLE......milwaukee just went and picked up luc richard muah ba moute somewhere in the 2nd round.............. actually.....we dont even need to look past our very own acquisition ariza
Memphis isn't laughing at us. Memphis has a lot of talent, and they aren't going to be able to keep them all. If they pay Gay, what do they do in 2011 when Randolph and Gasol hit FA?
but shane was a INSTANT REWARDS trade......and!!!! when didnt even get past the first round!!! so battier trade was a bust-O right there... whats the point of acquring ron artest when battier was so good then??? obviously battier busy sucking moreys nuts while the playoffs were going on cant help the team to even past the first round
I think that the point that pgabriel is trying to make, is that the team could have made improvements like that. An example of that might have been going after a player like James Posey, who was certainly not unobtainable, and then you can bring a player like Rudy Gay behind McGrady from the bench to play a similar role to what Landry is playing now, then the team would have had the best of both worlds. What we should stop doing, is pretending to know exactly what effect Battier had on the team's defense, which may or may not have been as great as you seem to indicate. What we should acknowledge is that a player like Gay could have been an offensive spark for a team that didn't have and couldn't acquire one. We all know that Gay wouldn't have won in his own, but if you would have paired him with McGrady and Ming, that would have eased the frustrations which Ariza is experiencing now, while allowing him to flourish in a then much-needed role.
Matt Barnes was available. Denver got Afflalo for a 2nd round pick. Go look at their production, it's similar to Battier's. The only difference is that Barnes makes $1.6 mill a year and Afflalo makes $1 mill a year while Battier makes almost $7 mill a year. What about adding a guy like Rudy Gay What a great problem to have.
If you were posting about how a team built around Yao and McGrady would never be a contender then sure. Of course I would still disagree with you since I believe it was the injuries that contributed to the failings over the past three seasons. Still, it would at least prove that your argument against the trade isn't completely based on hindsight.
Give me a break...yes, I'm sure the Rockets would have just rested on their laurels over the next three seasons. I'm going way out on a limb on that one.
Except for when you need all that talent just to get a low seed in the playoffs, play in a small market that is unattractive to FAs, and you can't possibly keep them. They'll either walk, or get traded like every "star" they've ever had.
oh man, whoa, so now we're talking about an overflow of talent huh leading to financial issues?>????? man every GM would die laughing if they all were faced with a problem of too many superstars on their team and thinking about how to pay them all. (I will try to civilised in my discussions)) in fact I cant even believe how can u even bring this up. its not even a remotely an issue when did having TOO MUCH talent lead to any complaints?? so u w
