How about Mobley, Nachbar, Griffin, and a future 1st rounder for Pierce. or Mobley, Jackson, Griffin, and a future 1st rounder.
btw some stats on the such highly acheiving boston players E Williams stats last year - 9.1 pts, 4.7 reb, 1.7 ass, .442 FG%, .336 3P% in 29 minutes Battie - 7.2 pts, 6.5 rebs, 1.2 blocks, .539 FG% in 25 minutes
E-freaking-Xactly! Though its not that bad of deal when one considers Eric Williams contract ending next year and the Rockets trade exception. what is that like 11 mill. to throw out next summer for a possible sign and trade deal.
Bobliu- If you've watched the Rockets for one year, you have no business talking about Cat's ability. If you've watched the Rockets before Yao came for the last few years and you still think what you wrote, then you have no idea what you're talking about. No one can rationalize this trade. It's stupid. Cat is a top 15 SG, Battie and Williams are role players. Not even good role players. Especially Williams. Griffin may need to be unloaded, but not this badly. Giving up on Nachbar is pretty stupid as well.
This could be a good trade with some fine tuning. As originally reported, I don't think it happens. But I do think it is going to happen in some degree. Battie becomes your starter at PF if he is healthy. Cato can play some minutes and can back up Yao. Mo Taylor can back up Battie. This frees up Amaechi as your player to be named later and losing Eddie Griffin is addition by subtraction. Williams does not make sense. I don't see a good reason for taking him on. We already have Jackson, Adrain Griffin and Nachbar. If we make the trade, one of them needs to go, and it would probably have to be Nachbar. I don't like the idea of losing Boki after the last few preseason games. Still, if it somes down to it, I say he's worth throwing in IF we do in fact get some draft picks. I hate to lose Mobley, but if he won't play 6th man off the bench he will damage team chemistry and JVG will not stand for that. Bottom line, we give up Mobley, Griffin, and Amaechi, and pick up a starting power forward in Battie, a solid role player in Williams, and a first and second round draft pick, this sounds like a GOOD trade to me. It would probably improve team chemistry and allow us to give up some headaches at the same time. If we have to give up Nachbar instead of Amaechi, it throws a wrench in the works. My guess is that this might be the holdup on the deal. If you are the Celtics, Nachbar makes the trade lopsided, if you are the Rockets, Amaechi makes the trade possible in my opinion. Guess we will have to wait and see....
It the trade comes to fruitation, I'm one of the few that feels it benefits both teams. If you don't have NABLP and/or you don't watch much of the Celtics, Eric Williams is a fine player (he gets lots of "Tommy Points ) . His talent level is easily a notch above James Posey and he gets his points in flow of the (3rd option after Pierce and Walker and was very comfortable with it). Williams has very long arms and plays D much taller than his 6'8" height. Williams also has the footspeed to take on some SG's on D. In case you don't recall, Battie killed the Rox last year with his consistent baseline J 3-5 feet outside of the FT lane. Battie is a career 50% shooter and in the old Celtic offense, those were far from all dunks. Unlike Cato, Battie has some face the basket game and much better hands. Battie would be a solid backup for Taylor. If we don't have to give up Nachbar and can get a 1st rounder from the C's...advantage Houston.
Worst. Trade. In. Franchise. History. Period. If I were Les, I would sack a guy who even thought of pulling a move this bad. I don't care who it is...CD, Rudy, JVG, Tim(J/K man, I know you have more sense than this). Whoever thought of this trade(Or entertained a trade thought up by the Celtics) should be sacked. Immediately. I would think twice before I traded just Cuttino for those two. And after the two thoughts, I would probably b****slap myself for even pondering a deal this bad. Eric Williams? The poor man's KT? Battie? Don't we already have him signed to a 6-year $42 million contract? God, if there is a basketball God, please don't let this go through.
mmmmmmm Cato and Battie on the floor together fumbling the ball to each other now that is a big splash!!!!
Since the Rockets are over the cap, Williams $5M doesn't really help us free up cap space after the season. We would be just $5M less over the cap. But the $7M trade exception lasts for 1 year from the date of the Rice trade. Thus we might be able to pick up a $7M player next offseason (after Williams comes off the books) and only inch $2M closer to (or above) the luxury tax. Of course we were afraid of being over the limit before all of these trades so I imagine we would be $2M more over the luxury tax. Plus I assume Francis' extension probably kicks in pushing us far past the limit. So now I guess this is all a salary dump.
as you said you didn't see the celts much, Williams talent i s certainly not a notch above posey, he is several notches below Posey at best, his offensive game is terrible, sure his d is nice but not super duper. of course Battie looked good against the rockets last year, did you see our defense, certainly not the first time the rockets defense has made a crappy opposition player look good, if i remember correctly JR Bremer looked pretty good too!!!
My thoughts pretty much as well. This trade is totally pathetic for the Rockets. We're giving up on two guys with tons of potential way too early. So Eddie is suspended now, so what? I wouldn't even trade him for Williams or Battie alone. Those two for Cat might not even be fair - this trade is just plain horrible.
hmmm..seems to tie in with this http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2003/10/23/ainge_may_not_be_done_dealing/ Ainge may not be done dealing Battie could be next to go By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/23/2003 So, who's next? No one at the moment, Celtics hoop boss Danny Ainge said last night before Boston crushed the pseudo-Timberwolves, 96-80, before 12,279 at the FleetCenter. "I don't anticipate anything before the start of the season," said Ainge, when asked about any new deals on the horizon. "But that doesn't mean I'm not trying." One name to surface in the wake of the Antoine Walker-Raef LaFrentz deal is that of Tony Battie. League sources said yesterday that the Celtics had put Battie "in play" even before the Walker trade and that there was interest from Toronto and others. (The Raptors supposedly talked about Antonio Davis.) Yesterday, Battie's agent, Joel Bell, reported nothing new as far as he could see. "There's really been nothing since the trade," Bell said. "Hey, if they trade him, they trade him. That's life." That's precisely how Battie views it as well. "It's a business," he said. "Things happen all the time. You gotta move on. If Antoine can be traded, then anyone can. He was a cornerstone here. You just have to be professional about it and carry on, whether it's here or wherever you go." Battie may be on the losing end of a starting berth, depending on what coach Jim O'Brien decides to do with LaFrentz. O'Brien said last night that he expected LaFrentz to start, but he didn't say at what position. He could start at power forward alongside Battie or at center alongside Vin Baker. "Whatever adjustments they make, whatever role I have, that's what I'll do," Battie said. "I just take orders from the coaches." Ainge said he liked the team's depth at the center and power forward positions now with Battie, Baker, LaFrentz, and Mark Blount. "They can all play either position and we have two other guys, Eric Williams and Jumaine Jones, who can also play [power forward] when we go small," he said
FYI - The $7m TE from moving Rice already hits the salary cap. If the TE is used, the TE is diminished by the incoming contract. IOW, if the Rox traded a 1st round pick for a $7m player and used the TE, a portion or all of the TE disappears as a cap hit and is replaced by the incoming player (or players) salary. Hence, the TE is basically unrelated to the LTax. Also, the goal of obtaining Williams was not cap space. If we fall below the cap by renouncing and not re-signing Williams (we will have his Bird Rights), we lose a portion of the TE relative to how far below the cap we fall.
How do you know that already hasnt happened? Its not your idea. Cd has been doing this for the last 3 years. If it wasnt for the lotto ball,Cd would be fired by now.
Just a rumor now I guess but seems to have some legs to it. I really don't like this trade. Not at all. Not sure I could be warmed up to it. How is it that Welch, Lafrentz and Mills can get you a Antoine Walker & Delk and here we have Griffin, Mobley, and Nachbar giving us scrubs in Williams and Battie? Remember when we were talking about trying to trade Mobley and Griffin for a Shareef Abur Rahim? That was more like it...but Battie and Williams? They are nice role players but the best player in the trade is Mobley. We lose out here. This would be a tough trade to swallow. If for no other reason than the best player in the trade, Mobley, is going to the other team. Again, not that I am against trading Mobley or Griffin or Nachbar, but at least get us a solid player!
While I agree that this trade is terrible for the Rockets, there is no combination of players on this team apart from Yao or Steve, that would get us Paul Pierce. If we had Pierce, you could start ordering the rings...
