Should've never traded Rudy Gay. Morey never would've never made that trade.

We just have to disagree.

I believe the Rockets have been contenders in the last five years, you dont. I believe in 2007, the only team that was going to beat us in in 7 was the Jazz, and we just happened to get them in the first.

 

Even if you concede that point to him and for argument's sake accept his rebuttal that the Rockets haven't been contenders in the last decade, he still hasn't shown why management was wrong in deciding to try and build a contender around what was perceived then as a potential dynamic duo of Yao and Mac. And it wasn't like management was the only people pushing the Yao/Mac duo as something big. The media, other team's management, fans, and almost everyone else thought the Rockets were slowly piecing together a championship caliber team. That is why if you go back, many people outside of management were claiming the Rockets as potential contenders.

The 20/20 Hindsight argument completely fails because it is very difficult to predict that Yao and Mac were going to be injured every season. I am puzzled at how he can claim the Rockets management made the wrong decision by trying to build around an potential dominant center and a super-talented wing. Following his logic, management overrated the Yao/Mac duo and should have traded Yao and Mac for a bag of chips.

Leebigez is jumping from argument to argument, and attacking various points in people's arguments, but he has still completely failed to explain why management was wrong to decide to build around Yao/Mac when in the 04/05 season, the season before the injury-plagued season of 05/06 and the ensuing Gay for Battier trade, the Rockets pushed a very good Mavs team to 7 games in the first season of the Yao/Mac Era. It just doesn't make any sense. If in the first season, a duo does so well, and all projections indicate that they will only get better, why would management not trade for someone like Battier?

 

Rudy Gay with 41 points on over 50% shooting while getting to the line 12 times along with a +35 to lead his team in a victory at Miami.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2009121314

 

your point?

 

He's just pointing out good game by Gay, since in the three prior to today's game he shot 38%, 40%, and a sizzlin' 25%. Congrats to Gay on his accomplishment, houston is working on sumn a little bigger, a thing called the playoffs..

 

Should we bring up the freakish +/- game that Battier had recently??

 

Don't hate on Rudy Gay. He's doing all that he can. He's averaging over 20 ppg on almost 48% shooting, which is remarkable for somebody who plays his position. Plus, he's only 23. Many more years of quality basketball ahead of him.

 

i'm not hating. Just pointing out facts, it's not hating when it's factual, right?

It's not that remarkable when you look at how he gets his points. It's good, but not remarkable.

 

Here's a fact for you: There's only a handful of players at the 1, 2, and 3 positions in the NBA currently shooting around 48% and averaging over 20 ppg, and Gay is one of them. That is remarkable. You can try and downplay or diminish it all you want though.

 

i'ts a good number, a good thing, but not an out of this world stat for someone who gets a lot of baskets at the rim. If you get that close i would expect you to shoot a high %, if anything is remarkable it's that he cant get close consistently, not that he's making half of his layups, putbacks, and short jumpers as a 6'8 swingman with hops and long arms.

 

Stop playing semantics. That he's able to get high percentage shots hence his high fg% is an understood part of the argument, which is why I said (and you seem to agree) it is remarkable. Stop trying to argue when there's no argument there.

 

Ditto.

 

I think what RV6 meant by his original post, was what's the relevance of Gay's stats to the Rockets?

Why is it so hard for people to comprehend that during that draft, management wanted to build a championship contending squad around Yao and T-Mac? So should we go back to every trade and draft the Rockets have participated in and bring up the stats of people the Rockets should have drafted or kept?

Should I go to the thread about T-Mac for Billups and Prince every time Billups has a good game and post his stats? What is the relevance of Gay's stats to the current Rockets team? None.

 

Just because I missed the point u made earlier, how can you not think the rockets needed a high lotto pick/young swing when the evidence of such is clear?

The rockets lost to the Mavs in 04 mainly because everytime stackhouse came in the game, he debo'd wesley or barry or anyone named mcgrady in the blocks. Also, the year after the rox took a embarrassing game 7 lost, tracy (history of back problems) and yao (a giant of sorts) missed enough games that the team wound up with the #8 lotto pick. They don't hand out high lotto picks for fun and tbey don't give them to teams that don't need them ordinarily. What the rox needed was exactly what they couldve had in a draft pick, a young dynamic wing player who could evolve into a 3rd scorer to take the pressure off tracy and yao. That's what they needed, that's what they couldve gotten either by drafting brewer or gay or either via trading the #8 pick. Only a few will see what i'm talking about and some will see it your way. Just to be fair, it was never,ever,ever, billups and prince for mcgrady.Instead, it was billups and mcdyess with the team agreeing to release him.

 

round and round we go, everybody knows where this is gonna go...

 

Guess what Lebron shoots about the same % so I guess he's not efficient enough for you? He gets a lot of basket at the rim too, why doesn't he put up a 60% or something? And fyi the wing players on our team couldn't even take the ball to the rim off the dribble so stop the blind hating. I guess no one will admit the 8th pick for Battier trade was a bad move unless Michael Jordan was that pick.

 

First off, we need to establish that the injury-bug that has plagued this team was highly unforeseeable at the time so it is fair for management to toss the 05-06 season as an unfortunate turn of events. Prior to the injuries in the 05-06 season,, Yao had played 82, 82, and 80 games and T-Mac had played 78, 67, 75. Those look like pretty healthy stars to me.

Second, after the Mavs series, it was clear that the Rockets lacked talent around their stars. So why not trade for good, solid players rather than draft a rookie and wait a couple of years (thereby wasting your star's short NBA lifespans)? If I remember correctly, the reason the Rockets were so high on Roy was the fact that they believed he can come in and help right away. He was a proven pick, unlike Gay who many had doubts about. So if everyone (experts, coaches, scouts, etc) has concerns about whether Gay has the desire and whether he has his head on right to be successful in the NBA, why draft him when the goal is to win now? Please go back and read all the mock drafts and see what people were saying about him. His talent was never in serious doubt, it was whether he wanted to win, play defense, work hard, etc. When your goal is to win now, I don't think those are the qualities you want in a rookie.

On top of getting Battier, a player who seemed to fit in our system very well and could take the load of T-Mac by defending the other team's best player, the trade gave us a chance to get rid of a horrible signing in Stro-Swift. Why do people always forget that fact? It wasn't #8 for Battier. It was #8 + Stro-Swift's horrible contract for Battier.

 

Rudy Gay is going to probably want a max deal next season. There is a team dumb enough to offer it so if we did have him, that's what it would take to keep him. Is he really worth a max contract? Wouldn't you rather be in the position to get Dwayne Wade than keep Rudy Gay?

BTW, I did a per 48min comparison of Landry to Gay:

Landry: 29.7pts 11.2rbs
Gay: 24.3pts 7.8rbs

 

Great video. Thanks for that.

Basically, Morey says despite what some people think, the Battier trade was not a short-term "win now" move. Rather, there were many factors that made Battier attractive to the Rockets, including his contribution to the overall team and system, and short-term/long-term salary considerations.

 

Morey also owns a a bridge in Brooklyn. Special sale price just for you. No way Morey is going to diss his predecessor in public