Yea, we should have squeezed Jerry West for one of his draft picks...as we learned with Novakaine and Cat Mobley...You never know what you get in the 2nd round of the Draft.
After watching the first half of the game tonight, I'm very happy with having Battier on the squad. Solid 7 points and 6-7 rebounds at the half. Last year, I was ecstatic to get that out of Stro in a whole game. Shane will do this consistently all year. Not saying Gay couldn't do that, but it wouldn't be near as many times over the whole season.
GATER, let put aside the Swift part of the trade. Would you trade a #8 pick of this year's draft quality for Battier, straight up? I don't know about you. I would. Now, is Swift our future? I don't think so. So, how does trading #8 and Swift for Battier "mortgaging the future"? I can understand people upset about the value discrepancy. I was upset too. But I don't think it is about the so-called "win now" thing. The fact is, a #8 pick is never a sure thing. Battier is a sure thing. The #8 pick could turn out a lot better than Battier. It could also turn out to be much worse. So how does it have anything to do with future? It is a mortgage only if you are sure that whoever we draft with the pick is going to be very good.
I am late to this thread and, has been my habit that past two years, I've been absent from the forum for months due to work. Back on topic: I was one of those most upset by the draft night deal that I thought amounted to a public rape of Carol Dawson. I am no longer upset about the trade but not for the reasons some have mentioned. Although Battier's play has softened my original position somewhat, it is the deal for Bonzi that turned me completely around on the value of the trade. Had we not made that deal, my skepticism would have remained until Battier or Rudy Gay convinced me one way or the other. So, for those who begged patience and had faith the ROX would make a "SPLASH" before the season, I take my hat off to you. Of course I'm still waiting to see what Rudy Gay becomes (or doesn't depending on your interest in his career...) to make a final judgement, but with Bonzi and Battier, the Rox time to shine is NOW!!!!
Hearing of the trading news, my frist reaction was that was not true, but after learning it was doomed, I cried, not cause of Gay(although I like this guy and still think he would be a very good player) but cause of Stro (maybe many fans have almost forgotten him, but I really liked him), and so I disliked Battier at all and thought he did not worth that, but now I become to like him more and more cause of his attitude, his modesty and most importantly his performance in the court! I cannot conclude that it's a good trade, maybe the trade is good for both teams.
i like shane and his game, but i feel we could have gotten more out of this deal. Like maybe two future 2's in 08 and 10 or something.
The way he stimulates momentum for the rockets on both ends of the court (taking charges(gets at least 2 per game), great defending, and has a very lethal left hook shot( that yao also has) and 3 point shooting..he is a steal..I havent seen rudy gay play but his stats aren't great and I just know that he won't be a good defender like battier is. Oh, btw.. i was probabbly one of the 10% who liked this trade...but i'm sure every1 has changed their minds now if they watched him play these last 2 games
Battier trade unheralded The Rockets' acquisition of forward Shane Battier was rated the most underrated move of the off-season in anNBA.com poll of the league's 30 general managers. When told that the hard working Battier is a Jeff Van Gundy type of player, the Rockets head coach replied: "Every coach wants a guys that is tough and plays hard. http://www.nbcsports.com/nba/248407/detail.html
I think this thread can be answered very easily by asking one simple question: Would you, right now, knowing everythiing you now know about this team, and having seen the whole team's progress through training camp and the pre-season, if Jerry West called up CD tonight and said, 'Hey, we want Battier back. We'll trade you Gay and Swift back straight-up for Shane.', would you do that deal, yes or no? Would you make that deal now? I say, no way. Aside from any questions of whether it would be allowed under the rules, I simply ask for the sake of knowing which choice people would value more. I suspect the majority, even the ones who are still sour about it, would say 'no'.
As for Swift, it really wouldn't have made much sense to keep him if we were getting Battier. With Battier, Howard, and Hayes (and incidentally, Padgett) all competing for PF minutes, Swift probably wasn't going to contribute much this season at least. Swift is a career backup with an MLE contract. If we had traded the pick and, say, Juwon or Hayes instead of Swift, I doubt there'd be so much "we wuz robbed!" talk. Put simply, Swift was a throw-in. The Rockets wanted one of Memphis' established starters, a proven NBA player-- in exchange for a draft pick, an "inknown commodity" as it were. Swift was demanded by Memphis as a bet-hedger: If Gay bombs badly, Swift's reaquisition prevents them from having given up Battier for nothing. As I've layed out, Swift probably wouldn't have played a ton of minutes this season. His main role likely would have been backing up Yao, who obviously plays most of the time. Swift would probably have gotten around the same number of minutes this season as Chuck Hayes will, assuming Hayes didn't outplay him in practice, about which we can only speculate. An argument can be made that Swift might have come in damn handy if Yao is injured, but the sad truth is that we're screwed if Yao gets injured no matter what. Swift couldn't have prevented the team from going into the toilet in that scenario. Bottom line, Battier's aquisition made Swift very expendable in my opinion. So the real question is, did the Rockets "mortgage the future" by trading the pick instead of drafting Gay? Well, only time will really tell. It's obvious that Battier makes this team better than Gay would have for the short term; Battier is an immediate starter, and it's unclear where Gay would have gotten minutes in the lineup alongside Snyder, T-Mac, Wells, and Battier. Each is more ready to contribute currently than Gay. Where will Gay be in three years? Where will the Rockets be? Unclear. But as the team in currently constructed, an athletic small forward isn't of great need.
well keeping swift and howard wasnt a possibility casue we had to give someone to match shanes salary.... I think it would have been better to keep swift over juwan... Swift can play better as a backup 5 although he did foul alot.... but juwan is gonna be sittin on the bench quite a bit or at least he could since we dont really need him....
