I don't want to turn this thread into a Rudy Gay debate but you make it sound like the guy is a failure and a bench fodder on some team. In only his second year he averaged 20-6. Pretty solid numbers for an up and coming star and his stats are similar to Brandon Roy. I know the Grizzlies are a horrible team right now but that is on management for giving away their best player Gasol for nothing. Anyway the kid is going to be a future star in this league mark my words this will come back to haunt the Rockets. Don't get me wrong Battier is a very nice player but he will be only a role player for the rest of his career. I was just trying point out the fact that the Rockets have struggled for over 10 years now to develop talent in house and that is what has led to there shortcomings. Even the current champ Boston Celtics made their big SPLASH by developing guys like Al Jefferson, Delonte West and combining them with lottery picks in order to acquire big time players like KG and Allen. All those trades were possible cause the Celtics patiently developed talent in house and then went out and got a good deal on it. Rockets on the other hand have some kind allergy to developing young players. We stay away from having to go through the growing pains so instead we focus on misfits on other teams and try to make them work for us. My real issue with the Rockets is that we lack a proper system of bring up talent from within our ranks. Look at the rest of the league, even our nemesis Utah deserves credit for rebuilding the team from the ground up instead of going out and getting seasonal rentals like us. Why can't we do that some day?
well lets wait and see what daryl morey can do, u said the past few years... 10 years to be exact, if thats ure timetable u gotta include carrol dawson's deals... lets give morey this year to see if what he is building is something great.. last year, if it wasnt for injuries, we would have been in the finals... infact, if everyone stayed HEALTHY the past 5 years, we could have been in the finals at least every other year and the western conference finals every year... i dont think its the "splash players" that are the issue... i think it's health man... the numbers back it up...
Ok, now it seems like you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. Rudy Gay averaged 20 and 6. Very solid numbers. But who else is on the team that is going to take the shots? Every bad team has a 20 point scorer. Every single one of them. Rudy Gay would not be averaging those numbers with the Rockets because we have 2 superstars on the team already, and his development would've hindered with us. Battier on the other hand helps us tremendously on defense. Even with our crappy offensive numbers in the league, we win plenty of games. Why? Because our defense is that solid. Who is our best defender? Shane Battier. Ask Kobe, he'll tell you. We can mark your words about Rudy Gay being a superstar one day, but that doesn't help our championship goals today. I'm sure management has done a ton more scouting on Gay than anything you've seen of him. It was their decision not to pick him up and instead go with a solid veteran who plays amazing defense. Next, you say the Rockets don't develop young players and then go and say how the Celtics developed young players and got KG and Ray Allen out of it. How do you think we got T-Mac over here? Last I checked, the Rockets were the ones that developed Francis and Mobley and got Tracy out of it. Seems like a pretty similar deal to me. But not every move has similar results. The Rockets' trade for Tracy hasn't led to a championship yet. But according to your argument on this formula, we should have won right? After all we did develop young talent and trade for a super star... Unfortunately we traded most of our starting lineup for Tracy and each year we have been trying to reconstruct it. Even more unfortunate is that the 2nd fiddle guy to T-Mac kept getting hurt in Orlando and the same thing is now happening in Houston. The so-called "SPLASHes" we've made in the previous years really weren't splashes. They were solid acquisitions that seemed right at the moment. Trading for Mike James is not a splash. Signing an unproven rookie Scola is not a splash. Signing Stromile Swift was potential but not a splash. On the other hand signing an all-star, former defensive player of the year, consistent 20ppg scorer is surely a SPLASH. Now you're saying even the Celtics built talent to trade for KG and Allen. At the end of the day they didn't use their talent, but traded it for savvy veterans and all-stars like Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Does it matter that they traded developed players or undeveloped players for them? No, because at the end of the day they ended up with KG and Ray Allen. Same thing with the Rockets. Does it matter that they didn't trade some up and coming rookie for Artest and instead traded expiring contracts and future first rounders for him? Would it have made you feel better if we traded Scola for Artest because Scola is a developed rookie now? You do realize that players like Baron Davis, Allen Iverson, and Pau Gasol were traded for expiring contracts too right? I don't get what point you're trying to make here. Like you said, look at the rest of the league, even Utah has been built from the ground up. How is that? Signing Boozer and Okur and drafting Williams? Seems like we drafted Yao and traded for Tracy. I guess we went from the ground up when we drafted Yao as well. Now let's look at what two teams made the finals this year. Lakers and Celtics. I guess the Celtics big trades for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett was all because of their up and coming talent. It couldn't have possibly been being at the right place at the right time. Same thing with Pau Gasol. Yup, it was developing Kwame Brown. It couldn't have been that the Grizzlies wanted to dump his contract and get an expiring, putting the Lakers at the right place at the right time. But with the Rockets getting Artest, it clearly can't be us being at the right place at the right time. It has to be that Artest is a nut and nobody wants him. We're getting damaged goods. So damaged in fact that contenders like Lakers and Spurs were dying to get him on their team. Tell me, which teams were going after Mike James, Luis Scola, an old Steve Francis, and Bonzi Wells? Just that alone should make you realize how different the trade for Artest is. It's not comparable to any signing or trade the Rockets have made in the past few years. It's much bigger. It's the biggest acquisition we've had since getting T-Mac. It seems like you're just looking to be negative for the sake of being negative. You're trying to find faults for the hell of it. Excuse most of us fans for being excited for getting an all-star, former defensive player of the year type player. Excuse us fans for being excited for finally having a legitimate trio of all-stars. We clearly shouldn't be excited about this. I mean, look how Derek Anderson and Stromile Swift turned out. Ron Artest is no different from anyone of those acquisitions.
You hardly understand my points so there is no more arguing with you from now but I would like to say one last thing before I stop commenting on your post. See I am a loyal die hard Rockets fans just like you but I think realistically. Everyone on this board has themselves convinced Artest is going to the final missing piece of the puzzle but I am among the outspoken often criticized minority who believes at some point he will bite the hand which feeds him. That is the nature of the guy. Yes I would love to see things turn out differently and see the Rockets Trio succeed but I am putting a hold on that thought for now. Finally, all the optimists on this board like you keep saying that is its ok even if Artest is a failure, we lose nothing in the end just pay him one year's worth of money. I think that is wrong, if Artest should implode, he will destroy much more than you can imagine. Again I am just warning you guys of the dangers that lie ahead, call me a pessimist or whatever you like cause I am telling it like it is. Someone had to do the hard thing and speak some truth and tell the cautionary tell. In the end I hope and pray that I never have to do one of those I told you so moments. Rockets are my team, their failure will hurt me deeply. GO ROCKETS!!!
See, now that explanation was a lot better to me than your previous explanations. You're worried about his character and demeanor. That's totally understandable, and I think most of us are also cautiously optimistic about him. But if he can control his character issues (and a lot of us are optimistic about this because he's put in a good situation with a coach he loves in his contract year), then the sky's the limit. The reason a lot of us view this acquisition different from the others made in the last few years is that the problem with all those acquisitions was on the court with their limited talent. The problem with Artest has been off the court. Meanwhile when he's on the court he's an intimidating force to be reckoned with on defense and totally capable of being a 3rd scorer on offense. I think a lot of us and the Rockets are betting on Adelman containing the beast inside Artest and letting only his talent out. But I have no problem with you being cautious about this and fearing that Artest might blow up at some point. He just might, but we have to take that chance. You have to be daring to be great sometimes.
