The path traveled by the 25th overall pick of the 2008 NBA draft

Thats a good point.

Is that directed to Ariza or Lee?

 

Batum is looking pretty damn good right now. He's a good defender, and he's become a reliable shooter, and he's only 22.

Just for statistical proof, Batum has the highest offensive rating on the Blazers, and the 4th highest defensive rating he's plus 11, and last year he was plus 20.

This is the move I regret more than the Gay-Battier trade.

 

I guess the question is can this team get better?

 

Well the problem here is we "cashed in" our assets for a shot at the ring.

Yao Ming, Tmac, Artest as the big three with Brooks, Rafer, Battier and Scolandry as the supporting cast with RA at the helm, it was supposed to be a steamrolling all the way to the ring. I'm not sure you can stack a deck any better than that, unfortunately health betrayed the Rockets yet again.

Swinging for the fences results in a miss more often than a hit. I don't see why people keep complaining about the 25th pick when as far as gambles go that Artest trade was as good a bet as you can do.

As far as need goes, I'm not that sold on Batum, I think he's extremely injury prone. I'd rather have Ariza back, to be quite honest.

 

Ironically, this thread serves as an example to why the "trade everyone every time you lose" philosophy isn't as promising as it seems.

This particular series of events seems to just be over-tinkering. It's unfortunate that we don't have Greene or Batum to at least have some hope to cling to at this point. Lee has just been shockingly bad.

Still, Artest and Ariza both seemed great at the time, given the situation. Hindsight just happens to be very unfortunate.

 

Hindsight is always 20/20. What if we never traded Richard Jefferson for Eddie Griffin (RIP)? What if we drafted Rashard Lewis over Dickerson/Drew/Turckan? I can make polls saying "who would you rather have" for those 2 scenarios.


You can't really question the Artest move. Artest is a well known player, Batum/Greene are unknown late 1st rounders and we were trying to WIN. You, yourself, said you don't expect much from late 1st rounders.

We pretty much went all in on Artest and got unlucky there.



Do people really think that Artest bolted because of the size of our offer?

Even had we offered the same amount of money as the Lakers (which is a steep offer, 5 years for an old guy is a major risk), why would Artest choose a hobbled Rockets squad over the defending champion Lakers?

Had Yao not gone down, maybe we give a bigger offer to Artest and maybe he re-signs but those maybes are still question marks. The Lakers gave him ALOT of money AND THEY ARE THE FRICKING LAKERS.



Ariza was decent but we did overpay for him. The Lee deal was strictly financial. I don't like it but I am not the one signing the checks.

 

If only Tracy McGrady had been healthy. Even 2008 playoff form Tracy McGrady would have gotten us past the Lakers. Hell, if we had Deke, we would have beaten the Lakers. Then an easier matchup against the Nuggets and then play a Magic team that the Rockets usually owned back then. Damn. What could have been.

 

Now I wish we had taken Batum. But I also wish we had kept Rudy Gay.

Damn you, hindsight!

 

Morey was "cashed in" our assets way 2 too many times and have crashed and burned. We need to start rebuilding Wizards style asap.

 

Isn't this funny that the BBS gets hung up over a 25th pick?

Morey is thanking the internet Gods he wasn't put in a position to draft Greg Oden or Darko Milicic.

 

I'm still pissed that the blazers and rockets cockblocked Batum from the spurs ...we got hill but probably could of got him in the 2nd round though no one was really intersted in him besides the Lakers

 

If you HAVE Yao and McGrady on the team and plan to play through them, and you have CHAMPIONSHIP aspirations, you might as WELL try to win WITH them instead of building in SPITE of them.

If you're trying to solely draft someone's replacement instead of drafting for need or drafting for value, you might as well DEAL that faulty player for other assets. Rockets heads bet on stacking a team up on paper and going with "IF HEALTHY", and I can't totally fault that.

As long as both Yao and McGrady were gonna be on the team, the plan was win-now instead of build-now. Rookie starters never win championships (look it up), and 2nd year players aren't that much better whether they're starters or bench players.

 

I admit that we wouldn't have gotten past the 1st round without Artest. I remember one regular season game against the Nuggets with a healthy Yao,McGrady and Artest,in which they truly looked very dangerous. All of them got 20 points or more in that game if I'm not mistaken. Morey's idea was right.

Batum would be a better fit along the younger players right now,but we wouldn't have made it to the playoffs without Ron.

 

Truth is that if we'd had Batum and Wafer playing SG that year, we'd not beat the Trailblazers in the post season, if made it at all after McGrady went down.

You deal with the cards you are dealt and do not cry about a kid getting better after 3 seasons.

 

I don't know if other fan bases are as bad as ours, but we do seem to do an inordinate amount of whining over past deals.

Sam Cassell
Rashard Lewis (we whined about this for a decade, some still haven't let it go)
Richard Jefferson
Rudy Gay

and now
We should have re-signed Artest, kept Landry, and let Lowry walk

Do you fans actually believe with Artest and Landry this would be a Title contender, seriously. A lot of things have to break you're way to field a true title contender in this league. It's the hardest game to win at, because just getting talent doesnt get the job done, the talent has to fit right.

They saw a window with Yao and Mac, so they took it. Who knew they would both fall apart. Some moves work, some don't.

The best way to get a title is by getting a superstar, which isn't as easy as some of you think it is.

The next best way is assembling talent, and trying to cash in the way the Celtics and Pistons did, and that is what we're trying to do.

 

Not a FAIL.

With Artest the Rockets had the most successful season in over a decade. Considering the injuries we incurred, Batum would have meant a first round exit if not worse.

Please help us find our missing child named "CONTEXT"

Last seen in 1988. $1,000 reward for information leading to her rescue. Kudo's to the OP for a clue. That said, the poll is a "What have you done for me lately" question so what does that have to do with why decisions were made back then?

 

Rudy Gay. Enough said.

 

I've been thinking about the upcoming draft and our prospects of improving through it in the coming year. The key piece that many are waiting to materialize is the Knicks 1st rounder this coming season.

Currently, if things continue as they are, the two picks may not be that far apart....In fact, there's a very real possibility that the Knicks pick ends up being later in the first round than our own.

On top of that is what appears to be a very long negotiation in order to hammer out a new CBA. With the potential of a lockout on the horizon, there may well be a collective weakening of talent available in the upcoming draft. Top players might holdout for 2012, which means the draft will have a collection of role players and projects, neither of whom can fill the voids of this team.