And you are looking to get John Salmons and Brad Miller,lol. Two real nice pieces to any contending team. What a joke
Battier is the joke. Rafer is the joke. Believing that Yao and McGrady are good enough OFFENSIVELY to carry this team is a joke.
Battier is the cherry on top of a championship caliber team...unfortunately we're much farther from that level than we thought we were.
he was injured and when he came back it was obvious to me that his defense is better than Artest's. He goes for blocks at the basket, hands in the face and contesting shots over just running into people, and does not gamble on steals and get burned 50% of the time like RonRon does.
Ok, at what point when guys are chasing you off the line does a player pump fake and either move in closer or go to the hole? He had ankle surgery affter the season ended, yet Yao and Tracy are recovering also and don't really get the same break. I mean rafer will step up and take a shot before battier. The guy will pass up a shot and people will think its unselfish, yet when its done, its not the right basketball play. Passing up the open shot with the shot clock winding down because u don't have the nuts to take the shot isn't the proper basketball play. Everytime people bring up Shane, either he's injured, intangibles, yao's best post passer or something. What about lack of play recognition? What about being a really good role player and picking up the slack. I mean Bruce Bowen has been more productive offensively in the playoffs than sane. They guy scored 22 in game 1 and proceeded to avg 7 ppg. Are you kinding me. Its one thing to have Dante Jones playing and not expecting anything. He wasn't a high lotto pick, nor was he traded for a high lotto pick, but for the 2nd highest drafted player and the 4th highest paid, we should expect more.
Exactly. I don't have a problem with Battier, per se. I have a problem with the foundation (Tracy and Yao). They aren't the next Kobe and Shaq and you can't build around them assuming they will do all the heavy lifting. You either keep Battier and find real go to guys to lead the team or you move Battier and let Artest start or move Battier for another more well-rounded player. The foundation of this team isn't strong enough offensively to get by with offensive zeros like Alston and defense-only players like Battier.
Battier has been getting burned by 2nd and 3rd tier wing players this season: Nick Young Rashad McCants John Salmons Al Thornton among others. I know he's coming off an injury but Ron currently HAS AN INJURY and at least Ron can do SOMETHING on the other end. When was the last time you saw Battier carry a team offensively to an overtime win.
On paper the depth of the 2/3 position is one of the greater strengths but in reality it's hurting the Rockets because Battier isn't healthy nor are T-Mac and Artest. Battier's also admitted he won't be fully healthy this season. The problem with trading Battier is his condition and the Rockets situation other teams will smell the blood and bargain harder. For somone who cost the Rockets the no.8 pick that might be too unpalatable to get anything done. Another problem is Artest isn't a lock to sign for next season. If they lose both they could be looking at a Head or Wafer level player starting instead next season. Portland's been interested in the Rockets in the past couple of seasons maybe they'd take him at full value? Roy has championed Batum as a starter over Outlaw publicly giving the reason that he plays defense without taking away shots from him. Webster is injured so he's definately a scratch. Frye has only played an average of maybe 5-6mins per game since November. So maybe... Outlaw + Frye + Freeland (draft rights) for Battier + Head/Wafer
once again, nobody cares about how effctive a player is, just as long as they show heart and hustle, because that overrides any lack of talent. and BTW I don't ever feel like I KNOW Battier will make a shot, on the contrary, I think he will miss it most of the time.
I think a lot of people that would disagree with you are looking at it this way; we brought in Shane to do what? WIN NOW. And what has happened since we have lost now. I look at it like this, we could have had a young replacement to an aging injury riddled McGrady in Gay or maybe even if we didn't like Gay, we could have traded him as his stock rose*. Now we are stuck with what we have. 2 superstars that can't stay healthy to save their lives and a guy that is the "complete player" to everything except for offense. *I say wait for his stock to rise cause he has way too much talent for him not to show any type of progress/potential. I know that'll be another argument someone brings up.
1. Tracy sucks this year so you can't say he'll score. 2. Same goes for Barry, his shot has been way off this year. 3. Head are you kidding me! 4. That leaves 3 starters and 2 bench players picking up for another starter. Come on now.
Not everyone can be the great scorer, you need good role players too, he is our Mario Elie. I would trade him for Travis Outlaw though. DD
i am may be wrong but that why we bring ron artest to copliment the third scoring option and when tracy went down we would still have two star on the team or vice versa i addition to brent barry
