i FIND IT INTERESTING THAT THE rOCKETS JUST CAN'T SEEM TO LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES...THEY DEFY THE COGNITIVE LEARNING PROCESS. I SPEAK OF THE FACT THAT EVERYTIME THEY DEAL WITH JERRY WEST, IT TURNS OUT BAD TO SAY THE LEAST. WE CONTINUOUSLY INSIST ON TAKING JERRY WEST LEFTOVERS...PATHETIC. JAMES POSEY...NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT HE WOULD BE...LUCKILY WE DIDNT RESIGN THIS GUY BECAUSE HE WAS ALWAYS LOST ON OFFENSE. STROMILE SWIFT...A HIGH DRAFT MISTAKE JERRY WEST WAS NOT GOING TO RESIGN IF IT KILLED HIM...THEY LET THE ROCKETS HAVE AT THAT MEATLESS BONE...KNAW KNAW. NOW THEY THINK THREE TIMES A CHARM AND THAT SOMEHOW BORING BATTIER WILL BECOME A BETTER PLAYER. I MEAN THEY HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT BATTIER WILL IMPROVE BY TAKING HIM BECAUSE I KNOW THEY CAN NOT BE SATISFIED WITH WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE TABLE...10 AND FREAKIN 5. REDICULOUS!!!! I THINK JERRY WEST IS GETTING REVENGE ON HOUSTON FOR THE STEVE FRANCIS TRADE WHEN THE GRIZ WAS STILL IN VANCOUVER. WE WERE ROYALLY PLAYED AGAIN...I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND HOW THEY ARE PAID SO MUCH MONEY TO CONSISTANTLY MAKE SUCH TERRIBLE MOVES. THIS TEAM WILL IMPROVE TO A 40 WIN TEAM...THAT IS IT. THEN T-MAC WILL RETIRE AFTER A FEW MORE SEASONS AND GUESS WHAT? WE'LL BE BACK IN THE DRAFT LOTTERY. BY THAT TIME THIS CITY WILL HAVE LOST WHAT LITTLE LOVE IT HAD FOR THEM THEY GOT BY ONLY WINNING TWO CHAMPIONSHIPS OF WHICH THE MEMORY OF IS FADING FASTER AS THE ROCKETS CONTINUE TO DO STUPID THINGS. IF GAY BECOMES ANY KIND OF PLAYER WITHIN THE NEX 2 OR 3 YEARS I WILL HATE THIS ORGANIZATION.
sign Chris Wilcox or Evans. get another shooter. james or rush. lets move on people. yea we gave up too much, but whats done is done.
If that's it to the trade, then that's complete BS. But If we do get Lowry or Johnson though, then I actually don't think it's too bad.
We've already got Evans without the attitude. Forget that. And WIlcox is out of our price range. He broke out last year. He should get a pretty good contract from Seattle or somebody that is under the cap.
TRADING AWAY RUDY GAY IS LIKE FOLDING POCKET ACES AFTER THE FLOP NO ACES ON THE FLOP. yOU HAVE TO PLAY IT OUT, AT LEAST FOR THE TURN.
Since this deal is likely official, I would move on. Concentrate on the free agent market and trades and try to obtain a back up point guard who can also provide some scoring punch (Mike James,Jason Terry, Marcus Banks, Sam Cassell), as well as a big man who can help out Yao now that we lost swift. I'm thinking of Kelvin Cato, Drew Gooden, Lorenzen Wright, Chris Wilcox. Someone athletic who can really help defend and rebound the ball. What y'all think
They will probably imprive to around 50 to 55 wins if free agency goes right. Don't count on gay being too much more than swift with a jump shot. I could be wrong. I want to win now not wait to for gay 3 yrs.
Hey dram1 i know you dont post very often so just watch it w/ the caps. Unless your trying to get a point across in the reply like, WE GAVE TO MUCH AWAY FOR GAY! Its ok but the caps are like your yelling so just be carefull next time. Im no so much mad we got Battier becuase hes a solid player but im pissed becuase we got rapped. It was a lomp sided trade in fav. of the master Jerry West.
CD and the front office have given the fans a death sentence. The four stages that patients go thru when they learn of their terminal illness... Denial: no f*cking way!! It didn't happen. It's just tentative...right? Anger: Let's kill CD!!! Depression: Oh god, it's over. The franchise is doomed. Hello lottery '07. Acceptance: Well...it'll be ok. He could still be our third option.
to top it all off, we traded these guys to a DIVISION RIVAL, so we can see them 4 times a year. GREAT
I agree with MadMax (and probably others - I'm not wading through all 42 pages of this thread) that the problem with this trade is not getting equal value. Gay was projected to be a top 3 talent, yet combining his rights with Swift, all the Rockets can manage to get is Battier. I really like Battier, and considering the havoc he's caused Yao in the past (he always manages to steal the ball when Yao spins or puts it on the floor), I'm somewhat relieved that he's on our side now. That said, he's not going to improve significantly over the 10 points, 5 boards (plus solid defense) he gives you per game, no matter how many more shots or minutes he gets. Given the holes in the Rockets' lineup, is Battier really going to make us championship contenders? Will he be the player who can cover the Rockets' asses offensively when Yao and/or Tracy aren't playing like superstars? I say no. The Rockets 2004-2005 team was somewhat of a fluke in my opinion. Yao and Tracy were excellent, but they certainly weren't a dominant tandem ala Shaq/Kobe or Jordan/Pippen (although each had dominant games independent of one another). Basically, Sura and Wesley played the best team ball of their career. Combine that with strong performances by Barry and James (and even Bowen and Howard on occasion), and our team looked much better than it really was. But the reality was that the team was too old to do this for 82 games, and by the end of the Dallas series, it should have been clear that this team still had many holes to fill (or players to replace). So they should have immediately identified their tradeable assets and sought out either picks, expiring contracts or young upcoming players (without crazy contracts) The Rockets have had their chances to get rid of the old albatrosses around our necks - the Cassel for Howard deal comes to mind and there are probably others we haven't heard about. The goal should have been to spend 2-3 years amassing young talent around Tracy and Yao. This draft pick was an excellent chance to either bolster our bench (ala Reddick) or if the picks fall the right way, grab a potential star (ala Gay). Instead, we trade away 1 good asset and 1 decent asset for 1 good asset. I just don't get it.
This is an unbalanced trade financially. Both players are earning arbout $5 mil per year but since Battier is a BYC player, his salary only counts as half for the purpose of matching salaries in a trade; plus the fact that we gave up our 8th for virtually nothing. There has got to be more to this trade between the Rox and Griz, otherwise we just got jacked!
here's the kicker in all of this: the trade was made BEFORE the draft and contingent upon whether 5 of the players JVG coveted were going to still be available. what this means was that there's no way Jerry WEst was gonna come out a loser. West would have taken any of those five guys (i strongly believe) AND Rudy Gay. so, it was either lose a good player in Battier at the risk of getting a great potential talent or still just have Battier. That West guy is pretty smart.
CD and JVG, their prints are all over this. Let's just give Morey some time to prove he's this stupid before we start blaming him.
So basically we can blame JVG for this then right? I was excited when i first heard we drafted Rudy (not for the Gay Head backcourt though). Rudy to me seemed to play like he was scared of contact at times but he is not worth trading away to a team in the SAME DIVISION for a "glue" guy. I just hope there is more to this trade than we know if not then the GMs better hope Rudy is a bust.
Is the current lineup (Yao / Howard / Battier / McGrady / Rafer) better than last years (Yao / Howard / McGrady / Wesley / Rafer)? I'd say about the same. Is the bench better or deeper? Deke/Swift Swift/Hayes Bowen Bogans/Head Head vs Deke Hayes Bowen Head a new 2 rounder that is all O. It looks a lot thinner. Who's coming off the bench to add some instant offence? Head and the new 2nd rounder? Deke as our only C backup? I hope Yao can play 82 games x 38 minutes. Hayes as our PF backup? Ok, I'd like to see him get more time, but it could get ugly at times too. Plus, I hope Howard doesn't have a medical relapse. Bowen for our SF? I hope Battier is ready for 48 times 82. And Head gets to cover for both Rafer and McGrady. I know we still have a TE (which I doubt we use) and a MLE. So we add a bench player with the MLE and sign a vet and a couple of CBA players to round out the roster. Future trades? Please, look at our roster and tell me who do we have left to trade? IMO, last night did not make us younger, more athletic or make our bench stronger. How can that not happen when you have the #8 and #32? We got a little bit older, a little thinner and a little less athletic. Evidently, that is not the Rockets goal or they are totally clueless on how to achieve it. Sorry, I'm a cup half empty kind of guy today and I've had time to sleep on this and it still makes absolutely no sense. I like picking up Battier but not at the price we paid. Not anywhere close.
