Dont be such a jerk dude! We should be happy be in the company of people of all nations as fans of our Rockets. I think it's cool that this fan even took the time to post...then we wonder why we are so unliked internationally. If you were only this witty in regards to Rockets subjects, you would probably have a post worth reading.
I am baffled by the reaction some people are having to this debacle. I see no way in which this is a positive for the Rockets. I love Shane Battier, and I'm glad to see him on the Rockets, but with the length of his contract and his eroding skills, this trade will look even worse in two years than it does now. The idea, obviously, is to "win now," because our "window" is so short, and there's no way Gay can help us in the short term. Some people are even using the Heat as an example of a team that won with old guys. Hello? The Heat won with DWAYNE WADE. If he'd been drafted by the Rockets, we would've traded him for a nice, safe, known commodity and lost in the first round again. Carroll Dawson was on TV before the draft talking about the Rockets' recent history and saying they don't play it safe, that they're willing to roll the dice for a shot at the championship. So what do they do? They play it safe. The Rockets needed to get younger, deeper, and more athletic. We got older, slower, and shallower. We needed a quality backup for TMac who could also play some 2 so we wouldn't have to wear him out before the playoffs. Instead we got a "combo forward" who will likely make TMac spend time at the 2, where he will be matched against quicker players and have to fight thru screens, wearing him out faster. Rudy Gay would have been TMac's primary backup, learning from him while he was lessening the load on him, and could eventually have been TMac's replacement. He would have helped lengthen TMac's career. This move will shorten TMac's career. Our biggest needs were outside shooting and perimeter defense. Battier is a good shooter, but his defense, while solid, is worst where we need it most -- on the perimeter. People seem to think the one-sidedness of this trade will be fixed by re-acquiring Mike James. James addresses none of our defensive needs and was very uneven offensively when we had him. Half the board hated him as much as Moochie Norris. Why is he suddenly a savior? Just because he's a free agent?? He's a slightly more experienced Luther Head. Many people are saying the Rockets will be much better next year and win 55 games. Maybe so, but that would've happened without the trade, assuming TMac and Yao were healthy. We traded two dynamic players for one complementary part. If either of our stars goes down, Battier won't be able to help. Gay might've been able to. If the Rockets are healthy all year, Battier might be a slight plus in the playoffs over Swift and a rookie Gay. That's it -- a slight improvement in the playoffs in the first year. He's not going to win us a championship, and I don't see winning one playoff series as much of a payoff for bankrupting the team's future, because that's just what we did. In years two, three, four, and five of the Battier era, we will slowly become mediocre with an aging TMac and no prospects for improvement. Sorry, that's the way I see it. I can only hope Hoopsworld gets it right for once and Swift refuses to report.
so lets say I agree that swift is a bad contract, would you agree that battier is no good? swift may have low iq but he's not a bad contract. how much is he getting paid? he's got same production as nene and kmart and other overpriced PFs for less than half the price and you call him a bad contract? so if west is able to trade swift does that prove that he's not a bad contract?
Nice post. These points have been made before, maybe, but you articulated them quite nicely. The trade is astonishingly short-sighted. It's a knee-jerk reaction to a disappointing season, a campaign ravaged by injuries. Let's look at the big picture. For two superstars, Yao and TMac are still quite young. At 26 and 27 (IIRC), they each still have 3-7 years left in their prime. How many other teams in the NBA have two superstars with so much gas left in the tank? The Heat? Nope. Wade's a baby, but Shaq's done. The Suns? Nope. Nash is on the wrong side of the 30, and it's downright laughable that an MVP experienced "fatigue" in the playoffs. The cloest comparison is the Spurs, and that's some pretty damned good company. Point is -- we're not some creaky team of aging superstars, a la the Rockets 96-98, who need one more star to push them over the top. We're still a relatively young squad. And we should nurture it. Build with it. Gay should really start producing in 3-4 years. And that's when TMac will be 30 and Yao will be 29, and maybe that's the time for a "Win Now" philosophy. We blew it. In Monopoly terms, it's like we traded Boardwalk (with Park Avenue still unclaimed) for Baltic Avenue with a Hotel. Yes, we get a sure-fire revenue stream with Baltic Avenue. But a couple of hours later, you'll really wish you had that Boardwalk.
Thanks, I was shooting for a "sum up" type post that tried to debunk all the folks who are trying to rationalize this awful trade. I though I had said one or two new things, but I skipped a few hundred pages of this thread, so I may have missed something. Absolutely right. In trying to win now, we have lost the chance to win later and probably to win now, as well. You don't trade away the future for a role player. A Charles Barkley, maybe, but not a Matt Bullard. I hate to think what this franchise will look like in two or three years.
The trade is the management conceding that they are desperate for role players. Ever criticism against the Rox were not Yao or Tmac, but the supporting cast. While I think the trade was bad and impulsive, I will root for Battier and hold nothing against him. He probably will be an excellent fit for Tmac, but I agree with the short sightedness of it. Who knows in 4 or 5 years what will happen with everyone on the team is older and tied up with large contracts. I guess management see a championship in that window...
Yes, if West is able to trade Swift for anything decent, then that DOES prove he's not a bad contract. Time will tell.
The proof is in the pudding. I'm POSITIVE the Rockets entertained all sorts of offers for Swift prior to draft night. It just might be that this was the best we could get. I know thats hard for most to accept but...
thats the problem.. why did the trade have to be done before the draft? can't we pick up the 8th whoever we want, keep him, then entertain offers later on for 8th and swift? it's not like battier is a once in a lifetime offer at draft night that if we pass we are screwed..
Also keep in mind that we are close to the Luxery tax. Rudy Gay's lottery contract + Stromile gets us closer to the lux tax than just Battier alone. Les saved $$$ by dumping "potential" in both Gay and Stromile for the sure bet of Battier. If Swift had no trade value, how would we move him after the draft? Lets just look at this trade but for fun do it after the draft. 1. We can't trade Battier for Gay straight up because their salaries won't match. Gay being on a rookie contract won't get you much value in return. 2. No way Jerry West trades us Battier for Stromile straight up.
There were also rumors that Battier was on a lot of other teams wish list. He was apparently a key piece that Philly wanted if Iverson was to go to Memphis. I think the reason the Rox rushed is cuz they were really after Battier and knew if they waited Memphis would trade him elsewhere. This trade can be argued back and forth as much as we want, but until we know what kind of player Gay turns out to be you can not decide who wins. If he turns into a 25 point scorer of course we made a mistake. But if he continues to tantalize us with potential but never puts it together, I say we did the right thing cuz Battier will improve us.
why does rudy gay need to be a star in order for the trade to be a mistake? if rudy gay can match battiers contribution to Memphis in his first year then the trade is already a mistake.. but if with battier we can get past the 2nd round then the trade was a success..
Let me just say that Battier is solid. Everywhere he has gone since middle school his teams have made the playoffs and done well.
I'll grant you that. I thought Stro had some trade value too but what I think and what is reality are two different things. Everybody knew the Rockets wanted to move Stro so that makes it a buyers market ...not a sellers market. I suspect we did the best we could.
I think a closing lineup of Yao, Batt, Tmac, James and one of Head/Alston/Bogan/Wesley can be a world of trouble on both ends. Even better if we find a better big SG (using trade exemption maybe). Battier is a better player to match up with most of our potential rivals 4s than Swift. Guys like Diaw, Marion, Dirk, Howard, Hory, Haslem and Walker. The league has gone to multskilled perimeter 4s and Battier fits that mold. Once you think of Battier as primarily a 4 I can see our thinking a lot clearer. I still think we got jobbed on value--we should have gotten a mid to late 1st rounder, but Battier is about the age of Tmac and should be excellent.
This is not correct. You're assuming that we know nothing about Gay but can predict accurately what we'll get from Battier. That's not true. There is no guarantee whatsoever that Battier will improve the Rockets, or even be on the team at playoff time. He could hate it here and demand a trade, blow out a knee, get hurt in a car wreck, etc., etc., etc. There are no guarantees. The best we can say is that he has a lower risk than Gay. But he also has a lower ceiling. By the way, this talk about Gay's lack of production ignores the fact that he was an underclassman on an exceptionally talented team. He did what you would expect a good teammate to do: he deferred to the more established players. To me, he looks like the type who will really blossom in the NBA and not cause the kind of personality problems you often see between stars (e.g. Barkley-Pippen).
