I think Novak may have an equal career to Gay.....Novak is a gym rat with a motor that doesn't quit, and he is an amazing shooter. Gay seems to lose focus, a lot, and sort of wanders around out on the court.....he may be ok, but he is not an all star waiting to happen, IMHO. Novak will be a contributor, THIS YEAR. He will be coming off the bench stretching defenses from the PF position, and possibly playing some backup SF. Novak was a steal at 32....a STEAL, I tell ya ! DD
but what does he have to do with the trade? we could have still gotten novak if we didn't do the trade or got more in the trade..
I agree about Novak. He reminds me of Austin Croshere. He's not quick enough to play major minutes, but if he makes the team, he'll definitely hit some shots. How many games did you see Gay play? I saw 7-8 and thought he was fine. I don't expect him to be an all-star, but he has that capability. He wasn't the "take charge" type at UConn, but some collegians do a lot better in the pros. I suspect Gay will be one of those. His game is better suited to the pros.
Again why would Swift have ZERO trade value? 26 year old hyper athletic PF/C for ONLY THE MLE???? Just loook at Adonal Foyle, Jerome James, Nene, etc. all getting nearly twice what Swift is getting. Do you seriously think any of those players are better than Swift?
Really? It took them the enternity of 5 minutes to decide that Battier was the best deal for Swift/Gay? Last I heard, trades aren't restricted to Draft Night. You can still make trades in the offseason. Why not wait and see what other teams were willing to give for a potential superstar and a bargain priced young PF/C.
Battier's contract is larger than Swift's. Is saving a million a year in salary worth it? SWift HAS trade value. Why do you guys keep insisting that Swift has NO VALUE or NEGATIVE Value?????? If guys like Foyle, Nene, Jerome James, Dampier get nearly twice what Swift gets, why is Swift so worthless??? Your logic is correct. But only if you apply it to BATTIER. Who knows what other teams are willing to give for that combo?
Exactly. What's worse, even if Battier somehow helps us ge past the 2nd round, he won't get us to the Championship. And if Gay turns out to be even a borderline star, we lose, whether we get past the 2nd round or not.
Novak being a steal at #32 has absolutely no bearing on the Gay/Swift for Battier trade. The possibility of James coming here also has no bearing on it. Please don't use them to prop up your "Gay/Swift for Battier trade is good for us" argument.
No one is making a substantial trade offer for any of those scrubs either. Nene might be able to get you something because he is only 24 and has put up pretty good rebounding numbers in limited minutes. Stro is 27 and has not manage to impress one of his many coaches enough to earn starters minutes. If you are not a player by your 6th season after playing multiple college seasons, then whatever potential people may have thought you had will most likely be written off. Unfortunately, all of Stro's value is in his potential, which is why he was a salary throw in. If Stro was as good as you seem to think, he would have brought back Battier straight up.
To help me feel better I imagine Rudy Gay being the next Eddie Griffin: tall, athletic, can shoot but uninterested, drifting into the abyss.
Dampier got his insane contract because he was unrestricted, was coming off a career year at Golden and supposedly he was ready to step it up another level. That is what led him to make the statement he was the 2nd best center behind Shaq. Plus it was Mark Cuban who paid him. Dampier got Moochie's disease as soon as the ink was dry. Foyle got his money because the Warriors knew Dampier was leaving and they had no other big man. They felt keeping him was essential. He had never shown any real promise but he's a really good guy and they thought he would get better. Jerome James played inspired in the 2005 playoffs against his former team, the Kings. That alone landed him an MLE contract with the Knicks. Only Isiah was dumb enough to do that. Nene got his money based on the dreaded "P" word (potential). Results are to be determined. Stro doesn't necessarily have negative value, just maybe close to zero. His salary isn't too high and he's OK for 15-20 mins/game as a backup. I think the Rox were fed up with his effort last year, his intelligence on the court and just wanted to get rid of him.
I was just talking with one of my friends about this trade, and he mentioned that on Sports Radio in LA when they were talking about the draft the day after it, that Don Nelson had supposedly made a comment about the draft that his "good friend Carroll Dawson got totally jobbed." (that's the words of the radio people.) They said Nelson said, "That Gay deal reminds me of when I traded Dirk for Tractor Trailer. That's about the only other draft day deal I can compare that to as far as lopsidedness. In 4 or 5 years Houston will seriously regret that move."
The one deal that this is most similar to? Well, let see.. 1. A Duke star player 2. who won National Player of the Year 3. but who has supposedly peaked in the pros 4. got traded for a young lotto pick 5. with insane combo of size and atheleticism 6. but some questiosn as to whether he'll fulfill his potential.. 7. But damn... the kid just has such upside.
Yes... now of course Battier is not quite Elton Brand (though the Bulls version was tagged as just a stats padder on horrible teams), but also remember how much hype Tyson Chandler had coming into the league, more hype than Rudy Gay had going for sure.
