Valuation of Rudy Gay from Grizzlie's Fans Point of View

You're assuming Houston would be interested in acquiring 2 power forwards (scola and landry) with swift already on the roster. Why would they do that? It's more likely that neither Landry or scola would be here had they kept swift. It's also very possible they would have done worse during the season, therefore having a slightly hire seed in the draft and not would not have drafted Brooks...you can't just assume everything would have been the same and just trade battier and gay/swift today, things change, the unexpected happens, which is why losing out on Gay makes some feel so badly.

 

Yeah its all what-ifs and unlikely probabilities, agreed. Once thing's for certain - Spurs wanted to dump Scola and Rockets had the asset to do it. That had little to no bearing on roster. Morey was gonna use Spanoulis as a tradeable asset any way he could. We didnt see it coming but the stars aligned just right.

What use is Joey Dorsey? It wouldnt have been too unfeasable to have treated Landry as that year's Dorsey and shelf him on the inactive. Rockets moved up to get Landry cuz they liked what they saw. Again no bearing on anything else but Morey wanting to demonstrate moneyball magic. Rockets didnt even have 2nd round picks that year.

Finish with a higher draft standing and instead of Brooks maybe draft the other Rudy, Rudy Fernandez like they originally wanted?

Back on the subject of what if they kept Rudy Gay - I think he'da learned a little D under Van Gundy, regressed under Adelman but he'da be a slightly more complete ballplayer. Rockets would be a TOTAL offensive team under Adelman though. But look what Von Wafer's lending being all offense no defense & passing.

 

It was a horrible trade. Stop rationalizing.

 

To be honest, anyone defending the Battier trade is just deluding themselves. Its not something you can call a horrible trade because Battier gave us quite a lot of wins and his recent crappy play notwithstanding, he's still a very productive player.

However, there is no denying that the Battier move was a make-or-break deal, kinda' like the Artest deal we did this season. The goal then was to get a ring-if we had gotten that then trading for Battier would have been a great move. On the other hand had we reached some kind of playoff success, then I suppose we can consider the Battier trade an even one.

However up until now all we have had are first round playoff exits. There is literally no difference from what he had before Battier (first round exit), to what he had after Battier (first round exit). In fact you could say that Battier actually brought us down. Had he not been with us we would have lost more games and most likely missed the playoffs the last two years, giving us two lottery picks to work with. I'm pretty sure we would have Brandon Roy, since no way would we win that final game without him.

Considering that now Rudy Gay has become a very marketable asset while Battier's value has certainly gone down (I'm pretty sure no one will trade their 8th pick for him now), and we have absolutely nothing to show for it then I don't see how anyone can say that we lost out on that trade.

 

LOL forget that Brandon Roy part. I forgot they're in the same class D'oh. I was thinking of Rudy Fernandez and somehow mixed him up with Brandon Roy lol.

 

The biggest thing about Rudy Gay from a scouting point is that he is not really able to get to the FT line very often. He is a primary jumpshooter and doesn't drive as much. Alot of it has to do with his lack of ballhandling. Even Tmac in Orlando was sooo much better than Gay when it came to getting to the basket. He's an athletic freak who doesn't really utilize his athletic ability enough. Doesn't play defense and is a def ball stopper.

 

You say there's no difference, and then say we'd have likely missed the playoffs entirely the last two seasons. To me, that's odd reasoning. The Rockets made the trade for Battier with the belief that it would make them a better team in the short term (first 2-3 years). We could say that they overrated how much he'd improve the team. Or we could say that they overrated how good the rest of the acquired players (e.g. Wells, Snyder, James, Francis) would be. But you basically agree, it seems, that Battier improved the team more than our 8th pick would have.

Every decision is a calculated risk. Apparently you would have preferred us getting much worse (you would have been happy with 3 lottery years in a row with Yao and McGrady ... really?). But the Rockets banked on the team being good enough, with Battier, to make a good playoff run. I think when you have 2 very good players like Yao and McGrady who were at or near the prime of their careers, it doesn't make sense to makes moves that take you backwards.

 

How many times did he step up during the last 12 games to single handedly (or double handedly) win games for them?

The guy is a soft stat padder. Don't need no more soft on this team.

As for "molding" Rudy Gay... Right... did we have much luck "molding" soft selfish guys into something else?

 

the fact that people say rudy gay doesn't carry the grizzlies while using such low standards for battier doing the comparison makes this discussion even the more ridiculous.

 

"Carry"? How about just "contributing" to one win in the last 12 games? That team is falling a part-- not not struggling like most young teams do and Rudy Gay a reason.

If anything, that team's future is probably OJ Mayo, not Rudy Gay.

 

Gay is a good player but those criticisms don't surprise me at all. I've noticed most of the same things myself.

Remember earlier this season there was some kind of poll/debate of who you would rather build a team around between Gay and Durant? Yeah.....I think you have your answer to that silly question.

 

and its still ridiculous because battier would never be the future of any team, see what I'm saying.

 

Hmm, let me make sure I have this right. A 6-5, athletic journeyman (Wafer) can have a career year yr (playing off our stars) for the simple fact that he can shoot and....oh my, how unbelievable....actually use some of that athleticism to get to the basket when the ball swings his way. Yet the 6-9 Gay would struggle here?

Sorry, I just don't see it, and that goes for playing under JVG or Rick. While I admit I didn't watch tons of UConn games, Gay looked like an able defender when I saw him at UConn. I think he could excel defensively if he had a coach to get him into that mindset of wanting to defend. The Grizz are arguably the worst franchise in basketball, and a good organization can make all the difference in the world. Gay isn't lighting it up this year...but at least he has the potential to be a top option. Battier does not. No team would rely on Battier to carry them offensively.

I'm over the trade since we got Artest for nothing (if we can resign him), but I don't see Gay struggling here. And I guarantee you the Grizz could get more for him then we could get for Shane....

Edit: And for those saying Gay can't carry the Grizz.....what do you think their record would be if they had to build around Shane? You diss Gay for not being able to carry a team, as if Battier could be relied on to carry any team. You can't count on Battier to carry your 2nd unit. That's not a diss to Shane...just saying he is an intangibles player. So when comparing him to someone else, you can't say "well this player can't carry this team". Battier should never be in that type of convo....

 

Ice,

Come on now, be real, does Gay play off the ball, or does he dominate it?

Because Wafer works because he can play off the ball very well.

DD

 

perhaps we could have drafted Fernandez like the team wanted too, and again, NOW it would pay off, just like having swift's contract now and Gay now would pay off, but i don't think you can declare a trade just flat out bad when at the moment it was done it made perfect sense. It's like trading Tmac for kobe early in their careers and then complaining because Kobe became MVP and tmac got injured. **** happens and you can't control it. It wasn't exactly Gasol for Kwame either. Yeah it didn't pay out like expected, but don't label it a bad trade because you have the ability now to see the outcome. Like fernandez seems like a steal now, but 3 years ago would he have contributed then? Probably not, and fans would be complaining about it for 3 yrs, then if he "broke out" this year, fans would say, "sure woulda been nice if he could have done it earlier and the last 3 years wouldn't have been wasted"...

 

Considering it was a MEM fans site, why would the opinions there matter for snought?

The bottomline was nailed by a Grizzlies opponents' announcer this past week. Paraphrasing...Rudy Gay is tall, athletic and long-limbed. He's a tremendously talented player who just needs to learn how to play the game when the ball is not in his hands.

For me personnally, and depending upon who MEM hires as their new coach, that's more realistic than Battier getting taller, more athletic or younger.

 

Stromile Swift, is that you?



DD

 

I expected better from you than a cheap shot!

 

Stop lying, you expected much worse.



DD