Why did Carroll Dawson trade Rudy Gay for Battier???????

If only we had one of those guys we would be awesome.

 

/endthread

 

I remember realllyy hating Battier when he was in Memphis. Just something about him screamed douchebag. Then he grew on me little by little when he was here. Now I despise him again for wearing a Heat jersey.

Full circle.

 

Yes, that's technically accurate. However, I believe it's a popular notion that Artest-Ariza was practically a trade. The Rockets even requested a SnT with the Lakers to preserve their MLE.

 

Better than Gay, but not good enough to make us a contender. I think we'd have made the playoffs last year, but be eliminated in the first round.

 

Well this is just a moronic argument. How can you not take contracts into account? Its not just about the talent on the court, you also have to look at what you're paying them. Had we kept Gay we would have had to pay 20M to keep him on the team, I certainly don't want him at that price.

Rudy gay being "better" than anyone the Rox roster (disagree, I think Klow is better by a mile) is useless if you're paying him max money. Also as other people have said, dumping slowmile swift gave us room to eventually get Jackie Butler, which lead to Luis Scola. I'd take Battier and Scola over Gay making the max any day of the week. People who are still complaining about the Battier trade just don't get it.

 

When arguably the most talented player in the draft lands in your lap, you take him and don't look back. Role players are a dime a dozen and are available via minor transactions...see Allen, Posey, Barnes, Pietrus, Bowen, Cooper, Maxwell, Elie, etc... I don't know of a role that was ever traded for a top ten pick. I can't believe people are still buying the "win-now" propaganda as if a role player on that Rockets team was going to the difference maker...smh. The hate that Rudy Gay receives on this site is ridiculous and most likely indicative of those that don't wanna admit that it was a terrible move and one of the worst trades in Rockets' history.

Not including his rookie year, Gay is somebody who averages practically 20 ppg on over 45% shooting, close to 6 rpg, 2 assists, 1 bpg, and 1 spg, underrated defensively, and he's clutch:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ttHBHC7BqTk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Not many in the league much less anybody on the Rockets can do the things that Gay does in the video above.

 

I'm sorry but you are just wrong. Here is the best roster Bosh got:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/TOR/2008.html

That team won 41 games. He missed 16 games that year, they were:

4-12 without him
37-29 with him

Like him or not Chris Bosh is a superstar. Adding Bosh to the Rockets would of made this a 55+ win team and in contention for the WCF.

 

How many times are you going to repeat this same bs? Rudy does not nor will he ever make 20 mill a year under his current contract.

 

I said at the time it was a good move, but could backfire a few yrs down the line. Myself personally, I kept waiting for the other compensation from memphis. I liked lowry coming out and thought he would be included. I went to bed late waiting on the other part of the trade. To me, that was the most disappointing thing. They only got battier for the 8th. That was probably a prequel to morey not being able to move up in the draft. They wanted roy, but just like everything else, someone else makes a better deal.

 

Hindsight is always 20/20 my friends

 

bad trade!!!!!

 

If you did not even know who battier was how in the world would you be able to determine if it was a good trade. apperantly you didn't watch Basketbal that often at the time, otherwise you would have known Battier. Or you only watched highlights on ESPN.

It was clear why we traded for Battier, we were in the win now mode, and Rudy would need time te develop (with a terrible Memphis team he scored 10 ppg in his first season, what would you think he would score with the Rockets). We also didn't know how he would develop. We also needed a good defensive player, and Rudy was not a good defensive player when we drafted him.
it is a logical trade since we were hoping Yao and T-mac would be healthy and win a championship. Hindsight is 20-20.

 

I remember the trade like it was yesterday. We finally had a top pick, and even though I didnt really know much about Gay except for youtube highlights and draft reports, I couldnt wait to see what he could bring to the table.

My friends and I were mad after the trade was announced, but fell in line after we heard that Battier was more suited for the championship ready team than a rookie. Eventually, the anger and bitterness increased a year or 2 later when Gay starting putting up big numbers, and Battier started settling for corner threes and gaining a reputation as a top NBA defender who never made a defensive team, and who was constantly getting torched night after night.

I can understand why that trade was made, Battier was a proven defender, and we already had top scorers in McGrady and Yao- who werent so great on defense. In short, we need more defense, not offense. And Rudy Gay was unproven and could have easily ended up as a bust just like several before him.

But that being said, hindsight is a fat ass woman

 

Didn't care for the trade at that time. I remember the front page and Clutch's enthusiasm that Gay had fallen to the Rockets and then the deflation when his draft rights were traded. Clutch even had Gay rated as the number prospect for the Rockets, one not expected to be around at 8. See: "Not Gay Friendly".

In general, I don't think you ever give Jerry West the prospect he covets. It was an opportune time to groom a successor to McGrady. Clutch called it. Oh, well.

 

Propaganda? As if there was some sort of conspiracy by the front office to make the team suck, and all the talk of winning now and finding players to complement the two All-NBA players on the roster at that time was...some sort of trick?

The interesting thing is that the Rockets would have passed on Gay if they had kept the pick, and would have taken Sefolosha. So, if the Rockets deserve any criticism on the deal it is that they completely under-evaluated Gay. I would agree with that critique.

If you want to argue that they should not have been in "win now" mode, or if you want to argue that Gay would have better served "win now" mode, then that would be an interesting discussion to have (one you'd lose though). But to ignore such arguments as "propaganda" is ridiculous.

 

I still cant believe anyone who wants to reason away a top 8 pick for Shane Battier as a good move. Thats the thing. You cant get a top 8 pick with Role players these days. The top 8 thing for Battier regardless of who was picked was a bad decision.

 

You need to familiarize yourself with the term propaganda, which your entire response to me is based on.

The front office tried to justify trading a top ten pick for a role player (which I don't think has ever happened in NBA history) by saying that it was a "win-now" move.

Not only that, again, they had arguably the most talented player in the draft fall to them at #8. I don't care what your plans for the night are, if that happens, you take him and don't look back. The fact that they didn't do that, to me, is a sign of incompetence.

Moreover, if they sincerely believed that a role player would have put that team over the top then the individual or individuals responsible for the move were even more incompetent.

I think the "win-now" propaganda was used in order to deflect criticism away from the fact that the Rockets were screwed in that trade. You don't trade top ten picks for role players that are readily available through minor transactions...I don't think anybody in the history of the league has ever done that. Moving Stro's contract wasn't significant either, because mle contracts are easy to move.

Either way, the team didn't win anything...even when everybody was healthy.

So you can take your pick from either of the explanations above. I really don't care, which one you believe. Neither reflects well on management and both demonstrate that this move was a terrible one.

 

WOW

I hope we do get a high lottery pick this year just so we have Clutch's draft coverage! Damn good assessment and writeup

Good post JeffB

 

Yeah your just gonna have to bite the bullet on this one. Top 10 pick for a role player? Nobody is buying that it was a good move. So if you are a Morey fan? Just admit it and move on. Thats not one of those it was good things in no light or even while squinting your eyes and looking real hard. Not even at the time. I hated it from the beginning and so did so many others. It turned out exactly how everyone said. Bad.