in draft day trade. Grizzlies gets Swift, rights to Gay from Rockets for Battier Houston sent the rights to No. 8 Rudy Gay and Stromile Swift to Memphis for Shane Battier. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2006/news/story?id=2503390
had just seen that. i dont know much about all the picks but it looks to me like jerry west gets an A for this draft with gay and stromile. gay's upside is lots greater than battier.
i like the rockets, and i am sad to say that i am happy to see stro go he didn't do much of anything last year for houston he at least frees up money now for someone who wants to play battier brings much needed 3 point shooting all-in-all, a good trade for memphis though
Dumping Stro's salary is the ONLY silver lining for what I consider to be a remarkably short-sighted trade. Battier is good, but the draft is about potential. Not about a guy that gets 10 points and 4 rebounds a night. This trade just signals that the Rockets will be satisfied getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs each year.
1. Battier is an incredible defender, which doesn't show up in the stat sheet 2. Battier didn't have Yao Ming and T-Mac's double teams in Memphis. He will average far more in Houston. If everyone on this Houston team can be healthy for a whole season, they can do much better, especially now with the cap room they poccess.
I don't really think moving to a team where he'll be the 3rd option (at best) is going help Battier's numbers. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a very good and undervalued player, but he's not going to get anywhere near 20 ppg. He's a good defender and great teammate. Houston should be thankful.
Yeah, I'll have to say that when I first heard this last night, I was very disappointed in the Rockets and cursing Jerry West. But, here's the argument, Battier is a "character" guy, who will hustle, play perimeter d with a passion, hit an outside jumpshot and inject a little "fire" under the team... which was the problem with Yao and McGrady, two "quiet" leaders. Gay would no doubt have had more upside, more scoring, but his knock was his "assertiveness" and leadership skills. Stro', of course, as we know is not very motivated, and didn't even really grab his chance to shine. And, if you consider the financial flexibility to go after another player, Houston might have helped themselves. So, while I think on paper Memphis got 2 good players for 1 good player, Houston probably likes the trade for the intangible gamble. We'll see. Alot of folks like the Rockets' second round pick, a 6'9.5" power forward from Marquette who can shoot the three. Think Matt Bullard, Dan Langhi, Scott Padgett and all the other 6'9" white boys who shoot the 3 that Houston seems to love so much. SOMEONE NEEDS TO REBOUND and play D on that team!