The Rockets in trading for battier clearly want a player who has immediate impact. I was wondering if mcgrady's health factors into this thought process or do they fell that gay was just not proven enough to take a chance on. do the rockets fell t-mac only has a couple of years left and they need to win now. therefore they got a player who can contribute immediately.
I hear JVG wants to trade McGrady for Maurice Taylor because he has that Knick fighting passion in him and is a perfect fit for our team.
Clearly it means just that. What I don't get though is that if they are aware his health is suspect, why would they trade away potential for a roleplayer, thus betting on T-Mac to be healthy this year?
but [knock on wood] if McGrady was out again, don't we need a potential scorer next to Yao Ming.. might be be Rudy Gay, Swift, or someone else but not Battier..
But if that were the case, why not draft someone who might develop into the type of superstar player who could replace McGrady? Gah, I'm already pissed enough at the trade, I refuse to worry about McGrady's health until I'm given a legit reason to.
A legit reason to? How about last season's game tapes? Or the quotes where he says it will never go away?
I thought about the fact they may feel they don't need a long term replacement for mcgrady also, but I forgot it while typing my post. that's the alternative though.
I think it says more about Jeff Van Gundy's horizon (i.e., Les Alexander's patience) than about McGrady's back. Though, in Van Gundy's defense, there's a school of thought that nursing a guy like Gay through two years of growing up and getting used to the NBA is a waste if you can get a good NBA-ready guy now, and then pick up free agents as needed in a few years.
I'll worry about it when he next leaves a game or practice with back spasms. Frankly, there's no reason to get worked up about it now. We can't trade him. He's our best player when healthy. We just have to hope he can stay healthy, and if he can't he can't.
It is a ridiculous school of thought that nobody in the NBA shares with him. It is also why Houston completely collapses when one of their stars goes down. Absolutely no depth, absolutely no youth. Larry Brown could afford to do it with Detroit because of his starting 5, who exactly does Houston have?
