How about Rockets send Battier, Jackson and Brooks to the Blazers for Travis Outlaw, Steve Blake and Joe Przybilla. We get three guys who make our eight-man rotation. Przy gives us a solid back up center and spot duty at PF when we need to go big. Outlaw replaces Battier as the starter at three. This hurts our overall defense, but does increase our athleticism. Blake is not a good enough PG to push Alston to second string (I think Alston would be a fantastic second string PG) but he can share time with him. Blake is a pass first PG and he is 6’3 so he and TMack make a pretty big backcourt. Neither of those PG’s is as good as I’d like our starter to be, but I think the combo is pretty strong. It does give us 10 fouls and fresh legs to use against the Williams, Parkers and Pauls of the world. When we want to go big we put in a front line of Yao (7’6), Prz (7’1), and Outlaw (6’9) along with Blake and Tracy for a pretty tall team. Our small line up would be a front line of Outlaw, Scola and Landry with McGrady and a PG for a bunch of switch on everybody 6’8 to 6’9 athletic guys. Use the MLE to add a decent back up 2-3 swingman (who can shoot – first choice) (or a lock down defender – second choice) and we have a solid 8 man two deep rotation. I know Portland would be giving up three players for one, but I think they might like this because none of the three will be starters but they get Battier who is the exact guy they need to ‘glue’ their young team together. Not to get over dramatic, but Battier could be the catelyst who helps this team mature into a great team for years to come, rather than be the next in a long line of teams with lots of unrealized potential. They clearly have the talent, they just need to insure that it works. I assume they cut Jackson (unless they want his ‘veteran leadership’) and Brooks is the ever-popular local guy with upside potential. I love (no, make that LOVE) Battier, and hate to let him go, but other than Yao and McGrady I really don’t see the Rockets holding any other significant trade chips. I don’t dislike Brooks but I think he is going to end up the dreaded tweener that Luther Head is. You have to give talent to get talent.
It's funny DD. The first post I ever made, you made a reply to that made me feel welcome to the board. I don't start many new threads and here you are again being the first to respond. Maybe it is because we both live in Austin and somehow the locals see them before they broadcast outward.
I actually think we're giving up too much. 1) POR was willing to trade for Battier for Outlaw/Webster + Jack/Webster (Can't remember who Webster replaced) 2) BJax is a 6 million expiring contract. That would be really valuable when combined with other players to give a team cap space. 3) Brooks - I could do without, but not for Blake/Przy - I was pretty upset we lost out on Artest because we didn't want to include him. Basically, I think we could get Outlaw/Blake for Battier alone -- then you're throwing in our big expiring contract and our "promising" PG for a backup C. Not a fan.
I like the idea, but think Portland should sweeten it somehow. Pryz is okay, but likely wouldn't be playing much unless Yao goes down. Don't care much for Blake, esp when you are giving up Brooks. If Portland is getting a guy they supposedly covet(Battier), a talented hometown pg that could possibly develop into a starter for them, and a pretty sizable expiring(which is always valuable esp around trading deadline), then the blazers should have to give up more than one okay player and 2 career backups.
my only problem with this trade (and i like it) is that we lose out on talent, but gain depth. przybilla is a great choice for backup center (we need to replace deke), but he will only see 12 minutes per game behind yao... scola/landry, and even hayes would eat up all the PF minutes. outlaw isn't the defender shane is and doesn't really improve the offense much either, outside of being more athletic. even at Pg i'd almost rather jackson off the bench than blake. now if we are talking about starting Pg then i would go with blake 10/10 times over jackson, but off the bench we need a guy who can score the ball. overall, i like all of the pieces that this trade would give us, but i feel that it would be a lateral move.
Rockets add $1.4M under this deal... They're paying LT and adding to it with Landry. I think for Portland they lose too much frontcourt depth. Outlaw has been playing backup 4 this season. Even though there's talk of moving him back to the 3. Losing him and Przybilla cuts them down to: PF: Aldridge, Frye C: Oden Frye's a third option reserve. McRoberts is another big but he's just a name on the roster who hasn't shown much.
I'm very unsure about trading Battier; T-Mac is able to do alot of what he does because he doesn't have to guard the opposing teams best wing player, Battier does. Given that, I would only trade Battier if it assures us a 3rd option (Marion, Maggette, Artest), not Outlaw. My very first move would be trading our health staff for the Suns health staff (See Grant Hill). On the roster front: of Ccurse, resign Landry using part of the MLE. Trade Bobby, Head and the a draft pick (which ever year they want) for Mike Miller. Use the remaining MLE on James Jones (Not sure how much he wants, but i would give him multiple years???). I'm sure Memphis would buy out Bobby, and I would resign him for the LLE. I'm sure Francis will take the option because no one else will sign him. Trade our 2.4 TE for a back up c, maybe a s&t Magloire. Our roster for next year: Rafer/Bobby/Brooks T-Mac/James Jones/Francis Battier/Miller/Novak Scola/Landry/Harris Yao/Magloire/Hayes No matter who you bring in this summer, If Yao and T-Mac aren't healthy we will not go anywhere. Yao coming back healthy and hopefully staying healthy will beour biggest pick up. No pun intended!
No. 1. If the rockets are willing to give up Battier, we can get Calderon. 2. We cannot trade Battier to a WC team becaude he can defend Tmac well.
I'd prefer Jack over blake because he's a better scorer and overall player. but battier to the blazers makes an awful lot of sense if we move battier< we need to target petrius barnes types for mle
Considering Yao has gone down for significant portions of nearly every season he has been in the league it is a safe bet that Pryz would be getting significant playing time in this scenario.
I've wanted Travis Outlaw for about two years now. He's everything the new NBA is all about: speed, athleticism, size, youth and upside. He has five years of experience under his belt, improved every year and he's only 23-years-old. He's 6'9" and defend four different positions. Small manageable contract. I don't understand why the Blazers would deal him.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2008/04/friday_linkage_2.html Blake, Jack, Rodriguez Roy, Fernandez Webster, Jones, Outlaw Aldridge, Frye, McRoberts Oden, Pryzbilla Unless they make Fernandez a third option player behind Jones at the two-guard but he has reservations about signing over that and their coach... Since McMillan doesn't seem to trust Euros and wants to another vet like Jones. In that scenario Battier for draft rights to Fernandez + Blake & McRoberts to make it work
I understand their depth I just don't get how averaging 13+ off the bench and clearly being a valuable contributor the way he was results in some kind of demotion. He should be starting. Martell Webster is nothing special. He's a decent shooter but rarely looks to drive or attack the basket. I'm curious to see this Fernandez kid you keep mentioning. I know you're the resident Euro scout on this board so i'd imagine your exposure to him is pretty significant. Is he the real deal?
When I was in Spain this summer, that's all they talked about: Rudy this, Rudy that. I think he is the real deal -- Battier combination for Outlaw/Rudy and I would be ecstatic, to say the least. Though we wouldn't have the MLE then, as it would probably be used to re-sign Landry and sign Fernandez.
For one, its not too early to make a trade proposal. Technically the Rockets and Blazers could make a trade right now I believe. Webber was traded for Richmond during the playoffs. Both teams must be eliminated. I don't like trading Battier for anything. I feel like he is the glue on this team. He his the type of piece every championship team has on it. Offensive players aren't as big of a premium when Yao is healthy. But I do like Outlaw. He brings what the Rockets have lacked for so damn long. I just wouldn't deal Battier for a young player. Not at this point.
