Considering the success the Chinese National Team is having with the twin tower strategy of Menk Bateer and Yao Ming, is it too far fetch to make a trade for Bateer. Since Bateer played almost no minutes last year, he should be on the cheap. Bateer's performance so far with the chinese national team is quite impressive. I think he averaged around the high teens to low 20s and around 9-10 rebounds per game. Bateer being over 320 pounds will really add muscle to the front line. I also read somewhere that he actually shot and made a three in one of those games. In my humble opinion, he can make a great backup power forward and can be had cheap. In Batteer, we'll get a guy that can shoot, rebound, and provide a 320lbs frame to back up ming. What do you think?
Oh one more thing, we can go cheap with the translators. We can have Coline Pine do the translating for both Yao and Bateet.
I think he was traded to Toronto. That doesn't mean he can't be traded again. How much is his contract? I'll guess less than 1.5mil / year. That's penny change. Spurs won 2 titles with the twin tower strategy, why can't we with the great wall strategy. Duncan and Yao will do most of the scoring and robinson and bateer will do the dirty work of rebounding and defending. I still think its a better strategy than having a string bean power forward of eddie griffin camping out at the three point line shooting 25%. While he's doing that, Yao get's beat up inside. Over a course of a year, we saw what happened to him at the end of last season. Where's else can you get a big man on the cheap like bateer? Even if he doesn't pan out, it will only costs 1-2 million per year. But i'm definetly sure he's worth more than that useless pile of s$%t moochie norris.
Menk Bateer is a scrub that is no more ready to be a starter in this league than Wang Zhu Zhu or Cherakee Parks or any other scrub. Why in the hell would we trade to bring in Bateer when we already have Cato who is much much better?
Granted Cato may be a better player, but take a look how much Cato is getting paid. Cato can only play center and can't shoot a bucket even if its the ocean. Bateer can play the power forward spot or the center spot. He provides a body to bang with the more physical teams. Such as the lakers, with shaq and malone, Eddie Griffin will get tossed aside like a paper doll. Who do we have to back him up? Mo Taylor? This guy can't rebound, he doesn't like to bang, all he likes to do is shoot. And look at his salary. I don't think this team will ever win a championship with this guy on the team. How can a power forward of his size average 2-3 rebounds per game. I would gladly trade taylor for bateer just to get rid of his contract. In Bateer's defense, he never got a chance to play in the NBA. The team he played on had willis, robinson, and duncan. He never got to showcase his talent. www.nba.com/raptors/news/raptors_sign_bateer_030717.html Bateer averaged 22 points and 12.8 rebounds for his team back in China. So we know he has the potential to score and rebound. At 6'11 and 320lbs (last i saw), he is possibly the biggest power forward in the nba. I'm sure he learned a thing or two from robinson and duncan. Bateer most likely spend most of his time hitting the weights since all he did was bench warm for the spurs. So far the combination of him and Yao on the national team lead to a 8-0 record against australia and usa. It will be interesting to see how that combination does further into the competition.
Third game against Melbourne Tigers, Bateer played 45 minutes with 29pts, 11 rebounds, Yao 48 minutes, 19pts 6 rebounds Chinese NT 96-77 won. After game interview, the coach of Melbourne Tigers said Bateer was playing better than Yao during this game. By the way, Bateer has signed one year 0.65 mil with Toronto.
Bateer is a very solid player who can play inside out. And he is contract is very cheap 0.7 mil. He was signed as a free agent thus not restricted to trade. The only reason he has not been successed in NBA is he is the leader of one stats: He leads NBA in foul per minutes.
When he was with Denver, if I remember my facts correctly, he came over in the middle of the year. That I believe is even worst than Yao missing training camp. Bateer didn't know the language nor the system. Bateer was in fact a rookie much like Yao was. Because he wasn't the number 1 draft pick, he wasn't given the opportunity to shine. Nor was the time and effort needed to develop him. If he signed with toronto for 0.65 mil, my god, he must be the lowest paid power forward in the nba. For that money, he has enormous potential. I never said i wanted him to come over and start. I want him to be a quality backup and you can't even get a scrub backup for 0.65mil a year. Hey, if he does well, you never know, he can replace griffin as the starting power forward and can be assigned to guard centers and big power forwards to help yao conserve energy.
With Van Gundy and Patrick Ewing, his foul situation are certainly to improve with their tutelage. Communication is always a problem with foreign players, but with Yao on the team and teammates who probably know few words of chinese by now, communication might now be such a big issue with the rockets.
Why is it that none of Bateers former teams want him back at such a bargain? San Antonio needed a big man with the loss of Robinson and possibly Willis. Bateer is not an NBA starting caliber player.
Bateer has some skills on offense and can rebound but isn't the answer for us.During the World Championship he was slow getting back on defense and wasn't able to get physical with anyone despite his size.
I remember, if my memory is correct, during last year's World championship against United States NT, Bateer (22pts?) also played better than Yao.
Van Gundy will most likely institute a slow half court transition game this following year. Being a former knicks fan, I know Ewing and Van Gundy prefers the power game. I don't think van gundy will be overly thrill with our current power forward situation with 2 softies in eddie and Mo. Having Bateer moving up the court faster is only a matter of training and can easily be fixed. He now has 2 years of nba experience under his belt, developing him now won't suck up too much resources from the rockets. Having Yao and Bateer together may lead to a ratings and endorsement bonanza in China that will easily eclipse what the Rockets has to pay for Bateer.
you can't trade a free agent you just signed till like 3 months later or something. so for now he's not available.
