Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle argues that for Chris Bosh, no Houston Rocket, (aside from Yao Ming, from what I gathered contextually), should be untouchable, including Aaron Brooks.
The title is an interesting question. While trading Brooks would certainly be a tough pill to swallow, were it necessary for the deal, you would have to do it.
Losing Brooks’ offensive potency would hurt, but I have argued for some time now that it is Kyle Lowry who is actually the superior player. With both due pay raises (in Brooks’ case a substantial one, though not this year) such a deal might serve as a more logical allocation of team assets. For one, such a strategy would allow Daryl Morey to use resources allegedly designated for a Bosh trade to instead move up in this summer’s draft, making sense of an earlier rumor reported by Yahoo.
While I don’t think it’s the case, it is possible that Morey could feel that a player of Brooks’ status is what it might take to land a Bosh, with the likes of Michael Beasley, Jeff Green, and Andrew Bynum likely to be dangled. Rather than risk ending up with nothing in the end, management may have come to the decision to ‘play it safe’ and allocate Brooks to nab Bosh and use the other assets for a draft day move-up (before those drafted players are no longer available for trade.)
Obtaining Chris Bosh is the top priority. Aside from the impeccable fit, he would simply upgrade the team’s overall talent. And premium talent is what it will take to dethrone this Laker juggernaut.
It will be argued that dealing Brooks would destroy precious chemistry developed throughout last year. This is short-sighted and not in focus with the bigger picture. Talent should trump chemistry in personnel considerations. Contrary to popular assumption, such prioritization does not somehow imply belittlement of the latter. It simply corresponds with the truth that chemistry can later be developed after the assembly of a talent base, whereas insufficient talent but optimal chemistry can never suffice.
It’s been argued that Bosh is not worth the fuss – that a player who has won so little is not worth so much. Fascinating how such sophistry can even be conceived. Is it Lebron James for whom we should wait or shall we build a team exclusively of role players? The latter strategy has produced countless titles.
