Our old friend Donte Greene scored 24 points last night on 10-19 shooting in a losing effort against the Bulls. Green is thus far averaging 8.4ppg in this his second year, and it appears he will, at the least, be a legitimate rotation player.
The sentiment that the Ron Artest trade was a mistake will naturally be raised at some point during this season, especially with Ron having moved on. Preemptively, I have to disagree.
Calculated risks are a big element of team management. This Houston Rockets team had a nucleus last year which, if healthy, could have realistically contended for the championship. If Daryl Morey felt that the probability of Artest’s presence pushing the team into the elite outweighed the odds that Donte Greene himself ever became elite, then the trade was justified. And I do think this was the case.
While I do feel the trade was a ‘success’, that point is certainly debatable. Based on what I have seen, I don’t feel that Donte Greene will ever become an ‘impact’, premiere player. However, even if he does, in hindsight, I can still support the trade.
Even the chance at a title is something rare, something we Rockets fans certainly know as last season was the first and only one in an entire decade in which the team entered as a legitimate contender. If this mere chance is within reach, a player the caliber of Donte Greene should not be considered a deal-breaker.
