The Lakers gave up Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That was the core of a Bucks team that was elite for years with Don Nelson coaching. Ask a Lakers board whether they regret giving 4 players for the best center, just because the young players improved.
Also, ask the Laker fans whether they regret giving Archie Clark for Wilt Chamberlain. Clark was an All-Star 3 or 4 years later.
This isn't as simple as trading x player for y player. This is a case of clearing cap space to sign a player. They're different situations entirely. If Robinson goes on to be an All-Star, I'm sure the fans in Houston will probably bemoan the fact that they gave him up without any compensation.
That's a pretty bold statement considering he's just starting his second season. The guy rebounds at an elite level. It shouldn't be that hard to give him a few post moves. He's only 22.
When the Rockets are league champs for years. they'll look at 1-time all-star rebounding specialist Robinson and say, you gotta give something to get something.
No, I don't. I think Robinson can develop into a good player, but I don't think he'll ever be a top 2 player on a team that advances in the playoffs. Dwight Howard is. In the last 16 years, Houston has only advanced past the 1st round once - in 2009, the year they beat the Blazers, and missed the playoffs 8 times. That's even worse than the Blazers (advanced past the 1st round twice and missed the playoffs 7 of the last 16 years). I think Houston fans want to see progress, and they want to see it now. Dwight Howard and James Harden give them a solid chance to get past the 1st round. Thomas Robinson wouldn't give them that any time soon, if ever. BNM
I'm not really looking at it as Dwight for Robinson though. This wasn't a trade. They needed to clear some cap, and I think I heard it was as low as 100k to offer Dwight a max deal. My point is that they would regret giving TRob up for nothing if he went on to be an All-Star.
Example: Blazer fans lament the fact that we gave up Moses Malone for nothing. We won a championship with Bill Walton, but we still lament giving up Malone for nothing. Obviously these are different situations, but we still could have found a way to keep Malone, and I suspect Houston could have found a way to keep Robinson if they wanted to.
There's no chance he'll be an all-star and teams don't care about giving up role players. It's a nice thought, though.
So you've completely determined his future in the NBA after one season and five preseason games? That's impressive. Want to give me some lotto numbers to try?
Only Blazer fans who weren't around lament it. The lamenting just started maybe 10 years ago. Some players, like Moses Malone and Dominique Wilkins, see their reputations inflate long after they retire. Johnny-come-lately fans judge them on statistics, because they didn't witness their one-dimensionality. The opposite happens, e.g. Bill Walton, with players whose strengths were not recorded in box scores.
