Morey says Rockets "have something up [their] sleeve"

Houston Hornets?

 

I don't think too much of that comment. To me it's just him being confident in his abilities as a GM. Nothing's a sure thing at this point so I don't think there's any way he could actually have "something up his sleeve" right now.

 

This is fake news. Morey knows there is really nothing he can do to challenge the Warriors with our cap space and draft position. He'll add a couple of role players and we'll get eliminated in the 2nd rd again next season.

 

BBB in the H

Welcome to Houston, Lavar. Oh yeah. You, too Lonzo.

 

LeBron for Dekker. Who says no?

 

Problem is even if a Western team somehow beats the Warriors due to injury or just b/c they caught fire for 4 games....they probably still won't be able to repeat it and beat the Cavs.....just because the Warriors are better than the Cavs doesn't mean anyone else is as good as the Cavs.

 

Jimmy Butler to Houston confirmed.

 

I've seen a few people mention this theme that the GSW isn't going to last as long as some might think, injuries can happen, etc. And I just don't understand it. This isn't a doom and gloom thing. It's just looking at the facts of the situation. The GSW just opened at -200 to win the championship next year. No team across ALL major sports has ever opened that heavily a favorite.

KD, Steph, Dray and Klay are all entering or in their prime. The Warriors won't have a major luxury tax problem for at least two years.... and even then, their in SF, not OKC, entering a brand new arena, with a franchise valuation that is top 3 in the league ... if anyone can afford it, they can, AND on top of that, some of their bigs might take slight discounts, which might not seem a lot, but in a world where the luxury tax penalty ratchets up the more you are over the luxury tax line, and the more you are over it year after year, even $5 million in discounts by their top 4 guys, so $20 million total, would result in somewhere around $80 million in total tax savings, which could then be the difference between keeping it together 2/3 more years and keeping it together 5/6 more years.

So... basically, we are down to (i) injury, and (ii) roster spots 5-15. On injury, losing Steph would hurt them the most, bar none, since he basically lS the "system", which the Warriors roster/players net rating over the last 3 years will show you - Steph is FAR AND AWAY the biggest on/off net rating impact player on that team, even this year and even in this year's Finals. But, EVEN losing Steph to a season or even career ending injury, that team is STILL the favorite to win the West, if not the Finals. On roster spots 5-15... c'mon! Those are, for the most part, interchangeable parts. Now I say for the most part. CLEARLY Iggy has been huge the past 3 years. And Livingston, while not nearly as impactfull overall as some think, has perhaps the more important skill of being impactfull at the right time. But that said, those guys are STILL interchangeable. They might not sweep their way to a 16-1 playoff record, including a 4-1 series against another extremely stacked super team with the best player on the planet, but they are still the odds on favorite.

Sure, sh*t does happen occasionally. Like MJ retiring to play baseball (no, clearly I'm not a Rockets asterik guy) during a dominant 8 year run. Or your two MVP stars hating each other, like Kobe/Shaq. As far as I can tell, the Warriors locker room is about as good as it gets... and nobody is looking to become a professional golfer anytime soon. The biggest thing that might be possible would be Klay wanting to be his own "man" in 2 years. I think others in this thread, or similar, have tongue in cheek clearly not seriously suggested a plane crash....

I'm at a complete loss as to why, ownership aside where $$ is clearly a driving motivating factor, fans can't look at what is obvious and right in front of their eyes and be willing to plan accordingly?? What's obvious is the Rockets are EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXTREMELY far away from winning a championship.

• They have a #1 player who is still questionable in the playoffs. If recent history tells us anything, the way these types of guys become less questionable in the playoffs is by joining superteams (see KD, Lebron).
• They have 0 other all stars or even near all star caliber players. Their second best player, EG, got 8 all star votes form other players, which is the same as Tony Allen and 1 less than George Hill and 2 less than Gary Harris and 3 less than Emmanuel Mudiay ... which means we're in the area where these votes have no significance.
• They don't have the cap space to sign a max player. They could maybe make the space to sign one such player, but then there aren't really any super major impact players in FA this year, and those that are the best have shown absolutely ZERO indication they are interested in joining the Rockets. But all that aside, even if they do get 1 AMAZING FA this offseason, it's still not close to enough
• They have a coach that is allergic to defense. Says all the right things, and maybe even does try to focus on it, but plays a system that makes it very hard to incorporate good defense. Whatever the reason, their defense is LIGHT YEARS away from being truly where it needs to be. And given who the top tier FAs are that most Rockets fans would be ecstatic to get - Hayward, Griffin - their defense isn't going to get much better
• Their #1 guy is allergic to defense, and is often seen barking at his teammates into time outs when its clear its his lack of attention and defensive effort that is the main problem. Players follow leaders. Absent the Rockets finding a Draymond Green type, who on his own is both the vocal leader and defensive talent to really nail down that side of the ball, the Rockets defense will always remain soft because of who their two leaders are: Harden and MDA.
• Getting to the 55 win season required the team to stay relatively very healthy. Which miraculously happened. Despite having some historically very injury prone players. Yet in the playoffs, one injury to a backup center completely derailed them, to the point they got dominated by their opponent whose own best player and 3rd best player were out injured.

Sorry for the rant... I just get confused about the rose color glasses optimism of a season that didn't go as bad as planned... without looking at the bigger picture which is it also solidified what the team can be in the current NBA landscape.

Seriously, take ANY two players in the league that aren't on GSW/Cavs, that isn't Kawhi, and aren't young up and coming all-star esque completely untouchable guys (eg. AD, KAT, Giannis) and you're still an underdog against GSW. It's just fact. Absolutely I'd go to town with that... but its still an uphill battle.

 

Just looking at history man. How many teams in history won 5 chips in a row? 4? 3? 2?

Alright then, it's hard to do. People don't realize how difficult it is to do.

Speaking about Durant, the guy gets hurt every year, in fact, the Thunder never went as far as they could because Durant's injury history

Curry is far from unstoppable.

Klay and Green only look as great as they do because of those two.

Their bench is an Iguodala and Livingston hitting the age wall from being a huge concern for them. No one can predict when a player goes from in their prime into....losing against father time. Sometimes it is gradual as you are seeing with Dwight and sometimes it is sudden...like Baron Davis or Arenas

Remember the previous unstoppable dynasty? The Miami Heat? A top 3 player of all time, another top 5 SG of all time, another perennial all-star...all in their primes...did they get 7 championships as predicted? They lose to a team that had just Dirk

The thing is, the league changes. Players get better or worse every year.

I'm telling you right now, if CP3 goes to the Spurs for less. They can beat the Warriors. Hell, they were beating the Warriors until Kawhi got hurt.

As the commish said on this, and he's right, things change. Then you always have players that breakout of nowhere to become stars. This is EXACTLY what happened to the Warriors. If you said in 2014 the Warriors would be a dynasty built around the likes of Klay, Draymond, and Curry people would have laughed in your face.

As for the Rockets. I'm sorry man, I believe if you add Paul George to this team it makes them a ton better. How much better, I don't know, but remember, a One star Dirk team beat a team with a top 5 SG and a top 5 player of all time along with Chris Bosh in the finals.

 

My confidence in James Harden is at a record low of 0%, but I believe in Morey. Whenever the roster looks bleak, Morey seems to come through.. Can he finally make a championship team though? that remains to be seen.

 

It's probably to go even more extreme in our 3pt attack. We'll play 5 guards and just shoot 3s and layups.

I mean why the hell not. This is the Warriors' league; we just happen to be a part of it.

 

If the league wants to right the wrong it did by not negotiating a cap smoothing, it should change the way the game is refereed, at least for the short term. Go back to the 90s rules that allow hand checking on the perimeter, and tell the refs to allow an all-around more physical game all over the court. The effectiveness of Steph and Durant would be severely curtailed under the old rules.

 

Spurs and Rockets were better than the Cavs this year.

 

Something up our sleeves? Aggressive?

I guess we're going with this idea

 

not like it matters at this point but the rockets are not in the same discussion with either of those teams when it comes to the playoffs

 

So what are you suggesting? I don't see any chance at redemption in your post. If you're stating there's no hope at beating the Warriors for years to come, you could have stated that very succinctly, instead of this diatribe, well-written as it was. I do agree with your points, and what was stated in the BSPN article that rings the loudest is that KD came from a stagnant, pro-ballhog system to a system that favored movement without the ball and everyone was involved in the offense. That to me, is our weakest link and we're not going to solve the Warriors unless we can beat them at their own game.

 

If anyone beats the Warriors, then they have a good change to beat the Cavs or anyone else in the Eastern Conference.

 

I would disagree. But respect your opinion.

 

The Bulls won 6 in 8 years. The Celtics of old won 11 in a row. The Lakers and Celtics one or the other (as they were two equally matched superteams in the 80s) one 8 of 9 rings in the 1980s. The Spurs or Lakers won 9 of 12 championships from 1999 to 2010 (and 1 of those teams was in EVERY Finals of that era except 1).

Basically, of any major sport, basketball is the one where there is regular a tier of team and super players that have long, sustained levels of success that is above and beyond all but 1 or 2 other teams.

And none of those teams were as well positioned as the GSW are now, as with KD joining, they are so far above the 2nd best team (the Cavs) and all in their prime with multiple players currently on discounted contracts, etc.

Absolutely, it's possible. Again, the Warriors are still dominant without Durant, but admittedly less so, especially against top teams like the Cavs (a tier the Rockets aren't close to, regardless of regular season record).

Nobody is unstoppable. Everybody, even MJ, Lebron, Kareem, etc. has weaknesses.

But Steph is, imo, despite a unanimous MVP, undervalued on this board. I don't think people realize how valuable he is as the ENGINE that makes that offense go, and a guy that competes defensively and on the boards. He's an amazing ball handler too and willing passer, and expert off ball mover. But to the point, the Warriors were +18.5 ppg with Curry on the floor this year per 48 minutes (highest on the team, except McGee), and -2.2 ppg per 48 minutes with him off the floor. Which is the biggest net difference by far on the team. In fact, the Warriors were still positive +/- per 48 minutes per game with every other player off the court, meaning you take KD off the court, or Green, or Klay or anyone, the Warriors are still better than their opponent. Take Curry off, and they were beatable. Now sure, some of this becomes problematic looking at just one guy, or small sample sizes. But this has basically been true for each of the last 3 years. Steph has the biggest impact, by far, every year. And I believe it was true in the Finals this year as well. In fact, he just posted the best +/- over a playoffs ever since its been tracked.

Basically, point being he's not unstoppable, but is the engine of that team, and would be their biggest loss if injured.

Green isn't even great because of whatever he adds offensively. It's because of his defense, defensive versatility, hustle and energy... On a team that shouldn't obviously be great defensively, they are tops in the league. That's on Green.

Klay absolutely benefits from the team and system, though I think he'd be a very similar stat player on any team, just wouldn't necessarily impact winning the same way. As is, Klay had a 9.3 PER for the playoffs, and the Warriors were still 16-1

It has less to do with age with those guys and more to do with their FA status. Both those guys are FAs and the Warriors can't realistically afford to keep them at fair market value. They will need to replace those guys, and won't be able to get the same value in the replacement, for sure. But they also manage to find guys like McGee, West that come for nothing, and draft well with guys like Clark and McCaw who play well and are improving, cheaply.

Again, I'm not being pessimistic just to be pessimistic. I'm looking at the past, all past examples, where the Warriors currently are, etc. Something can always happen. But what is clear: Miami struggled to integrate their big 3 the first year, precisely because it is not the same as what we have in GSW, where the team was principally built from within, with teammates that thrive off each other, to only add a MVP player that was obvious on paper to be a seamless fit. The Heat had fit problems from the get-go... which imo remained throughout their 4 years and they STILL went to 4 straight Finals, winning two. At the end, their age caught up with them, specifically DWade. Wade was 32.5 their last year with various injuries. The Warriors have already gone to their 3rd straight finals, winning two, and none of their 4 key players are 29 yet.

The Spurs would absolutely be the best shot to take down the Warriors in the West. That's due to Pop more than anything. They'd absolutely need to add a player of CP3's caliber... which I think is possible, but unlikely.

I put very little on the Spurs game 1 performance against the Warriors in game 1 before the Kawhi injury. The Rockets looked like they were going to waltz to a 4-0 victory against the Spurs the prior series based on their game 1 performance. The Warriors had been resting for a week and the Spurs were the first remotely competitive team they faced in weeks. They came out rusty.

Absolutely though the Spurs could have made it at least somewhat interesting, and could be a real threat with the right talent upgrade. As is, they are 12-1 favorites to win next year. Golden State is 1-2 favorites. Cleveland 3-1. The Rockets 30-1.

Speaking of the Rockets... the Spurs being able to maybe, potentially, with the right moves, at least compete with the Warriors says nothing about the Rockets. To the extent the Spurs add players that make them competitive with the Spurs, the even less likely it is for the Rockets to make a run.

Partly true. People looked at the Warriors as an up and coming team. They made the coaching move because (1) they took a step back in a very tough 7 game first round loss to the Clippers, and (2) Mark Jackson had some people skills problems. But hte Warriors were a young, interesting team. They took the Spurs the prior year to 6.

But absolutely, nobody would have envisioned a dynasty, and nobody would have envisioned Draymond Green, specifically, would become so good, so uniquely good a fit.

I mean in hindsight you knew he was getting good. He was improving by the game, and became a started in the playoffs in that Clippers loss and played great.

Anyway, again, to my point, there might be other teams with some real upside... the Rockets aren't currently one of them, unless someone like a Zhou Qi is magically a game changing player... lol

Dude, there is about 0.00001% chance PG is a Rocket anytime soon. I don't know why its even worth discussing. But if we must... a PG13 addition would be great. It wouldn't be the seamless fit that the Warriors have - as frankly, Harden doesn't seamlessly fit with other high usage backcourt stars - and you'd still be at least 2 better players short, but it'd clearly be a step in the right direction.

 

Sorry, I wrote a lot to try and make it logical... and in hopes of someone painting a picture of how the Rockets specifically can get to a tier with the Warriors. How they can add players that fit offensively and REALLY help defensively?

The short version is that I don't think the Rockets have the talent or a chance in hell in the next 4 years to beat the Warriors, unless more than one of their top guys has a season ending injury. And I think that even in the case the Warriors stumble, the Rockets are still meaningfully behind the Cavs and Spurs in the West (not debate-able as we've seen), and there are other teams that are neck and neck with the Rockets as to who would be next in line.

I absolutely agree with your comment regarding their offense, SPECIFICALLY because of what it means with regard to recruiting other players to play with Harden. KD left to specifically get away from the Rockets type of offense, and Dwight, passive agressive and crazy as he may be, was vocal about his struggles fitting in with Harden.

Unmentioned in your comment is the Rockets defense, which is probably their bigger weakest link at the moment.