Chron.com: Interesting comments from Morey about team strategy

I enjoyed the article and it gives insight into how the Rockets are thinking.

However, I find some of their actions contradictory in nature from their stated course.

For instance, if you are going to say that you are not going to overpay for people until they get that franchise player - fine - makes sense, but then you go out and offer Omer Asik a large contract on the hope that he develops, and the same for Lin.

At the same time as someone earlier suggested the Warren Buffet like strategy of not going over the number you have for a player until we get the cornerstone - and as such they let Dragic walk for a comparible contract to Lin's.

How can you on one hand say you are going to keep all the high upside guys you can and hope one develops, and then as one is developing you simply let him walk and take a lessor player - now does that mean I think Dragic will be a Superstar - no, but, IMO, you have to find out if he might be the next Steve Nash and that means keeping him by signing him to a reasonable 4 year contract.

My biggest issue with the team is in their ability to identify or project high end talent - the Rockets are great at finding that 6th or 7th man role player in the draft, but most of them have very low upside - Patterson, Budinger, etc....

So, how are you going to get lucky in the draft if you are not willing to stay the course or let players on your roster develop into what they can become?

Also, if you are looking for a young guy to break out, it is not going to be in the D-league, you need to get them on an NBA floor from day one, and live with the results, and if you are going to do that, you don't stack your roster with umpteen PFs and hope one breaks out, because there is not enough playing time available - and as such you put yourself in a Jeremy Lin situation where you end up cutting NBA quality talent because they don't have playing time to show their wares during the season.

I mean when I read these articles I want to roll my eyes, because I have heard it all before, this is nothing new, yet the actions of the club are vastly different than what they are saying.

The only consistency I see is in the Flexibilty position, that seems to be the one area they are staying the course.

Because in all the other areas, they seem to be saying one thing and doing another.

Very frustrating for a guy that has been following this team for 40 years - and the fact that I don't agree with the plan to begin with also is fairly annoying.

This whole - play veterans and win games while trying to rebuild has a VERY VERY VERY low level of success as compared to going young and building in the draft - and Morey as a numbers guy should know this.....

Either way, after reading this - it still feels like purgatory to this fan !

DD

 

I agree with most of what you said especially the part about Asik. Asik has no upside and in fact is a huge risk at 8 million per year. Instead of signing Asik they should have just resigned Goran at 7.5 million per year. Dragic's upside much better than Asiks. So in essence they did the complete opposite of what Morey was quoted in this story.

 

even though its the the tennis players name i just find it funny that this is trending lol

 

Great post, Carl. While I realize that with the current makeup of the team, Scola is very likely to be moved ("reports" say he's being shopped), I think he's the perfect player to be retained to mentor the young guys, including guys like Asik. He's been playing the game at a professional level since he was a teenager. Besides knowing every trick in the book, even if he can't pull them all off himself, he plays hard every moment he's on the court. That's a good example to have in the locker room. Too bad he'll be somewhere else.

 

The problem is that the guys on the bench need playing time to develop, and winning a few games and getting a higher draft pick lessons the likelyhood of ever getting that defining star player.

So, it is one big old Morey go round.

 

Supply and demand. Good PGs are dime-a-dozen. There's a reason Morey was able to find Dragic, Lowry and Brooks with extremely limited resources. It's a hell of a lot more difficult to find young centers of any quality. Even if Asik doesn't fully work out, it won't be hard to find another team to take him and gamble that he'd be better in their system.

Morey's not going to come out and explicitly say it, but the "plan" is different when it involves centers. Has to be.

 

This is true, but if one of those PGs has the ability to become elite - then you should roll the dice with him because at some point, we have to put a stake in the ground and believe in someone.

 

Very reassuring article backing Morey. Put it this way, I can't think of anyone who I would rather have picking mid-late first round talent, and seeing if they could develop into a star. We have 6 of those guys. One has already proved he is a solid role player (parsons), one seems to be a bust (morris). Lets see what the other six can develop into.

Morey also got a hold of a 25 year old seven footer who is a very good defensive player. We also have a coach who is good at helping develop big men. I honestly am more excited about watching lamb/jones/white develop this season more than anything else put on the court the past two seasons. So although tanking might be painful, I actually will enjoy it.

Hopefully he can swap Scola/Martin for another future 1st round pick.

 

I agree that Asik is a risk, but it is wrong to say that he has no upside. His upside is Ben Wallace.

Check out Ben Wallace's stats his first two years:

Year 1: 1.1 Pts / 1.7 Reb
Year 2: 3.1 Pts / 4.9 Reb

These numbers are lower than Asik's first 2 years. As a center with no offensive presence, he was slow to be featured in the rotation (not a full-time starter until his 4th year), but Wallace eventually became a franchise defensive player and the key to the Piston's championship.

Asik is willing to play on a young, rebuilding team, so that he can get starter's minutes and develop his defensive presence. This is a good fit for what Morey is trying to do. If Asik develops to his potential, his contract is a bargain.

 

So to sum it all up, he's trading away or not resigning his good players in turn to try to increase his chances of getting a great player(s). Not a bad strategy, only wish we would have done this a few years ago, but then again there were a few franchise players that were unhappy a few years ago.

 

In addition if you are attempting to develop your own young players and are expecting for a few of them to be all star level players what is the point of letting them go when they are on the cusp of becoming all stars? Our 2 best players that were young and had upside were let go within a 24 hour period. This will never make any sense to me no matter how you attempt to slice and dice it. Especially not signing dragic.

 

A top 8 NBA defensive center is highly valuable in trades. Forget Asik's offensive "upside." His defense & rebounding alone make him a valuable asset on a low year contract. Work on his free throw shooting, and a simple jump hook, and your looking at a top 5 center in the NBA.

Remember, this contract is for 3 years only. Had Cuban signed Haywood to a contract much more similar to this contract, he would have already been traded by now instead of being a constant amnesty candidate.

With Lin, his deal is structured much more friendly than Dragic's for trade in the teams favor. Given the off the court marketeability of Lin, there is no doubt that he could be traded if a young player like Machado busted out and outplayed him. Plus, the front office knows that NYK will match anyways. This is simply their way of screwing with NY, and helping out the mid market teams in the NBA in the next 3 seasons gain an edge in trades due to salary cap flexibility with teams like HOU, ORL, and Dallas as opposed to teams like NYK, LAL, NETS, etc. that will not have the flexibility to aquire stars with their salary cap situations.

The reason why Dragic was not retained was because of the final year or his contract not having a team option. This says it all. The Rockets wanted to have the ability to trade him in the next two years if they had to. That player option last year makes him very difficult to trade.

Hopefully that helps the understanding of why Asik and Lin are getting deals and not Dragic, Lee. It makes perfect sense to me, but understand that "some posters" on here are going to disagree even if you tell them the sky is blue.

 

If you are using Ben Wallace as an example that just doesn't fly with me. I mean how many of these types of players end up becoming a Ben Wallace?? To give Asik 8 million dollars for a at most 10% chance he becomes Ben Wallace is absurd.

 

Can't say I agree with letting Dragic walk for this plan, especially if the target is Howard, unless Morey has some information indicating Howard would be amenable to signing in Houston. You just want to hold on to certain players. I thought Dragic was young enough, proven enough and had enough potential to warrant losing a little of that flexibility. Obviously management didn't agree, and they're the experts, so I hope they're proven right.

 

It looks like all of the apologists and Morey lovers are out in full force.....i better dip before the stampede gets here.

 

Morey believe that we got what it takes to get Howard.

 

Ok, I know that is true, but it is in SUCH limited minutes that thinking it automatically translates into 30+ minutes a game is a major risk.

Just because a guy can have decent rebound numbers and play good D for a few minutes a game on a team whose defensive CONCEPTS are top in the league is not any indicator that he will be able to do that in extended minutes in a lessor defensive system, and be able to stay out of foul trouble, something he has also been unable to do.

Of course he can get better, but if you are looking to DEVELOP an elite player, then why even bother signing someone like Asik who CLEARLY is not it, and then letting someone like Dragic go who just might hit that top 5 PG in the league level fairly quickly?

On one hand Morey is saying we only want high upside guys, then on the other he is getting rid of his high upside guys.

Makes no sense and is completely contradictory.

 

Agree 200% and my sentiments were the same in the above posts.

 

A. There's nothing he could say that would placate the Morey haters. Being demanding beyond all reason is an indulgence of fandom.

B. There is no clear cut course when so many factors are interdependent and vary over time i.e.
trade agreements requiring other teams needs, players under contract or not, overpaid or not, draft choices pan out or not, entire draft classes can be good or not, and the need to keep a watchable product on the floor every year.

Constant fine tuning is required and course corrections can be radical. But at least this article gives you the basis of the decision making and explains the choices progression. Even biases within this process change; I'd bet there has been a big change in the owner's priority that has evolved over the last 3 years (perhaps to even reluctantly rebuilding).