Last time people here told me "You have no idea what you're talking about", it was over Monta Ellis being a Billups' like player (a good player with a bad rep lost on bad teams). Now those same people are eating ****. They'll be eating **** after this too. I actually watch the games, and get basketball. Morey got rid of Scola - mistake. Morey got rid of both Patterson and Morris - and the Rockets bench was already thin. I have no problem with getting rid of 1 to get a rookie back, but not both on a team already lacking major depth. He gets rid of them with the line that he's "building a contender for the future." The team hasn't made the playoffs since 2008-09. Making the playoffs is not that ****ing hard to do. 16 teams make the playoffs. When other GMs mess up, and say "I'm building towards the future", and they mess up again, and again, they get canned. For some reason Morey gets a pass, because he's very intelligent with the media. It has nothing to do with teams that purposely tank, that's not even relevant. It's been proven tanking has terrible odds to success anyways. It has everything to do with expectations. When will this team be a playoff team? It's now 2013. The team hasn't made it since 2009. If they miss again, will he say next season he's "building towards the future." What if he misses it again? Are you still buying that he's doing it to "beat OKC." Enough is enough. The Rockets were a Championship team, they have legends. They were the Spurs of the 1990s. Those caliber of teams reload each season and make the playoffs. They, like the Habs/Rangers/Red Wings/Yankees/Patriots/Bears/Steelers have a winning culture, and a fan that expects nothing less than playoffs - it's minimal. How has his continued losing seasons suddenly become acceptable?
Are you sure you know what you are talking about? How was getting rid of Scola a Mistake? You realize what it was for? HOW is getting rid of Patterson and Morris ALREADY considered a mistake? Lol really? You gave that trade about one week to judge I see. 16 teams make the playoffs, and look at the rosters for those teams compared to the Roster the Rockets had those years without Yao and Tmac. The rockets were over achieving with guys like Lowry...Lowry and Brooks was leading the Rockets to the playoffs? You really expected that? I mean the teams centers last year were Dalembert and Camby...two guys who are deep bench players for their teams. Actually it does have something to do with tanking. You need STAR players in this league, anyone that's been watching for a few years knows that. The Rockets have not had any. You expected teams built around Lowry and Brooks to make the playoffs, that's really the difference here. You also expect that a team can rebuild almost instantly lol. You really expected the team to be perfectly rebuilt after losing TWO star players? Look at teams when they lose a player to retirement. Hell, Sacramento STILL has not recovered from that. Orlando sucks, Phoenix sucks, Minnesota lost Marbury and Garnett and has sucked since. Hornets since Paul left suck. Cavs suck. Wizards since losing Arenas sucks. It has taken the Rockets how long to even contend for the playoffs again? Oh that's right, they pretty much rebuilt their team the moment Yao and Tmac called it quits. You really comparing this to Baseball? A sport that has no salary cap? If they lose a big time player the Yankees can buy a new one. Football, a sport reliant on it's coaches and a sport filled with parity? Are the Patriots going to be good when Brady and Belichick retire? This is the NBA. When you lose your franchise player, you are down for the count. You can't just make it far with just a good solid team. You practically need at least a all-star player on your team to make the playoffs. More than one to win a championship. Also during a 10 year span in the NBA about 3-4 teams will win the championship. This is because it's about superstars. You need superstars, Morey has done all he can to get SUPERSTARS. Not just hang on to mediocre players like Patterson instead of taking a flier on a top 5 draft pick that has the potential to be a all-star player.
Also, we let Scola go to go after Howard IIRC. It's the NBA and you need to gamble on players you think will be franchise players every time. While having Scola for this season would have been nice, not many people thought that at the time because we had like 5 PFs all young behind him...we were going to bet the farm on Dwight and if we didn't get that then we'd at least be ready to play the young guns. Had Morey knew he was getting Harden I'm sure he would have kept Scola because he could have just amnestied him at the end of this season.
How much did we miss Patrick Patterson tonight? Would we have won by 40? 50? 100? The chemistry doesn't look right. DM needs to stop gambling away our core group.
Never and I mean never impressed with PPat. Morris either. Don't like shuffling players, but don't miss these two.
Sorry, but Scola wouldn't be able to keep up this season. He'd be gulping air and grabbing his knees after just a few minutes. I love the guy, but he's the absolute wrong kind of player for this particular Rockets team.
Exactly. If you guys are going to whine about players being shipped out, at least pick guys who actually contributed something above average.
Man do I disagree with this, I am happy we have Dmo - but Scola is a running machine on the floor - and flourishes in transition. He is slowing down these days though, and Morey got rid of him at the right time, but he is one of my favorite Rockets. DD
Watched a bit of him with the Suns the other night and he was struggling to get downcourt with the younger, faster guys. Who knows, maybe he's battling some nagging injury or whatknot, but it was sad to watch. Guy still hustles as hard as anyone, but he's 33 years old. His best days are about 3-4 seasons behind him, sad to say.
Is this a serious post? The Rockets' star players, Yao and Tracy, both fell off hard with injuries. So the Rockets traded Tracy away and Yao retired the next year. Imagine if OKC lost both Durant and Westbrook due to injury and they both retired today. Imagine if both LeBron and Wade retired today. You think those teams would come back immediately? So it's only been 4 years since the Rockets were last in the playoffs and won 53 games, and lost their two superstar players. And they haven't been worst in the league since... they've been right outside the playoff picture. And if the Rockets would have been in the Eastern Conference those years, they WOULD have made the playoffs. They were in the top-half of the league record-wise. But it's HARD to make the playoffs in the West, and the Rockets were just outside of making it. Now they blew up the team and started brand new, and are in position to make the playoffs with the youngest team in the league. And you are complaining because the Rockets had a few years of mediocrity after their two superstars quit in the middle of their careers? And are now on the right path with new star players and the cap space to sign another big-time player to a max deal? Morey has done amazing work.
P.S., Habs... Monta Ellis sucks. He had a good game against the Rockets, but his efficiency is terrible. His FG% is .403, and his TS% is .475 For comparison... Jeremy Lin, who isn't known as a great shooter, has a FG% of .433, and a TS% of .526 James Harden: FG%: .453 and TS% .604 Harden's FG% is almost the same as Ellis' TS%...
Another thing, Habs... The Rockets' power forwards were: Patterson, Morris, Motiejunas, and Jones. Patterson and Morris were "alright"... but they have already been in the league for several years, and were just "alright". They aren't world-beaters, and so it wouldn't be a risk to lose those guys, especially when you have guys like Motiejunas and Jones behind them who are not far off from being as good as Patterson, and they are both rookies. Motiejunas and Jones were always the future anyway, so why not get rid of Patterson and Morris? And the Rockets also got another young athletic PF with potential in Robinson in the deal, so the Rockets have some nice young talent on the team with players nearly as good as Patterson and Morris and are a few years younger. With a few years under their belt, they will surpass Patterson and Morris.
About making the playoffs, take a look at the western conference and yeah, it is pretty hard to make the playoffs. There's a good chance a team of Kobe, Nash, Howard, Gasol and World Peace are not even gonna make the playoffs. I'm still finding it pretty incredible that the Rockets' starting five are ahead of these guys. Nowitzki, Carter, Kaman, Brand, Mayo, Marion another group who can't even make it. Making the western conference playoffs is hard.
nods. theres a bit revisionist history going on in this thread with regards to PPat. I think everyones forgetting how much hair we lost over the number of offensive rebounds we would give up sometimes. Not only couldn't PPat nor Morris grab a board, they didn't box out either.
