Writing this from my phone so it will probably have a bunch of typos: Like many of you guys, I am incredibly mad and frustrated with losing Parsons. Many of people here are calling Leslie Alexander cheap for not keeping Parsons, Morey overrated and just many understandable knee jerk reactions. Hell I am still frustrated. The goal is to win a championship, not just end up as the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers of the past couple of years. Aka teams with a good amount of playoff success, but little chance at winning the entire thing. To win a championship, the team has to have a very talented roster with multiple stars if you don't have that transcendent player, or actually have a transcendent player surrounded with the right players. Coaching is also a key ingredient. Unless Harden or Dwight suddenly become a Kobe, Lebron, Duncan, Durant etc. They need the star power to overwhelm teams that do have those players. Spurs technically don't have a transcendent player, but they do have the GOAT coach. You can't simply emulate the Spurs without a great coach to create the perfect storm. People might also say look at Detroit, but that's the only team in history to win a ring with that kind of roster. Giving up Chandler Parsons was a necessary move in attempting to build a team that can actually win a ring. If Rockets matched Parsons, Rockets could have a lot of playoff success, but it won't win a championship which is the goal. To win a championship, you need either a transcendent player, a collection of stars aka a Big Three, or just the right mix of players with an amazing coach/system. The goal is to win a ring, not become the Clippers, Grizzlies, and Pacers (probably) of the last several years. These are teams that have had lots of playoff success but will never win a ring because they are overshadowed by teams that had the star power, perfect storm, or transcendent players because they sacrifice flexibility to be relevant in the playoffs. Letting go of Parsons probably kills this teams short term chances at playoff success, but it keeps the window to win an actual ring open. You will never win a ring if you are paying Parsons that kind of money. Signing short term contracts and regressing to keep flexibility is what keeps this teams chance to actually win a ring alive. Had we matched Parsons, this team will remain a foot note in NBA history. To paraphrase a Morey quote from when we signed Dwight: "so many teams when they get into a position like us, they make the wrong moves ruining their teams chances at a ring" It was the right move, but doesn't mean we should be happy about it. TLDR: Goal is to actually win a ring, not be a footnote in history.
That's the challenge with the way this team is assembled. If you become impatient, you're screwed. I'm not sure what happens if they continuously miss out on FA though.
Championship organizations also have team culture versus being merely "assets." Dirk and Duncan signed for significantly less to stay on their teams. And yeah, there's that coaching thing. McHale is not a championship caliber coach. I've never read up on why Morey isn't a big believer in coaching making a big impact, but the eye test seems to disagree. Maybe we'll make some moves this year, but right now we've taken a step back and that can't be a good thing when it comes to keeping Dwight happy.
It will suck. Look, Morey has consistently put us in positions to acquire stars, this offseason and throughout his tenure. The asset shuffling struck gold with Harden with led to Dwight. It really sucks we almost had the top starting lineup in the NBA but we very close to it because Morey could make the complicated maneuvers.
Damn everybody struck out but the Cavs!! People dont it! M oney Matters not Rings!! Everybody trying to get paid before the new CBA!
It also struck out more times than it succeeded. And this offseason has been a complete disaster thanks to the whiffs on Lowry, Melo, and Bosh. I'm sorry, but Morey's record as GM with regard to results on the court(i.e. winning) has been pathetic. He's had 7 complete seasons with the Rockets. We've been in the playoffs 4 times. We've been in the lottery 3 times. And we've won only one playoff series. And he's already essentially punted on 2014-15 after letting Parsons walk. Most other GMs out there would be fired after a tenure like that. Instead, we're constantly being told we need to be patient with this man and give him more time. He's had nearly a decade already! Forget assembling a contender. He can't even field a playoff team half the time!
Err he's missed the playoffs only because of those injuries of Yao and Mcgrady. How do you propose the team makes the playoff in a competitive west when your best players were Lowry, Kevin Martin, and Aaron Brooks.
They should've made the playoffs in 2012. They p-ssed that one away. And you know what? If we knew going into those other seasons that Yao was gonna miss the entire year due to injury, why not tank for a higher lottery pick? Why try to win 41-43 games when you know in the "competitive west" as you call it, that won't be nearly enough to qualify for the postseason? I'll repeat what I said before. Morey's had 7 years. He's got one playoff series win and only 4 postseason appearances to show for it. And 2014-15 is already doomed for failure thanks to his royal f'ups this offseason. When is enough enough already?
"Goal is to actually win a ring..." OK... but, WHEN??? Next year? 2016? 2067? The future is now man! We must wait for another superstar like Melo, LBJ or Bosh? Wait for another NO!!! Time is over!
Thing is, I agree with the analysis: This roster isn't good enough with CP at 15 per to win a championship. And if that's your read on the team, you're not losing anything by waiting for a third big piece that you may never actually land. But damn that's gotta be a hard sell for the players on the team. "We're not going to get better right now because we still won't be good enough for a ring. We have to wait for the next opportunity to sign a big enough talent to make you champions." No idea how you sell that.
I agree op, but it doesn't make the last few days any better. The simple fact is if you were to ask "what is the worst case scenario" just 3 days ago, this would be it. No star. No Parsons. Traded our 2015 1st to clear salary for no reason. Also, look at our cap situation next year: 22.4 - Howard 15.8 - Harden 8.2 - Ariza 5.0 - 9 Cap holds Total Salary = $51.4 Projected Cap = $66.5 Available cap room = $15.1 In other words.....NOT EVEN ENOUGH CAP ROOM TO SIGN A MAX FREE AGENT. We are in bad shape. Our only hope is a trade, but I don't think we have enough unless Minnesota (Love) or Boston (Rondo) really wants cap flexibility (which we can provide).
I personally think Ariza could put up better offensive numbers in our fast paced system making him easy to trade at 3 years on a declining scale contract.
The Pistons also had an arguably GOAT coach.... See a pattern? But according to our GM coaching is not important. Meh.
We won't be a legitimate contender for a long time. We can't win a title with 2 stars and two or three role players, with a bench full of scrubs. Don't match up talent wise against the rest of the west, and we all know coaching wise.
To be honest, I'd rather be the Grizzlies or the Clippers than the Rockets in the past 5 years. Here comes the question: Do you prefer to have a team that perennially goes deep into the playoffs but have no chance to win it all, or a team that is perennially at the edge of the playoffs but has a small chance of hitting it big eventually? It's a tough choice.
