Royce White skips game and practice (UPDATE: White issues statement)

No matter who's right or wrong, I just hope they can reach agreement.

Soloman may not be right, but I agree with him that the playing time discussion should not be closely related to this event. I suppose Dmo/Machado also had discussions with Morey about playing time, and that's part of a normal procedure. I wouldn't be surprised if Dmo/Machado asked about more playing time as well.

At the end of the day, it's in both side's interest to settle down.

Kings would make a mistake if they get rid of Cousins last year after he publicly asked to be traded. At one time post shaq era, Kobe was considered a cancer who can't win without Phil and Shaq and he was shopped by Lakers. Lebron is on his way to possibly become greatest player after tons of criticism when he left Cleveland. Teams and fans are outrageous when Lakers 'steal' Gasol, and now Kobe is arguably approaching Jordan's level with nobody care about that trade anymore... If settled, people will forget this unhappy event in a few months.

 

1) Solomon is right that playing time shouldn't be connected to this issue. However, the Rockets aren't the ones who went home when they didn't get THEIR playing time the way they wanted it. Royce has made it a part of the issue.

2) "Both sides need to calm down." How would you define "calm down" for the Rockets? Morey isn't blasting Royce on twitter and his interviews have been very tame. One side is acting the way professional organizations act and the other is throwing tantrums on twitter, attacking his employer and acting like there is a conspiracy against him. "Both sides" lol.

 

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I think Morey is speaking more about player value to a team rather than any sort of reaching out to White himself. Even if you were to take out the human factor in all of this, Royce White was a 16th pick, and in Rockets mind, one of the top-5 raw talented players in the draft. Even if you think of White as a risky stock portfolio, he can bring massive value in the future. So there's huge incentive for the Rockets to have him succeed. Possibily even more than Royce's own incentive to succeed, depending on how big he likes his paychecks.

In the end, the Rockets will try to accommadate Royce as much as they can. That is, provided his conduct isn't so detrimental to the team that it negates his upside. And despite these recent events, I think we're still far from that. Public sentiments are currently siding with the Rockets. Even Iowa State fans are shaking their heads at Royce White. The Rockets aren't truly hurting right now, assuming there's no locker room issues we're unaware of.

 

To those people, royce is being fined 15k per day not per month. If he keeps being stubborn he will have a negative salary this year

 

Did I mention that in my post, or are you responding to others?

 

I think another think that's getting overlooked is that White not only has Anxiety Disorder, he ALSO suffers from OCD.

Obsessive Compulsives want complete control over their environment and surroundings, and any changes to those environments are going to be reacted to poorly.

Any changes to their routine or environment creates considerable distress.

Combine this with Anxiety Disorder and an immature personality and you get one heck of a mess.

This is why he needs to at least SEE the team appointed specialist, so that they can work to construct a dialogue that minimizes his stress and still allows him to constructively contribute to his own development.

Unfortunately, even the idea of seeing a NEW specialist is creating distress (OCD), which then synergizes with his Anxiety Disorder and creates unpredictable outcome.

Note that in his tweet he keeps saying that his Anxiety is not bad but he is AFRAID of it becoming an issue. Notice that he keeps hammering on his assertion that he wants to retain his own Doctor.

The thing is, he is NOT precluded from using his own Doctor... just that the Team is asking him to see the Team Assigned specialist AS WELL.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the core of this situation. He feels he's losing control of his environment which is distressing, and is using his "mental health" as a justification to regain control of that environment.

That said, I'm not a Mental Health professional, so this may all be conjecture...

 

Sorry, you said both sides should "settle down" instead of calm down. So, how would you define "settling down" for the Rockets?

 

They should have never drafted this head case. Red flags all over the place when he was at Minnesota and then Iowa State.

It's time to cut his ass.

 

I doubt the other rookies asked for more playing time. Machado seemed genuinely excited to goto the DL. I don't think any rookie should ever be complaining about playing time.

 

Maybe he's thinks a different shrink won't validate his self diagnosis?

 

Maybe he saw that the doc the rockets wanted him to see had a home economics degree and had an aol.com email address.

 

I just hope they can reach agreement and bring Royce back to practice and Dleague. It's in both side's interest to fix whatever issues existing and move on. I don't want to see them voiding his contract or keep fining him or even filing lawsuits going forward. Believe it or not, it will hurt Rocket's reputation as well if things get real ugly. They may need to be creative and understanding to do so, but there's no way around that.

 

Short interview from Chris Mannix(SI), but doesn't really paint a positive picture here moving forward-

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/49831221#49831221

 

Last quote in the video: "And I'm not sure the Royce White era in Houston is gonna end very well."

Exactly.

I'm sorry that we wasted a pick on him, and he has talent, but as Mannix reported, it seems White's commitment to basketball isn't there.

Someone with White's problem needs stable ground under his feet (and I'm not just referring to the flying thing).

Come to an agreement that the player's union and league office will sign off on, some settlement where White gets some money (but doesn't rape the team of the full year, let alone three rookie-contract years) and let him go find his nirvana. (Especially if we can get his salary off the books.)

 

They can still ask, with the expectation it's not going to happen.

 

I don't care what kind of mental disorders this dude has. Money is money and he is blowing a chance at being set for life. OVER WHAT? Look at Hasheem the Dream up in OKC. Dude has been terrible since he got drafted. Everyone including him knows it. But he keeps showing up, doing what he is told to more or less, and making tons of dough. Morey ain't his daddy, he's his employer. If he doesn't start acting his age than get rid of him. Marcus Morris makes him extremly expendable.......

 

i agree 150%

 

Yeah, a guy who was a Fellow and then Chief Resident in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine and a past President of the Houston Psychiatric Society is WHOLLY UNQUALIFIED. I'm sure the Rockets, who have essentially unlimited resources and are located in one of the finest medical communities in the world, just picked some quack out of the phone book.

Oh, and he also has extensive experience treating athletes and is a member of the International Society for Sports Psychiatry.

[from his website]

"Dr. Fink uses a developmental biopsychosocial model to guide his clinical work. This model integrates biological (e.g. genetics), psychological (e.g. self concept), and sociological (e.g. family roles, culture) aspects of individuals at different stages of their lives. Dr. Fink finds this model particularly useful in his work with athletes"

http://www.aaronhfinkmd.com/dr-fink.php

 

Morey:

**(Marcus Morris emergence): I credit Marcus. Didn't get a lot of opportunities last year and stuck with it. His energy has been fabulous.

**(More on Morris): We felt like he could be unique at the three but at the four very good as well. We felt comfortable in any scenario he would get out there and contribute. What he's doing now is what we hoped for when we drafted him.

**(On Lin): Very consistent in aspects of the game people aren't looking at much. His D impact w/ steals, very disruptive on the D end, he makes a lot of impact at the team level with his activity. Passing has been good, like his movement. He's struggled with his shot. We know he works on his shot. That'll come and feel good about where he'll be over time. He has made a positive winning impact in other areas, with his shot being his issue.

**(Communication w/ Royce White): Our communication has been simple: get help. We want you to turn things around. It's been simple and directly to him. Can't say a whole lot. We're supporting him and want him to turn things around.

**(Playing time for young players and earning it-how difficult to convey to guys): I don't think about it earning time or I don't. It's about them picking the player they think gives them the best chance to win. Hard to walk into this league and contribute right away. Short list of players able to do that.

**(Difficult to sell to players going to D-League isn't worst thing in the world): The way it's trending is that the minors in basketball will be like minors in baseball. We're not there yet. We've been at the forefront of doing that and happy with the results with the likes of Brooks, Novak, and a long list of guys. Hard to be on the bench in the pros and improve. We believe in it. I do think the players, because it's not part of the norm, it does take some explaining.

**(You really believe that?): As I said, we're not there yet. We do need to spend more time talking guys through it. Once we do, we've had success in getting guys into believing in it.

**(Caller: Kyle Anderson, scouted him or any takes): Not allowed to talk about college players. We look at everyone in college.

**(What is league ruling on a guy ineligible?): Rule is you have to be a year removed from HS or I believe 19 overseas.

**(More on Royce White): I thought things were going well. He was coming in and in practice was doing some very good things. This latest issue that led to him being away did surprise me. There's gonna be ups and downs and expect this to turn around as well.

**(When he comments on Twitter and talks about the Rockets and this or that being unfair, is he talking about you? Is that who he is dealing with?): Yeah, myself and Keith Jones.

**(Is he getting fined everyday?): Umm...we've been very consistent that we want him to get help. We're handling things internally. There are certain things he has to follow through on to make sure he is progressing and when that isn't happening, we are fining him.

**(Is there anything you draw from an experience standpoint from any other player to prepare you for this situation?): Obviously the issues he have are unique, one that we are working to deal with. Ron was fabulous here. No issues with Ron. This is a unique situation.

**(Hopefully help is on the way. Hopefully he can get this corrected. Of course you guys want him to succeed. I can't imagine personally why you wouldn't want him healthy.): We want him to succeed, often more than himself. That's something we're hoping he understands. When you make a big investment in a player, you want it to work out.

**(Thoughts on MDA getting the Lakers job): I was surprised they fired Mike Brown 5 games in. I don't really believe in making switches in the middle of the year. Organizationally, Mr. Alexander, we've had the lowest coach turnover over his tenure, except in Utah. To see one fired 5 games in was surprising. Once he was fired, Mike did make sense. He is an excellent coach and the personnel lines up.

 

The problem here is Royce has shown that the money does in fact matter, and he has tweeted multiple times that yes, he has earned it based on principle. That's not assumed, thats coming straight from the horses mouth.

Also, worth noting that he might still owe alot of money that he has yet to obtain... loans from agent while in college, loans for record label deal, etc. He might very well fight for ever penny he feels that he is entitled to.

So I do think that its going to take the Rockets, NBPA, & NBA officials spending resources on a legal investigation for a few weeks to determine the outcome if they wish to go the route of voiding his contract. All the meanwhile, the Rockets still have to pay him during the investigation.

So the route that the Rockets have chosen here is to fine him daily for not cooperating to recoupe some of the losses they are seeing from a financial standpoint. If money is important to Royce(which it obviously is) he will either change his ways real quick, or he will be forced to come to the negotiating table himself to negotiate a buyout.

So, I agree with the course the Rockets are taking. I allows them the freedom to let Royce, and his team make the call so they dont have to make this situation a PR nightmare for not just the team, but the league, and its players as a whole.