I think you vastly underestimate the turnover in rosters, coaches, and GMs outside the Rockets to even began to complete a "vision". It's not a vision, more like a philosophy or goal. Quite frankly, we don't know what Morey considers elite besides not being Parsons. Throw all our chips? Besides Bosh, where did this happen? Harden/Parson/Bosh/Howard not a good championship layout? Little emphasis? Brooks, Hayes, Landry, Scola, Parsons, PBev, etc..... Try and think a little harder..... ....for example?
What makes a good NBA GM? Understanding the personnel to select who best fits your team. Not necessarily the best talent, but building the best team. And letting the coach have total control over how the team plays the game.
As far as the Royce White pick went, it was a calculated risk. If he had picked him and he went off (and there was a 50% chance this dude could have been the next Artest or something) it would totally been awesome. It didn't work out that way, given his issues and all that. But given the fact that he took Lamb, used him to get Harden, and then got Jones, who we have seen flashes of brilliance from and is an integral member of this team now, that was probably one of the best drafts in our history.
What makes a good GM? Well, when you have already worked so hard to get two stars here in Harden & Howard, you surround them with the best possible guys you can. To win a championship, you need veterans and guys who are consistent, not young unproven busts!! You don't just star chase and then worry about 'flexibility' and 'cap space' to the point where you don't offer any guys 3/4 year deals when they could be contributing to WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP!! With this roster, it's a 1st round loss or even 9th seed, guaranteed.
What I like most about Morey and why I think he's a great GM is that when he does make a mistake... Historically speaking he's quick to realize it and makes a move to try and fix it. Sometimes he's too quick to try and solve an "issue" as well and it's backfired. Still, I'd rather have constant change in order to achieve excellence than be complacent and mediocre. If things went according to plan we would've ended up with Bosh who I'm sure we all thought was a no-brainer once James made his decision and we would've kept Parsons and made a couple more minor changes and we'd have improved greatly from last year and everybody would be praising Morey. He put himself and us in a great position to succeed but things don't always go according to plan. I'm confident we're still in a great spot with flexibility to make a serious move though... It's just a matter of time before the "Morey is god", "In Morey I trust" and his obligatory pic is spread like wild fire all over the GARM again.
I think it's really important a GM understands that the NBA is not an even playing field. Small market teams have to take bigger risks to make equal gains. They have to do things which give them a competitive advantage. They have to be more knowledgeable and creative about the CBA and spending. There is absolutely no reason why the Houston Rockets should be better than any other mid market team. Living in Houston is not an attraction. The team doesn't have unlimited money to spend. It does not have a stand-out history of winning titles like Boston, LA, San Antonio, etc. That is why we take big risks. That is why we f*** around with the CBA rules. That's why we focus a lot on our NBDL team's development capabilities and attractiveness. That's why we watch what we spend if it doesn't make us a sure-fire contender for the title. That's why we can't let Parsons hit unrestricted free agency - an option which most GM's would conveniently TAKE, and then turn around and act sad when they lose that player without any control over it. A great GM is someone who makes great use of the organization's available resources - and not all teams have the same resources available. That's the bottom line. I have no doubt in my mind that if we had a GM who was going to wilt to a head coach's pressure or follow a traditional route we would just NOW be reaping the fruits of a long tanking phase. Then we'd have to build on that for years with slow incremental movements. This organization is running like a well oiled machine, and it's no wonder analysts rave about the Rockets' ability to find cheap young players, analyze current players, find loopholes in the CBA, run a great NBDL team, manage its assets, maintain flexibility. There's a reason our name pops up initially with every major FA - because we always have the flexibility to make some sort of play, and we always make sure we give it a shot. The only people being really critical of Morey are people who are critical of the new wave of the NBA. Let's face it, if you're not into treating players like assets and using advanced stats, your days as a fan of the NBA are numbered. It's not an alternative, and it's not one way to run a franchise. It's the new way to run a franchise, and everyone will slowly adapt to it. That's another competitive advantage we have - we're always ahead of the curve on the latest analytics for the NBA. So when everyone buys into advanced analytics, we will be at the cutting edge with people still chasing us because we got a head start and never stopped running. When you take huge risks, you get burned. Getting burned doesn't define a GM. Why you got burned defines a GM. With the Parsons example, it's ridiculous. We have a guy who a year ago lobbied hard to recruit Dwight to the Rockets while his friend and teammate Omer Asik was fuming about it. He had no problem doing that. A year later, and he's mad the Rockets put Bosh and Melo ahead of him? Give me a break. The guy was a goner. We were losing him next summer if he became a UFA. So we pulled the trigger to see if there's a chance we can lock him up at a slight overpay. What happened? Cuban overpaid the hell out of him. What did we lose? A guy who we were going to have to replace in a year anyway. He wants to be a star and not play defense at a position where we need defense the most. I hope the Mavs are good enough to win it all, because they aren't going to get better. So instead of coming out of this like any other GM would - either cap-locked or optionless - we come out with tools to upgrade this team a lot. A lot. The NOLA pick is similar to the pick that got us Harden. We have all our other picks - our pick in 2015 + 2 additional second rounders in 2015. We can have cap space very soon. We have a TPE. How many teams would be here right now, with the ammo to form a better team than last season and still be in the hunt for a 3rd star in the immediate future? That's incredible. That's what makes a great GM. If Morey was the Knicks, Nets or Lakers GM everyone would be afraid. We're lucky to have him here, although I'm certain one of the big spending organizations will pry him away soon.
With this roster it will not only be a first round exit or 9th seed but also Morey's ass. He's too smart and there's still time left. We offered Ariza exactly what you're talking about while still maintaing flexibility and cap space. The other pieces are coming.
I'm very uncertain about what direction the front office is going in and I'm very nervous about not putting together a good deep team to make a serious playoff run in the next two seasons of guaranteed Harden and Howard together. Morey says they remain dedicated and all in too make the team as good as possible moving forward but why are they chasing guys like Dorsey and Adrien and not using the MLE on a player that will improve the teams depth off the bench now (their remains a handful of options). Are they putting all their eggs into landing a max player next summer or are they going to go for improving the teams depth and hoping either way that all that chemistry melds in what could be Howard's last year on the team. I like the Johnson pick and Ariza signing but there has been a huge error in the way this gameplan for free agency was executed.
High risk high reward. It paid off the last 2 seasons. What would you have suggested? Btw...We still have caproom/flexibility/assets/time for when the right deal comes along.
What is the reward you get for having a good gm but you only get past the first round of the playoffs once in seven years?
