So in the wake of play-off elimination, and the subsequent blame game that follows, I have been thinking about the rebuilding process of teams, and the road to recovery of Houston that we are approximately 2.5 seasons through now. People will throw GM Morey in the mix for putting together "mediocrity" or Owner Alexander for an "unwillingness to spend big" but I am aware these are irrationale but expected fan(atic) responses (and I am happy to explain why). But as a level fan, how long do you expect to rebuild? If your Charlotte, its trade away all assets and go big in the lottery immediately. But as the Rockets, its been a piece by piece basis, with incremental (positive) improvements. So as we are stuck in the middle of the road for another post/off-season with a late lottery draft and only just missing the play offs with a winning record, what is the rational explanation to justifying this rebuilding stage of the organisation? Has it been too long since the close of the emotional at best; T-mac & Yao era? Or is this all part of a clever and winding road to sucess for the Houston Rockets?
It's hard to give it a timetable because I see the Rockets staying in the middle until we can land another big trade, or until we can get someone through the draft that develops into a star. The Gasol trade would have been big because I think we had a good shot at landing the other Gasol. With Morey's track record of adding the right role players to a team, we would have been done rebuilding at that point. So, in a way, there is hope that with the right move we're going from finding a star player to finding the role players to going along with that star pretty quickly. I expect Morey to continue to looking for the right deal and to continue to fill the roster with players that will thrive once we have a star in the mean time. Hopefully something big will happen on Draft Day.
the Rockets tried to reload on the fly rather than re-build. And the problem is that they were neither good, nor bad enough at reloading on the fly to get anywhere, up or down.
i looked this up a while ago when people were complaining it was taking too long...IIRC, i looked as far back as the late 80s and most teams took 6 years.
Really depends on who you ask. If you ask people who feel we should tank and rebuild, then I would say we are at least half a decade too late. If you ask those short sighted fools who call themselves "real fans" or "basketball fans" it is never too soon and OK as long as we try hard and win sometimes apparently.
I think 6 years is a reasonable amount of time to completely rebuild. The first 3 years or so should be spent on trying to find that superstar player in the draft. Once you have him, it should take 2-3 years to build around him. If you're really lucky, like a certain team everyone seems to use as the "sure-fire model to tanking", then someone will pass on a sure thing superstar, giving you the chance to find him earlier than expected. But in order to do it correctly, you need a GM that can find talent nobody else sees value in. That's where Morey comes in.
3 years is way to short to find a superstar player, you gotta remember you only get 1 pick a year (barring trades) so that means only 3 chances to get that superstar player. Memphis, Pacers, T-wolves et al have been looking for more than 3 years, and they're still looking.
There's no real answer. Getting there is worth the road. Step one is getting on the damn road. We're spinning wheels as long as we're collecting supporting cast members with no lead. For most competent franchises that are out to win, it takes about 2-3 years to get moving in the right direction and a total of 6-10 years to break through. I'd think the Cuban era is the best reference point.
twolves and griz had their opportunities, they just bombed in the draft. Pacers sort of went the mediocre route and that's why they havent had high enough picks.... Plus, it's not just about picks, the rebuilding time also includes clearing space to sign star.
This! From the ESPN article entitled, "How the draft lottery built worst team ever" by By Beckley Mason. "Think about all the opportunities for good basketball that have been sacrificed at the alter of the draft lottery, and keep in mind that it's far from a proven tactic. In fact, most bad teams stay bad, despite plenty of opportunities to strike it rich in the lottery. The Bobcats themselves have had nine lottery picks in eight years, including the No. 2 pick, No. 3, No. 5, No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, No. 9, No. 12 and No. 13."
A bad GM can do wonder. but they will still be a contender sooner than Rockets if Rockets keep being happy with mediocre.
Jordan's GM in Charlotte is Rich Cho who was part of the OKC braintrust that assembled the current cast that's made them a finals contender.
5 years rebuild is pretty standard. So we've got 4 more years to build some kind of contender. I really hope it happens faster than that - hopefully Morey can make another great move this off-season, and NOT have it squelched by Stern.
