I am browsing this board daily and I feel like one simple fact gets easily forgotten when we worry about the flaws and weaknesses of our team. We as fans tend to forget how easily we acquired this core that makes us a legitimate contender. Guys, other franchises have to completely blow it up, then suck for year or even multiple years (76ers) to get decent draft picks etc. What Morey did is absolutely outstanding. Clutchfans didn't need to wait 4-5 years to build a contender. Morey did it in a single year. Sure, our roster has some holes that could be improved upon to really get us over that hump from a fringe contender to a really legitimate favorite. But still, this team is really really good. And Morey knows what he's doing. P.S. Sorry if this seems like a pointless thread, I just wanted to let this rant out.
It didn't take a single year at all, Morey accumulated assets over several seasons to get us James Harden, and even then just with that team we weren't contenders - it has taken us 3 seasons since that trade to get to a conference finals. We went through guys like Lowry, Dragic and Martin who were good but not great guys and kept searching. It was Morey's manoeuvring that put us in the best position possible once OKC started shopping James. Whilst that trade was a steal, many still say that OKC were never going to get anything better.
We've seen two radically different approaches to rebuilding recently with the Astros and rockets. While Crane was fine with being historically bad, my take is that Alexander didn't want the fan base to go through that. Both approaches seem to have worked pretty Damn well, with the difference being that I didn't watch (or follow much at all) the Astros for 4 years prior to this year. I think the degree of difficulty for Morey was much more difficult than for Lunhow (although both have done very well imo).
I disagree that it was a different approach. Morey just so happened to get the trade for Harden done immediately into the rebuilding process. That wasn't the plan. It just worked out that he was able to land a big fish quickly. And Harden wasn't even really a "big fish" at the time. He was a 6th man. I don't think anybody saw him as a future MVP candidate just 3 years later. Here was the roster in 2011-2012, the season before Harden/Lin/Asik's first season: Jeff Adrien Earl Boykins Chase Budinger Marcus Camby Samuel Dalembert Goran Dragic Jonny Flynn Courtney Fortson Jordan Hill Courtney Lee Kyle Lowry Kevin Martin Marcus Morris Chandler Parsons Patrick Patterson Luis Scola Greg Smith Hasheem Thabeet Terrence Williams Only 4 of those players were on the roster for the next season. Marcus Morris, Patrick Patterson, Chandler Parsons, and Greg Smith. Morey blew it up just like Lunhow did. The Rockets were projected to be one of the worst teams in the league before the Harden trade.
foggy94, your absolutely wrong. Those assets you claim that Daryl Morey accumulated over several season were acquired as role players for Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin which were the pivotal pieces in the James Harden trade were both brought to Houston with the sole purpose of being support players for a championship run, not pieces to acquire another star. - Yao Ming retired in the summer of 2011 and Daryl Morey gave the team one season before he tore it down and rebuilt it. - He tried to make a trade in the summer of 2011 for Pau Gasol and had a deal to sign Nene which was his first attempt to rebuild after Yao. - He tried to acquire Dwight at the trade deadline in February 2012 which was his 2nd attempt. He began trading off assets at this point like Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger. - He traded off Kyle Lowry in the very first ever lottery guaranteed draft pick from Toronto with thought of getting Dwight Howard via sign & trade summer 2012. That was his 3rd attempt. - After gutting the team in summer of 2012 he traded the Jeremy Lamb acquired from Lowry trade, Kevin Martin acquired to pair with Yao and other draft picks to OKC for James Harden. All that happened 1 year after Yao retired. The team got Dwight the next summer. Daryl is on record as saying the Rockets were basically stuck with the team they had until Yao's salary came off of the books. Fact.
He was not trying to rebuild in those three seasons. He was hoping for Yao Ming to recover, which he didn't. He even tried to get Bosh to agree to come to Houston to pair with Yao in 2010, which didn't work, to pair with Yao Ming. Morey tore it all down in 1 summer and made a play-off team all in 1 single summer. Those are the facts and they are not disputable.
I'm probably the only person on this board who hated Harden trade... ...Because we had our fantasy draft prior to the trade and I drafted Kevin martin, knowing he'd score 30 points per game on this ****ty roster. Then I got frustrated when they traded Martin to OKC. I knew Harden gonna score 30 per game on this ****ty roster so I traded Martin and my first round pick Derron Williams for Harden... So I totally knew Harden gonna be great on Rockets. I see no reason why others wouldn't see that, according to some of you.
All true except the bolded part. We received a 2013 pick when we traded Lowry. That pick was traded to OKC and became Steven Adams. Jeremy Lamb had already been drafted by the time the Lowry trade was made.
Thank You. Jeremy Lamb was the 12th pick which was acquired by trading the 14th pick and (I think) the 1st we got from Minnesota from the Chase Budinger trade.
Yes, it was 3 seasons of mediocrity, but it wasn't 3 years of crap. Many people here feel there is no point if you didn't win the championship. Personally, I disagree. I have followed mdeiocre teams and I have followed crappy teams. Mediocre is much better.
Not to nitpick (because your point was still correct) but it was the 14th pick and Samuel Dalembart (who was brought in as a backup for Yao) which we traded to the Bucks to move up to 12, allowing us to draft Jeremy Lamb and trade him for Harden. The 1st from the Budinger trade was the 18th pick (Utah's pick from the Al Jefferson trade). That pick ended up being Terrence Jones.