Is it time we stop referring to our players as assets and pieces?

After reading this, JV, I don't know whether to step in front of a bus and end it all, or simply appreciate your finely honed sense of sarcasm.

 

Look at how melo used other teams to leverage his position. Lebron used miami. Players use teams when they have leverage, teams use players when they have leverage. Everyone does what's best for them. It's a business....players who say otherwise are just fooling themselves.

On very few occasions do you have players and teams operating out of mutual trust and only when the team and player have 10+ years of history together.

 

Are there any group of people who treat players like assets more than fans? From a human standpoint, every trade scenario that's mentioned on this board or on twitter or anywhere else is treating players like assets. Would anyone here hesitate even for a moment to trade TJones and TE for Dragic? If you do, then you are treating Jones like an asset and not a human being.

 

I've been reading one of the Freakanomics books, and last night read something I thought was very insightful. They're talking about nudging relationships from their traditional frameworks. People move in and out of these relationship frameworks all the time -- a financial framework when you go to a store, a friendship framework with family and friends, a collaboration framework with your civic organizations, an authority framework with your teacher or boss, an us-vs-them for war and politics -- and you can commit a faux pas by mixing them up (you don't, for example, try to pay your friend when he has you over for dinner). But, they argue, you can get a lot of mileage by nudging a relationship to another framework artfully. I think some organizations (like the Spurs and Mavs) do this well and it explains why their stars have taken paycuts -- their relationship is a collaboration to a mutually-shared end goal. The Rockets don't do that. They keep their relationships with players strictly in financial and authority frameworks (with an occassional us-vs-them when things go sour). That might be better for them sometimes, because no one will expect loyalty from them later. But, neither should they expect any from their players. They may share goals (a championship) and they may work together to get there, but they don't really collaborate because neither side has an expectation that they have to do it together. With the Mavs and Dirk, they do. With the Spurs and Duncan, they do. With the Lakers and Kobe, they do. The Rockets and Yao? Maybe. Rockets and McGrady? Rockets and Francis? Obviously not, which should be a lesson to everyone else.

 

Think goodness the company I work for views me as an asset or I would not be working there much longer.

Every player on the Rockets should be thankful they are viewed as an asset by at least one NBA team or they would not be in the league and almost certainly living a much more modest life style then the one they are currently enjoying.

 

Cool way of looking at it, but does this really carry over to sports relationships? I mean, players are capped financially, plus it's such a *huge* amount of money, taking a discount to move to a new city is not really that comparable to regular paying jobs. Also the intangible of where you want to work and live can often have nothing to do with team or company. Some people want the glitz of the Hollywood and spotlight of the Lakers, and will take a discount to get there. That doesn't mean they are loyal, necessarily.

And, don't forget this, as for the Authority Relationship, Players are often equally powerful as coaches, and can get people fired. Again, that doesn't really translate well to the scenarios that the book was intending.

That said, how are Harden and Howard strictly Financial and Authority relationships? Are you defining this by whether someone takes a discounts. I wouldn't agree with that. They are cornerstones. Morey's success is going to be tied to them. If they fail, he might get fired.

With the Mavs, Dirk and Nash they didn't.

 

I thought JuanValdez's take was interesting. But I did not agree that the Mavs could be compared to the Spurs. I am still not sure whether the Spurs situation is largely an "accident" in that Duncan is just an unusual franchise player. Maybe Dirk is too.

I wouldn't go so far as saying that Morey's success is tied to H&H. I think even Harden and Howard are assets in Morey's mind. He would flip them for a Lebron or a Durant in a heartbeat if he could. After the middle of last season, Morey has gradually showed that he did not trust a core of Howard and Harden alone. He either had to add another star or had to get a better than Howard or Harden.

I think Les Alexander is much more patient with GMs than with head coaches. Maybe it is because Les is a business man and he feels more of a kinship with GMs than with coaches.

 

Every GM in the league would flip their franchise players for Lebron or Durant, so that doesn't really mean anything to say that, right?

DM is treating H&H as franchise "cornerstones." We can say he is being loyal to their needs to get role players best suited for them. I'm not seeing a difference between them and Juan Valdez's description of mutually loyal relationships. It's nothing like MIN and Love, for instance.

 

I have seen and heard Morey refer to his players as assets, especially those seasons in betweeb the post Yao pre Harden era

 

Not all NBA players are this shallow. They have families like we do. If you told a guy before signing, that he's only a rental and the chances are we're gonna flip you next season for somebody we feel has around the same skill level, he'd probably choose the next team. If players had it their way they'd probably want to know if they give 100% and perform well, they'll have a job the following year. But with Daryl Morey the chances are if you perform well, he'll bring in someone (that's cheaper) with a similar skillset to replace you so he won't have to pay you. Never mind team chemistry (and all the other stuff that analytics can't measure), Morey is obsessed with finding guys on the cheap, even if it's a downgrade at their respective position. The conclusion, we have the highest roster turnover of any NBA team and keep saying "next year Daryl Morey's gonna put it together!!!!". The cycle is never ending

 

I like the results of this poll so much I had to make it my sig. I think this has gotten to the root of what's dividing opinion on so many topics on Clutchfans.

 

Hit the nail with this. Yes they are assets but when you are public about it, it scares quality role players away. An important piece to a championship team is its quality of role players I mean just look at the Spurs, Heat, and Mavs. All those teams had good role players around their stars. Stop calling them assets Morey!

 

The word "assets" is already baked to this organization. Even the first topic on this forums is "Random Houston Rockets Trade Ideas".

 

What? The fan poll for this thread is split 50/50. What are you saying?

This site has nothing to do with the organization. Every fan-based site loves talking trade ideas. Everyone does that. But that doesn't mean Rockets fans don't treat their players like people. Heck, look at Carl Herrera reminding us several times a day that he wants to build a team from the grassroots.

Treating players like assets is what Fantasy Leagues are all about. Fans like to imagine trades. But that is not relevant to what Morey thinks. And the Random Trade Idea thread does not mean Rockets fans don't care about their players.

 

I am not sure if we can say that there is mutual loyal relationships there, at least not yet. There maybe or maybe not some kind of agreement between Morey the the franchise players how much he would be "loyal" to them. It's something behind the scene we can't know.

Both of Harden and Howard are in their first contract with the Rockets. Howard is more proven than Harden in terms of leading a team to contend. How far Morey wants to go all in with them depends on how they perform in the coming two years, not to mention their health.

On the flip side, whether they will stay with the team beyond the present contact also depends on what Morey can put together around them. This would not be the first time Howard forced his way out. I am sure when Morey signed Howard, he knew that if Howard didn't work out, he could always trade him like a shiny piece of asset.

 

Good question, it seems people think these terms are degrading yet it's terms used in such a business setting. Pieces or role players are in fact pieces and roles players to a team. That is not offensive, it's offensive to people who have a personal grudge towards the person(s) who makes that statement. Harden calling his teammates role players is merely saying, you need role players to win. Simple as that, though in a negative mind it's as if he is claiming a Kobe Bryant persona over his teammates. Watch out for bandwagon fans people, they destroy teams you know.

 

Nah, they are luck enough to be an asset or piece of this team not liability.