Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Taylor, Haywood, Zeller.....Would love to add any combination of them to our team if we acquire our 3rd superstar.
"The Rockets sent the rights to Nikola Mirotic, the 23rd pick, and No. 38, along with Miller and a 2013 first-round pick, to acquire Flynn and Montiejunas." Check your facts please. If Morey saw nothing in Johnny Flynn, he will not trade away above plus the "First Round pick in 2013" for him and Dmo. Just think about this : if we did not get Harden last year and will suck as bad as the 76ers and lost that top 3 lottery pick to Min, how much people will still believe Morey is a top rated GM? Look, I am not trying to say Morey is a bad GM or he had been doing a bad job, but just blinding to praise him even for his obvious mistakes, is just dumb.
Ummmm, what are the "obvious mistakes" Morey made by trading #23, #38, and a future lottery-protected first(Andre Roberson) for DMo in trading Miller for Flynn?????? Tell us please. What is the obvious mistake here that Morey made? Go ahead.
Rockets wouldn't be willing to use the cap space needed to sign him and bring him over. The Bulls are facing the same issue, if they want any decent free agent they won't have the cap space to match the $ Mirotic requires.
At one point, The Rockets had 4 of the top 11 players drafted in the 2009 class. C Hasheem Thabeet - drafted #2 in '09 by Memphis PG Jonny Flynn - drafted #6 in '09 by Minnesota PF/C Jordan Hill - drafted #8 in '09 by New York SG Terrence Williams - drafted #11 in '09 by New Jersey We all knew how that worked out for the Rockets. I knew people will say hey Morey eventually traded these garbage away to help us to get Harden, well, that's exactly how dumb the argument is. Yes, the ability of trading away garbage for assets should be praised, but you should also ask the question here : when will you learn that these are garbage and you should stop getting them from the beginning? Obviously, that's not the end of it. For whatever reason, Morey just love this kind of bust rejects from the other teams and hence T-rob came and went away in the same season last year also.
What I am trying to say is this : As a GM, Morey is an excellent trader, I may even go as far as to say he is probably one of the top 3 (if not the best) traders in the NBA. But in terms of talent evaluation, he had some great hits like Parsons and Bev, but he had some pretty bad gambles like the above mentioned also. The real issue is : he is too confident on his trading ability and sometime this gives him the ego to make some gambles that no one had done before or even willing to take. The contracts for Asik and Lin could be the perfect example under this kind of mindset. The way these contracts were constructed, I am pretty sure Morey was going to trade them away in the 3rd years no matter how them will perform the first 2 seasons, that's how confident he was on his trading ability and the knowledge of the market. Look, I do believe Morey is a very good GM and I like him to remain with the Rockets for years. But it doesn't mean he is perfect, he is far from that.
Don't know his contract situation, but Demarre Carroll of the Hawks is someone I'd target. Good defender, and improved his shooting greatly since the last time he was in Houston. Pretty sure he makes very little as well
Don't be dense. Morey gave up very little for these players and has explained why he traded for them, he wanted to catch lightening in a bottle. The Rockets lacked star players or the ability to get them through conventional methods.. So he took low risk, high reward players with low success rates. What Morey has done with the Rockets over the last 3-4 years is very impressive.
Morey traded Thomas Robinson to clear cap space to make a run at Dwight Howard. If that was a mistake, I hope he makes many more.
I think someone we need to keep on our radar is c.j. miles. While i readily admit i don't know about his defense , he's probably lacking, he's a great shooter from distance. Making 39% from distance at 4.1 attempts per game. Breaking that down further using bkref it seems he is primarily a catch and shoot player considering 93% of his 3s are assisted. Furthermore, he shoots 46% from the corners, yet this only consists of only 25% off his shots from distance. Even better than that i think is he is a perfect fit because he shoots 48% of his shots at the rim and 51% off his shots from distance. Meaning he is perfect for this offense as he shoots hardly any long two's, less than one percent to be accurate. So he is either driving and attacking, or spotting up for 3. His true shooting % is .569. If he were to come here, I'm sure it's something morey would point out to him and the staff and be something we could exploit to our benefit. Again, don't know anything about his defense. Some of the advanced stats portray him less than favorable defensively. His Drtg is 107 and that's about as good as its been his entire career. Only 0.9 dws. Maybe someone does and could add some input? But his offense translates well. What makes it even better is he should come on the cheap. Either a 2-3yr deal at around 3-4 mill or a 2yr deal with a team option for the second year at 4mil-full mle
Look....obviously this is your first year following the Rockets and you have no idea about how things went down that Summer so I'll try to be gentle. Mirotic was viewed in the draft as a player that wasn't coming over for 3 to 6 years at least while it was readily known that D-Mo had been wanting to play in the NBA very soon. The trade up to draft D-Mo was for D-Mo.... NOT Johnny freaking Flynn. They needed some salary to move Brad Miller in the deal.... enter Flynn. Also Adelman was officially out as coach of the Rockets at that time, and Miller was an obvious over-the-hill Adelman guy. The trade was almost as much about getting rid of him as it was about the other working parts. Flynn was set to play behind two other starting caliber PG's, and Morey thought SO HIGHLY of Flynn that he even auditioned at that time a very underrated Jeremy Lin who he eventually let go. All of these guys- -Jordan Hill (connected to T-Mac/K-Mart trade) -Thabeet (connected to Battier future pick trade) -Flynn (connected to Miller, move down in the draft trade) had something to do with another deal, and were considered LOW RISK gambles on a team that needed to take as much GAMBLES as they could on high upside talent. It didn't work out, and there was literally no harm no foul because eventually Morey was able to parlay those players into something else. Top 3 lottery pick???...... Are you referring to Mirotic???? I think you just need a little history lesson bud. Mirotic is not in this draft. He was drafted years ago, and in that draft there were very good reasons why Mirotic would fall in the mid 20's. It was be like if Dario Saric this Spring signed a 5 year deal with Real Madrid and then entered the draft. Maybe in 3 to 4 years when he's closer to being in the NBA, teams would have higher value on trading for him, but not when he's that far out. If Saric wasn't free to come to the NBA this year or next, you'd see him fall far out of the lottery. Same as with Mirotic at the time, but he was a much lesser known prospect who hadn't even played in any of the major tournaments at the time for any scouts to really even know who he would end of being. He was pretty much an unknown.
You have your facts wrong: The Rockets traded Shane Battier to Memphis in exchange for Thabeet and Memphis' 2013 1st round pick. The pick was lottery protected. The Rockets then turned around and sent the Memphis first round pick to Minnesota as part of the deal to acquire D-Mo. During the 2010-2011 season the Rockets acquired Terrence Williams from the Nets in exchange for their 2012 (lottery protected) 1st round pick. The Rockets were in the 2012 lottery so the pick owed to the Nets rolled over to 2013. The Nets traded that pick to Atlanta as part of the Joe Johnson deal. Since Houston wasn't in the lottery in 2013, our first round pick was conveyed to Atlanta (via Brooklyn). If Houston had a top 3 pick in 2013 then they would have retained their pick (rather than sending it to Atlanta via Brooklyn) since it was lottery protected. There was no possible way for us to have to surrender a lottery pick in 2013. Likewise, if Memphis had somehow ended up in the lottery then they would have retained their own 2013 pick (since it was also lottery protected) and Minnesota would have to wait until Memphis wasn't in the lottery before receiving the first round pick. There wasn't any way that Minnesota could have ended up with a lottery pick from the D-Mo trade. The pick we traded was guarenteed to NOT be a lottery pick so it wasn't all that valuable. As it turned out, the Memphis pick that we traded ended up being the 26th pick of the first round. The pick that we traded for T-Will ended up being the 18th pick of the 1st round. Lottery protected picks like those get thrown into deals all the time.
First, I need to make a correction as pointed out - PJ Tucker is a restricted, but the Suns might not match, as they have to make a lot of decisions this summer. I went through all the posts, and I believe I commented on all the proposed 3 & D players below. The first group are players that I feel also should be considered. The second group are players I feel should not be a consideration. Feel free to disagree. Also, I just want to point out my angle on things. It seems that Morey, and most of you are in favor of skimping on role players - at least for this year - to make sure we can get a third star at all costs - even if it’s 2015. While I agree that three All Stars (except if it includes Rondo) increases our chances of winning the championship, I believe that might not be so easy to do. Furthermore, I HATE the idea of sacrificing another year of Howard’s prime with a weak supporting cast. I think 2 Max players should be enough - if they are earning their money. And I would rather work on bolstering the supporting cast, so we can make a legitimate run next year. Backup Wing CJ Miles - I think this guy might qualify as a 3 & D player. As you mentioned, he’s an outstanding shooter. His DPRM is 0.21. Not outstanding, but it is positive. He’s an Unrestricted Free Agent Demarre Carroll - he fits perfectly (1.92 DPRM, shot greater than 36% on threes 2 of the last 3 years). Not a free agent. Have no idea what it would take to get from Atlanta, but I imagine they value him. Marvin Williams - just from looking at his numbers, he could work. Unrestricted free agent. 35.9% from three, 0.23 DPRM. Don’t know much else about him. Jared Dudley - salary may be a little high at $4.4M. Shoots the three well and has a reputation as a good defender (even if he doesn’t look like it) Power Forward Boris Diaw - how did I miss him? Yes, I think he should definitely be considered. About the same DPRM as Patrick Patterson and Chandler Frye. He’s been a great 3 point shooter with the Spurs. Not a good rebounder at all though - worse than Patterson. I’d also be concerned with his conditioning, as he always looks fat to me. Al Harrington - Could work at the PF position. Can shoot the 3 ball, though not as well as Patterson or Tolliver. His DRPM is 0.07, middle of the pack - not as impressive as Patterson or Tolliver either. If he would be cheap enough and my first choices weren’t available, I’d give him a shot. Point Guard Chalmers - he would be great at the point Unlikely to be Attainable 3 & D Players (IMO) D Leaguers (Troy Daniels, Rob Covington, Isaiah Canaan) - I’ve seen nothing to indicate these guys play good D, though they are great shooters. Furthermore, how many championship teams have undrafted players straight from the D League in their rotation? I think it’s just wishful thinking, though I will be rooting for them. picks - what are the chances that a pick the Rockets take would be a 3 & D player - the odds are heavily against it Ariza - Definitely qualifies as 3 & D this year. This year really seems like an outlier for him though, and it’s a contract year. I just don’t trust him. Pus, he will probably cost more than he’s willing to. Avery Bradley - would be great, but too expensive Marion - not really that good of a 3 point shooter historically. Strong rep as a defender. I would pass. Justin Brownlee - looked him up. Nothing I read made me think I could be confident he’d be a 3 & D player at the NBA level. Brandon Rush - Great shooter. I think I heard he was a good defender at one time, but his DRPM is pretty bad (-2.02). What’s with all his injuries the last 2 years? Can he even still play at a high level? Corey Brewer - just because he has a career game against us, it does not mean he’s all that great. Can’t even shoot 30% from 3. Not a 3 & D player. Chuck Hayes - can’t shoot….at all. I would pass. Thanasis antetokounmpo - unproven Devin Harris - does not shoot the 3 ball well at all. Don’t really think he’d fit here because of that. Dorell Wright - OK 3 pt. shooter, but bad shooter everywhere else. Not a good DPRM (-1.07). Andre Miller - threes aren’t his game Stephen Jackson - chucker with bad shooting %’s. Would not fit. Kostas Papanikolaou - unproven at NBA level Jordan Hill - not a bad player, but no range on his jump shot Kirilenko - not good enough on threes for me Randy Foye - too small to guard small forwards Jeff Taylor - bad shooter on threes (<30%)
What do you know about Tolliver? I know very little except for the stats I mentioned. I'm curious about him.
