HAI GAIZ Can I get in on this bet too? No money though, you guys already have that covered. How about a bet to get rid of that ridiculous sig of yours? Same parameters as with Carl, except if they take Jimmer, I put "Not a fan of $ball" as my sig, and if they take Biyombo, you replace yours with "Teabagged by Daryl Morey's $balls". Deal???
Why are you only listing 1st round picks. Wanting to avoid Landry, Dorsey and Budinger? There's a definite trend there. Ohhh and Rudy Gay for a Vet. That's a-Morey.
Bima, Agreed that it's hard to find a pattern here, but if there is one, I'd say it's athleticism. Morey seems to fall in love with players who are extremely athletic, and that extends to his 2nd round picks as well, with Landry, Bud, the guy from South/Central Florida who i'm blanking on right now. I've not seen him draft a stiff, or a guy who does a lot of things well, but has average athleticism. He doesn't seem to be a "fundamentals-first" guy. Like i said, it's hard to find a pattern, but it seems like he's high on really atheltic players, that may not fit the traditional mold as far as height, but have the talent to be special. He's clearly a guy that values wing-span over traditional height; and he really seems like he values explosiveness and athleticism over fundamentals and traditional measureables.
I have to say if this is how draft night plays out for the Rockets I'd be nothing short of ecstatic. The three players I target for our 14th pick are Donatas Motiejunas, Bismack Biyombo, and Jordan Hamilton. I think all three of these guys have star potential and fill needs on this team. If all three are available at the 14th pick I would be very excited. It seems that Biyombo's and Motiejunas' stock is falling so we'll see how it goes.
such a trend, if true, would put DM against the Gay for Battier trade... which he may have been... who knows!
There has to be SOME cut-off for this "pattern." The Battier trade doesn't count. Come on, man, "Rudy Gay for a Vet"??? You already know that the Rockets never "selected" Gay; so he wouldn't have even counted had you wanted to include trades of picks for veterans. The guy would be Thabo Sefalosha. (Btw, IF we were counting the Sefalosha pick, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad sign for Morey's draft record. But I'm not counting him. So it's a moot point.) For sake of argument, I will expand the "sample size" to players selected by Morey in the top-35 picks, starting in 2006 (with the caveat that Morey did not run--but only participated--in the draft decisions for 2006). This will eliminate "outliers" selected later in the draft, when Morey either decided to buy a pick to develop overseas or otherwise opted for an overseas project rather than throwing away a pick on a guy he knew wouldn't make it out of his first training camp. Please note that this also eliminates Chase Budinger (2009) and Lior Eliyahu (2006), each taken at #44 in their respective drafts. 2006*: Senior PF with good height but little athleticism (Steve Novak, #32) 2007: Senior PG with little size but great speed (Aaron Brooks, #26) 2007: 5th year senior PF with average size and plus athleticism (Carl Landry, #31) 2008: Freshman SF with great size and good athleticism (Donte Greene, #28) 2008: 5th year senior PF/C with below average height (but decent size) and decent athleticism (Joey Dorsey, #33) 2009: Senior SG with average (at best) size and great athleticism (Jermaine Taylor, #32) 2009: 21-year-old PG/SG with average size and decent athleticism (Sergio Llull, #34) 2010: Junior PF with average size and plus athleticism (Patrick Patterson, #14) Again, the Novak pick was not Morey's pick (although he may have chimed in on him) and was likely the product of just needing a shooter on a contending team. Also, it should be noted that the Llull pick is influenced by his ability to develop overseas. Still, I see no clearly discernable pattern here. Why don't we all just wait and see who Morey selects on draft night. I'm sure 99% of us will be surprised by the pick.
I don't think you can really say "Morey's draft philosophy is this or that" based on the above-listed draft picks. We don't get to see the "big spreadsheet" rating/ranking every draft prospect, and the players actually selected are a very small part of the spreadsheet. Morey could have had freshmen or sophmore ranked above a junior/senior he actually drafted, but the younger players were simply off the board by the time the Rockets picked. If the Rockets had different picks than the ones they actually had, or if the teams in front of them had taken different players, they very well could have selected more younger players and people would be b****ing about how the moneyball formula overemphasizes youth. Morey's draft history doesn't say that "moneyball overemphasizes experienced players" any more than it says "moneyball overemphasizes black players."
NBADRAFT.NET updated there mock draft today. Have us taking Darius Morris with #14 Kanter going #1 to Cavs Donatas at 10 to Bucks Biyombo fell to 20
Do you honestly think the Suns gave up a fairly promising young backup PG with another year (at relatively cheap money) under contract, plus a first round pick (essentially with the condition that they'd have to give up a BETTER pick if they make the playoffs), all so they could rent a slightly better player for seven weeks??? I don't think "dumping" him is the likely alternative for the Suns. Maybe he doesn't return; but I'm pretty sure the Suns made that trade with keeping Aaron Brooks longer-term in mind.
The plan was to keep him when they made the trade. Not sure if it still is, especially if another team stupidly offers him some money.
