[ClutchFans] For Rockets, winning in 2012 would be nice, but losing might be better

Rockets tough schedule this year is also going to help them lose whether anyone wants them to or not. All the more reason toREBUILD NOW.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/28/on-the-skews-of-the-nbas-new-scheduling-formula/

 

Bingo, this statement refutes much of what Clutch is arguing.

How exactly do we get a high draft pick? It would take a wrecking ball to make this team so bad as to get a top 3 pick.

If you want to trade Scola/Martin for a top pick, it has to be to a team you think will be terrible. What terrible teams want to give up future picks for unmarketable above average pieces that don't put you over the top? That's all Scola/Martin would do.

I guess you could work a three way trade possibly, or if a team looking to contend owns the pick of a bad team maybe. Still a huge longshot.

player development - very rare to develop a superstar who wasn't highly touted/drafted initially

trades for the future - see above

improving draft position - we try this every year and come up empty

maximizing cap room - ok maybe but I'll believe a superstar free agent will sign here when it actually happens

 

No. Because it's an illogical statement. Assuming we have a horrible GM as you put it, we can either

A) Try to build a winner making shrewd moves where we need the GM to either make great sales pitches and/or identify diamonds in the rough. Can a horrible GM do that? No.

B) Tanking and keep having one of the worst records in the NBA until a Tim Duncan draft or a Lebron draft shows up. Someone so talented even the worst GM in the history of the NBA can't possibly screw up.

If anything, the worse GM you have, the more reason for the team to tank because a bad GM can't help the team in other ways. So by your own argument, you should support hardcore tanking until we luck into the next Tim Duncan.

 

By sucking...

 

By having a starting lineup of

Flynn
Twill
Morris
Hill
Thebust

Nobody will see it coming.

 

i feel like an addict who just got his fix.

thank you clutch.

 

You can't trade for a contract and then amnesty that contract.

 

Great article... The delusional fans who feel that this is a championship caliber roster needed a cold, harsh dose of reality. Top 5 pick or bust!

 

No matter how shrewd Morey is, he cannot force a star to play where they don't want to play. The elite level players simply have better choices than Houston. The problem is simple, and I'm surprised the media doesn't talk about this. In the NBA today, there really aren't any great feuds. Except for Kobe and Shaq, I can't think of any stars that hate each other. Because of that, there's more willingness for stars to team up, and that gives a huge advantage to glamor teams/cities during free agency. In fact, it's more likely that stars are friends, not enemies, and that leads to these grand bargains where players form their own dream teams.

 

Good article, I support tanking too, but more than half the forum trusts what Les and Morey are doing according to my poll... I think Morey is secretly tanking with the hiring of McHale though...Morey is too smart to not realize the benefits of tanking.

 

I think you might be on to something.

DD

 

I think you might be on to something that LCII might be on to something.

 

A lot of us have had similar thoughts, that McHale just keeps the bench warm while young guys develop, and Finch gets the job when they are ready to compete.

It is pretty clear that Adelman was not on board with playing young players to develop them, he would play them if they would help the team win that game, but not if they needed time to develop.

Morey is taking a much longer view while giving the masses the "We are going for the playoffs" speech.

DD

 

Not it doesn't..because this draft is deeper than the crap drafts we've been subjected to for a while. This draft goes deeper than 3 impact players.

Now don't get me wrong...I won't be ROOTING for the Rox to lose games. I can't do that. But I'm not particularly thrilled about the upcoming season anyway...and I can't imagine being thrilled about another rousing 8th seed effort. So when they win...hooooray!! When they lose...silver lining. It would really be nice to be relevant again.

 

I can root for them losing, espeically late in the season and it helps get them more ping pong balls, still pissed at JVG for trying to win in Denver which cost the team Brandon Roy.

DD

 

Then trade Scola and bring Motiejunas it's better way to tank

 

In case you haven't noticed, the "tanking" has already begun. Whether or not fans like it or not, the team is in full rebuild mode. The moment McHale, better known to many in Minnesota as McFail, was brought in to "coach" this team, Morey had already decided that this team is better off building through the draft. As I had mentioned before, "McFail is the perfect man for the job, because he'll play the young players that we have (cultivating talent) while losing a crap ton of games without actually trying to tank games. This is the perfect cover by Morey. "


It's baffling to me how so many fans haven't figured this much out already. Everybody knows that Morey is a numbers guy. What in McHale's career post-playing days would suggest that McHale is going to come in here and win 50 games this season? Adelman was one of the NBA's top coaches. McHale's decision-making (coaching and front-office management) set the T-Wolves back a good 10 years and the only reason he even lasted that long was because for whatever reason, he was chummy the owner and the rest of the front office. Morey knows this and, no matter how poorly the Rockets perform this year, management can simply chalk this season up to "coaching-re-adjustment". The only thing the Rockets can count on McFail to do is to play (cultivate) our young talent. I highly doubt McFail is the long-term solution at coach. You don't bring in a dude that has lost FAR more games than he has won to coach a "contending" team. Really it is THAT simple.

 

I think those that have a problem with the concept of tanking (like me) may need to view it in the way Clutch presented it in his article.

I always want to see my team playing hard and trying to win and would be disappointed and angry if the Rockets pulled a Spurs-flop-for-Duncan-kick-the-ball-out-of-bounds approach.

No one wants to watch a team that is not playing hard.

However, if the team is obviously playing hard, is fun to watch, but still loses, well, I can understand this approach if the payoff is a game-changing stud in the draft.

Just don't call it tanking.

 

Perhaps, but thats just asset management, not a long term personnel strategy for landing the type of players needed to win a championship.

Giving Twill time on the court will certainly improve his trade value more than playing him in the D-League will, but unless he completely breaks out, the improvement we make from trading him is incremental. Maybe you trade Twill and someone else for Granger and a pick, who knows. You're not going to be able to package Twill, Scola, Bud, Kmart, etc. for a player like Dwight Howard.

Recently, the Celtics were trying to engineer a trade with the Hornets for Chris Paul- from all accounts, the trade seemed viable until Paul said he wouldnt sign an extension with the Celtics if traded.

Although old, the Celtics are a team that remains in the championship discussion and does well in the postseason. That said, I'm sure Paul has already decided where he wants to go. Even if he hasnt, it's likely that he sees the Celtics for what they are- a roster of players that have maybe one more year in their career before hitting serious decline.

The Rockets right now are not in that discussion at all, and until they can land a superstar (not simply high PER/efficiency/low cost players), they wont seriously enter it.