Ditto. My brother's caught up in Linsanity and it's hard for me to be positive about it. While I'm happy for Jeremy, every Knicks win eats me up. Right or wrong, I care more about the Knicks losing this year than the Rockets winning.
Becuase you still have to pay the $3.5 mill he was owed even if we had cut him. Lin's salary was not guaranteed. Any GM would have done the same thing 10 out of 10 times.
Biggest failure of the Rockets this year IMO. It's one thing to not recognize talent in a person you don't have access to, but when he sports your jersey and you don't give him a proper evaluation, you know something is wrong. This really makes me question this organization's future.
If it weren't you posting this I would though this was a troll post. You explained it yourself, NO GM would eat 3.5M for keep a 4rth pg on the roster. At that time we weren't even sure he would be better than Flynn. So why is it a brick in the wall when its a move GMs would do 10 times out of 10? That's like saying its your fault for walking down the street when a bird poops on your shoulder. Sometimes **** happens, and its no one's fault.
So now it's the Rockets fault we had a Lockout that destroyed training camp and the preseason? oh, bull****.
Please, he's a good player on a terrible team. Deron already handed him his ass this week and they're about to hit the buzzsaw tonight. I doubt the kid will ever sniff an All Star game.
2 ways to see this... Morey said that this would set back the franchise for years...so he saw Lin's potential and wanted to capitalize on it, and just got randomly raped by Ol' Man Stern... or... Stern being the malicious puppet-master of the NBA saw an opportunity for his favorite franchise to capitalize on a Rockets team with a plethora of quality PGs that his NYKs could eventually grab at a bargain price if he played the league's cards right and forced their hand by having to drop a player. I don't think anyone but siniStern is that powerful. We got bit. Ok, it doesn't happen often, but it happens. Let's move on. I hear we are getting Morris into our lineup!
Short summer camp and we had to evaluate the other guys too: Thabeet, Hill, T-will, PP, MM, Parsons, C-bud, Dragic, Flynn. Not to mention other draft hopefuls like Adrien and Greg Smith.
Speaking of Morris, the one good thing about the whole Lin thing for Rocket's fans is that maybe we now realize that sending a guy to the D-League is not a death sentence. If a player is committed to getting better and working on his game he really can go to the D-League and come back and be a big time contributor to a winning team.
I will never understand them letting Lin go and keeping Jeff Adrien, it made no sense then, and still makes no sense today. If they were truly good at evaluating talent they would have seen Lin's potential and made a way to keep him - did they think that Adrien would not be available after the trade deadline? I think you keep talent, regardless.
Patterson was hurt in the beginning of the season. We had this: Lowry/Dragic/Flynn Martin/Lee Budinger/Parsons/T-Will Scola/ ? Dalembert/Hill/Thabeet now you know why they chose Adrien. We needed depth.
What should the team have done? They were pressed for time. Lin wasn't viewed as a guy with great potential, by anyone. You've got proven guys who need to prepare for a season and learn a new system. Other guys under contract, who need to be evaluated. On top of that, the veto of the trade change everything. I get that they let him slip by, but if the way it was handled makes you question this organization, then you should also question the rest of the league. Houston should not be singled out for a mistake everyone else made, not once, but twice. the whole thing just says more about Lin's commitment to improvement and ability to handle pressure situations. Let's not forget we basically got Lowry for almost the same reason. It happens more often around the league than it seems, but not all of those players fall in the perfect environment and in a large market.
I understand their thinking, but to let an NBA talent go, for a 15th man at best is poor talent evaluating. The Rockets had plenty of bigs to start the season and Patterson was back soon enough, and it was clear they had no intention of keeping Flynn due to them not extending him - as such, letting Lin go was poor judgement, hammered home every day by the Knicks compounding the error by him single handidly turning that team around and costing the Rockets further in draft picks. How is a Rockets fan supposed to trust the judgement of McHale and Morey when they let Lin walk for nothing? Not to mention their first round pick was sent to the Dleague while the found money in the 2nd round starts. It is tough to be a Rox fan these days, the team is doing fairly well, but has no real shot in the playoffs, and absent of a mind blowing trade has little chance of breaking that trend.
The same for me. We decided let Lin go, and keep Adrien, which helps NY tremendously. You can say whatever you want, but we missed a big chance to get a higher draft pick from NY, and have a good marketing PG for a long time. Meanwhile, we keep dreaming about getting Howard every day, and think Pau Gasol is a saver for the future.
It's pretty simple: They didn't recognize his "potential." Judging by his play last season for GSW and in the DLeague, Lin's upside potential looks like a Goran Dragic-- i.e. a decently athletic combo guard who may have a future if he fixes some holes in his game. Jeff Adrien actually had a similar resume to Lin's: Decent physical tools (short in height, but has very long arms and is strong), good 4-year college career, undrafted, played limited NBA minutes (also for the Warriors) and showed glimpses, dominated in the D-League. Adrien also spent some time in Europe (and is back in Europe now). Adrien probably has the potential to be a Chuck Hayes/Nick Collison type if he gains some experience and finds a niche in the NBA-- not a bad player to have. In the end, the Rockets did not see Lin as having the potential to play at an All Star level like he did for the Knicks so far. Nobody else really saw it coming, either. It took D'Antoni a whole month floundering with horrible PG play before giving Lin a shot (and it wasn't because he thought Lin was gonna play at this level). Seems unreasonable to ask McHale and his staff to see Lin as a potential All Star from 10 days of preseason/training camp when they had 11 returning players and many camp invitees. Frankly, I wonder if Lin himself saw it coming. I mean, Jeremy Lin sees Jeremy Lin every day, no?
Yes, all true. However the difference is that it is Morey and McHale and their staff's responsibility to recognize the talent. Not Lins, not yours, not mine, not anyone here, but this is what they get paid to do. I doubt the Memphis GM gets any quarter for letting Lowry go for peanuts. By taking the GM and Headcoach role, they are essentially saying they can recognize things the average fan cannot. So for me, I hold them accountable, if they did not see the potential in Lin, then perhaps their judgement is flawed, and it calls into question everything else on the bench as well. As for D'Antoni not seeing it, I don't really care, he is not with the Rockets organization, it is them I hold accountable - they need to do their jobs better. You can not let a player of Lin's caliber go for nothing, they could have and should have recognized the talent, signed him for a cheap 3 year deal, and it would have given them much greater flexibility, as for trading Lowry or Dragic. Morey and McHale blew it, and all the smiles in the world does not change that fact, even Morey admits it, and if Lin continues to shine and ends up being a star player - then it probably costs Morey his job.
1. rockets don't extend anyone. 2. Dalembert was a late pick up. We didnt have enough bigs. 3. Rockets couldnt have predicted the knicks would pick Lin up AND would have circumstances that took melo and amar'e out at the same time AND that davis wouldn't be ready for them at point AND after that the Knicks still almost cut him. 4. You trust them because it happens all over the league for years now. The point is for it not to happen often. If it wasn't for a veto that never should have happened, you'd feel very differently.
Whereas it's not the responsibility of every other front office and coaching staff to recognize the talent? What makes this the difference"?
