I don't necessarily think Lin was outplayed in camp. He may have done a good job. Lin, to me, doesn't have outstanding athleticism, shooting ability, court vision. He does some things really well, but its not obvious to where you just look at him and you know "This guy is going to be a star someday." Its of course easy to see now, after he's been successful in a long stretch of games. Lots of teams got a good look at him in summer league play, garbage time last year, and D-league action. I'm sure many teams had scouts that watched him play in college. Who among them thought he'd be a star? No one. So, why should the Rockets be able to predict he could be a star from watching him in an abridged training camp? Even if had played well, how is that enough to know how he'll turn out? Lots of unheralded, end-of-bench guys play well in training camp or in the preseason. That in itself is generally not enough to keep a guy when you're already strong at his position and you have weaker positions that need to be addressed.
"You asked why he was brought over when we already have 3 PGs under contract. "Because he's Asian" isn't a good answer, because clearly him being Asian didn't prevent him from being cut even with 3 PGs under contract on the team. He was brought in because there was a possibility one of those guys would be traded away, opening up a spot for him. " Half a million? Flynn is making 3.4 million this year. That's a lot of money to throw away just in case Lin becomes a star (over Lowry, Dragic).
The key word is followed. He followed the flawed script, he didn't write it. You don't call an actor a bad actor because he's working with a bad script. The stockpiling of busts was not that costly. both flynn and hill were throw ins. He only primarily went after thabeet and twill. Taing into consideration Twill's immense athleticism and thabeet's height and rawness, can you really call that a bad gamble? did it work out? No, but talent-wise, it didn't cost us much. What he mainly evaluated was potential, not current talent. There was a known risk and the team took on it quickly and got out of it quickly(maintained flexibility). A good GM has to be able to look for talent through different routes, not just waiting to sign stars and select lottery picks. My "are you serious" comment wasn't directed at you...but here's how i see it. there are two roads to take. The one morey took and the one Minny took. Clearly Les wasn't down with tanking, on purpose or not. That leaves morey with one road to take and he's got to make the best of it. He has field a winning team, and yet still maintain the flexibility to upgrade the team into a contender, all while not having the benefit of getting high picks through losing. what else can he do besides load up on mediocre talent? there's not other way to accomplish his goal on the road chosen for him. It's the only way to keep winning AND stay ready to upgrade.
Right, but you have to look at the big picture... you're talking about a third point guard at that point. The Rockets liked Lin better than Flynn. They wanted to keep Lin, but they didn't foresee this kind of success at all. They couldn't make the Gasol deal that would have moved Dragic and created a spot for Lin. So at that point, you're talking about eating a $3+M deal that you hope to use at the trade deadline in a bigger move, just to create a spot for a third point guard that you like a little better. That's a hard move. Rockets admit they didn't see this kind of impact from Lin, but really no one did. The Knicks clearly didn't... they had him on that team for awhile and were about to cut him. I do think criticism is warranted and it opens up critique of how they view T-Will, for example... but personally, I can't really fault them as much as others seem to.
^Great points. All of this is moot. Lowry and Dragic have been healthy except for a game or two. He would have never seen the floor.
Not sure if your whole post was directed at me, since Ive agreed with your comments/view for the most part I think the main problem was the short camp/preseason. Even if Lin outplayed flynn, how do you weigh that performance happening over a short period of time? It could simply come down to conditioning, maybe Lin came prepared and flynn didn't. Coaches have to rush to conclusions and take things like that into consideration. More time would have allowed better conclusions and time wasn't there this year.
Lowry is better, Dragic and his 15 minutes of helter skelter is better as a backup, and he may well be better overall. I don't think Raymond Felton is all that good either, but he put up near all star numbers in D'antoni's system.
Yes you are very smart but he gets that money whether he is on the team are released. Releasing him and signing Lin cost an additional minimum salary whatever that is but well under a million. As for everyone else I’m not going to debate 5 people at the same time. Especially since I am certain nothing I say will sway your opinions. But what I will say one last time is that unlike many on here I do not put Morey on this infallible pedestal. I do not care that 29 other GM’s missed the boat. I care what our GM does. I do not care what hand he has been dealt I care that we have been a Mediocre team for way too long. Probably longer that any other Rocket team in history. My problem with Morey is not his lack of intelligence. He is the smartest guy in the room in most cases. But he appears to think more logically than visionary. That’s one of my bigger issues with him. He is always a day late and a dollar short. He saw what all these team with trade exceptions and so he tried to get some but it didn’t pan out because there no more teams ready to throw awy anyone just for cap space because there was no Lebron prize. And now all of these team are using the amnesty clause to benefit their teams and all we have is a buch 2009 worthless assets. Look at the knicks. Everyone on this board was laughing at them how we raped them. But they are the better franchise. They have passed us by and have a much more promising future than we do. Hell half the on their squad we had or tried to acquire. Novak, Lin, Jeffries Melo, Davis…Yeah you can make excuses for Morey and some of them are legit. But the bottom line is you play to win the game and that’s how I measure him. That's my opinion and I am certain you will disagree.
The Knicks will be at 17-18 after they lose tonight. That's in a weak conference. LMAO. Amare has one of the worst contracts in the NBA. Melo has been meh this season.
I understand, but you're also giving up a 3.4 million trade asset in the process and for a guy who likely wasn't going to see many minutes anyway (just repeating Clutch's point).
More excuses? lol, player do not become all star over night. You should never miss a rising star like that, especially at such a low price and in a situation that we desperately need one.
We obtained Flynn and Motiejunas for Brad Miller and a 2013 lottery protected pick. I'm pretty sure Flynn wasn't the target.
We didn't... He was essentially part of a package that got rid of Brad Miller and got us D-Mo. Flynn was never the main part of the deal, D-Mo was what Morey was looking for. If you have been following D-Mo, wouldn't you say he looks like a fantastic prospect?
We gave up a 1st? Did not know that. Oh well, at least it is protected. We also gave up Nikola Mirotic. Given our luck against guys named Nikola with a last name ending in Ic, he will probably own us one day.
His salary was needed to balance out the trade, which has the Rockets dumping Brad Miller's $5 million remaining salary. The main part of the trade was had the Rockets sending the 23rd overall pick and a 2013 lotto-protected first round pick acquired from Memphis (acquired, along with Thabeet, for Battier) to Minnesota for the 20th pick, with which the Rockets drafted Motiejunas, and Minny's 2012 2nd round pick.
And who's winning more, the knicks or the rockets I dont get why the NY staff gets so much credit. It's New York, The Big Apple. Move any team to NY, clear cap space, and you get stars, i don't care who the GM is, good or not. It's not even an excuse for Morey, it's the way it is, even in other sports.
