San Antonio players are basically all HOME GROWN... They did not go out chasing the superstars... As for New England, Tom Brady was a 6 round 199th pick and was on the bench until Bledsoe got hurt... There have been a number of backups in the Patriot system that look like All Pro, but suck in other systems... The two organizations you just named have made their players very good players in their system... San Francisco 49ers in the 80's... The system made the players good... Oakland Raiders in the 70's (Madden as the coach) same thing... they had a bunch of players NOBODY wanted.. T_Man
San Antonio is a terrible example because they didn't start paying role players until they had their stars in place AND because they are known for having guys move in and out of their roster. Golden State, same thing. They were awful for a decade, racked up a bunch of high picks, found superstars and then paid all of their guys. Again, I'm asking you to find me an example of a team that does not have 3 "star" or high level palyers that has locked in all the role players and won a title like you think Morey should have done.
Ok... Yeah I know DD is pissed about DMo and needs to go on a cleanse, but he's right with San Antonio... SA didn't go out and buy stars.. The developed them.. The role players were developed.. Only a hand full of players were traded for and they only go after the players that fit their system. I'll give you golden state... T_Man
The argument about star chasing vs draft and rebuild is a different argument though. Morey has stated that he would have preferred to draft and rebuild. Les is against that. However, San Antonio did not just max themselves out under the salary cap on role players. They had their stars in place and kept them paid and then rotated in role players. There's been plenty of guys who have left San Antonio to get paid elsewhere because the Spurs weren't going to pay big bucks to their role players.
San Antonio kept their key complimentary players too - they did not just keep their stars. The Matt Bonners, the Danny Green's at this point the Manu Ginoblis.....there is much more a sense of comraderie and the org caring for them as players. People WANT to go to San Antonio more than Houston, think about that for a moment. DD
Again, I say again, they kept those guys because they HAVE THEIR STARS. They are a championship team that keeps their role players. Do you really believe that if we had just kept Patterson and all those other guys and subtracted Dwight that we would be a title team?
Spurs got rid of Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal and Stephen Jackson. The problem is we haven't traded enough Flip more!
Truer words were never written. I am a big DD fan as a person. As a GARM poster, I'm on the verge of putting him on ignore because I can't read a single thread without hearing him repeat himself over and over in it.
When you reach a level of success it is a lot easier to justify keeping players because they have contributed to that success. The ones that have not do not last. The Rockets got some success last year and made an effort to keep the team together. And now as we see that team crumble the Rockets have to shake things up to find the right mix.
Deuce, we have failed to build around Harden - our star, we have TRADED away the pieces that fit for cheaper pieces that don't fit. We are a 3 and D team with a bunch of players that SUCK at shooting 3s.... We value FTs but we traded away our only big who can hit 3s, and shoot FTS and is a post player. We are one hot mess because we continue to flip pieces, with a seemingly lack of understanding of the basics of roster building. That there are CHEMISTRY elements to success, to finding players that fit in with your stars. I have an entire thread about building around Harden - Morey has gone out and signed players that sort of fit, but failed to find players that FIT. And when he finds them, for some obscure reason he trades them away, Both DMo and Thornton FIT with Harden - they can both catch and shoot, they can both play off the ball, they fit. Yet, we trade them away and we are left with a bunch of pieces that don't quite fit, a center and SG who don't like each other a powerless coach and a reputation around the league as a good place to go but not to trust in staying too long. Things are NOT trending well under Morey - IMHO, he has failed to build his team, his philosophy has continue to fail, and he continues to kick the can down the road and appease the less knowledgeable fans by the promise of draft picks that RARELY pan out or if they do he will trade them for more draft picks thus pushing contending further out. We need a BASKETBALL person ahead of Morey - he is not good enough - and too analytical to build a championship team. DD
No, if we continually got better, or made moves that felt like we were building something, it would be fine. But we aren't, there is no plan, there is only flexibility and hope something breaks our way. Things that generally BREAK are flawed players like Harden and Howard.....but if you have them - you still have to put role players around them that fit, Morey has been crappy at that since he got here. DD
I find it hilarious how you flop around like this - The premise of your argument at the beginning is that there is too much turnover and we are having a mess of a season.... yet this offseason we had almost no turnover. Then its about having the right pieces around Harden... So.... was Morey supposed to change the supporting cast???... That kind of sounds like turnover. DD complains about having a shooting team with shooters who don't shoot well... But he then complains about trading Marcus Thornton... an extremely high volume shooter who shoots what 34% from 3? D-Mo is a career 31% three point shooter. Then lastly he has the audacity to blame analytics as an issue for firing Morey. Because nobody in the league uses analytics... sure the Spurs don't use them (oh wait... the Spurs the team that has more people hired in their analytics department than the rest of the league). DD stay golden pony boy.
2011-12: 34 wins 2012-13: 45 wins 2013-14: 54 wins 2014-15: 56 wins Nobody is denying that this years team stinks, and that it SHOULDN'T result in changes... some major. But this whole notion that the Rockets haven't gotten continually better year over year and built anything significant is beyond ridiculous. This season has bean an anomaly more than anything. If it was that easy to explain and fix then there wouldn't be so much belligerent rambling by folks like yourself in the GARM. The fact that its so difficult to figure out is why things are so contentious around here. So DD... dude... let's calm down and think like objective human beings. Real solutions to real hard problems.
Anyone that keeps using San Antonio as an argument for building a model franchise really has no handle on reality and how insanely hard it is to replicate that "model". 1. Tank a whole season and hope you win the NBA lottery to get the top pick in the NBA draft? Check 2. Use that top pick in the NBA draft to draft the greatest Power Forward to ever play the game? Check 3. Hand the team over to a coach that had no prior NBA coaching experience and expect NBA players to follow his lead? Check 4. Scout and draft an overseas player and let him play his style into becoming one of, if not, the best 6th man in NBA history? Check 5. Scout and draft a little French kid, throw him into the deep end of the pool, and watch as he transforms himself from a fast kid with no jump shot to an All-Star Point Guard that dominated the paint in his prime? Check 6. Have all three of those players put their egos aside and let one another lead the team when the time was right? Check 7. Draft a kid from college who was more known for his defense in college than anything else and watch him evolve into a NBA Finals MVP? Check Yea, lets try to emulate that model.
GS has been bad for so long, finally they got the picks they want, that is why they are so good right now. The rockets do not have any common thing with GS. Spurs are not the similar to the rockets either.
