Hard to judge the team when two of your most important players are out with injury. Wait, is this last year again? DD
Kareem wasn't 7'6"...neither was Mark Eaton. And, yes, there is a difference. There are only 6 guys in the history of the NBA who've played at 7'5" or above. None of them were playing the kind of minutes we've been playing Yao at for years...mostly because none of them were counted on to be THE MAN. It's no accident that every one of these guys had careers marked by lots of missed games and injuries. http://sportige.com/top-10-tallest-players-in-nba-history/ 6. Slavko Vranes - 1 season - only played one game..hardly worth mentioning. 5. Chuck Nevitt - 12 seasons - If you add up his career minutes played total you get 18 total games played. He never played more than 43 games in one season, about half an NBA season. 4. Shawn Bradley - 12 seasons - Only after moving to Dallas in 1997 it seemed Bradley was picking up and really getting comfortable with the NBA game, but after a few seasons, like every tall and lanky player, injuries started mounting up on his back and legs and his playing time and availability slowly started diminishing until he eventually retired after 2004-2005 season. (I'LL NOTE TOO, THAT BRADLEY DIDN'T PLAY ANYWHERE CLOSE TO YAO'S WEIGHT)A 3. Yao Ming 2. Gheorge Muresan - 6 seasons - the man played 50 games/season @ 21.9 minutes per game over the course of his career. NBA career stats: 6 seasons, 307 games, 21.9 minutes per game 1. Manute Bol - 10 seasons - Like most players on the list, after the first few healthy years Bol started missing large portions of the season due to injuries that eventually ended his career in the middle of the 94-95 season. His final 2 seasons were more of a teacher job for him, mentoring Shawn Bradley and Gheorge Muresan as they developed into legitimate NBA Centers. Manute averaged 18.7 minutes per game and averaged 62 games pers season.
I was zeroing in on the cons long before the season started, durvasa. Getting Yao back is and was fool's gold. There is no getting Yao back. Yao has been injured as much as he's been healthy over the last 4 to 5 seasons. The Rockets were a good defensive team when the roster wasn't as it is currently comprised. Turns out, when you trade away better defensive players for worse defensive players, your defense suffers. Whodathunkit?
Another bad trade by Morey is Nicolas Badum. He sent him to Portland where he has become a really nice player with a lot of potential to become even better.
Its a GM's job to put the best quality and depth in players on the court for the coach to use to formulate wins. There is no way you can blame Les or Morey for this team not winning. The only thing you can knock against these two guys is banking on players that are injury prone. They get a pass on McGrady because he really didnt have issues till his later days in Houston, and Yao was a gamble that they had to take because of the business implications of having such a major pop culture figure on your team. Those are really the only two major superstars the Rockets have been responsible for over the years. As for the smaller moves, there really isnt anyone better in the business. There is no question that with any trade he has made the talent has always been won in his favor although they dont always translate to wins. But my point is it isnt his responsibility to make the team jell and win. It isnt his job to prep his team defensively. He can only put talent on the floor for Adelman to coach. Given the team is 1 and 6, it still has nothing to do with Les and Morey. If anyone is to blame its the coaching and the players.
lol rep+ omg. How did I forget such an important role player. That's like the second coming of Brian cook. Smh at myself. Thanks for pointing that out
And when you trade better offensive players for worse offensive players, your offense improves. Two sides to the ball. I don't think the Rockets expecting to be an elite defensive team, as they were in prior seasons. They were shooting for balance -- being good on both ends, and hoping that good could become great with the right breaks. We'll see how it turns out. Morey laid out a number of goals at the end of the regular season last year, and I think the proper way to judge him is to see how this season goes and assess which of those goals he met.
Yes Morey is overrated. One playoff series win in 3 years. Yeah the Rockets had its share of injuries but what does Morey do, he go gets Kevin Martin who always gets injured. It's all about results.
He got Kevin Martin, because Kevin Martin was gettable. Morey cannot force general managers to trade us their stars when all we have are decent role players to give back to them, especially since Stern started getting b****y over lopsided trades. The inability of some of you folks to see the big picture is staggering.
What big picture, Raven? Where are we headed? If you know the plan, I'm sure we'd all like to be updated.
I think the plan was to try one more time with Yao, and then readjust it after this year. That is what it looks like to me. DD
Martin was gettable because he is always injured. When healthy, he will get you points but nothing else. No defense, rebounding, assists, etc. You know the things that get you wins. There is a reason Martin has always been on bad teams. He overvalues players like Battier, Hayes, and Lowry. They are all solid role players but you get the most of out those types of guys if they play with superstarts something this team doesn't have. What big picture are you taking about? Morey has been here for almost 4 years and this team isn't in much better shape than when he got here.
I guess. But I am not sure he had much choice, not a big market for a center with a history of horrible feet. DD
Morey hasn't had a solid superstar caliber player to build around. He gets an incomplete. I don't think ANY team can cope with our current BS of the best player playing every other day with limited minutes. This is a league of repetition and consistency. We would need 7 basketball IQ geniuses with above average skills to pull off what essentially is 2 different teams with different playing styles and 2 different benches. For the rest of Morey's track record, TMac and Yao suck ass when it really matters. Sometimes it's his heart. Other times it's their body. Playoffs is the only thing that counts. Any team would like to take Morey. I just think the odds are stacked against him on the decisions he had no control over. I'm getting sick and tired of dealing with Yao's problems. Great guy, but not one to pin your championship hopes on.
are you kidding? we are in much better shape with many tradeable assets. we dont have anyone who cant play, we have hit with a 2nd round pick in bud, we have multiple first round picks, we have size, speed, and depth. we are hurt. plain and simple.
Abso-fn-lutely! I never got the love fest for DM. Someone always posting that ghey azz pic of him...I mean yes, he made some good trades, but this year he's sucked...and it shows!!!
The Rockets wont make the playoffs this season, whos to blame.RA has coached many different kind of teams, this will go down as his worst team ever. Do you really thing Rick has became stupid all of a sudden. He can only coach the players given to him. Morey is always looking to flip some player for another player. I dont think there is any loyalty on the team. Each player is looking over his shoulder worrying about being traded. Morey just looks at value of a player, no matter what position they play. He lets Rick worry about coaching them. There is to many assets on this team. Someone needs to be traded, to many players of equal value.Not enough players who play defense. Look at the only teams houston had that won championships, they played defense.Golden State, Portland.Denver.Phoenix.Orlando, etc. they wont win any championships because they dont play defense.Martin, Brooks.Scola.Budinger,has good numbers, but dont play good defense. Championships wont be won with players like that.They might make the playoffs, but wont win a championship
I was saying exactly this in the "No extensions for anyone" thread. No loyalty to the players = no loyalty to the team. DD
