The real screw-up was not drafting Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi > Dragic Kawhi+Harden+Dwight defeats the Spurs and Miami last year.
Really the Rockets made a heavy bet on Lin's ability to keep up Linsanity weeks. The team was high on him and Alexander wanted him back badly after the kid blew up. Morey stated, when Lin was signed, the team was going after Lin "no matter what". And Alexander was demanding they get Lin back. Alexander was chewing Morey out over the phone and even hung up on Morey because Alexander was so furious at seeing Lin hitting game winners in NY. Now, that decision may have (probably?) influenced the type of contract they were comfortable giving Dragic, since they were reserving money for a run at Lin. Here are a couple of articles on the matter: Dead Link Chron.com Link Other links via Google There is no need to be upset. That is part and parcel of having an aggressive front office and owner. Sometimes you lose Dragic and Asik. Sometimes you get Lin/Mo Taylor/Kelvin Cato. Sometimes you get Howard and Harden. The Rockets were still in that mode in which they were shuttling talent in and out, upgrading assets as they went along. Now they are selling into the Harden era. Hopefully, Dragic will be on board. Anyway it goes, Morey pulls something off. Hopefully that something will occur before Harden is worn down.
Totally forgot about that! This makes my suspicion of letting go Dragic being Leslie's decision and possible overriding Morey in any case even more probable.
Dragon is a poor man Harden . Lin is the short man of Yao. ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^ That's how Les thinks forget about analytics
Take it easy. Yes, I'd say Les has the unfortunate talent of being a star-f***er; he took it personally when he got teased over letting Lin go, and saw the kid and his big shiny Chinese $$$ playing well elsewhere. But we don't know how much truth is in all these "anywhere but Houston" media leaks about Goran. Probably some big bulls**t to go with a slight truth. Let's see how it plays out.
Lol, so right, I mean sure houston messed up on some drafts, but at least our team didn't waste picks passing on Jordan and more recently Durant for players who barely had a career... Can you imagine if Rockets passed on both Hakeem and Jordan? Obviously Les wasn't owner when Hakeem was drafted, but just saying...
Dragic would have been a bad fit next to Harden too. And he would have had a players option. Les and Morey made the right choice.
Yeah, he really f'ed himself more than the team. Let's say he and Morey had given Dragic that 4th year player option back in 2012. Their situation with him wouldn't be that different right now. Sure, they'd already have him under contract instead of having to give up assets to get him from Phoenix. But they'd still be looking at a guy who wants 20 mil/yr and the offense running through him. Where Les really f'ed up was not going harder after Lowry last summer. Instead of playing footsie with Melo, had he made a serious play for Lowry, we might have him under contract right now on a 4-year, 50 mil deal that's a bargain compared to what the Rockets will have to give Dragic. And to add insult to injury, Lowry is IMO a superior player. Moral of the story is stop chasing after so-called marquee names and start addressing the needs of the team. Everyone knew they needed a PG last summer. What they didn't need was a 3 given that Parsons was still on the roster at the time(and by all accounts, they wanted to resign him). Yet they pursued Melo.
Two screw ups really, could have had Lin for peanuts and kept Dragic, the Rockets let too much talent walk to other teams then have to overpay to get them back. Lin, Ariza, Patterson, Lowry, Brooks, Whiteside, Covington, and now Dragic. Our turnstile approach is not working. DD
what sounds more likely? a pinpong treky won't give an extra year to a non cornerstone(at the time) to keep cap flexibility or Lex screwed us over? don't drag lex's name into this.
Morey also F'ed us. Drafted freaking Marcus Morris ahead of Leonard and then wasted a 16th pick with Royce Be Well WHite. Oh what could have been.
I'm not actually not big on bringing players back unless they're just here to be a possible impact player. Risk is too high of being compared to that one time he played for us and will always be held to that standard. Personally I don't care about Dragic coming back or Lowry for that matter, though I agree wit DD that we should've gone all in for Kyle. The problem is that we could've avoided this problem of not having a PG who can compete with the best of them.
I just think we need a more patient approach, got to find chemistry with your core first. Very few championship teams cores were built via trade, Morey being at Boston probably has an influence on how he views things. I personally prefer the Spurs methodology. DD
Both methods work. The Lakers were first round fodder til they traded for Pau. Suddenly they were in the Finals 3 years straight and won 2 more titles. The Heat in 2006 used trades to built that title team(granted it was a one-and-done champ though). The Mavs had a constant revolving door of players over the past 15 years and were able to get to the Finals twice and win once. And Boston obviously stockpiled a ton of assets to be able to trade for Garnett and Allen which resulted in 2 Finals appearances and 1 title. It's pretty easy for the Spurs to be patient with a core of Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. All you have to do is find the right pieces around those 3. But remember that it took a while to put that trio together and beforehand, they did have a lot of players going through there. Just compare their 1999 title team to the one in 2003.
