Morey fails because he will trade a lottery pick for a vet(Battier), but actively pursues multiple picks in the 20-60 range. Then, he say can how smart he is by saying he picked up a bargain, when 1 player is solid and the other 2 bust each year.
The rights to Gay for Battier, epic fail. To those who say we also ditched Stromile's ass in the trade, let's put it this way: would you want Shane Battier at 7m or Rudy Gay at the same price(effectively adding Stro's salary)? I know Rudy is due for a pay raise, but I'm sorry Rudy Gay was already better than Battier in his second year and is more deserving of the money Shane earns.
Swift- horrible Gay - rookie vs Battier - prime Wells - coming off unbelievale playoff series Was the right choice.
Rudy Gay for the short term was a bad trade. Keeping Swift who was traded like 2 times after he left Houston? I'd take Gay over Battier. It was a good business move nothing better, but in terms of brilliance everything but.
Morey's top draft picks, counting Battier as a #8, with their draft position. Battier(8) Landry(31) Brooks(26) Budinger(40ish) Donte Green(28) CD's top draft picks, not counting Battier Yao(1) Dickerson(14) Mobley(40ish) Kenny Thomas(22) Head(24) Othello(30ish) Nachbar(15) Bryce Drew(16) Eddie Griffin(6) Collier(15) Terrence Morris(30ish) Make of it what you want. But personally, I'd rather have Morey running my drafts than CD. But that's just me.
I would not consider #2 a bad trade. Howard had a longer contract i thought for James who had 2 years left. Then he traded James for Jackson who had 1 year left. Then Jackson turned into Artest. I would not consider this a bad move at all.
Okay. I hate to get into name calling - but I think you're insane. This is why: 1. Many of us would argue that it wasn't a mistake to trade Rudy Gay for Battier. And in fact, I still wouldn't want him on this team because he isn't good enough to build around. He plays crap defense and he has no heart. I once saw him celebrate after a dunk when his team was down by 13 points. That lone action epitomized the 'who cares if we win so long as I get mine' mentality and I do think it's fairly representative of who he is as a player. Nonetheless, he'll probably get close to max money and in my mind, at best he's Scottie Pippen minus the bulldog mentality. I'd rather not have him eating up a sizable chunk of our salary cap. Additionally, it can be argued that Battier is one of the primary reasons our players play so hard and smart. He (along with Chuck Hayes) is our team captain. If you like this scrappy team, you like Shane Battier whether you realize it or not. 2. I'll be honest and say I can't really comment on this. I don't even remember if that's how we got Mike James the first time or the second. If it was the first time, it helped. If it was the second? Yeah. Not so great. Regardless, I feel safe in saying it wasn't a serious setback for the organization. (Hell, you're the first person I've even seen bring it up since around the time it happened). 3. We didn't lose much by resigning Steve Francis. What did we have to give up to get rid of him? A 2nd round pick? That's not a very big deal when we buy those anyway. It was a low risk move with the potential for high reward - and at the very least I promise it sold some tickets. Steve still has lots of die hard fans in Houston. 4. Really? Way to act like that isn't a hindsight is 20/20 post. Who on Earth could have possibly known how good Carl Landry would turn out? And guess what? We still have him at a value price. He gets paid practically nothing in comparison to what he contributes. You're basically criticizing Morey for not having a crystal ball here. 5. Wow. So there were three guys in the second round who, to date, appear to be better players than Joey Dorsey and you can't believe Morey actually picked Dorsey over them. Get the eff out. First, this is basically a testimony to how AMAZING Morey has been. We literally expect him to snatch up every second round gem. Second, the second round is ALWAYS a crap shoot - and if you really expect a GM to ALWAYS pick the player who will eventually have the best career, I think it fair to say your expectations are absurdly high. No GM in history hasn't made that mistake MANY times. I am one of those people you spoke of who think Morey is the perfect GM, but that doesn't mean I think he's infallible. 6. The verdict is still out on Blair. He looks amazing right now, but if his knees don't hold up and he's out of the league in a few years, will you be posting "So Morey was right about Blair"? 7. (which you numbered 5 again) Well, again, Morey doesn't have a crystal ball. We took the Lakers to 7 games without McGrady and without Yao for most of those games. I don't think it too far fetched to say that if McGrady and Yao would have remained healthy and played up to their abilities (which is what you have to bet on despite their history of injuries when 40 million of your salary is tied up in them), we stood a very solid chance of hoisting a 3rd championship banner. But McGrady showed up fat and out of shape and took himself out before the trade deadline and Yao broke his foot in the playoffs. Morey took a gamble for the title and it didn't work. But Ron Ron still contributed to taking the Rockets to the 2nd round for the first time in over a decade. And in the process, our young guys gained valuable playoff experience. But if you want to cry about Donte Green... Yeah. I think this might have been the most absurd post I've seen on this board in a very long time. But I guess I should at least give you credit for not mentioning the signing of Trevor Ariza.
Also, I was thinking about it as we played the Spurs tonight. Is it now safe to say that the Luis Scola acquisition was the most lop-sided trade in Rockets history? We've won out on trades before, but Vassillis Spanoulis + cash for Luis friggin' Scola. AMAZING.
ok blair is good but we didnt need another undersized pf we got scolandry and hayes joey dorsey just needs more playing time to evaluate him more
Some people have great hindsight. Should be a way all of these hindsight Quarterbacks could put there picks down for the record before draft night in the order that the Rockets pick, then go back 3 years later and figure out what an ass they would have made of them selves
I really don't care much for Blair, the guy is a short 6'5.2 PF(Draft Express Measurement ) who is a fall or tumble away from career ending injury...So I'm okay with Morey passing on Blair.... PS. can you imagine a frontcourt of Blair & Hayes talk about midgets.... --RB
I really hope no one takes the poll as CD vs. DM because that was not the intent. I was just showing two examples of hits and misses.
A gm's job is greatly based on luck. If you get a franchise player you can surround them with even mediocre talent and you will be good. Look at ferry. Even if morey pulls off some genius trades it unlikely we will be better than the cavs. The spurs have done a god job of drafting, but I doubt they would be a good team with no Duncan.
Certainly there is a certain amount of luck. However a good GM has to find a way to make his picks count. The fact that DM has been able to hit on so many late first to second round picks indicates that there is more than luck. But DM knows that even those players need a true superstar to be serious contenders. Even GM's that are fortunate enough to get the number one pick in the draft don't always get it right. What if CD had drafted Jay Williams over Yao like so many wanted? That would have been a wasted pick. High level picks sometimes turn into the biggest busts (Eddie Griffin). If having high lottery round picks was all you needed then the Clippers would be in the NBA finals on a yearly basis.
Thats my point, what if jay williams doesn't get on a motorcycle he might have become good in a few years. What if eg isn't depressed/crazy maybe he turns out to be decent. I would rather have a superstar and a crapy gm then a good gm with no superstar. You can always fire the gm or even a dumb gm will eventually get lucky, but if you don't have a superstar you are sol.
