LOL. Bima, you're in for a big disappointment if you expect that. But I'm pretty sure you're being sacastic... :grin:
I have no problem with some one saying the past 10 years have been disappointing or even that the Mavericks have done better than the Rockets over that time period. It's really not even debateable there, as they have regularly gone further in the playoffs than the Rockets almost every year of the past decade including their run to the finals. At the same time it has earned them zero rings, so I wouldn't say the Mavericks are the team we want to emulate or even that there willingness to spend money was the reason for their success. Alot of the problems the Rockets have had over the past 10 years can be attributed to spending money on the wrong players, poor drafts, and injuries more so than how much they have spent. We have a different GM now, and the injury problem was not something they could have easily anticipated before aquiring those players. So far Morey has done a great job considering the hand he was delt when he took over. He still has work to do, but so far it's hard to not like the vast majority of his moves. No GM is going to be right 100% of the time, but so far even the moves that haven't panned out like Steve Francis haven't set the team back in any significant way, in comparison to say the Cato, Moochie Norris, Mo Taylor and Matt Maloney contracts for example. As for this years record, there is a huge difference in finding the team's record acceptable due to the circumstances, and throwing a parade. There is reason for optimism because most of our players are young and still have room for improvement, and Morey has the assets to pull off a major trade this offseason still, as well as a good draft record so far. We hope Yao will come back healthy and we expect next year to be better. But if Solomon is completely ignorant of the salary cap rules and thought we could just spend the money that Tmac and Yao were getting paid via insurance on other players, then that goes a long way into explaining why he thinks the Rockets should have done more.
In regards to this point though.....I doubt most people here even realize that the Rockets probably had their most profitable year ever because of insurance paying their two big salaries. So, while they did pay a good sum for 2nd round picks, Les had a great year this year......financially as an owner. I think that is going to allow the team to go a bit into lux tax land next year..... So, again, the GM's job is to take a longer view, I think DM has done a great job doing that..... I want the team to win too, but you have to be realistic, the Tmac and Yao pairing didn't work, it takes time to recover from that. If 5 years go by and we are not a championship contender, then DM's day of reckoning will be here, but right now, IMO...he gets an A+ DD
Not sure what your post even means, but if you were agreeing with PointForward that is kind of amusing.
After reading through this whole thread, this is exactly what I was looking for and found nothing of the sort. Solomon and anyone that agrees with him cite Les being "cheap", but there is not a single example to back it up. The only thing I can think of is that we didn't throw crazy money at Gortat, but all we had was the MLE to offer anyway- and we would have not gotten Ariza in that case. Did he want us to re-sign Artest to a long-term extension? What is it? He has no argument whatsoever. This is just a pathetic attempt at garnering attention. There is not a better move we could have made last summer or this season to turn us into contenders this season. Now if he wants to say that we shouldn't celebrate 42-40, that's fine. I'm not celebrating, I'm just optimistic about next season considering what we did without half of our payroll for most of the season. But calling the organization cheap without any evidence of it is amateur.
Orlando would have matched, as they did when the Mavs offered the MLE. Offering that money would have achieved nothing other than wasting time.
Why should what Solomon, or Justice or Rhome or say upset anyone here. If it's crap like you say, then dismiss it and move on. If it's true, then deal with it. The Rockets are where they are today because for most of the past 15 years they were run by an incompetent GM whom everyone praised and an owner who was nowhere to be found when leadership from the top was needed. So now, as you point out, they have to play the hand they've mostly dealt to themselves. No, Solomon's job is to give his opinions and basically hack off enough people so that they will "react". As for providing solutions, that's not a part of his job description - that's what they pay Morey and the rest of the so-called Rockets' "braintrust" to do. He could come up with the perfect solution to getting them to the championship and you and I both know that the Rockets would dismiss it out of hand because they didn't think of it first. Besides, they don't listen to press anyway, right? Yes, they performed admirably under adversity but this isn't Hoosiers and in they end the only thing that mattered was that they managed to finish one game over .500. I don't place much stock on "potential" because all that means is that they haven't done it yet. Get back to me when they can actually do it night in and night out and not just have the potential to do so. Consider what went down in that trade not from a player perspective but from a position perspective: They traded their starting backup and starting PF for Tmac and a handful of magic beans. So they upgraded themselves at the 2 but they left themselves with no starting PG or PF. At the time this trade was made, it taken as GOSPEL around here that CD & Les' plan was sound: pair up TMac with Yao and surround them with "role" players and let the good times roll. Also taken as gospel was that CD would make the right moves and bring in those role players. That never happened. Well, let's look at the PF position. By himself, Cato was indeed lukewarm crap as a player but he complemented Yao in two ways. He was a big body to defend that took pressure off Yao at the 4 and he could play the 5 as a backup. They replace that with...Juwan Howard. It wasn't until Scola falls into their lap, that they finally found a guy who could play the 4 and in the 5 years since, they still haven't found a decent replacement for Cato backing up at the 5. Now look at what happened with the PG spot. They ship off the "all style but no substance Steve Francis" and replace him with...Tyron Lue (and later Rafer Alston). Reece Gaines was supposed to be Mobley's replacement but he was such a nonfactor here I choose to forget him. Well it's 5 years later and it finally looks like Brooks may be the right guy but as I pointed out this is 5 years too late to help that trade. Martin may or may not be the answer at the 2. His injury history gives me pause. Fools to make that trade? That's a point for endless conjecture. I do know that it's Orlando who came out smelling like a rose and not the Rox. My point is not that making that trade was a mistake (except maybe the part about getting MeMac) - it's that the entire process of the trade was such a complete clusterfu*k by CD, Les and the mysterious "committee" who made player evaluations. No thought was given to how they were going to replace the positions they shipped off - they just replaced them with inferior players. When that didn't work, CD cycled in more "bodies" that couldn't get the job done. So once the underlying reason for making that trade (TMac + Yao = foundation for championship) blew up in their collective faces, they found themselves basically painted into a corner with a team in need of a complete overhaul and no plan nor clue for doing so. I remain unconvinced to this day that this experiment would have ever worked out because of McGrady. I was one of the few dissenting voices here about that trade but was downed out by all of the gleeping over what they'd done. Simply put, he's not a championship caliber player. He wants a ring but does not possess the desire to be the best nor the will to make it happen (and I'm being kind here). So in essence, this "experiment" was doomed from the start because it was built on a faulty premise. Role players are nice but as I pointed out, they have arrived 5 years too late. Also, I'm not as high on guys like Hill or Budinger as are many like yourself. If Yao goes down again, then it's back to the drawing board and no one knows how long it will take to find another big man that can elevate this team's status in the West. I wonder how many years you plan to wait for that to happen. Close to what? They were never close with Artest. You had no Yao and no TMac. Exactly how were they supposed to win a title without the two foundations of their team? I never liked Artest as a person or as a player. To me he's Dennis Rodman (the clown) V.2. I'd rather have seen Donte Green develop before I'd wasted one microsecond on that POS. When Morey made that move, that proved to me that he was no better than CD. Exactly what were they were supposed to be with him? The Three Amigos? One year deal risk-free you say? Morey flushed away a good young player and a draft pick for that jerk. The risk was that you'd end up one year later with nothing to show for it - oh wait, that's exactly what happened. As for them being under the gun to "to **** or get off the pot", they put themselves in that position so I have zero sympathy for their stupidity. As I've posted before: you can't outrun your mistakes as 6 times in the NBA lotto over the past 10 years will attest. If I appear to be a bit harsh it's because I have reached my limit with watching the Rockets equivalent of Groundhog Day that has been going on for over 10 years now. That Artest move was the final straw. From this point onward, I don't care about potential draft picks or potential in young players or anything else. No more excuses or endless rationalizations from the Rockets or their legion of rocketsheep. All I care about now is results: if I see them make it happen on the court, then I'll believe in what I see and them.
Not sure why you're blaming Les for Dawson's screwups, and yeah, Dawson screwed up. He's gone, and Morey's nearly done cleaning his **** up and creating a lot of excitement. Um, what? Orlando got good for two reasons. 1. Howard 2. Managing to get rid of Francis to New York because Isiah was a moron. ............................ Jesus ****, I can make the exact same arguments if I wanted to say that Boston's decision to trade for KG was stupid. The Artest trade was our version of that, and it didn't work because Yao went down at the very end - and when you have that much money devoted to him, you have to gamble on his healthy to some degree.
Queen is milking this for all it's worth. Watch him ramp up his Rockets bashing next season, because he knows it will get him air time.
You and I agree on very little, it seems...about the Texans or Astros...but I'm right there with you on this. But it's worse for me....because I think building on Yao for a championship is building on sand. I hope to be wrong. And that statement has nothing to do with how much I like Yao as a person...or how hard I'm rooting for him. Ultimately, T-Mac and Yao failed, at least in part, because Yao can't stay healthy. I don't think that's going to change or get better. I also don't think he's the alpha dog of a team that's going to win a ring, anyway. Our role players play their butts off and they build deeper commitment from hardcore Rockets fans like us who love to see guys play like that....but those guys need the HOF-caliber player to lead them towards a title run. I just don't see it with what they have in the organization right now. Of course, all of that could change....they could make a gigantic trade this offseason and bring in an alpha dog. But if the plan is to stay put and just add Yao to this bunch....they'll be a first...maybe second...round playoff team...and that's it.
This "bunch" is composed of mostly young players. You have Jordan Hill, Chase, Aaron Brooks, Lowry and Ariza as core pieces of the rotation. The team won't stay static, I expect these guys to improve even more in the offseason, so you won't just be adding Yao, the team will improve itself as time goes by. Of course this not even includes the lottery pick in a big-man deep draft. We'll probably ship out some assets to get a major piece, but as far as I'm concerned even without any trades the team would be pretty good next year.
I think the Rockets have figured this out, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him gone after next season. I know he's a cash cow, but I think other considerations will override that.
100% correct,even adding a low lottery pick won't make much of a difference. I think some guys don't realize that a gigantic leap is required to win a championship. Overachieving role players even as talented as Brooks plus Martin and a recovering Yao simply aren't enough.
Just listened to the podcast. This guy really doesn't know what he's talking about. I understand the point, don't get overexcited over a non-playoff season. Which is kinda an irrelevant point seeing as its not that we won 42 games that people are excited about, its teh internal growth by players and assets as well as being freed from...lets say cancerous growths. One thing, I would think he knows how the salary cap works and I'll give him teh benefit of teh doubt. But listening to him say what we should have done last offseason I'm not so sure he does. John and Lance mentoined the salary cap and he said "but you don't have to have a self imposed cap" ...uhh...but that doesn't change that there IS a salary cap taht would keep them from doing anything. Also his, "win as many games now and see what happens" strategy....lulz. Let's thank God Morey is our GM and not someone like Queen.
They're role players. They're really good role players. They need a franchise player to take them to a title run. I don't think we have one.
They're also assets. We have more assets than we know what to do with thanks to the Knicks. You get what I'm saying?
