Excellent research. Well done. And I agree with most of what Morey said, how could you not? This is not a contending team. We all hope it will be. My point was that we were led to believe that the addition of Howard, with perhaps a tweak or two, would make us contenders. Right now, 56 games into the season, there are exactly four teams that are better than us, plus two in the East. Your links quote Morey talking about needing to be top one or two, or alternatively having first round advantage. Statistically, at least prior to going to seven games, I believe the fifth seed held the advantage over a fourth seed. Record-wise, this is the closest pairing of teams in the playoffs. Regardless of the statistics, the number one seed pretty well hammers the 4 or 5 in the second round. To really contend, being a third seed is extremely important. Although the 1st and 2nd seeds win nearly all championships, there is an occasional 3rd. Being a third seed gives you an excellent chance to really go deep into the playoffs and obtain the experience needed if you should be lucky enough to be a first or second in the next year. At this point, I don't see third seed happening this year. It looks like if we are going to get there, it will have to be more than a tweak, and may have to be something shocking.
A player option was a beautiful lie; If Morey had considered Dragic so good , he would have signed him, and then traded him for draft pics. In fact, Morey didn't understood Dragic's value, he and Alexander all thought Lin better than Dragic, so he would rather let Dragic return to Suns and hunt for Lin
Again you say " we were led to believe that the addition of Howard, with perhaps a tweak or two, would make us contenders" and again I'll ask...by who? Morey said that we weren't legit contenders and we needed to make additional moves. If the GM feels that way then I don't know why you would have been convinced that we are contenders. It's like I said, based on their cap situation and roster they realistically have one big move left. That move will need to put them in position to be a legit title contender. That is why you don't waste that opportunity to make a move that only marginally improves the team. I know sports fans aren't the most patient group but Morey is going to have to wait for the right opportunity to open up. Simply taking the best deal that's available right now doesn't make us instant contenders and it could cost us the chance to make a move when a real opportunity arises.
i think the major problem on this team are more towards the players trusting one another more than anything. we loose so many close games, because either harden holds the ball too long or players are timid to shoot because of harden. this team either needs a player who can be a leader on the floor, or we need another PG who will distribute better than our current PGs. i dont think harden has developed into a leader yet, and dwight is not your go to scorer like hakeem in the clutch. this is where i see our biggest problem. if harden is not playing well, he still wants the ball in the 4th. this makes other players around him timid to shoot. we are still missing a piece, we need an alpha. im not saying a super star or all star either, but someone who will fill this void that has developed. i think this will make our team glue. or we just wait it out and get experience.
Dealing away Pat Patsquatch was pure asset management. He dealt for Thomas Robinson's PERCEIVED higher value, T-Rob being easier player to deal away for cap room. Which worked perfectly in getting Dwight Howard. Though Morey wont admit that he actually liked T-Rob as a player who could contribute as much as an asset, I think he was shrewd in that deal. Battier-Thabeet, as mentioned was for a 1st round pick mlre than for Thabeet himself. I dont think Morey was ever enamored by Thabeet, he definitely mentioned Thabeet as "long term". This was during the time of Rockets being undersized in the Chuck Hayes days with cries to "get more size" Overall, Moreys worst moves was Royce White for sure, Joey Dorsey and Donte Greene over Nic Batum, Deandre Jordan AND OMER ASIK. Then the T-Will trade. I can understand the T-Will deal in that he coulda blown up Lance Stephenson style. It sucks to miss out on reclamation project over character concerns, but it seems where theres smoke theres fire. Whats a GM to do though? You go for the "safe" picks in Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris but then you gotta take a chance on a high ceiling player at some point
Do you understand that Dragic was a free agent? In order for a team to trade nothing but draft picks for Dragic then that team would have to have the cap space ($7.5M) to cover Dragic's salary. So if that were true then why would that team trade for Dragic rather than just outright signing him? Why would a team give away draft picks when they didn't have to? That would make no sense at all.
its kinda like we have a roster full of talent that doesnt know how to work well together. i think there are trust issues going on right now. harden- needs the ball lin- needs the ball howard- needs the ball parsons- a shooter, not really a distributor tjones- well rounded player, but does not control the ball
Oh please. Stop trying to portray Morey as some kind of super genius that's fleecing the rest of the league left and right. Yes he's a great GM, but don't forget if not because of Stern's veto on the Chris Paul trade Morey would have assembled a team with Pau Gasol and NeNe as the two best players..... how many people will call him a super genius if Stern did in effect saved Morey from himself?
Point well taken. It just seems to me that we spent most of our bullets and only marginally improved the team. We have plenty of bullets left and the big move is yet to come?
Who are you going to trade him to? If there was a team that wanted him and was willing to pay his salary demand then they would have outright signed him. Think about the situation at that time. They were trying to stay flexible so that they could make a run at any star that became available (didn't matter who). They were setup to have cap space after the 2015 season and there's no way that they were going to tie up $8M in cap space in an option year for Dragic. What if he'd have under performed or had gotten hurt? We'd have lost the ability to sign a star player due to that option year. At that time acquiring a star was the first, second and third priority. No way do they risk that for Dragic. Now in retrospect, you could have but there was no way to know that Harden and Howard would fall into our laps.
Morey's cavalier way of treating players as contracts to be traded right and left is coming back to bite us in the a**. Look at all those ex-Rockets blowing up with other teams. Meanwhile we gutted the whole team to get Harden and Howard who are supposed to lead us back to contention--and they get exposed for being deeply flawed. Harden has lost his offensive accuracy and is a defensive liability. Howard can't score, defend and rebound as we need to him to every play because Morey's sorry people-skills caused Asik to get angry. A third star is going to solve all our problems? Coaching, 3pt shooting, defense, no leadership on the court Oh no, we just went around 360 degrees because we MAY have the stars but no role players. Same result! 11-13 record against winning teams and the schedule about to get tougher. And getting blown out badly by good defensive teams.
Given your name, you should know better. The brass didn't think Lin>Dragic on the court. With absolutely no identity, no direction, etc., the Rockets favored Lin's marketability over Dragic's on court presence as it would've been marginal going into the 2012-2013 season. Lin would've been the starting PG on a bottom 5-8 team, Dragic maybe 5-10? Obviously, Harden changed those tunes.
He was ready to fork everything over for Rubio right before we got Harden. He was ready to fold for Dwill this year. He signed Lin to a terrible contract. But he couldn't give Dragic the 4th year? I'm not bashing Morey, just highlighting his flawed philosophy going over things because he wants "Star Power."
