I've been here for the fifteen years watching this crap. I don't care how long Morey has been here. I don't follow the Houston Moreys.
There's no question we have the best collection of young talent in the league. Harden by himself is a super prospect that you can build a team around. He is a top 4 player in the NBA to build around when you combine upside and current production. Harden wont be any worse than he is right now, and right now he is a top 10 player in the NBA at 23. He has the potential to be a top 3-5 player. The year he is having is above everyones expectations for him as a first time starter and leader. He really has no where to go but up. Best of all he looks to be extremely durable. Yes he has a lot to learn and lots of little flaws, but i cant name 5 players I'd rather have than Harden. Asik is a first year starter and is 2nd in the NBA in rebounding. He above all other players has imrpoved throughout the season when i thought he would be the first to slump due to stamina concerns. He has demonstrated incredible work ethic and could be a top 5 frontcourt defender. He has improved greatly on the offensive end. For someone his size with his production he is on a steal of a contract. A great asset and is one of the few bigs who seems to be willing to do the defensive work without getting lots of touches offensively. And with this offense and our potential offensively minded youngsters he is a more valuable asset to us than other teams. Lin is a topic of much Discussion, but he is extremely valuable as an asset due to his marketing ability and his upside. Whether or not one thinks that Lin will improve or reach his ceiling; Its not really arguable that he does not have tremendous upside. He has had monster games during his first two years playing and is extremely inexperienced for his age among his cometition. Physically Lin has tools and seems to have a good head on his shoulders. That makes his a likely candidate to improve and become more consistent which has been his main flaw. If Lin was 21 instead of 24 he would be hyped as a young Pg with top 5 pg potential. Lin has the experience of a 21 year old so while his potential to improve isnt as great, he can still be a top 7 point in this league who has shown the ability to be a killer in the clutch. That upside makes him a legitamate prospect to add to our collection Parsons is a tremendous value on his current contract. As a SF prospect he has shown the ability to play both ways and guard 3 positions decently well. On the offensive end his 3point fg % has shot up. He seems to have a great work ethic and an unusall skillset for someone with his height and length. There is definite potential for him to become more consistent and add to his overall game but he really is one of the better second year players in the league and shows definite upside. Yes he is also 24 but I'm sick of hearing just because a player is "old" for their year in the league that their upside isn't high. This is a mistake i think alot of people ( even Gm's) make. If a player can flash tools and match them with production in game there is definitely potential there. When you add on Parsons work ethic and contract there isnt a team in the league that would kill to have him Terrence Jones was seen his freshman year at kentucky as a top 5 pick if he came out. Well he didnt and after having his stock drop, I'm thrilled the rockets picked him up. Jones has the potential to be a beast. His upside is incredibly high. While right now his offense isnt good enough to play the 3 or 4 , his defensive tools are there. He is a tweener who can actually defend the 3. His fast break potential is high, he looks to have the ability to finish around the basket and has good help defense instincts. He hasnt gotten alot of playing time this year, but aside from Robinson he our most athletic big and he has much better skills than robinson. He can handle the ball well and has shown the ability to shoot albeit inconsistently. T-Rob i really havent seen too much, but he was a consensus top 5 pick in this last draft and therefore has a lot of percieved value around the league. His althletic tools are top flight and his speed while running the floor is elite among 4's. T-rob has everything you look for in a power forward prospect and has the lentgh to slide over to the 5 in smaller lineups. All in all he is a young talent that almost every team would like to have and has the potential to be a top 10 4 for the next 10 years. A great asset to ad to our farm system D-mo I really like so i may be overating a bit, but he really has the potential to be a mismatch at the 4. He still is almost as raw as Robinson and will have bad games, but he has already had some games with production to match his tantalizing potential. He doesnt have the overwhelming athletisicm of T-rob or Jones, but he has skills that only 2 or 3 people his size have. He has the ability to pass, score in the post, and score from range. For a 22 year old his skillset is incredible. He has always had incredible talent with the same questions of strentgh and work ethic dogging him. Well i think that his time in Houston already has shown that he has great work ethic. And as for strength , he really only needs to improve a bit. What rookie is not outmatched physically from time to time ? And I'd rather him keep his speed which is truly a top tool for him. He is one of the fastest legit 7 footers in the league right now, and in the rockets system thats deadly. I wont touch too much on Beverly, Smith , Anderson, or white.. but on some contending teams those players would excite the fans as potential solid backups. At the very least the first 3 look to be able to play in the NBA down the line if they become more consistent. With all of them having the ability to be good bench players. White has higher potential due to his skill set and size, but he has a long way to go before moving into a higher tier of prospects. The rockets have 6 players that have the ability to become very good players. Now whether or not all of them realize their potential is a valid question, but the potential exists. And thats what matters when your team is young. Whats even better than the fact that we have prospect with high potential is that a creative GM/ coach could really try out some innovative lineups that have a shot at being very good. Indulge me for a minute and imagine a world where most of our players have reached a level close to their absolutel ceilings and see how the lineups fit and really make our system workable. A normal starting 5 of Lin, Harden, Parsons, D-mo, and Asik has already shown the ability to win against good teams. Lin and Harden both seem to have good heads on their shloulders and limited egos. IF they can learn to work together better than we instantly become a contender. Harden can already play off ball brilliantly, once Lin learns to do this better we really will become a two headed monster. I am fairly hopeful that the balance gets figured out and becomes consistent sometime next season. Teams need time to gel, young teams especially, and we have a lot of wins to show for a team with our turnover and youth. After the starting 5 we can get wacky and run our system to its full extent. Would a Harden/Lin, Parsons, T-Jones, D-mo, and T-rob excite anyone. You have speed and size and shooting if certain players can live up to their ceilings. The only way you could really counter this size is by going super small and then good luck getting a paint bucket against us or stopping our fast break. Jones, D-mo, and T-rob are some of the fastest bigs in the NBA and i think that Morey got them partially for that reason. We can really put on the floor our bigs that look like a bunch of deer running down the floor on fast breaks. Robinson at 245 has the strength to guard most backup 5's and really there are not many 5's that are true post threats anymore. Harden/Jones/ D-mo all being lefthanded adds an element of suprise to our offense even if we get bogged down in the halfcourt. Who has the size to stop a Parsons/ D-mo or Rob P&R ? When you look at our assets combined upside and the fact that an avenue already exists through our current system to play to many of these guys strentghs, I really do think we have the strongest collection of potential in the League. If morey plays this right ( who knows how that is ) and a few of our key core/ prospects continue to improve ( the odds are pretty good in our favor ) then there is definitely championship roster potential for our team as it currently stands.
On Parsons ... could you have guessed that for players with a sample size of more than 20 made 3s, that Parsons has the highest 3pt% on the team? Would you have even thought it possible, not last season, but at the start of this season with Harden and Delfino also on the team?
DEN is still not going to win the Western finals. We are aiming for 1-2 more superstars, then we'll become contenders. Morey flipped last year's veteran squad which no one wanted to trade for to this year's young squad with upside, that just intrigue GMs out there for a trade. Vintage Morey
