Imagination is great. In my perfect basketball World, this would be our next team... Paul\Lin\Beverly Harden\Garcia Parsons\"Rookie" Jones\Robinson Howard\Asik\DMO
Since there is a lot of talk about TRobinson I went back to look at exactly what Morey said about Robinson yesterday at the luncheon word for word. Question: What's the outlook on Thomas Robinson Daryl Morey: "So Thomas is here today(at Toyota Center). Actually up on our court working out. We have really high hopes for him. I mean, we were never bad enough to draft 5th in the draft and that's where he went. We were high on him. We are still high on him. He was an elite rebounder. Frankly, he came in the middle of the year as a rookie and coach McHale is just trying to win games so at that point we were fighting for our playoff lives so he(Coach McHale) is not looking at can he(Trob) help me win win 2 years from now. He is just trying to win games that night and really no matter where he turned it was good for us because it is a young player who is improving whether it is Thomas, Jones, Donatas, or Greg Smith. So no matter who he picked he was helping both the big picture and winning tonight and Thomas got a decent shot early, he ended up liking Terrence more because he felt he could help us now. Frankly, we are just putting them in the mix and letting the fight it out and may the best man win. We have a lot of good bigs between TJ, Donatas, Thomas, and Greg Smith. And we have potentially a Turkish kidding coming over, Furkan Aldemir, this year. So we are going to let them fight it out." Again I understand Morey can't be to forthcoming with us so he made some general statements but I wanted to relay it to you guys word for word. I'm only sharing what he said exactly because his statements are not releasing any insider information so I don't think he would mind.
Oh, thanks for saying that Mr. Morey, I still no idea what I am gona to do with my Kmart and Artest Jeresy, and they are not even my size because the store always ran out of the smaller sizes.
Yes, I agree, a team with Harden/Parsons/Howard would be insanely attractive to Paul. But Clippers is not likely to cooperate for a S&T. The only scenario I can see is there are multiple teams that attract Paul away from LA, and there is really no chance lift for Clippers, so they decide to trade with the best package, which I think Rockets can present.
Morey basically speaks in a manner that is "technically" true, but in actuallity doesn't really mean anything. For example, true Robinson's the 5th pick of the draft. A pick we never have had. But this doesn't imply Morey believes Robinson to be currently 5th pick value. And Robinson working out doesn't imply he's staying either. Because the Rockets staff are paid to work with their youngsters regardless of what Morey plans to do. I remember in an interview someone asked Morey what he feels the upside of Hill and Budinger were. And he said something like "I feel they both have a chance to become all-stars." And my first reaction was, "yeah, and I can win the lottery tomorrow." Not technically untrue, but in the end pointless. I only believe the actual facts. If the Rockets say they want to chase after 2 FAs who Morey can't name. Then I believe him. But if he says he thinks Parsons has a bright future and can be a star? I still see Parsons get traded if the incoming player is Kevin Love.
I guess having Yao Ming's injuries were not enough for you, so now you want broke and broken as well?
I've watched him a couple of times and you can see when he is polished, you have a good to very good player there.
The interpretation of information on this board is comical: -Starting with the OP's assumption that we are "obviously chasing Howard and Paul" from the statement "two of the top free agents". If it read "the two top free agents" then you justifiably can assume he is referring to only Howard and Paul. But it doesn't, kit reads "two of the top free agents". The top 3 free agents in order, and the only all star level players available, are Howard, Paul, and J. Smith. And honestly, I would think that only two of those are really available considering that Paul is now pretty much running things in Clipper land. It's very, very unlikely that he goes anywhere. That leaves Howard and Smith as the only logical conclusion, especially since our weakest position is at the PF spot. And for those who claim Smith isn't an all star level talent, doesn't fit this team, or isn't the type of player Morey would go after, you clearly don't know what you're talking about. Why Josh Smith makes sense: -he would be a huge upgrade to our PF position -he allows the flexibility to go small or big and match up against any style -he is an elite defender. If Morey would covet Asik who is strictly a defensive player, he would certainly covet Smith, who is just as elite defensively plus runs the floor and passes as well as any player at his position. (For the poster that said that said we shouldn't sign Smith because his game is based purely on athletic ability, that is a ridiculous statement. Most players in the league wouldn't be the same player if they lost their athletic ability. Dwight Howard being at the top of that list. Josh Smith is a much more polished, all around, higher IQ player than Dwight will ever be. He plays excellent perimeter and post defense, runs the floor and passes as well as any PF in the league) (for the poster contemplating what we were going to do with all of our young PF's, it's simple, a rebuilding Hawks team would love to a have a couple of our young guys in a sign and trade for Smith) -he is an all star level player despite never making the all star game. The all star game is a publicity thing more than anything else as players continue to be voted in whether deserved or not. Smith's performance has certainly been at all star level, just unfortunately for him he hasn't yet been voted in. But he along with Horford are the primary reasons that the Hawks are a perennial playoff team. Put him on a winning Rockets team with Jeremy Lin still on the roster, and I guarantee you he get's voted in. -we can likely get him at a tremendous value of between $12 to $14M per year. Other teams may offer him more, but those will be losing teams which I think he's had enough of. I feel pretty confident he would take less to play on a contender featuring Harden and his good friend Howard. Morey is all about getting value and if he believes Asik and Lin are good values at $8M, I guarantee you believes that Smith is a steal at $12 to $14M. -with Harden, Smith, and Howard, we instantly become the favorite in the west. If we just add Howard, we'll be better and among the favorites but not the favorite. -he makes for a great trade asset if we want to pursue Love or Aldridge next year. If the opportunity to make a trade becomes available, we are much better positioned to make a deal with Smith than say, Lin and Asik. Why would the T-Wolves want either Lin or Asik when they already have Rubio and Pekovic? Why would the Blazers want Lin? They wouldn't (but maybe they'd want Asik). However, both teams would love to have Smith as a replacement, especially at a $12 to $14M price tag.
No need to get into semantics. The words you are analyzing are the OP's memory of what was being said. If the OP feels that Morey meant he was going after Dwight and CP3 (which is possible as I've shown in other threads) then I would believe the OP instead of trying to pick apart little phrases from his summary of the event.
