Actually I just want to find out what works first or have a true peace to build around before we talk about slowing down and not making moves. Not stop until after we have what works or is worth keeping. Then we can stop. Until then? What does it matter if and how much we shuffle as long as it isnt moving backwards?
can anybody truly discern any teams plan though ?? everybody's plan is the same - make the best of what you have, and try your best to take the best of whats available. the only difference between each teams plans are in the details of the business. details to which outsiders are not privy to. if you want a better answer than that, sorry but you aren't getting one. from our perspective it is all guesswork and speculation. there is only 1 person who needs to know morey's plan, and that's les alexander.
I want to win. Martin helps us more win than Landry, especially since he's fallen off since he's left Houston. Identity can wait. Besides, I find it interesting that people complain about Morey not selling players at their peak - and when we did with Landry, there's still grumbling over it.
I'm thinking we are one or two players away from post season action. We may not have our franchise player yet, but these guys play great team offense together. Morey is getting talent and swapping role players because teams don't trade franchise players its very rare. Rockets have to get the first or second draft pick to build around a star. I just can't see morey trading for a legit nba star.
In your example with the Spurs, Duncan(All-star), Ginobili(All-star), Parker(All-star) were the core. For the Rockets, Yao and T-Mac would have been the core. Yao has been here, since he was a rookie. It was supposed to be the redux of Kobe and Shaq. Landry would have never been the core in San Antonio. He would be of the guys that have been traded or not resigned over the last decade. He is viewed by a roleplayer by the rest of the league also. Kings shuffled him to the Hornets, before he even got a chance to settle down. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that he can considered part of any team's core like Duncan. As much as I loved Landry's fire, it would make me a homer to think of him anchoring the core for a team, like Parker or Duncan. Other fans laugh at us for overvaluing our roleplayers as on the same level as stars.
Morey is in the middle of a high risk/high return play forced on him by the facts of Yao and Tmac's injuries and the obvious advantage of teams with one or more superstars. You can't judge it good or bad yet but you probably can deem it necessary. You may not ever be as good as the one or two stars on the other team, but I think you can compete if you can be better than your opponent at any 3 positions on the floor. The risks 1. Can Terrence Williams harness his talents to be a steady NBA contributor? An instant offense 6th man or momentum changer would be ideal. 2. Can Hasheem Thabeet be coached up to be a steady NBA contributor, if only on defense? 3. Will Donatas Motiejunas grow up to be an all star? 4. Can Marcus Morris defend 3's well enough to get his playing time there? I have no doubts about his ability to score. To me, Motiejunas is the wild card. Our current best shot at producing a home grown superstar. But if we can hit on 3 of the four above this team will be moving up the standings though probably not until 2012.
I just hope the team can add the much needed C that can play D and get them rebounds. Also, I hope the team keeps Hayes and Scola.
This may be overly optimistic, but I believe the addition of D. Howard would make us a contender. We have an excellent supporting cast.
Agreed, if we could add him for nothing....but unfortunately we would probably have to gut the roster to make it happen. DD
Great move, and it would mean the opposite of team building. It would not be team building like drafting Yao and keeping him for almost a decade. It would mean more shuffling of assets, as Orlando would probably do a trade instead of losing him for nothing. I fully support losing every player on roster for DHoward.
Now seems like a good time to stir the pot: by the end of this season, if we have one, Jordan Hill we be more highly regarded, league-wide, than Carl Landry. Most of you are too emotional toward one or the other to see this. Also, I have high hopes that Motiejunas will turn into a star, at least to the Martin level, maybe more. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next few seasons.
Dude I'm looking at our roster from the Rockets website, minus Hayes and Yao, and it's the most alarming one I can remember. This has "lottery" written all over it. Sure, you can say "Something's gonna happen before the trade deadline," but this roster right here is um Timberwolvesesque. It's downright Eastern Conference! We only have four guys who even deserve to be called starters. Plus three or four OK rotation players. Marqus Blakely Chase Budinger Marcus Cousin Goran Dragic Jonny Flynn Jordan Hill Courtney Lee Kyle Lowry Kevin Martin Marcus Morris Donatas Motiejunas Chandler Parsons Patrick Patterson Luis Scola Hasheem Thabeet Terrence Williams So you think they're gonna pull in a superstar to take the Rockets to the first round, eh? Yeah, everyone's gonna be drooling to join this lineup. I love the Rockets, but man we don't even have five solid starters.
Frankly I think Morey has a rating system for players which brings the whole thing down to one top secret number. I think he has rated everyone in the league. I think right now, Morey will not put any thought into non-star trades. As long as it increases this team's total magic number, he will do it. When it comes time to trade for a star, he is more considerate and probably analyzes the situation much more deeply. I think that around the league, stars are valued higher than Morey's magic number shows them to be. I also think at some point beginning of last season, Morey's magic number started to include potential growth/decline based on historical trends. Personally, I'm on board with that, though it does frustrate me as a fan at times.
It's not great, but it is not that grim. The Rockets finished strong in the second half. My take on the current players is that Martin is a premier scorer in the league. He is the closest thing we have to an All Star. Lowry really came on in the second half, his shooting improved remarkably. If that continues, he will be a solid contributor. Scola, my favorite player, is a very clever, and resourceful PF. He scores well, and frequently surprises with his rebounding. Defense is another matter. Hayes is a great player, very smart and tough, just too short. Rockets need an upgrade here. Hill was unimpressive last season and Thabeet is currently "furniture." Lee and Dragic are solid backups. SF is interesting. Several unknowns here. How good is C-Bud? We will find out this year. He has hops, can shoot, and improved his defense in the second half. Can he "star." Maybe. How good are T-Will and Morris. Could be wild cards. Other questions marks include D-Mo and Parsons. I think both might impress, but I am picking Flynn to be the "surprise" player of next season. However, watch out for Patterson. He has success written all over him. All in all this could be a most interesting year. The addition of an "impact" player could "gut" the team which could result in a net gain of zero. If Orlando would take Scola, and some of our young and redundant talent, and some draft choices for Howard, then we might survive and contend.
Of that group, Williams was the only one we actually sought out and got. Flynn was a throw-in on a deal that netted the Big Junas and shed Miller's contract. Thabeet came with a first-rounder that we got instead of losing Battier for nothing in FA. Hill came because New York had nothing else of value to plunder in the T-Mac deal. We'll certainly develop our players, if for no other reason than to up their trade value, but I don't think anybody, Morey included, believes we have a core that will grow into a contender. If there's a star we can trade for, we'll do it. Until then, we have no option but to keep collecting assets and making upgrades. It's interesting that you should bring up coaches because one of the things Morey pointed out when we hired McHale perfectly illustrates the point I want to make. McHale's record was unimpressive. But he had a better record with the same group of guys than the coaches that came before and after him. In other words, he got better use out of the resources at his disposal The bad record was a result of a bad team, not a coaching deficiency. If you make coaching hires based on record without evaluating the teams, you're going to pass over a lot of good coaches from bad situations and hire a lot of bad coaches from good situations. GM's are the same way. That's the reason I ask what other GMs have done more with less - to establish a baseline for comparison. If there were a number of small-market franchises without lottery picks consistently swindling other teams out of their Dwight Howards and Chris Pauls, then yes, I would completely agree that Morey is not performing and should be replaced. But that isn't the case. Look at what he's done with what he had to work with. Two max contracts in street clothes, two 14's as his only lottery picks, and a roster full of dead wood when he took the helm. Despite all this, we now have a 43-win team, no bad contracts, and a number of young players with plenty of potential. I'm not sure what you expect of the guy but I can count on one hand the number of GMs who could produce those results.
I'm almost disappointed that there aren't more such posts, but I'm sure I'm right, and I know that at least some people will remember I said it, when it comes true. Hill will be clearly better than Landry at the end of the season, if we have one.
