The Rockets, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard: You’ve Been Had

ummmmmm... Thabeet was #2 overall in 2009.... but thank you for playing...lol

 

Damn it Thabeet is so terrible that I forgot all about him. Flynn was 6 not 4 though.

 

like I said. Did Morey draft those guys? nope.

 

Make a list of the 15 best NBA players and you will see that most of them were top ten picks, usually top five, many were number ones.

 

Like i said earlier I did forget about him but he is barely on our roster and was in the D league for most of the year with no guarantee that he won't be there again this yr.

if you go look at our team history our success has come after making a top 5 pick.

 

yeah but thats fairly obvious stat. Like woman have smaller testicles then men. How about you take the top 10 picks over the previous 6 years 60 players in total and see how many of them are in the top 10 best players. Odds are not in your favor then.

 

had 2 #1s (francis n yao)...didnt get us any rings.... top 5....u might get Bron or wade....u might also get a darko....lol

 

Here's a question for the opening post. Do you like to have better players or worse players?

I ask because people make it seem like drafting Landrys, Brooks, trading for Scolas, Lowry are bad things. Like Morey screwed up. What, should we have drafted Eddie Griffin and signed Mo Taylor instead? What did you expect him to do? Surround Yao and T-Mac with overpaid, crappy players like CD did in their primes? Should Morey have retained Luther Head, Rafer, Juwan Howard instead?

It's one thing to say the Rockets should go a different direction now that T-Mac and Yao era is over. It's another to retroactively condemn him for trying to field a winner when that era still existed. The Rockets did the right thing to obtain the best players possible given that they had no cap, no tradeable assets, and no lure of big city like LA or NY. They didn't achieve a miracle by getting Bosh or Melo. But realistically speaking it was the best any GM can do.

I'm all for rebuilding if we can't get CP3. But I loved the fact that we've obtained good players over the past years even if they aren't stars. It's funny how fans talk about how Morey treats his players like assets. But we do it even more, not caring for any of them because they're not superstars.

 

You are missing the point. If you look at the league it isn't hard to see that a majority of the superstars are top 5 picks. Regardless of whether or not your pick is a star does not change the fact that you need to be in the top 5 to have a good chance of getting one.

Last years all star game had 16 players that went to college (not counting high school players because they aren't in the draft anymore). Out of those 16 players that went to college 13 were top 5 picks. Those numbers should show how important it is to have a top 5 pick.

 

I agree i want rebuilding not tanking .... i want the youngsters that i effectively let take over to play hard.

But the main reason why i support rebuilding is actually because of Dayrl Morey. I completely trust him to make a good pick if we land inside the top 8. He basically hasnt missed a pick in the first round yet.... the only expception would be green ... but maybe he got him knowing that Sac wanted him ... He originally drafter Batum an awesome player for 25.

Sure getting a top 5 pick isnt assurance of a superstar but if given a top 5 pick ... i expect us all to look back and say " yup ... no one better than player x was taken after him "

In addition for me .... its not so much about getting a top pick as it is letting our current young players actually get some PT. ...

I may be crazy but im pretty sure the mojority of people on here would have killed for a certain 7' 3" bust only 2 years ago. Hill and Williams have immense potential also. I feel like 2pat can become an all-star but he cant if he has to wait behind scola .... many people on here feel that Lee is capable of being a starting caliber Sg ... some think that if he develops a little more he can be better than martin.

Conversely if we keep martin and scola and try to add a FA center .... what happens are we good enough to make it to the 2nd round ... the 3rd ?? What happens to the value of those young players who arent getting the full pt they need to develop. Do we just decline their options and hope for enough capspace to sign an impact FA .. even with the FA center that we just signed ???

I would love to be able to legitmately contend this year. but the pessimist inside me thinks that no matter what moves morey pulls off ... we wont be in that top echelon of teams .... better to build form within, get what we can from martin and scola, and then take the world by storm in a year or 2

Plus personally it is more satisfying if your team is homegrown and you dont need to get a superstar like paul of lebron .... it just feels good to have done it by yourself.... to outwit and outowork the superteams and beat them with teamwork and players who have not always been the **** throughout their carreers. Sure you lose really likeable and good players in Scola and Martin but you get new young players to become attached to Patterson Lowry and the like. And along with whatever young players you get through draft and raise in houston contend for a title. A team like that will always ( to me ) be better than a conglomeration of FA and traded for stars. We all have to deal with the growing pains but in the end its worth it and it might not. take as long as a lot of you think

 

It doesn't matter, unless you are LA, NY, or Miami, it's going to be almost impossible to lure a superstar to your city, especially if you don't already have a superstar.

So it comes down to this, which is more likely, the Rockets draft a superstar, or that the Rockets are able to convince a star to sign with us instead of going to LA, NY, Miami, or Chicago?

 

Or you compile a bunch of assets, trade for a superstar and then retain him by being able to pay him more (Bird rights).... seems like a better chance than tanking and gambling on an unproven kid...

 

Does it really? The Hornets would much rather trade with the Clippers and Warriors and get Gordon or Curry which those teams got by sucking.

 

Additionally, u can draft a kid with a top 5 pick, suffer through the 'growing pains' as he develops... and then he jilts u to go play in Miami. lol

 

BOTH drafted at #7... tell me again why we need a top5 pick...lol

 

Who do you think the Hornets would rather have Paul or Curry or Gordon? I think you know the answer to that and it is the guy that was taken in the top 5. They are only trying to get rid of him because they know they can't keep him.

Back to my point the Warriors and Clippers are in good position to get CP3 if they want him because they were bad and got high draft picks. We haven't had a top 10 draft pick in ages. You have to be bad to get good most of the time even when you are trying to get good through trades.

 

and once again... 2 #1s (Stevie n Yao) = no rings... but the Lakers seem to have done alright with the #13 pick from '96...

 

Not true at all. The Heat pre Wade, (from the Harold Minor to Alonzo morning era) were an undesirable team to play for. Miami hasnt changed, what did change was they found a corner stone piece to build around in Wade. The Vlade/Eddie Jones Lakers were a joke all through the 90's until shaq got there. LA was the same LA then as it is now. Chicago couldnt even get Brand, Chandler,Gordon, to resign. Now that they have Rose its a spot to play for again post Jordan. Players only play in these cities 8 months a year and half the time they are on the road. the rest of the year they have homes in all major cities so city is not as big a deal as people think.

Prediction!!!! Utah, with two lotto picks this year (own GS pick) if the draft Barnes, and Lamb at the 2-3 spot and they pan out to be superstars, a line up of Kanter,Favors,Barnes,Lamb, would make Utah a free agents dream spot. So the trick is, find a francise player, show players your organization is real organization and not the clippers , good scouting, and people will take paycuts to sign with your team.

 

Francis was number 2 not number 1 and using the early high school picks as evidence of success is ignoring the circumstances back then. Kids were still going to college so there were lots of talented proven college players that teams felt safter drafting. Players like Kobe fell bc teams weren't comfortable taken unproven high school players back then. That is no longer possible and even in the years following the Kobe/KG drafts high school players slowly started becoming higher and higher picks.

 

Kobe for Vlade Divac!!!!!!! God must be a lakers fan.