I don't take stupid bets, because, well, they are stupid....nothing more really needs to be said does it? DD
Wasn't being serious about that. I thought both players are going to be good and fun to watch. Well, with that being said, Marcus is on our roster and I definitely pull for him. Obviously, he is no slouch....and I can't imagine Kawhi being that much better, if he becomes that star player
What a reasoned, rational, and courteous reply and I largely agree, but, the Rockets have taken longer to return to elite status than many teams in the league who seem to be able to reload quickly the most recent example being the Utah Jazz. They may retool in a season or two. The Rockets have floundered for fifteen plus years. This is Clipper's territory. Fans tend to give Les and his boys too much credit and too little blame. They have made some goofy and damaging blunders. Even in the Morey era we can't seem to get traction. Unless they plan to put five power forwards on the floor at the same time, I don't understand their drafting strategy. I don't understand their overall strategy. It seems like they are aggressive, but don't seem to be making significant progress. I think most fans are good for two more seasons which is divine like patience, but after that I think things could get ugly around here. I was underwhelmed with the McHale decision, but he is growing on me. He certainly is personable. They will probably surround him with x and o guys and he will motivate and meet the public. JVG gave some of the most depressing post game interviews in basketball history, and while Adelman was better he was still something of a sourpuss. McHale will be a refreshing change. He kind of reminds me of Rudy which is a very, very good thing.
I think fans, or me anyways, are still giving the Rockets a pass for the demise of Yao and Mcgrady, which were largely due to injuries. I mean, what can you really do when your superstars you were banking on were injured year in and year out? We DID have the franchise players, but injuries took their toll. But eventually, you are absolutely right. Patience will be thinner, and the Rockets will really have to decide what they really want to do: start over, or continue at this road that leads to nowhere. Look, in the past few years, you have not heard one single superstar who says that he wants to play in Houston. None. Nada. Morey has failed several times to get that superstar (most recently Bosh, and didn't want to risk it with Amare). In the past half decade or so, the draft has shown to reward teams who are patient enough to weather the bad storm, and reap the benefits later on. For instance, although the Cavs didn't get a franchise player, they did draft a pretty damn good PG, a very key position to building a winning franchise. I'm sure they wouldn't mind sucking again next year to continue to build on that base/foundation. People may think it's easy to trade up, and it is in a WEAK draft. In a strong draft with potential all-stars/franchise players, no team is going to want to give up that pick. Again, next year's draft is potentially very strong and filled with future all-stars, from what scouts are saying. If I was owning the Rockets, I wouldn't straight up tank. However, I would put out all my young players and let them just grow (like Thabeet). Furthermore, by doing that, you can reduce the pressure on McHale to perform in his first legit year as a head coach. I mean, when we have threads that get overly excited about Marcus Morris, let's be real, what are we really talking about here?
Exactly, what the hell are you talking about here? Certainly nothing to do with either Morris or Leonard in a thread about Morris and Leonard. I couldn't care less if we were on a treadmill to mediocrity or a treadmill to hell. At least not in here.
The Jazz have "floundered" for their entire franchise's history, and they haven't been title contenders since 98, lol...
I hate the Jazz, but didn't they get to the WC finals a couple of years ago after beating us in the first round? DD
If it comes down to belief in the drafting prowlness of the Spurs vs. the Rockets, then based on the past 11 years, I would have to side with the Spurs. Just because Rockets had Morris valued higher than Leonard doesn't make them right. They have done this sort of thing before (see 2001 draft and Eddie Griffin) and it didn't turn out well. So I get a bit skeptical whenever I see them go against the grain so to speak. I don't believe that Cx factored injuries into the equation at all here.
Lol, did you really just go back to the Rudy T days for an example? "Hey guys I don't trust the Rockets front office because back in '72 we had a subpar draft."
The Rockets drafted Hakeem. The Spurs drafted the guy who got pwned by Hakeem and looked like a little girl in front of him. Hence, Rockets draft > Spurs draft. Seriously though, if you just look at the draft picks of SA vs Houston since the Daryl Morey era, I see no reason why they're any better. Both teams have drafted well for their draft positions. IMO, two organizations that are excellent at finding value.
Well, there are other, more recent examples like them passing on Rudy Gay but you completely missed my point here which is that the Rockets keep gambling and taking chances on players or going in a different direction from everyone else (because them think they are smarter than the other teams) and to date that just hasn't worked out very well. I've been observing them for a long time and I have seen them shuffle through player after player after player using this strategy and they have yet to get it right so you will excuse me if I am not jumping for joy over the Morris pick. I like the kid and I have said that this was a solid pick but I will reserve judgement on his being able to play the 3 until I can see him do it on the court. Far too many people want to fall in love with everything Morey does but as solid pointed out: The Rockets have floundered for fifteen plus years. This is Clipper's territory. Fans tend to give Les and his boys too much credit and too little blame. They have made some goofy and damaging blunders. Even in the Morey era we can't seem to get traction. Unless they plan to put five power forwards on the floor at the same time, I don't understand their drafting strategy. I don't understand their overall strategy. I also don't understand their strategy at all (McHale's hiring, this draft, collecting the draft busts from the 2009 draft). Everyone knows what it takes to win and win big in this league but the Rockets appear to be going off on another tangent once more. Time will tell I suppose and after 17 years of this time is all we have left. I realize that folks like yourself believe that Morey and Les are the smartest guys in the room but then those guys over at Enron felt the same way and we all know how well that worked out, don't we?
This assertion is stupid. The draft doesn't award teams who are patient. They award team that sucked/tanked in the CORRECT year and got LUCKY. The whole patience business has to do with consistently bad teams who by law of averages eventually get lucky. See the following two examples. 1. There was this one time, Boston meticulously waited their turn, sucking badly and getting a high lottery pick from another team. They got #3 and #6, and drafted Billups/Walker. The same year, San Antonio fell out of the playoffs because David Robinson got injured, and drafted Tim Duncan #1. 2. There was another time, when the Rockets best play Steve Francis went down. The year? 2002. Unfortunately, he didn't go down in 2003 instead. That was huge problem. Because if he had gone down in 2003, the entire last decade of Rockets history would be rewritten. And a certain Dwayne Wade may have recruited superfriends to Houston instead of Miami. One could say the Rockets's lost decade isn't because we "weren't patient enough", but because Steve Francis decided to not play in the wrong year.
Yes. I will admit, though, that Manu Ginobili at #57 was perhaps the biggest draft steal of all time. Fifty-freakin'-SEVEN?!?! Even a decade ago, teams in the second round ought to have taken a flier on him earlier than that! Still, for as great as the Spurs' drafts have been (Tony Parker in the late first round was a steal; George Hill was a quality pick; DeJuan Blair was a no-brainer and I blame all the other GMs in the late 1st/early 2nd round who needed PFs as being to blame moreso than I credit the Spurs for this pick), I'll leave you with this one thought: If the Spurs had won the lottery in 1997 but got the #2 pick instead of the #1 pick, San Antonio would have gone to war with a New Age frontline of David Robinson and Keith Van Horn. I'm guessing that NBA history would have turned out a little differently for the San Antonio Spurs in that case.
I favor Marcus Morris over Kawhi or Singleton because Morris can just plain out score inside or out and even has a nice hook shot. With Patterson last year Kawhi and Singleton were too much like a poor mans PP. With Donatas Rockets went with All Star pontential. Overall the draft was like a B+ with the pontential ending up like a A+.
A lot of people point to this, but never mention how they couldn't find anyone else after Manu and Parker. Which shows that players like Manu and Parker are simply now lottery picks because all other teams have caught up and SA no longer has that scouting advantage. The fact that they have not found a new way to beat the system means they're not as ahead of the curve as they used to be.
True about Hakeem but since that public undressing of David Robinson by Hakeem the Spurs have added players like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, George Hill and most recently Gary Neal. They have also won 3 NBA titles in the last 11 years (2003, 2005, 2007). The Rockets? Well they didn't start drafting well until Morey showed up 4 years ago and because of the mess he inherited, he's had to mine for players. He's been able to find some good ones (Landry, Patterson, Brooks) but overall, his player acquisitions fall short of that of the Spurs.
