Very good to great. We saw that before Tilman got on board. Went from mediocrity to two WCFs and championship contention.
Most owners don't want to pay the luxury tax, if you know this going in, then the best strategy is to build the team through the draft. The NBA Draft is the most cost effective and efficient method for building out an NBA roster. The reason Morey doesn't do this is because, like most GMs in the NBA, he is terrible at player evaluation. The Draft results speak for themselves across the NBA landscape.
That was James Harden, he is getting old now, and you have won nothing. 2nd runner up doesn't cut it in sports. Moreover, at what cost? Get back to me in two years if you like the trade-off. One western conference finals appearance where you were competitive, versus a decade of upcoming bottom dwellers in the NBA. Juxtapose this with the Spurs organization - 4 titles in 16 years, and competitive for 20 years. They built the Spurs through the draft with picks outside the lottery besides TD.
It's not just Harden, he's still in his prime and the Rockets have obviously regressed. I'm not really understand the rest of your post, is it directed at me? I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, but there are a lot of factors. Morey inherited two broken stars in Tmac and Yao, built a contender even when the corpse of Tmac decided to get microfracture surgery only to lose in 7 to the champs when Yao went down, and then had to completely rebuild after that. I agree that some of the "on the margins" moves he's made have been questionable, but it's very obvious he's had limitations on what he could do the last couple of years.
I have seen little things in Harden's game that tell me he has already started the decline as a player, last year was his peak. Don't look at scoring, he used to score effortlessly, now he is grinding every point. His athleticism is noticeably on the decline - no elevation anymore.
70% to 30% in favor of Morey,lol love to see how this poll plays out over time, when the Rockets are in tank mode, without any picks for all their future sucking
Posters would always associate him with the Harden trade that got him from barely good to star GM. One move is not enough for me to put him into the upper echelon, that magic has worn off.
It's sort of like winning the lottery, not a blueprint for sustained excellence - How many players are going to get better every year for 8 straight seasons? And you damn well better win a championship when you hit said lottery, I am more disappointed with his efforts of trying to surround Harden with Superstars - Toronto, Dallas, Detroit showed that good role players can win a championship surrounding one Superstar.
That has just been the last few weeks or so. Perhaps you're right but earlier this season he looked pretty normal.
