He said free agency, not trades. Obviously he still highly believes that trading for top talent is the way to go. He was referring to the contracts that are typically signed in free agency can hamstrung a franchise due to the bidding war that typically goes down when multiple teams are bidding for that player.
So we could assume from this that he won't try to create cap space thinking in a Howard? (The possibility of the sign & trade is always there). If so, that's something to consider for Bima and his next Rockets Salary Cap update.
Losing a superstar, suffering a losing season, and ending up with the #1 and #4 lottery picks...doesn't sound that bad to me.
If the draft had a definite superstar in the making, I'd say yes. But with this year's draft, it's hard to say what the future holds for the Cavs. Still, having two lottery picks is good start to a rebuilding phase. Two lottery picks Morey would give up a bunch of his assets for, I might add. And it's more difficult to predict the Rockets because I have no idea what Morey will and, more importantly, is able to do. Maybe he'll make that big trade for the star players or the lottery pick he talks about. Maybe the team stays in the middle of the pack for the next half-decade. Who knows.
Dunno why people keep thinking Howard is on his way out of Orlando when he has said he wants no part of the media circus that was last year with Melo - He's working on a 4 year extension and has said plainly that he wants to remain in Orlando. We'd all love to have the guy here .... but its not happening , lets move on to the next candidate .... Not CP3 please - He was outplayed by Lowry in each head to head matchup and will likely end up with the Knicks anyhow. Find me a top flight SF to pair with Martin on the wing. (and a center who can allow Hayes back to his natural PF spot.) I was thinking more along the lines of McHales comments about protecting the paint a dozen times in half a minute at the meet & greet recently at Vic & Anthony's.
There is no guarantee that the players they pick , even that early work out. How many guy's have we seen flop , get hurt or just never reach their potential. What about the Clippers ?! How many high draft picks have they had in recent memory ? Hasnt gotten them out of the cellar in the Pacific - what was their record the past last year ? One playoff appearance in a decade ?. Sacramento & Minnisota ..... sub .500 with high lottery picks. How bout Washington's .280 with the #1 pick. I'd take mediocrity over being a Clippers fan for the last decade any day. Yes , its hard to get excited about your team during the offseason when they are picking middle of the round again .... in a weak draft class (relatively). Its hard to improve this roster without a superstar type player as they have been a pretty good team , two years in a row over .500 missing the playoffs , only a handful of teams have ever finished over .500 and missed them once - the Rockets being the only team to do it multiple times much less back to back - They have done so three times in their history.
If you are refering to Les insistance on keeping Yao ... I think you are spot on. But I cant blame Les for hanging onto the Chinese market ... Probably as many Yao / Rockets fans there as there are NBA fans in the USA. Talk of bringing him back this season too .... but at what cost ? Not sure they can afford the roster spot much less the cap hit.
The NBA has been the same league forever. It does take a superstar to win. It is hard as hell to contend without one. You can have winning seasons. You might even win a round in the playoffs(doubtful) but you won't be a contender without a player capable of playing at superstar level. People always like to point to the Pistons model. The Pistons had a superstar, he was just a defensive superstar. Prime Ben Wallace was to Dwight Howard what Dirk is to LeBron/Wade. Not quite as good but damn dominating in his own right. People forget that once they got Sheed, that team was holding opponents in the 70s and 80s. Every time the Rockets have been contenders, they have had a superstar. IMO it is disingenuous for a GM to act like picking 14 is the solution and that having winning lottery seasons is a sign of promise. The Rockets also do not have the assets to trade for an established superstar and don't have the cap space to sign one. So I am not really sure what Morey is doing. Morey gets a big pass because all the nerdy national media guys like him and like to shoot the **** with him at the Sloan conference so they NEVER criticize. So in turn, this board has given him an unusual pass that fortunately seems to be fading.
Im by no means giving him a pass , Ive criticized him in the past for not getting a center who could play significant minutes and relying upon Yao .... Its hard for me to criticize not landing a superstar tho , they dont grow on tree's. He's tried to get them in FA , tried to get them via trade and tried to move up in the draft , just hasnt worked out. They do need a guy who can carry the team .... but getting that guy is a whole nother story. My point was simple - Just because teams pick high doesnt mean they instantly improve - the Clippers , Wizards and Twolves have been bad despite picking high .... the Kings are also in that situation. I'd rather have a decade of .500 or slightly better than a decade of .300 with no light at the end of the tunnel. There have been quite a few HOF'ers taken in the teens .... Stockton and Malone come to mind right off the bat. (damn I hate those bastards).
Morey has been fairly consistent over the last few years in his statements that FREE AGENCY (meaning the signing of another team's free agents without involving the other team in a sign-and-trade deal) is not a good way to build a team. (DD is right that Miami is the exception, although he is way off if he thinks that trades are a horrible way to rebuild.) Morey has also consistently stated that building a team via TRADES is a much more preferable alternative. This can include the acquisition of free agents via sign-and-trade deals. I still believe that clearing cap space could be a major part of Morey's plan . . . but not so much for the cap space itself as for the cap FLEXIBILITY is gives the Rockets, especially in trades. Just look what OKC has been able to accomplish with their cap space in recent years. They managed to acquire a quality young PG in Eric Maynor simply for taking on the insurance-covered expiring contract of Matt Harpring from the Jazz. The Thunder got the #11 pick in the 2010 draft, largely by being willing to absorb Morris Peterson's expiring contract into their available cap room. Presti also managed to structure Nick Collison's extension using his then-available cap room so that Collison's contract would never clog up their cap situation once Durant's (and then Westbrook's) new mega-deals kick in. The way the Rockets' roster is currently set up, they can either use expiring contracts (Brad Miller's quasi-expiring deal and, if their options aren't picked up, Thabeet, Hill and Williams), the $7.4M Battier TPE and/or the expectedly-minimal cap room they'll have this offseason to make a trade, or they can clear the decks of those contracts and use the likely greater amount of cap room to make a bigger deal in 2012. (Frankly, given the large amount of the Battier TPE and the likelihood of the Rockets' attempts to re-sign Yao and Hayes, I doubt that the Rockets even opt for 2011 cap room, instead choosing to go the "cap room" route in 2012 . . . IF that gives them more flexibility.) Bottom line: Cap room can be a valuable commodity in TRADES, not just in free agency. Don't let Morey's comments in this interview dissuade you from thinking that he won't opt for cap room at any point if it would give the team more flexibility to maneuver in areas other than "pure" free agency. Salary cap flexibility is the key with him.
As you noted, a traded player exception can accomplish the same thing in a trade as cap room (assuming the new CBA retains such exception). So, assuming TPEs stay, I think the Rockets are more likely to simply keep on having TPEs and make sure they don't have too many bad contracts (i.e. having some expiring or short term contracts with which to absorb salary) rather than aiming strickly for room under the cap. I agree with your thoughts overall. Being able to absorb salary allows you to make favorable trades. The Rockets were never really in position to have any signficant cap space largely due to the fact that they had Yao and, until last year, McGrady's contracts on the payroll. They could have sacrificed talent for cap space (to facilitate, for example, a Bosh deal) but decided not to. I think the decision was a correct one since, even if they had cap space (which have required not trading for Martin and not signing Scola and Lowry at least, I think), Bosh was gonna go to Miami anywy. One thought about the OKC-type trades (i.e. the kind where you get a pick/young cheap plaer for agreeing to absorb a mild contract hit), I think the Rockets did do at least one of those: Jare Jeffries got the Rockets Jordan Hill and the draft considerations.
If they land another high draft pick next year and the Rockets swing-and-miss on a star again, they just might.
Just to clarify your first point, TPEs CANNOT accomplish the same things in trades as cap room. TPEs cannot be combined with player salaries for matching purposes in trades; cap room can. Big distinction there. Still, we agree about the Rockets' apparent approach regarding TPEs. Also, the OKC-type trades are not exactly what the Rockets have done. The McGrady-Jeffries trade simply involved trading an expiring contract (which NYK still had to pay for that season) in exchange for contracts that had additional years on them. Those types of trades happen all the time. The OKC-type trades of which I referred involved the use of then-available cap room, sometimes IN SEASON, which allowed the other team to instantly wipe salary off its books and to avoid a luxury tax hit on 100% of that salary at the end of the regular season. Again, big distinction there. Still, I think we basically agree about the Rockets' general approach. I am not saying that Morey will definitely look to clear cap room in 2012. Just that it remains a viable option for the Rockets and will be pursued more heavily if Morey later determines that cap room gives the team the most flexibility in ALL aspects of roster manipulation (be it trades, free agency or otherwise) so that the Rockets can maximize the improvement to their roster.
I am pretty sure they are talking about this article by Jonathan Feigen: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/7595977.html
