Ron F-ing Artest was pretty big, right? Remember getting Kevin Martin and picks for the corpse of Tracy McGrady and Carl Landry? Luis Scola- heard of him? Morey got him for a Greek vagina.
Bmoney, I guess I could be more clear. I am referring to the repetitive posturing and chatter during draft season. Morey has made some great draft days decisions in getting some rotation guys where the odds of pulling one are overcome mightily by the wizard. But we have yet to move up and acquire a player which is so often talked of.
Statistically, it is easy to have different ways of judging such a set of data. For instance, if we have a weekly class of BBall players, different players each week, and we give them grades of 0-10, maybe typical scores are 9, 6, 5, 3. Well, one week we have scores of 7, 7, 6.5, and 6. It is not necessarily wrong to say that this is a great class. When Morey says that 22 players are "NBA quality," or however he put it, his threshold might be lower than other GMs (assuming he isn't playing us), but this draft class might be called weak if there are only a few standouts. There are a lot of ways slice and dice a data set.
So? What did Morey's talk about moving up and then not getting a trade done cost the Rockets? Nothing. They ended up with the same thing they had before. Also, CD managed to trade up from 13th to 7th. Great success, right? Look, it's nice and all to be able to move up. But "winning the draft day" has less to do with whether you close the deal on a trade you want and more to do with whether you get a decent player or not. The Rockets wanted to trade up for Rudy Fernandez one year, failed, and ended up with Aaron Brooks. Not too upset about it. The next year, they wanted to trade up for Courtney Lee, failed, and ended up trading down for Donte Greene and a couple of 2nd rounders then turned Greene and next years 1st rounder into Ron Artest. Not bad. The year after, they didn't trade for a 1st rounder, bought a few 2nd rounders instead. One of them turned into Budinger. After that, they tried to trade into the top 5, failed. Then they tried to move up to make sure they got their 6th ranked player, failed agin. Ended up Patterson.
Well, simply put, cuz it's usually not worth what we have to give. People get enamored with prospects after watching their highlight videos and their impressive workouts vids but those don't always translate 100% into the NBA. Just look at Evan Turner...The GM is well aware of this so he doesn't just trade so and so along with picks to move up. Anyway, i apologize if you already knew that.
I love Patterson and it is great we got him #14 last year. I have acknowledged that Morey drafts well, relative to the draft position. Above all else this year, I want to swing for a homerun. If it is us picking at 14, I would probably go with Montiejunas over a lot of guys because of this.
KBerg_CBS Ken Berger Amid CBA implosion, I have inadvertently changed my phone wallpaper to @dmorey's face, from a pic on the @CBSSports site. Freaking me out. Lawl
Sure, doing nothing will cost you nothing. But what it means is we are still looking for that franchise player that we don't have. I don't blame Morey for not being able to trade up, it takes two to dance. But not being able to trade up has surely hindered where we are as a franchise. We would be much further along if we had a Demarcus Cousins or even a bust like Derrick Favors who we could flip for a superstar. That is a little disingenuous. It wasn't a success because they picked the wrong player, not because they moved up. While you are right that it isn't guaranteed success, I have a lot more faith in Morey's talent evaluation than CD's. Obviously moving up is worth something, otherwise we wouldn't be trying so damn hard every year. That is setting the bar a bit low when the difference between trading up and not could be your "decent player" and a game changer. That's because their targets at the time Rudy Fernandez and Courtney Lee where only decent players to begin with. If we fail to move up it doesn't affect the big picture. When your target is Brandon Roy and fail to move up, the next 10 years of your franchise just changed. I don't think we should count on luck. Again, the Rockets try to trade up every year, desperately. If there was no value there, they wouldn't be trying. That is why I would be disappointed if we fail again this year. Not necessarily at Morey, more the basketball gods for things not lining up.
Isn't that what Morey's been doing for the past few years? He's swinging for homers every chance he gets. It's not his fault that the ball doesn't connect. Sure people on here can blame him for tweeting or spilling the beans on supposed "secrets" he might have but that doesn't do a damn thing to hurt the Rockets. What hurts the Rockets moreso is what is being said (and maybe leaked) hours before the draft when other GMs (Prickchard) can pounce on that info and draft a guy Morey had his eyes on. Otherwise, we live in an information age--if Morey didn't tweet it, chances are it might get leaked any ways.
Reasonable is staying put? Maybe some time ago some guy once got drated named Eddie Griffin? RIP. Put that to rest. That was one scenario that didnt work and has nothing to do with this next scenario. Two seperate occassions. Let me show you a picture of a guy who got drafted lower than Eddie Griffin and the team traded up to get him.
You know that was an example and not about Morey. It was an example about making trades to aquire players like Kobeby moving up in drafts or trading for them.
Guys behind the curtain is a bunch of smoke and mirrors i'm sure tomorrow we'll see the wizard pull out some magic from his hat.
Nope. Nothing that interests me. Just 44 win team, no center, and no Superstar until he proves otherwise.
I do have a good feeling about Morey and this draft oddly enough. Dont know why. Just a gut feeling. Might just be heart burn from the Mexican food though.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200904130HOU.html This is the active Houston Rockets Roster at the end of the 2008/2009 season. Yao was lost to injury. Artest's contract expired, as did Von Wafer's. Which one of the remaining guys should Morey have traded for a superstar?
