The big difference is that Les wasn't the owner then. Les will do whatever it takes to fill seats. Developing young players equals an empty Toyota Center. That's just what we're having to accept with Les as the owner.
I agree. Adelman refused to play our younger guys. There were plenty of games he coulda put in Thabeet to atleast help his confidence. I saw him in 2 games mabe 5 minutes combined..
With Gasol and Nene we are top 5 seat at best. Well it's not mediocre however not tops either. Well one thing he must have discovered people are not willing to come Houston unless we draft another Hakeem. We are stuck. I can understand what he wants to do but does not mean I agree or I accept.
Tanking is the only way to win a championship. Everyone says, oh, a lottery pick isn't a guaranteed thing, to that I say, staying mediocre and having no lottery picks is a guaranteed NOTHING. 90% of teams won their championships by drafting a franchise player.
Sorry, I'm going to have to call BS on this. Of ALL the champs of the post-Jordan era, only the Spurs had their own top 3 pick as one of their two best players. We then have the '00-'02 Lakers (free agent signing + #13 pick), '04 Pistons (quintessential no-star team), '06 Heat (#5 pick + trade), '08 Celtics (trade + #10 pick), '09-'10 Lakers (#13 pick + trade), '11 Mavericks (#9 pick + trade). The draft is important. It is not all-important.
Tanking = what the Rockets should have been doing since 2009 after losing to the Lakers. That was the time - to move Scola with a cheap contract, move Shane...etc. **** getting the 8th or 9th seed with no chance and no upside - that was obvious at the time and now we're 3 years into this (and don't give me "well Yao might've" -his injury was career threatening at the time, it didn't take a genius to figure out improvement was unlikely). 2009-10 should have been the Rockets "Duncan" year.
Sign dalembert and play ball. Try to make the playoffs. Once you are there, anything can happen. A lot of poeple are pessimistic and think we will go one and done. Truth is, we will never know until we make the playoffs. We could make a surprise run like the grizz or even go farther.
The problem with not tanking is that how else are we going to get a superstar? We can't even lure in a middling borderline all-star like Nene through free agency. We've struck out in trades for second tier stars like Gasol and Bosh (as well as borderline first tier stars like Amare and Melo). How else if not through the draft? HOW ELSE? Stromile Swift. Trevor Ariza. Mo Taylor - these are the saviors we acquire through free agency. Sure, we acquired McGrady through trade, but he only wanted to come here because we already had a #1 over-all pick superstar.
Thats one of the worst problems of the Nba is this lottery draft crap. The worst team should get the first pick. Its a long season and no player I dont care who you are wants to be last place. No ones thinking they want to get a lottery pick. Besides its not like teams don't still tank. A lot of teams at that are doing horrible will start sitting some of their players toward the last few weeks of the season. Knowing wins mean nothing at that point.
You do realize that the Rockets aquired Akeem Olajuwon by tanking to get him right. How terrible has it been to be a Spurs fan, who tanked to get Duncan? The Bulls were terrible in order to get MJ Id take the chance at a Tim Duncan or Akeem, or MJ if it meant being terrible for a year or two or three. I mean whats the point of just missing the playoffs and having free agents turn their shoulder on Houston. Remember when we could get the top Free Agents in Houston. Now they **** on Houston. Realistically the Rockets have been out of the playoffs more than in the last 6 years, have only been to the second round once in 15 years, and have absolutely nothing to show anyone we are going to be contenders anytime soon. We have no real developing youngsters minus Kyle Lowry maybe (sorry Patterson, Twill, Thabeet, Cbud are not hot commodities). If we don't consider it we are fooling ourselves into another 15 years of mediocrity.
Why are you talking about players picked before the draft lottery was instituted? How was Kevin Garnett obtained? Trade Dirk Nowitzki: Trade Paul Pierce: Trade Ray Allen: Trade Kobe Bryant: Trade Shaquille O'neal: Trade Ben Wallace: Trade Rip Hamilton: Trade Chauncey Billups: Free Agent Signing
@ hak34 refer to this post. Sure there are some exceptions and teams actually do draft stars by tanking. It just hasn't been happening lately.
Agree one hundred percent. Go back to the thread where Yao got injured in the playoffs. I posted "Yao is done as an everyday player" and he was. We should have started rebuilding 2+ years ago, but Les wants to sell tickets, so Morey is ordered to patch the leaks and keep going.
This has been discussed a zillion times. We are not LA, we are not Boston, we are not a city that young stars are attracted to. By this time next year, every young superstar except Durant will be in either LA, Chicago, NY, Miami, or Boston. Those are the cities players prefer, not here.
The Spurs also held out Robinson when he was healthy enough to come back and play...and lo and behold, they won the lottery. I'm not saying we pull "a Spurs" but it was clear they tanked.
Garnett was willing to go to Boston because they already had Paul Pierce. Ray Allen was willing to go to Boston because they already had Garnett and Pierce. And Paul Pierce wasn't acquired in a trade at all - he was drafted by the Celtics with the number 10 pick - which is at least four spots higher than we've been in years. Dirk Nowitski was acquired for Robert Traylor - it was a swap of top 10 picks. Kobe Bryant refused to play in Charlotte so they traded him for Vlade Divac - but does that count since it's the Lakers and everything always goes their way? P.S. It also occurred on draft day so he might as well have been their pick. Shaq - to which time are you referring? He went to the Lakers via free agency to join Kobe - then Kobe had him traded to the Heat (where he was willing to go join Wade). Only the Pistons players you mentioned serve as credible examples as that team also didn't have a true superstar. And it is an anomaly. It is literally the only team in the last 30 years to win a championship with out a true dominant superstar. Do you really want to model your team after a fluke? So, as you can see, in each case (with the fluke exceptions of Kobe and the Pistons), every player you mentioned was either a draft day swap of desirable lottery picks or a superstar choosing to play with another superstar. We have neither a superstar to lure another star player in with or a desirable high lottery pick to offer in trade.
