What EVIDENCE do we have that Morey is doing a great/good job?

I agree. Portland in this case is supposed to soothe its owner Allen and let the GM work on a consistent basis.

 

Ok Portland is a good comparison case. But honestly they are not a contender. Their moves have been decent, but does anyone realistically see them being better than OKC or LA, or now even the Clippers? They are stuck in the same boat we are b/c LMA is not a franchise player.

They are a bit younger than we are, but also have more cap problems. Frankly, I prefer our situation to Portland's. At least we now have the option to tank. Portland is too young to tank and they've got wasted money tied up in Oden. Their most likely path is to bob from the 4-8 seed for the next 3 years and then trade LMA to a contender.

 

Nothing to do with the topic at hand, but someone has to end this misconception.

We are one of the youngest teams in the entire NBA. Don't feel like going through every single team, but a quick look shows the Blazers being on average 3 years older than the Rockets.

 

That's fair, but Portland has positioned themselves nicely during this power shift in the western conference.. I mean SA's window is closed, if Dallas doesn't land DWill or Howard their window is closed, LA if they don't get Howard is a bag of old injury-prone bones with Mike Brown... OKC and the Clippers are also positioning themselves nicely for this power shift, along with Portland.
Felton
Wes Mathews/Jamal Crawford
Ger Wallace/Batum
Aldridge/Craig Smith
Camby/Oden
Then you consider a role player like Kurt Thomas and rookie Nolan Smith coming off the bench. They are a lot better than the Rockets right now with that line up. They have an outstanding combination of youth and veterans, and a former 6th man of the year. I think they are realistically an 8-10 more win total team than the Rockets right now. And I think Felton will only make everyone better.
But the only reason I brought up Portland is because of this one-sided fan base gives the GM a free pass because they believe this franchise is cursed. Portland has shown that not only can it be done, it's being done right here in the Western Conference.

 

Yes, yes I agree Wesley Matthews and Gerald Wallace are good players, and their two previous GMs were pretty good (Rich CHo and the dude bfore him). But my point is why are you bringing up Portland as a great FO but then saying the jury is still out on DM when the results of both teams have been very similar. Apart from LMA, the pieces they have are comparable to the ones we have, like KM, Scola and Lowry. Hell, Patterson might even be our own LMA, his play during his rookie year was comparable to LMA during his rookie year.

Saying they're playoff, we're not is silly because we were best team out of the playoffs and they're one of the worst teams who made the playoffs, both teams are comparable.

 

That lineup is just a little bit better than the one we have, due to the fact we don't have a C:

Lowry/Dragic>>Felton/whoever
Kmart/Lee>Crawford/Wes Mathews
C-bud/T-will/MM<<Ger Wallace/Batum
Scola/PP<LMA/Smith
Hill/Thabeet<Camby/Oden

If you think Portland is doing a great job then you should think we have positioned ourselves nicely as well. If rumors are true and we end up signing Dalembert, I'd say our rosters are dead even. Unlike Portland, we have Donuts chilling in Europe, the Knicks pick, and Memphis' pick in 2013. If we miss the playoffs, we'll have 4 picks in what majority is saying a loaded draft.

 

As I said in the previous post, I like Portland, I like McMillan. I think there will be a power shift in the western conference with Dirk, Duncan, and Kobe deteriorating. Denver and NO are toast. Clips are better and I thought GS Warriors would be an improved team but their front office is terrible. I mean why would you amnesty Charlie Bell when he's not a terrible player and is only owed 4 million and his contract expires this summer!!! I like Portland's chances to win at least one playoff series and make a deep run in this shortened season. And I think that the fact they have been going to the playoffs may have swayed Jamal Crawford's decision to play there.

 

I would say that Houston's and Portland's back court are comparable. But Wallace, Aldridge, Camby/Oden are better than our front court on our front court's best day and it's not that close. (currently)
But yes, Houston does have more cap room and future picks, that's why to me the jury is still out on Daryl.

 

Because their primary achievement was to fail horribly, win the lottery, and draft MVP HOF franchise players. Otherwsie it's just a bunch of complementary moves, some of which worked out (getting in early on european players like Parker/Ginobili when otehr teams didn't think they could sign them) and some of which blew up in their faces (signing jackie butler, then havign to get rid of Scola for nothing to get rid of Butler to avoid Luxury tax).

 

I don't think people realize that if Spurs kept Scola, they would easily have won at least one more championship.

I mean we're talking an 18/8 guy who can create his own shot.

 

First of all, lets consider the hand Morey was dealt:
-Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady
-Garbage players, garbage contracts

At the time he inherited the team, Yao/McGrady were untouchable (due to money Les was making, I think that Yao throughout his entire career has been untouchable).

His goal was to build a championship caliber core around Yao-Mac and I think that we can all agree that he did that (especially in 2009). Unfortunately, Yao/TMac were never healthy.

Following what was the end of TMac's career (lets face it, it has been over for several seasons now), he was able to flip his corpse along with Landry for pretty solid value (including a player in Kevin Martin who would have been the perfect second option for the untradeable/untouchable franchise centerpiece in Yao Ming. Once again, he was forced to build a team around Yao. These were the cards he was dealt).

Now look at every transaction Morey has made. Every single one of them has benefitted the Rockets (well maybe excluding the signings of Ariza and Miller but he was able to flip both of those for great value).


Am I saying Morey is a great GM? No I am not. BUT what I am saying is that based on the hand he was dealt (as difficult a situation as you could possibly imagine), he did an outstanding job (probably better than any other GM in the league could possibly do but that is all speculation).


Now that Yao/Mac are gone, he has no bad contracts, youth/capspace. What he does here to build a team would really define him as a GM.

 

Memphis built their team around Gasol before he was traded, and I'd argue that the Lakers won the championship when they obtained Gasol despite Kobe being the alpha and playing inefficiently. The Lakers got tore up by good point guard play because they only had one good perimeter defender (Artest), and he couldn't defend point guards. If we'd obtained Nene and Gasol, our backcourt would have been manned by two above average players in Lowry and Lee, and I'm confident that one of our 3's would have proven themselves to be an above average defender. Williams was an excellent defender in college, Morris continues to claim that his focus is on his defense, and Budinger is an underrated defender who is also continuing to improve his game. Also, I don't think it would have been a lateral move as we would have been adding height, length and toughness to our frontcourt, while allowing our perimeter players to play to their strengths. Bottom line: I disagree with your analysis. I think it's simply conjecture and opinion without basis.

 

Spot on.

 

If you want to see how a smart team rebuilds, watch the Spurs after Duncan retires.

 

They've been rebuilding for some time now. Splitter, Blair, Kawhi Leonard and Neal are all good players which should keep the Spurs flame alive after TD. Hey look at that, their roster is a mix of unproven talent, emerging youngsters, old dudes and players still in their prime. Look at that, exactly like the Rox.

 

If you want to see if they really are smart rather than just lottery lucky.....
Same for Morey starting from his Post-Yao, right now.

Is there a Team that you can say has done it with GM smarts? that 1. didn't get a lucky ping pong ball that turned into a HOF player(s) or 2. isn't a glamour team city with a nucleus that attracted super-star players at a discount.?

The Pistons?

 

The Lakers got they're ass handed to them because they couldnt match up with Dirk. There were alot of other contributing factors, but the MAIN thing was there bigs didnt have the foot speed to match up with Dirk. Gasol was a HUGE non factor and looked as if he wasnt even competing at times. And this is the guy chosen by Morey (and fans like you) to revive the franchise? (At 31 years of age)

Without basis? Lmao. The fact you labeled C-Bud a "underrated" defender is the most baseless comment I've read. Seems someone didnt watch many games last year............

 

Not at all like the Rockets, because the Spurs still have Duncan. Once he is gone, they will shift directly into rebuild mode, and they won't waste any energy, time, or resources trying to avoid the lottery. I predict just the opposite. I think they will shed every veteran, like a dog shaking off fleas, go into full rebuild mode, and start collecting ping pong balls.

 

Actually, if you'd watched the Lakers last year in the playoffs you'd have seen them getting torched by the pick and roll against Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Russel Westbrook, and even J.J. Barea. Dirk actually had one of his worst playoff series of his career. It was the team that won it for them -- not just Dirk. You're right about Gasol, though.

Exactly. Entirely without basis. Your deflection doesn't add any basis to your argument either. Budinger's defensive plus-minus last year was very good. In this light, I'd say his defense was underrated, since everybody seemed to think that he was flatly terrible on that end of the floor. Statistics don't lie.

 

Even though your post drip with bias homerism, I respected it due to us being Rocket fans. But I've learned not only are you bias, but your completley delusional when it comes to the Rockets. Portland's line up is light years better than we are right now. Lamarcus Aldridge alone makes them better, but add Wallace, Felton & Camby and you CLEARLY have a better team than Daryl Morey's collection of "assets" and disgruntled veterans.

Even with Dalembert, can you PLEASE explain where you'd feel we'd be dead even with Portland?