For those of you that wanted this team to tank/rebuild stop complaining.

A 10-16 pick will probably help the team, I agree. Morey has proven to be a pretty good drafter.

5th year of what though? I don't follow.

 

I'm sure Morey and even Leslie know that #2 and #4 picks are pretty good to have. I don't think watching the Thunder this year will really impact their decision making process.

 

A 5th year of Morey having to "work his magic" through trades rather than drafts.

If you don't think picking earlier increases our chances of strengthening a team, then I don't know what to say. It's definitely different if we were to trade down and get the same pick Morey likes. Of course, he always has to sell/justify the picks he made, so we don't always know the players he really wants in drafts.

In fact, his use of the word "asset" has the meaning of an undervalued (sometimes deep to undrafted) piece to upgrade from. We'd have less assets and more "cornerstones" if he had a better draft position to choose from.

I hate it when the Rockets lose, but I hate it even more to see similar outcomes repeat itself year after year.

 

Of course picking earlier helps. Winning also helps to increase the value of the players on the roster. How else would Antonio Davis bring the #2 pick in a draft?

 

Dertoit
Charlotte
Washington
New Jersey
Sacramento
Jazz
New Orleans
Toronto

I don't see us being worse than these teams. We're getting the 9th or 10th pick at best and that's IF Phoenix doesn't trade Nash or he gets injured.

Also, Cleveland could easily be worse.

 

Oh, and for the deepest draft in recent history who in their right mind will trade a lotto pick for Martin or Scola??? I mean, would YOU??

 

Oh, and Golden State. They're worse than us right now. Who knows if they'll get any better.

It's gonna be harder racing to the bottom than to the top.

 

Michael Dukakis approves this thread.

 

What does that mean? They should lose every game against a decent team? Isn't that tanking?

DD

 

This is exactly what I was about to type. It's so weird watching games and feeling this way.

 

I hate every loss. If I thought we were in full tanking mode, I'd feel more like you and DD are feeling, but I don't think that, not yet. Alexander has Morey on a leash.

 

I couldn't be more happy watching the development of our young talent.

 

It will be interesting to see if Clutch ever stickies a tanking/count the lottery balls thread. Probably not until the Rockets are officially eliminated, I suppose. He he.

 

This is a point that needs to be made. For anyone longing for a top 5 pick, barring a major injury or other setback, the reality is that the Rockets simply aren't bad enough to "compete" with these teams for the top positions. You might throw Detroit and Golden State in that list as well. I can't see us picking any better than 10th, and probably worse than that.

There is a second point that should be brought up here. There is an almost viral perception among us that this is a very deep draft, and very few seem to be challenging that notion. Morey's opinion is that this draft will have more franchise player potentials than most, making it very strong from 1-5 and above average from 5-10. From 10 - 20, he sees this draft as being comparable to last year's, and perhaps not as strong.

The whole question of whether or not to tank is almost a moot point. The current roster is unlikely to be good enough to make the playoffs, or bad enough to net a star in the next draft, regardless of how the team plays. I hope I am wrong.

 

You guys are forgetting it is not about finishing worse, but finishing with enough ping pong balls to get in the top 3....

DD

 

This would almost certainly require dumping Luis and K-Mart, and the sooner the better, and for pennies on the dollar if that's what it takes.

 

I bet everyone on this board would have traded mcgrady for Durant with today's hindsight. Back when that draft was happening no one would have made that trade because of the player that mcgrady was at the time and the success of the team.

Now we have a lottery team with some of our 'win now' vets gone. Now we have a couple of them left below the level that mcgrady was at. Why not trade them for some potential picks and see what our current youth can do?

Everyone thinks tanking means turning into the clippers of old. I think with our management we can be more like the sonics/thunder. They had talent in ray Allen and rashard Lewis, but through a bad season and trading an asset away they were able to turn their program around in under five years.

Morey has been proven to find quality nba players. I think he needs a shot at picking up an Allstar player so he can actually do something with the team.

 

Watching the attendance in Seattle in 2007 after trading away Ray Allen and letting Rashard Lewis walk is probably all the convincing that Les needs to keep the team from bottoming out (especially since that was a team with the ROY, and still they had a reported loss of around 14% that year).

 

You really don't need that this year. There are guys with real star potential as far back as 8 or 9. Gilchrist, Perry Jones....and the international prospects always seem to project late.

 

When we drafted Yao at number 1, we finished 6th in the ping pong ball race.

You don't need to be bottom, just really close to it.

Right now we are right in that ballpark.

DD