Daryl Morey on the Rockets 2009 Lottery "Bust" Pickups

Could we get clear on when the deadline is for taking up the options on these '09 players? My understanding is January 25th., but I haven't confirmed that.

 

The thing is, the Rocket are not signing a bunch of 35-year-old Brad Millers to steal minutes away from these guys.

Flynn is playing behind Lowry and Dragic.

Williams lost his SG/SF minutes to fellow 2009er Budinger, 2008er Courtney Lee, and 2011 2nd rounder Parsons.

Hill and Thabeet have been outplayed by class 2010 member Patrick Patterson. Hell, Thabeet was apparently outplayed by his college teammate Jeff Adrien, too.
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The Rockets gave young players plenty of minutes and opportunities, it just so happens the 2009 lotto picks were not the ones who earned them.

 

Excellent points. However, the Dalembert signing did make it much more difficult for Thabeet to break into the rotation. Still, if Thabeet can't get minutes at center when we clearly could have used the size in many of these matchups, the coaches must not have any confidence in him. How many coaching staffs have to give up on a player until we're convinced that he's just not NBA material?

 

Another example of factual evidence that Morey isn't doing a good job. Then he throws them under the bus. The other teams aren't stupid and know who can and can't play in the NBA. We act as if Morey is robbing other teams when it's the Rockets who are gettig robbed by the players signed to guaranteed contracts.

Jordan Hill - He plays as if he has pics of Les with 3 monkeys and a midget. I totally agree with Morey that he tries 1 out of 4 games

Chase Budinger - He should be on the list of disappointing because he shows up 1 every 3 games. Both the Arizona boys are soft and shy away from any contact.

Thabeet - It's amazing that you get worse as you grow older. Your coach is Kevin McHale the best post man ever and he can't get you better? Cut him now

Twill - Needs some humble pie 3 times a day, when marshmellow Chase gets your minutes you should be pissed. But this dude bball IQ is real low, he jumps in the air for no reason at all

Flynn - I don't know what's up with this kid, he plays like a Robot.

 

2009 was not a year to pick up superstars..... Blake Griffin could be the only one and he is not the most skilled one to boot, relying heavily on his athleticism and quickness

 

I suspect that Thabeet would not really be in the rotation even without Dalembert. Maybe Dalembert takes all the starters minutes, but Thabeet can't even beat out the undersized (and not very good) Jordan Hill for backup minutes or even the even more undersized (and, so far, even worse) Jeff Adrien for 3rd string garbage minutes.


BTW, lets not lump Budinger in with these guys. Despite whatever flaws he has, Budinger has been a regular rotation player during pretty much the entirety of his career and has had a reasonable level of production on not-terrible teams both in terms of personal numbers and team +/- while he was on the court. This is something that you can't really say about any of the four 2009 lotto guys.

 

Sadly, it all goes back to the vetoed Stern trade once again. If Morey had traded for Gasol and signed Nene and Chuck, Thabeet would be amnestied and Jordan Hill would be playing exclusively at the 4 spot.

In the backcourt, you instantly open up 15-20 minutes per for both T-Will and Flynn to sink or swim as key backups to Lowry and Lee.

The more we look at how the Rockets players have been playing this year, and the more inside info gets leaked, you really start to see how badly Stern messed up the Rockets plans.

 

I understand, but let me say this. Williams is a 2, not a 3. I've said this a lot andno matter how bad bud is, williams is a 2. The guy starting at the 2 is a 33 minute guy, so that would leave 15 mins max for williams. What's knocking that down is lee is on the roster and more experienced despite being young also. I could wash,rinse, and repeat this about flynn also. Now hill had his chance, but he was beat out by patterson which is cool. Thabeet, was beat out by hill who started out at center before the signed dalembert. Really patterson and hill suffers because scola is playing 34 mins a night.

This is strictly my opinion, if I were trying to see if these guys would sink or swim, I would've move a couple of guys to do it. If I wanted to see if williams can play to his talent consistently, I'm moving courtney lee and maybe even dragic. Why? Because I think williams can play backup both the 1 and the 2 and sometimes the 3. If lowry and martin are 35 minute players, then that leaves 26 minutes for williams as the primary backup to both. If I want to see if hill or patterson can be more consistent, I'm moving scola. Removing scola opens up 48 mins of competition between the 2. Scola playing 35 mins getting 16pts and 6 rebs isn't going to help this team turn the corner. Thabeet should play the backup minutes behind dalembert. If indy would've traded for oneal but had they kept smits and both davis guys on the roster, the situation would've been the same as in portland. Portland did the stacking thing, but eventually they had to trade a talent. They traded the wrong talent though.

 

I think the team has probably seen enough of these guys, and decided that they are sinkers. I don't think it takes playing them 1500 minutes a season for coaches and scouts figure out who sucks and who doesn't.

Think about it, which young player that this team has cast aside (and I don't mean traded for real value, but just gave up on) during the last few years has ended up making us really regret it because he became a highly productive guy for another team?

 

Probably so. The only guy I would hesitate on is williams. He reminds me so much of a guy I played against in college, doug christie.

 

So Terrence is also afraid of his wife?

 

The thing is, the Rockets don't want to experiment. If Williams can't earn his way into the rotation by playing solid in the minutes given to him, then there's a good chance he wouldn't cut it with extended minutes as well. By simply trading away others that are perhaps better, yeah the Rockets could get a longer look at some of these players. But they could just as easily be shooting themselves in the foot.

The Rockets MO, at least under Morey, has been to acquire talent and then let the best player fight his way to the top of the rotation instead of just granting him minutes. I see how in some cases there could be a downside to this, but I think having competition can drive some players to work harder and be more focused. It also protects the Rockets from making a really bad decision (clearing roster space for a player who turns out to be no good), and messing up not only their present but also their future.

 

Open up minutes?

Terrence and Flynn both had plenty of minutes to beat out Parsons/Bud & Dragic. If they were that good they would have been able to do the things that Parsons & Dragic have been able to do as well if not better.

I especially am dissapointed in Terrence because he was told time after time last season and this preseason that its the defense thats going to get him on the court. Its the hussle, its the little things. Its not the fancy pass, its the smart fundamentally sound pass. Its about making smart plays, not fancy ones. He didnt do that.

Its not that he was BAD... its just that Parsons has been that much better at the small things, and makes the smart veteran like plays. If Im a 3 year player like Terrence, Im embarrased and would take it personally that a rookie has outworked me in practice and in given minutes on the court.

I know everyone on here plays with Terrence on 2K12 and thinks that given extended minutes he will be as good in real life as he is in the game, but look... thats not reality. Extended minutes or small preseason minutes, he is who he is, and the Rockets are proven a better team with Parsons/Budinger at the 3.

Still, all of these players will have a few weeks before the trade deadline at least to prove they belong in the league if injuries happen and McHale is forced to play them. They might not get an extension from the Rockets but they can still get interest from other teams before the trade deadline to get moved.

The reality is the 2009 draft busts had a small window to earn an extension on their rookie deals and none of them have earned it. Thats Terrence included. I dont think it would be a smart move financially to extend any of them.

 

Come on, Leeb, Luis has averaged 8 boards+ the last three seasons and is coming off an injury, no training camp to speak of, and no preseason worth mentioning, not to mention playing for a new coach and whatever McHale's system is, which has impacted his scoring. His shooting percentage is nothing like it typically is. I understand your point about it forcing the Rocks to play Patterson and Hill far greater minutes, which if we are tossing this season could be a good idea. I haven't seen any evidence that Alexander and Morey are doing that, although I suspect Morey would, if he could. As for Williams, you sure place a lot of faith in him. There's no doubt that he has talent, but there's plenty of doubt about what's ticking upstairs. Again, if A & M aren't tossing the year to get a high lottery pick, why give Williams big minutes considering the guys ahead of him at both positions? By the way, I agree that he isn't a 3. I don't disagree with the gist of your post, but don't see that Alexander and Morey are taking that road. It might be a mistake on Alexander's part, and quite possibly is, but short of a trade that gives us the situation you'd like to see by default, we're not going to see drastic changes, in my opinion.

 

In terms of williams, what solid minutes are we talking about? He's a 2, not a 3. I actually think chase is a 2 also, but somehow is playing the 3 because he's 6'8. I agree competition is and should be a good gauge, but when you stack players lik this, there is a strong chance you miss on a guy later. I'm not saying this will or won't, but the same could be said about petrovic and j oneal. Petro was behind a hof player and j oneal was stuck behind a uber talented wallace, ever so consistent grant,and steady big guy sabonis. I remember peja coming off the bench for corliss. Oncehe started to show with his minutes, they traded corliss to the pistons. Corliss continued to be a solid player for detroit, but peja blossomed. Peja didn't beat out corliss, but they saw the upside. They played it safe by exposing wallace despite christie showing decline and peja injuries. Once wallace started playing big minutes, his talent showed through. Why be safe with a lotto team?

 

wow, way to cop out Morey. You made a business decision and it failed horribly- dont be using the "we" tag now. It was all you.
Now, granted that most of the reason the drafts did not pan were not your fault, but you should have done your research better before making those deals.

Also, the reason most of those deals didnt pan out is because you treat your freaking players like assets and you trade for players without consulting your coaches.
Adelman did not like the T-will and Thabeet trade hence why they got no playing time and also were on a shorter leash than other players.

Now, after wasting a whole season pining away on the bench, you expect them to come over this season and blow everyone away. Why? They are all human and hold grudges too just like everyone else. Why the hell should t-will and thabeet give their best now when their best was no good last year.

Why the **** did you draft Parsons and Morris when you knew you will have a logjam at sf. You collect all these good assets that plays the same position, which might make for good competition during practice- but is terrible for team chemistry.

Also, you got Morris going to the D-League while his brother is killing for the Rockets- especially when you said he will be the future of the Rockets. What do you think that move does for his morale and how he feels for the Rockets organization even given the chance finally.

This season is the best season to tank cos of the few games, but nope, we r still on pace to be the 7th or 8th seed, another first round ass whooping, and a 13th or 14th pick- business as usual. Give me a freaking break, will ya

 

McHale has been pretty consistent at putting Dragic at the backup 2, even when Courtney Lee was out. And when Dragic was playing badly, McHale's answer was to run Lowry and Martin into the ground (40+MPG). Again, Morey was thinking along your lines; I think that Terrence is his pet project, and he definitely felt comfortable enough in the offseason to do exactly what you suggested and trade away Martin and Dragic to free up tons of minutes; pretty much daring McHale to not use Williams and Flynn.

Everytime I see Williams play, I always get the feeling that he's simply not going to be effective unless he gets to handle the ball early in the possession. He's really the inverse of Dragic; they both really need to pound the rock to get in rhythm, only Dragic is constantly looking for his shot, while T-Will is looking to set others up with a flashy pass. His turnover rate is so high though, I can't ever see a coach on a team that actually wants to win giving him the reins. So it's quite the quandry; the only way that he's going to be an effective player is by playing in a way that's going to get him benched by 95% of the coaches in the league.

 

correction- meant to say Morris' brother was killing for the Suns

And speaking about draft picks that panned out, hows that Batum trade looking now.

For a man supposed to be very smart, with a lockerroom of geeks- you are terrible, and at best mediocre to average.

Why should i remain a fan knowing that ur gonna show off the same dead beats and under achievers each year, while the other teams are making moves. Yet, our moneyball guy is killing the team and team chemistry with dumb drafts and trades

 

Yeah, I know in regards to scola, but high effort guys fall off quicker than talented guys. Scola makes it lok very dfficult in everything he does. When his effort/energy level goes down because of injury or age, he's going to look like that old runing back who can't get through the hole anymore.

I don't think you can be safe and try to yield big gains at the same time. I've said this before, I don't know any safe millionaires. All the millionaires I know who are not of the athlete/inheritance variety all took a chance ordinary people wouldn't make. The safe people work 30 yrs, get the gold watch and the pat on the back.