morey is stuck between a rock and hard place with the rockets.. he just needs to continue drafting wisely, and perhaps we can win with a team full of 'role players'. nothing is wrong with that, we just need the right coach.. JVG comes to mind
What a whiny b**** fest. You have a good team that has some young up and coming players, one or two incoming exciting prospects, and they are a good team that is getting better going into playoff time. Im not saying that its ok to accept being mediocre, but there is alot to be excited for with this team. I just dont understand why this fanbase attracts so many drama queens all the time, and cant just go out and support your team. Golden State's fanbase does it, Portland's fans sure do it as well. There is nothing wrong with a little David vs. Goliath for a few years if your team is getting better and plays hard. We all know that the powers that be are only focused on big markets despite what they said this Fall and dont want Houston to be relevant ever. Its going to be a long hard road to get to the top, but they are closer to the top then they are the bottom. Its time to just cheer for this team to do something special this year and pull some upsets. Who am I kidding, 80% of the people on this board are armchair GM's who just want to throw darts at Morey and act like they could do better. Go ahead and blame him if you want, but if you want him gone try to come up with someone you honestly think would do a better job, and would WANT to take the job as GM with Houston, and start supporting this team or get off this "Fansite." Thats the only thing I ask.
You are 100% correct, there was never a deal there, so he wasn't spending his time and effort on him. Instead he was "pulling out of the Bogut talks" to spend his time and effort on Fisher and Camby. I'm with you all the way, utter failure.
Yeah, the Sonics won their division in 04/05, were a lottery team in 05/06, then drafted Kevin Durant the next year, and were so bad that it forced the team out of the basketball friendly Seattle because talks with the city for a new arena broke down mostly because of the marketability of a loosing franchise. Then lets look at Sacramento. How has it worked for them? They are super lucky to still be around and get that new arena. I thought they were goners. Im not saying Houston would kick the Rockets out of the city if they went bad and the city turned on them, but once you get bad it can be unforgiving at the bottom.
Rockets won 28 games in 01-02 and 34 games in 05-06. I don't remember hearing a whisper about the town wanting to get rid of the team.
Christ there are some idiots on here. The first thing you need to remember before constantly crucifying Morey is that LES ALEXANDER WILL NOT ALLOW US TO TANK. So if you want to blame someone for that, blame Les. Morey has flat-out said this multiple times, and it's common knowledge. But Alexander owns the team, it's his BUSINESS, and he wants it to remain profitable. There's a reason that the Rockets were one of only roughly 25% of teams in the league that were profitable in recent years. If we traded away all our good players and sucked and tried to get lucky in the draft, we'd be Charlotte or Sacramento and we'd be hemorrhaging cash. This might not be what you want, but if you want it to be different, get some of your buddies and cut Les a check for 450 million dollars, and do whatever the hell you want with your team. As far as Morey goes, he's done a phenomenal job with what he's been given to work with. Building a playoff team without tanking is HIS JOB DESCRIPTION, it might not be in his contract per se, but I guarantee you that if he traded everyone away (without a change of heart from the owner), he'd be fired, and someone else would do what he's doing now, very possibly with less success. Granted, Morey has made a few mistakes (Terrence Williams comes to mind), but for the most part, we almost never have a deal where you say "the Rockets lost that one." And his drafting has proven to be excellent. As many people have said, his ultimate goal, and what he's failed at so far, is to acquire a superstar. Would I like that to happen? HELL YES. But the opportunity has not presented itself within what Les allows him to do. We came close, with the Gasol deal, but we all know how that ended up. Sure you can say that he should have been aware of the clusterf*** that is the Hornets and the possibility that David Stern would have screwed us, but from everything I've heard, it was a total shocker to everyone involved, including the Lakers and including Dell Demps, when the veto came down. Our roster has been slowly but steadily improving for the past several seasons, and will continue to improve until a superstar becomes available without us having to tank to get him. Hopefully that will be this summer, but who knows? All I know is I'm going to continue to support the Rockets and hope we make a run in the playoffs this year.
While I agree with everything you said, I also want to respect JuanValdez' take, too. Regarding your quote above, there was possibly one star traded today. [rquoter]March 15: Wallace coming to New Jersey Nets trade Shawne Williams, Mehmet Okur and a first-round pick to Portland for Gerald Wallace. The top-3 protected draft choice from the Nets is the key. It's likely to fall in the 6-to-10 range, giving the Blazers a shot at a high lottery pick.[/rquoter] Did Morey miss this? Or did the Nets only want Gerald Wallace? While the top-3 protection prevents lottery ball magic, had Morey pulled in that 6-10 pick with top-3 protection, I think this thread doesn't happen. I think that's everyone's whole point against the Les shackling of Morey...if you can't get Howard (albeit on rental), purge and get some real picks.
Morey's "asset" collecting strategy doesn't work when you overvalue your "assets" and/or value them differently than other teams do. His inability to acquire elite talent is a byproduct of this. The Knicks and Clippers did a better job of "collecting assets" to trade for a star without even using that as a strategy. Also, Maury has lost leverage now that the entire league is familiar with the way that he operates. They know that he wants to collect a bunch of role players and turn them into a star and they know that he's willing to trade anybody on the roster to make that happen. The players around the league now know this as well. Neither of those things are positive developments for Houston. So Maury and Le$ have some draft picks now. What will most likely happen is that they'll unsuccessfully try to move up in the draft like they've done previously. Once that doesn't happen Maury and Le$ will draft an established player with limited upside. Maury and Le$ also have a lot of cap room coming up, but there are no big free agents I can see that are going to want to sign here...at least not any that are going to make this team a contender. Their best strategy would be to use that cap room to take on salary from a bad team that wants or needs financial relief and in return acquire their unprotected 1st round draft pick for the 2013 draft. This is what the Cavs did when they took on Baron Davis's contract and got the Clips 1st round draft pick, which turned into the #1 overall pick in the draft, which turned into Kyrie Irving. This way they can have a legit chance at drafting either Nerleans Noel or Shabazz Muhammad in 2013. Since the Rockets wanna stay competitive (read mediocre) and are unwilling to tank, I really hope that Le$, Maury, and company adopt this strategy and aggressively pursue it. Let's get predatory guys. Yeah, let's just blindly accept everything the organization does and all hold hands in solidarity. ACCEPT THE SYSTEM, DON'T QUESTION THE PROCESS, LACK OF FAITH IS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS, IN MOREY AND LE$ WE TRUST
If you're an NBA owner...and your team never cracks a national telecast...is being watched by less people in town than in previous years...and can't sell tickets....who do you hold accountable for that? I'm not saying that's fair....I'm not saying Morey hasn't had some bad luck. I'm very skeptical of the moneyball approach (though we all seem to be defining that differently) being nearly as impactful in NBA hoops as it is in MLB because of: 1. the potential impact of just one superstar player to an NBA lineup; and 2. the far greater number of roster spots to fill in MLB. The games themselves are just very different. But the bottom line is this franchise is absolutely stuck in neutral. I've been an advocate for keeping Morey around...but he's only got so many pitches left to swing at, honestly. Pro sports is a bottom line business...no one wants to hear about injuries or excuses.
To be fair Morey dosent have alot of assets to play with to make a major deal. We didnt have a 23 million dollar expiering contract or a superstar to offer like we did in 010.
No he hasn't. It hasn't been phenomenal. This is where CF goes overboard. There's nothing phenomenal about this franchise in any way, shape or form right now. Nothing. No player has been acquired whom I didn't think could ultimately be traded yesterday. Yesterday passed and I still feel that way about everyone on our roster. There is no semblance today of the roster that will be wearing Rockets Red and competing for a championshp ever with. This is a franchise that seemingly no one nationally or locally gives a damn about right now, outside of CF. I'm not saying he has been bad...and I've been clear he needs more time (though that included yesterday when I said that previously)....let's see what happens come draft night. But in no way can I characterize what he's done here as, "phenomenal." The boot licking of this man here is just absolutely nuts.
well to be fair, whose fault is that? how long do we say that it's not the fault of the GM who's been here for 5 years now that we don't have assets on the roster? i'm asking seriously...when can we finally hold someone who is currently employed by the Rockets for the Rockets' roster?
We are on track to make the playoffs. To answer your question, I think it is largely the fault of the NBA system which rewards sucking. Since our owner does not see the tanking route as an option, Morey has to work within these parameters.
This is a totally bias and slanted "poll". 5 Q's, 4 of which are negative. Go back to poll/analysis class dude.
I agree with that...I put it on Les too..but Les writes the checks, unfortunately. Yeah, making the playoffs in the NBA...really not all that impressive. More teams get in than stay out. We have a roster that can't sell tickets or find their way on national TV...this is, after all, a business still.
The NJ side of the Gerald Wallace deal makes absolutely no sense to me. Why trade your lottery pick for him at this time? After Howard's decision I'm sure the Nets are concerned about Deron Williams bolting this summer. I can't imagine that Gerald Wallace joining the team is going to make Williams want to stay plus it gives you less cap room next offseason. I've heard several explanations of why NJ did the deal but none sound great: 1. NJ needed a starting SF. That's true but why go for a 30 year old Gerald Wallace ? Why give up their lottery pick? Why do they need to acquire that SF at this point in the season when they could easily wait until the offseason? 2. NJ had negotiations prior to the season on a three team deal to acquire Howard. In that deal Portland would have shipped Wallace to Orlando. Apparently Orlando really likes Wallace. So, let's assume that Orlando does indeed really like Wallace, why now? Are they really stockpiling Wallace already for a run at Howard next year? That seems premature, what if Orlando acquires a SF in the offseason? Would Wallace be that attractive to them then? 3. NJ is saying that they only like 3 players in the upcoming draft so they don't mind trading their pick because it's top 3 protected. I'm not buying that one either. a) at least one of the players that they like (Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, Thomas Robinson) should still be on the board after 3. b) Even if all three of those players are gone that pick is still more valuable than a 30 year old Gerald Wallace. Here's an ESPN link that mentions a couple of these reasons but I don't buy them. http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...land-trail-blazers-gerald-wallace-sources-say As for your question as to whether the Rockets could have acquired that pick, I don't think so. You can pick any of those reasons that I listed or create your own but in all scenarios I don't see how the Rockets offer a better alternative. If they just wanted a small forward then we don't have anyone that will help them as much as Wallace will right now (why they want that help right now is another question entirely). If they are stockpiling Wallace for yet another run at Howard then I don't know that we have any parts that help them more than Wallace. Of course this whole logic is based on the idea that Orlando really likes Walace.
Les never said that. Morey never said that. In fact Morey has said the opposite. That he is so grateful to work for one of the best owners in the league who allows him to spend money anyway he wants. The only thing Morey said is we are trying to rebuild without losing. It has never been done before . And everyone jumped on that as if it is Les decision. Morey never said that and Les never said it. You and a bunch of other people here say it. But that doesn't mean crap. Morey's hand is not forced. Morey has pretty much been able to run this team how he feels without a whole bunch of impediment. Les may have some influence on the coach but by all accounts he is more of a hands off owner than most. Even Adelman and JVG said he never talked to them. Morey's decisions are Morey's decisions. Some good a couple great and some not so good.
i agree it's a head scratcher. the only thing that makes sense to me is that they think they can make a run at a playoff spot.
