Maybe you are right, they have gotten some decent 2nd rounders, but my point is they haven't found any difference makers, guys that have HIGH upside potential. They take the 4 year college player who is what he is, and probably won't get that much better. The guy on the roster with the most upside was a guy they got from Phoenix in a trade and they were going to jettison him before the year for a tall softie, and a guy that signed a big deal and was dealt by his playoff team just to get out of the contract. Makes you scratch your head and go..WTF are they doing? IMO, a lot is riding on D-Mo....but if you have 3 rookies on the roster and no playing time given to them, wtf is the point? DD
I like a lot of what Daryl is saying, but I don't like the claim that this is "Year One" of a transition without Yao Ming. That's painful to hear. We knew Yao would miss the whole 2009-10 season ... it's unfortunate they didn't get a good pick that year, but they get a pass there. But in 2010, Yao went down just 5 games in. Plenty of time to start a transition. This isn't really Year One.
This is something that stood out to me as well. To be fair, while it certainly is not year one without Yao Ming's service, it is year one without his contract on the payroll.
This is year three and they know it. Anything else is spin. They knew it was over when they announced before last season that Yao would be limited to 24 minutes a game. It was obvious then that the Rockets were more interested in gimmicks than making tough decisions.
DM is pure PR for the masses, he is right, people are pissed off, because they can see through the bull**** he is spewing. And it doesn't taste very good. DD
Well to be technical It's the first year without Yao's contract affecting our Cap room. Les hasn't had to pay Yao any real money for 3 years since he would just claim insurance.
The problem that a lot of people make Garner is confusing fan speak with someone that is PAID by the organization to do exactly that. You and I are not in the meetings, we don't see the tape, we don't have access to the scouts and information that DM and staff does. If we did, then you might have a smidgeon of a point, but since we aren't...your post is pointless. DM and staff have a JOB to do, and if they are not good at evaluating talent and keeping it...then wtf are they good for? Anyone can count and do contract law, that is pretty fricken simple stuff, honestly..... It is the chemical equation of talent that is the hard part.... DM and staff need to get a lot better at talent evaluation, because so far, they are missing that boat, and the org is sloshing around because of it. DD
Which made Le$ a lot of money during those 3 frustrating years....a LOT of it. That money went right to the bottom line....a good org, one that was more interested in winning than making a profit would have traded his expiring contract to a financially strapped team. You know...make that PREDATORY move that we heard about but ...uh.....never saw. DD
Pretty ****ing good, thanks, have owned and sold 3 companies, and am starting another one. I am not paid by the org, if I was, then your point would make sense. DD
I think the bigger issue is that they're even choosing to define it as year post Yao. I mean, as a fan, I don't care, what year it is. If I had to choose a year to track anything by, it'd be year since they were last relevant. And that's over a decade now. As someone trying to judge our GM's capabilities and competencies, I can only go by the dude's hire date. He became official full time GM on May 10 2007. That's right, he's been at it 5 years. Next year will be year 6 for DM, the GM. I like Daryl. I generally think he is a solid GM, competent and capable. He goes after trades, generally makes smart draft choices, and has competently managed the payroll given Les' unwillingness to pay luxury tax. BUT, if I'm judging him by performance, this will be his 6th offseason as full time GM. If Daryl is going to insist on measuring things as with Yao and post Yao, and insist on measuring this past year as year one post Yao, than I insist on judging him the same way. He failed during the with Yao era. So far, the post Yao era isn't looking that great, either. Don't be obtuse. He was talking about your track record in evaluating talent, etc. He doesn't care about your personal life, and your success there has no reflection on any of the discussions on this message board (at least in this section)...
The cap room is what's relevant. Even if the Rockets didn't have to pay Yao, the important part is his salary prevents him from being allowed to pay anyone else.
Hey, did you ask JVG about Morey or is that one of the topics that you couldn't post about. Curious if you asked JVG's opinion of Morey's scouting and drafting abilities.
The more I think about it too, the more it annoys me. Look at Cleveland -- they based everything on having LeBron and when they lost him, they immediately made moves towards rebuilding. No hesitation. They picked first and fourth last year and will have another top pick this year. They didn't say that their roster and staff were too good to be high up in the draft so why bother. Look at Portland -- the Blazers came into this season with playoff aspirations and when it didn't work out, they strongly and swiftly changed directions. They dealt an established player for a pick that they may not get this year, but if they do it will be in the 4-8 range, giving them two lottery picks. This was a month ago! They didn't say, "Well, it's only 'Month One' of Team Meltdown." It's annoying. The Rockets are trying to remain flexible but in doing so they have been mediocre in both the present and in building for the future.
i am not sure it's his or his boss idea. his baby steps of improving the team doesn't make any sense to me after yao was done. no doubt he is good at evaluate talent on what he can get. i have problem with his approach. it may work when you have a superstar. however, we don't have anymore. to improve the team fast, the best approach is to dismantle the team and start from the scratch. this is a superstar driven league. get the superstar from draft or trade before thinking about those baby steps. clearly, attracting a star to houston looks like buying a lottery ticket. the chance is not better than striking by lights. Getting the rox into the highest draft pick is only reasonable and realistic way. i don't understand why he hasn't seen. the more i look back on his years with us, the more i am convinced he is a great right or left arm of a good GM. either he refuses to face the reality or he doesn't have guts to tell les our current approach doesn't work at all.
Morey should have just kept his mouth shut. He might have just cost Les a couple hundred grand in season ticket sales
It's not a matter of them just deciding to "stay the course" and remain flexible salary-wise. After all, they were going after a major change when they made the Gasol trade that got vetoed. I do share your frustration to a degree. It's tough to watch teams like Utah and Portland gathering high picks quickly while the Rockets have to gamble on "stars shaking lose," free agency, lower picks (and 09 lotto busts) panning out, etc. It is also frustrating watching players who had trade value one year losing such value the next year (happened with Brooks, Budinger, Patterson Martin and Lowry to one degree or another). It's hard to be "patient" but "tanking" arguably will require a similar degree of patience as it will typically require years even for a successful rebuilding effort (and such rebuilding often require several re-starts).
Morey's fav 5: -aaron "black bean" brooks -tracy "i feel great" mcgrady -trevor "pass me the rock" ariza -jordan "i'm confused" hill -terrence "d-league trip/doub" williams
Maybe Morey wants to avoid the lottery because he's afraid of drafting a bust. It's OK for him to blow a mid or late round pick because expectations are so low, but screwing up a top five pick would put a dent in his money ball image.
