I took the "year one" statement as him talking about this current year. Not this next summer. Meaning the Gasol trade was supposed to be their transition point, and they missed out on that one. I know he cant keep using the Gasol trade veto as an excuse from here on out, but we all know that Morey only really makes moves on two dates a year. Draft day, and Trade deadline day. This season at the trade deadline there was no reason to make any major franchise altering trades other than getting a Dwight Howard type because of the position they were currently in to make a playoff run looking to move up for home court advantage. I personally believe they should give it one more shot this offseason to try and make a big splash. Maybe not the Dwight Howard type of splash they might be insinuating, but something along the lines of what the Celtics did in the Summer of 2007 I think is the most logical option to try.
Almost every year he has a big target he tries to move down to get in the draft. His targets the past couple years were Ricky Rubio, DeMarcus Cousins, and Jonas Valanciunas. Other than Jonas who has yet to be seen in the NBA, Id say his high lottery draft targets are spot on. Its pretty obvious that Morey would love to get his hands on a top 3 pick. I think he would do just fine.
Morey should bite the bullet and just get a high-lotto pick 1 year by sucking. This would have been the year to do it too~ by now, i would think that most fans understand the team's dilemma and would be very supportive of tank one year ala spurs/duncan.
Honestly, unless Portland or Cleveland both tank some more, I don't see either team having a brighter future than the Rockets. Aldridge is a great player, but Portland isn't going to contend unless they get a star bigger than Aldridge. Irving is awesome, but can he put a team on his back to the extent of Rose? Or is he going to be more like DWill, a great PG that doesn't really take his teammates to the next level? I would have to say the latter. Heck, it's possible Lowry/Dragic may be more comparable to Irving in terms of impact. So despite all the good you feel they've done, both these teams need another #1 pick type of player to truly contend. Neither will have that opportunity unless they purposely tank hard yet again. The biggest difficulty of tanking isn't so much finding a star player, but finding TWO star players necessary to contend. Because one star gets you into mediocrity. It's two or three that put you into contending status. Neither Cleveland nor Portland set themselves up for multiple star players. Portland's not likely to get a star this draft. Superstar potential players will go top 3. And the rest look like a group that even Motiejunas may look pretty good in comparison. The same Motiejunas no Rockets fan expect to be a cornerstone for the franchise. tl;dr version: Portland and Cleveland are half-assing it in their tanking. They should've gone hardcore OKC style if they really wanted to contend. So in the end, Houston, Portland, Cleveland are all one star player away. Or they're going to be in the bottom end of the lottery or 1st round exits.
Hmmm.. new insight everyone. Yes we all know this. Morey knows this. Les knows this, but they didnt go that route. They really had no choice. The team that they were stuck with after the Gasol deal fell through was too deep and talented to win less than 22 games. You cant force the coach and players to kick the ball out of bounds to loose games dude. You can only strip away pieces that help you win. They made the decision to go ahead and sign Dalembert at the last minute because they realized they couldnt move Scola and Martin so they probably would still be around the 9th spot in the West. The fact that Morey was so hesitant to sign Dalembert most likely means that it was pressure from McHale and/or Les to help out the team this season when Morey wanted to be bad for just this one year, but it just wasnt possible.
What? They were not FORCED into anything they could have played the 09ers all year long and let the chips fall where they may. I hate these excuses being given for their choices. DD
Yes you are right all 3 teams are one star away....the problem is that a team like portland has 2 lotto picks which will probably fall between 4-10. If you are in the market to attain a superstar the quickest way to do it is with high lotto picks and the rockets never have any to speak of because of our mediocrity treadmill.
They cannot FORCE McHale to play anyone. He's got his reputation and job on the line. You can argue about the coaching decison. They could have brought in an interim staff that was on board with the process. I guess thats an option, but not one they went with. We all know that McHale isn't the greatest coach in the world anyways and a huge downgrade from Adelman. Maybe they thought McHale would be more in tune to working with the front office on things like this and it backfired. Who knows. You just cant force your coach to play Hill over Scola or Flynn over Lowry. Do you not realize what kind of issues that can cause in an organization??
This isn't the 03 draft, when the #5 pick was Dwayne Wade. This draft has one player that can be a superstar. Picks 4-10 are going to get you players with upsides of Kyle Lowry or Kevin Martin(healthy version in his prime). Picks 4-10 are players with potential on par with Motiejunas. Not all lottery picks are created equal. Especially not a 4-10 pick in a draft that features one Anthony Davis.
How is Cleveland "half-assing" it in their tanking? Since losing LeBron, they were the worst team in the league, got the #1 and #4 pick. They are third-worst this year.
Cleveland could've dumped Varajao and Jamison for some value and didn't. I wouldn't say half-assing, but if Morey had done the same, we'd get the same ridiculous posts saying that.
I dont see a problem with Morey saying they want Morris to potentially be a rotational player next year. He practically received no playing time this year. He'll be fighting for a spot coming from behind a 3 yr player in budinger, and the starter, Parsons. All he did this year was try to transition to a 3, but the talent he played against was more college level, than NBA level. So, next season will be more of a traditional rookie year for him. Potentially a rotation player is what you'd expect from a 14th pick in year one.
What are you talking about? Of course they can McHale works for the organization, they can force him to do whatever they want. If Morey says he wants to get a look at the 09ers it is McHales job to follow along. Seriously, this is bizzare. DD
That just speaks to the crap job they did putting players around Lebron. Almost the exact same cast they had around Lebron minus a healthy Anderson V. and they shoot down to the bottom. You take Yao away from the Rockets and they are still fighting for the playoffs. Morey's strengths are also his greatest weaknesses when it comes to rebuilding. He is too good at drafting late in the draft and aquiring good role players.
Look, if Morey can't manage his staff, then he is in the wrong business, he is the boss, he can absolutely FORCE the coaches to play whom he wants. DD
If McHale benched Lowry to play Flynn do you not see that as an issue??? Its one thing to do it if the player is injured or older in the later part of the season like Portland did, but at the start of the season is any coach in the league going to actually say... "no Scola.... your out tonight. Thabeet... lets see what you got." Hell no. Thats stupid. You cant force your coach to bench your better players to play the crap ones. Unless your a team like Portland that brings in the kid holding the clipboard to sit on the bench and call himself the coach while they openly tank the last half of the season. What do you think Nate McMillian would have done if Paul Allen told him he had to sit Lamarcus Aldridge for the entire season and play a D-League player instead? He'd quite or ask to be fired. Hence, what happened in Portland. Not saying Portland did or didnt do the right thing, but its just not the way the Rockets decided to go.
Not if he is following organizational orders. Come on, this happens all the damned time, where a GM tells the coach that they want to play some of the younger guys to get them to develop faster. Seriously, I can't believe we are even having this discussion. If the boss tells the coach he wants to play the young guys, the coach plays the young guys. DD
So Morey hopes Marcus Morris can "potentially be a rotational player?" What, like the 8th man playing reserve minutes, 15 minutes a night? WTF? How about being a quality starter that can play 30 minutes a night? Like Parsons is doing. That to me is the FLOOR for a lottery pick.
They took on Baron's salary to get the #1 pick. Supposedly Morey could've done the same thing by giving them Yao's insured expiring contract, but he wanted more assets since it was only projected to be a mid-lotto pick. Hopefully Morey has learned from it and will make some moves like this to get us moving forward. The Martin, Scola for Lewis + Wizards non-#1 pick idea that you suggested would be a good first step.
