It's very difficult for an NBA team to successfully tank. It may seem easy but it isn't. You have to have a really bad record to get a good shot at one of the top picks. Which means you have to trade away just about all your players that possess any real talent, or have any desire to win. You then have to be able to pick the right players in the draft(we all know there have been plenty of busts). And then even after you draft a potential "superstar", you have to get rid of all the trash you collected in order to get that high draft choice, and start finding a quality team of supporting players. It can be a very long and difficult process. And just when you think you are about to get all the pieces in place, your "superstar" becomes a free agent and you are back to square one.
Winning is about the sum of the talents on your team. Take each player, rate them on a descending scale of how they match up against other position players on other teams, and then multiply each by the number of minutes that they play. Add up all your player's scores and there you go. It would be really easy to construct teams that fit under the salary cap, that do not have a top 20 player on the roster, and make a reasonable case they they would compete for years for an NBA title. Gathering those players in real life is the hard part. So essentially that is what Morey is attempting to do. One of Lowry and Dragic is a nice piece. Lee/(see below)is a nice piece. Parson is a nice piece and Morris is TBD. Motiejunas could be a fantastic piece. Take the drafts 14th and 16th piece and trade up for Lamb and down for Melo and in 2 years you could be competitive. Add in a very good piece or two using the $24 M of cap space available and there you go. No top 20 players unless Motiejunas lives up to all that potential. Two years from now the Rockets could be competing for a title. It is also way way quicker than tanking unless you get OKC lucky. And when was the last time that happened?
If we're holding ourselves to their standard, this franchise is done. We should be aspiring to be like the Spurs, Lakers, Celtics, Mavs, Heat, or Thunder, not patting ourselves on the back for not being quite as embarrassing as the Wizards or Bobcats. And BTW, the Wiz and Bobcats are going to be drafting very high this year, whereas we'll be stuck yet again at #14. Unless we somehow pull off a Dwight Howard miracle, we'll struggle to get the 7th or 8th seed next year while those two other teams will have another potential franchise player(and a very young one at that) to build around.
I just don't understand the pessimism. If you watched the games Motiejunas played in Europe or even watched the highlights you would realize the Rockets acquired a top 5 2012 draft pick with the 20th pick in 2011. The Euroleague competition was way above NCAA final 4 competition. Motiejunas would have totally dominated the NCAA March Madness. That being said there are no sure bets in the draft. Only hope and promise.
You have to use discretion, he could be fantastic, while he could be marginal or a bust. There are too many players who have done an exceptional job in college and Euro league, only to strike out in the NBA. In reality Motiejunas had some good games in Euro league, and some really bad ones. He does still have some weakness in his game. It's funny, because people spoke highly of Patterson and Morris. Look where they are at now, and I think we tend to overvalue our players, especially on Clutch Fans, because fans have a particular attachment to a player. Often, overvaluing the positives and not highlight the negatives.
I thought I was being temperate. Just trying to point out that we have someone coming this year that has the potential of a 2012 top 5 pick. Well not Davis of course, whose only weakness is his lack of strength, but as much potential as anyone else in this draft. And I never spoke highly of Morris or Patterson. When the picks were made I went WTF? And then when I pointed out that Morris did not really have any immediate value I would get shouted down. Every team drafting realizes that they are just one Oden moment away from coming up empty.
The Spurs may have "tanked" or may just have plain sucked without David Robinson when they picked Tim Duncan #1. That is up for debate. Let's talk about the Spurs team now. Manu Ginobili was picked #57, Tony Parker was #28, Kawhi Leonard was #15...Yet they are beating up on a team that has tooled themselves through the lottery. Kevin Durant- 2nd pick Russell Westbrook- 4th pick James Harden- 3rd pick Great talent of course, but the Spurs are beating them handedly so far! If Houston is able to put together a team for cheap that is very competitive and able to make the playoffs year after year and still have a good amount of caproom, that is EXACTLY where they want to be!! They will know that this is a team that is dedicated to winning and if the team is able to compete at that level, they will be able to do even better with that star. How many stars have complained that they were never able to get the job done because they didn't have the right players around them?? It's frustrating to be just outside the playoffs everywhere, but eventually this determination will pay off!
They have a core of all-star surrounded by great role players with a coach that knows how to maximize their output and also have great chemistry. We're missing alot of pieces.
Exactly, crummy ownership or not, Charlotte is now officially closer to being a contender than we are. Dear Les, don't you think winning the lottery tonight would have helped you sell season tickets? Don't you think adding a potential young super star would have increased the value of your most important financial asset?
I don't think that is true. IMHO the Bobcats of the Wiz could draft in the top 5 for this and the next 3 years and still not be competitive with the Rockets. In fact it is probably likely that one of two won't.
jtr is the holier than thou, all knowing mastermind, graduated from MIT, and has inside sources . Believe this man.
