Houston: No. 12 Jeremy Lamb, No. 16 Royce White, N0. 18 Terrence Jones The Rockets came away from the draft with an excellent haul of talent. Lamb is a talented shooter whose long arms and athleticism should make him a pest on the defensive end. White is the most unique talent in the draft with his combination of power forward size and point guard-like ballhandling and passing skills. Jones has prototypical power forward size to go with small forward athleticism. The Rockets are accumulating assets and trades will need to be made, but that's GM Daryl Morey's obsession. Grade: A-minus Did we really do that well on the draft? Where is our new Center?
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We got an A- based on our picks. But the vote would have been an F- if people took into account what we were trying to do with those picks.
This isn't football. You don't draft just to fill a need... you draft the Best Player Available, and the Rockets nailed it on basically all 3 (I'm not a big fan of Terrence Jones, but he was BPA at #18).
That doesn't really make sense. We tried to do more with the picks but couldn't get a deal done. The Kings wanted to hold on to their pick when Robinson was available. The asking price of other teams was too high. So as that was no longer an option, we went out and did the next best thing: get the best possible players with our picks. So how does that make A grade players into a F grade draft? Yeah, in the end we got more assets and Rockets fans are sick of collecting assets that don't turn into star players. And people believe, the higher the draft pick the higher the chance to turn him into a star player - and as true as that may be, between Drummond and Lamb were 3 picks, and I'm sure many people would consider Drummond the bigger gamble. White has top 10 talent in this years draft, Jones isn't that far behind - and this was a very deep draft. So we still didn't get that star, and that sucks... We also didn't get a true C and that sucks as well. But we got one step closer by adding 3 players that all have the potential to turn into a star. And right now, that's the only chance the Rockets have to get a star.
You have to grade it based n the picks alone...people will grade it worse because of what didn't happen, but the picks were good ones.
Good point. And this is a perfect example of why national sports journalist usually suck at covering specific team issues. They can make generalizations, but they rarely have the time or resources to see beyond them.
The picks are great for where they were drafted. The roster + those picks is an F. But to truly judge we have to wait till all possible moves are made before training camp. There is no way we go into pre season with this exact roster.
Maybe Morey has other thing on his sleeves. Because one way or another he will pursue on a legit center in the league. Well all i can say, "make it the right one"!
great teams do not pick players based on needs; they pick the best player available - Period! FA did not even start yet; Give Morey a break..Given the circumstances, Morey is doing a pretty job for what he's handed with not too much results to show for yet in wins/losses column though; He's light years ahead of Carrol Dawson and most GM's when it comes to drafting & cap flexibility with the contracts that he's signed under his helm; Fans here want to trade up so bad to get a higher pick, but dont' realize the assets you have to give up just to be in a position..and even if you pick someone 2-5 range, the chances of them not reaching expectations is pretty high; I know the fans are fustrated here last several years but some of you guys are smarter fans that that
and I dont want those trades involving our young guys. I want to keep them now. Patrick can stay but Scola might need to go. Patrick can probably be replaced by one of these guys as well as Scola. I think morey drafted well enough to move Scola and or Patterson now. We have D-mo, Jones, White, Terrence Morris already. Its time to find the best players of the bunch and keep them.
This also isn't baseball. You can't nab multiple players with a logjam at their position and stash them away in the farm. Lamb will be a nice guy to develop behind Lee, White should be everything Morris wasn't. But Morey has got to get rid of the insane amount of dead wood on the roster, even if it's for cents on the dollar. And sadly, because he's so wound up about only trading if it matches his assigned value, he's allowed the trade value of all these guys tank. If Morey's trying to sell you a runt tweener when he's got 6 of them on the roster...who wouldn't lowball? Ditto with Martin among 3 SGs. Lowry with Dragic resigning only if promised the starting spot. There's no leverage when you know he HAS to ditch these guys before October. At this point, I'm almost fully convinced Morey should simply be director of scouting or assistant GM. His vision is a complete flop and he's unable to close big deals. He's got a fantastic eye for secondary players, but if he can't land a superstar this summer, I'll have lost just about all faith in him. This roster, as it stands, is HORRIBLE. And there's no way we're in better position today to land a prominent big than we were before the draft. Casey at the bat.
The picks were good(even though I don't understand the logjam at F)..... we are just downgrading our picks because of the anticipation and what some of us thought would happen.
We have 18 players on the roster without Dragic and Camby who they are trying to resign. There will be more moves. You guys are just overreacting free agency hasn't even started yet.
The picks are good but...... we never let our rookies develop (granted, Patterson had an ankle setback). With three promising rookies, I sincerely hope they trade away some of our veterans and let our rookies prove they are good picks.
