Luhnow = Morey... Very similar in the early going. It will be easier for Luhnow to acquire a star when the time comes.
I wouldn't want CD back, he had a decent back court with Francis/Mobley and failed to put even a marginally talented player around them until he drafted Yao.
It's mind blowing that some of you really believe this. No wonder you want Morey gone if you think superstars are thinking to themselves... "I'd really love to go to Houston and play for a borderline lottery team which had both of it's stars go down to career ending injuries, if only CD was the GM instead of Morey..." If you want a different GM to take over that's at least debateable. If you would rather have CD, then you really weren't paying very close attention during the CD era.
Francis and TMac wanted to come here. If Howard wanted to come to Houston, he'd already be a Rocket. I think he would have taken Yao. It was an obvious pick, IMO.
Players WANTED to be here under CD, the want nothing to do with Houston under Morey, part of it comes down to how each of them run the team. A lot of people dont want to play for a Morey run team
Agree 100% with you here. The players dont care who the GM is. You think Deron Williams stayed with the Nets because of Billy King? if the Rockets had a star, players would come here. Since there is no star, the players are staying away. Its that simple.
I don't think Morey is the reason superstars aren't interested in Houston. Guys want to play with other stars and play in certain markets. McGrady wanted out and like Houston in large part thanks to Yao Ming. Francis had no interest in playing in Canada.
A lot more than this current team of floppers and softies. Those teams left it out on the floor every night and fought hard despite sucking.
It seems like a lot of guys leaving the rockets are very happy to do so and have negative things to say about the way Morey treats them as players. Not a lot of people want to be simply an "asset"
No players WANTED to play with Hakeem in his prime, especially after he won a championship, and Yao before he had health problems and was still argueably the best center in the league. Most stars who want to leave their current teams, do so because they don't feel they have a shot at a championship where they are. Most of these teams are regular 1st and 2nd round playoff losers like Orlando. So why would they want to leave a playoff team that they feel can't win it all to come to a borderline lottery team that will have to give up most (all?) of it's best pieces to aquire them via trade? That is the up hill battle ANY GM of the Rockets will be facing until Les decides to OK rebuilding via "tanking". And I think you are overlooking that lots of players from every team in the league make similar comments after contract negotiations break down or they are traded.
Most of the "assets" are players who've been anything but in other places. Players don't like being the constant subject of trade rumors. They really don't like being traded then having to stay with the team that didn't want them. Sucks for them, but it is what it is. Everybody knows they are assets. ESPN calls them assets. Other GMs call their players assets.
Let's revise history, for those who can only see the bad now, and can't remember the bad of the past. Context CD wasn't responsible for putting the Rockets 1st championship team together, and I'm sure Drexler, Barkley joined the Rockets to play with Olajuwon, not rookie GM Dawson (duh!). The next few years we were essentially getting by with what we had + what we could get for 'title chasers' leveraging Olajuwon (& then Drexler). --------------- From the last year of Olajuwon in Houston onwards (with CD), the Rockets' records were (Western Conference): 2000-01: 9 2001-02: 11 2002-03: 9 2003-04: 7 2004-05: 5 2005-06: 12 Improvements only came by lucking out on Yao Ming - a 1st round 1st pick in the 2002 draft when we finished 11th in the Western Conference. Otherwise, I'd love to see CD work his magic with the likes of Mike Dunleavy Junior, Nikoloz Tskitisivil, Dajuan Wagner, Nene, Chris Wilcox, Amare, Caron Butler, Jared Jefferies, Melvin Ely, Marcus Haislip and Fredrick Jones in the lottery. Maybe he could've drafted Amare or Nene, but definitely Yao was gifted to him. Morey's record since joining (Western Conference): 2006-07: 5 2007-08: 5 2008-09: 5 * 2nd round 2009-10: 9 2010-11: 9 2011-12: 9 From this, we can deduce a few things: * The Rockets era under CD began with Olajuwon in his prime, team built by the previous GM, and players like Drexler/Barkley came to play with Olajuwon, not for CD * The Rockets era from the last year of Olajuwon to CD's stepdown was at best MEDIOCRE, worse than Morey's record so far. * Morey-haters say Morey should've gotten more out of T-Mac/Yao, regardless on injuries. The best pick CD netted for Olajuwon was 15th, used on Nachbar (never played more than 22min per game, never averaged more than 10ppg, lasted 8 years in the NBA and averaged only 40 games per year due to injuries - Rocket River said he was a GOOD CD pick ... maybe relative! ). And people believe we should've never trade Olajuwon. * Despite bringing in Steve Francis, Rockets didn't make the playoffs until Yao Ming's second year, and Yao Ming was gifted in the draft * If people want to call Les "Le$", then correctly drafting Yao Ming was probably not due to CD. * CD put a horrible supporting cast around Yao/T-Mac, and the best he could do with a healthy Yao and T-Mac was 5th in the Western Conference, and 1st round outs. * Morey took the Yao/T-Mac combo to 5th in the Western Conference for 3 consecutive years, despite Yao/T-Mac starting to miss chunks of seasons due to injury, and got them to the 7th game of the second round against the Lakers without T-Mac and half a series of Yao + a 22 game win streak thrown in. * CD also did not tank in his time at Houston, he just wasn't good enough to get the team into the playoffs (without being gifted Yao). * Morey's worst years have been much better than CD's worst years, and his better years also better. * Yao still averaged 20/10 @ 55% FG in 2008/09, on 77 games in the regular season. You don't trade a guy like that because you perceive injury risk potential down the line. He just got injured at the wrong time (playoffs) that year. Is that enough? The reality is, if Morey wasn't a stats guy but a traditional GM that chose the 5-tools pass the eye test players with potential upside and gave out big fat contracts and had a worse record, some of you may find him a better GM.
^ I like the above post, but, for me, Dawson loses this contest for a few simple reasons: Kelvin Cato, Moochie Norris, Glen Rice and Mo Taylor. Not only has Morey not given out terrible contracts that have hamstrung the team for years to come (though, this FA period may be the exception), he has been much better in the draft so far as well.
BTW, for those still knocking the Rudy Gay for Battier trade (I for one think that is 100% Morey, because CD just not smart enough for it) ... Look at the record in 2005-06 vs 2006-07. 12th to 5th, and the only meaningful roster change was SHANE BATTIER. Also, here's the 2005-06 final roster under CD. No nightmares ok? Rafer Alston, Derek Anderson, Jon Barry, Lonny Baxter, Keith Bogans, Ryan Bowen, Rick Brunson, Josh Davis, Richie Frahm, Stephen Graham, CHuck Hayes, Luther Head, Juwan Howard, Maciej Lampe, John Lucas, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Moochie Morris, Stromile Swift, David Wesley. It was also a revolving door with total 21 players having played or was on the roster/had a contract.
