MIRACULOUS JOB? Keeping us afloat? Just getting to the point of building something of their own? Wow. Wow. Wow. there are no words...
I think people forget that last season was the first time we knew that Yao will no longer return to the team. I wonder which transactions he are referring to?
I would say that question would get a 60/40 split in his favor right now. People are optimistic about the rookies. About Lin, even Omer. We're basically tanking, finally. I dont even think a lot of people blame him for not getting DH because of where he went. Cant compete with someone chasing money and fame. Fans will want to see what he can do now.
It is a reddit meme called "redditor's wife". It implies redditors spend too much time on reddit tithe detriment of their significant other. (Yao in this case). There was one of Barack and Michelle Obama when he did his AmA.
It is not only optimistic about the rebuild but it is also the speed. Basically after one year from having Yao's presence off the Rockets, we are already well into a promising rebuild. The speed right now is great. It happened in one offseason and we have young guys at all positions right now. Honestly, could not be smoother. But of course the jury is still out on many players.
I don't think this for 1 second. If Morey were doing what Les didn't want he would be gone. It is obvious that Morey is following the blueprint that Les laid out. I know we haven't had a great team in a long time. But that is hardly Moreys fault. Blame Yao's foot and TMac's whole body. I don't care if we fire Morey this offseason. I don't see how any other GM could have done any better at avoiding a total rebuild. I'm actually pretty upbeat about the future. We have some talent now. We may not win very much, but I will be entertained by the young guys developing.
Wrong. Plenty of people knew that Yao was finished when he went down in the playoffs. The rebuilding should have begin 36 months ago! http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=4611871#post4611871
That was more of a lucky guess...IIRC, that was the first time the fracture popped up. Up to that point, his other injuries were freak accidents. It wouldn't make sense to give up on him then, without really knowing if his fracture was caused over time or with one impactful moment. If it had been another freak accident, he was worth waiting for, given the strength of the team. Once it kept happening though, it was safe to say it wouldn't end.
2010 was the perfect year to rebuild when we knew Yao was not coming back until 2011, that in itself was a question mark. Letting go of Artest made sense, trading Tracy made sense, but somehow we didn't end up bottom of the league. Getting Ariza and Martin didn't make a lot of sense but that year had more to do with us overachieving, still having good defensive minded players and having Adelman as a coach than anything else. In 2011 Yao went down for good, everybody knew it yet we continued to hold on to guys like Martin & Scola. In 2012, tried to go for Gasol which made no sense since we were supposed to rebuild and Morey seemed to have no plan B other then signing the bear. Now with the 2013 season coming up despite the new marketing I don't see Morey nor Leslie settling for development. The little patience Leslie showed from 2001-2003 was luckily paid off with Yao or else we would've never had a great foundation. With regards to Morey, I never liked him because of his personality, demeanor and choice of words but I will say he has done a good job of setting us up for the future. Many bad contracts and players during the JVG and CD years had to be taken care of and he did. Now we can sign 2 max players next to the great rookie talent we have next year. If only the guy could convince that old b*stard to be patient, we could be on the road to glory again starting next year. I will not go over his mistakes but clearly the biggest one was not realizing we needed to start over sooner. To me this whole year (including draft and free agency prior to start of 2014 season) is make it or break it. We either will have another 5-10 years of mediocrity or we will have just 1-2 seasons where we suck and have good to great success, possibly a championship in the next 5-10 years.
LOL at people that say "lucky guess" to those who realized Yao was done after his injury in the LA series. People knew because he was a 300+ pound 7'6 giant who had injury problems. THE STRETCH WAS FOR US TO BUILD AROUND HIM CONFIDENTLY FOR ANOTHER YEAR
You are underestimating how hard it is to build a championship team. Even if there's a 90% chance YAO isn't coming back, this is a much, MUCH better probability of getting back to a championship than, for example, tanking to rebuild through the draft. The numbers have been posted before. I know some people don't want to face that reality here, but that IS the reality. Can you imagine? A 10% gamble on Yao recovering is better than Houston's odds right now of being a contender in the next three years[1]. That's the reality. [1] Actually, I think the odds right now are better than that, because I believe Lin has a 50/50 chance of being a top 15 player. But let's assume you don't believe that, as most here don't.
You wanted the team to rebuild, knowing Yao would be coming back in a season? What did you expect them to rebuild in one season? You don't rebuild because your star is out one year. By that time the Rockets weren't keeping the vets to win a ring. they were keeping them in hopes that a trade would open up that would land us a a star or two. You don't just start dumping guys with talent on day one, without first trying to let something develop that would fast forward your rebuilding. Exactly. Fans gets lose a grip on reality when teams like LA and Miami pull off what they did. That's not the norm around the league. Any one of us would have taken just one championship at the time, even if Yao retired soon after. You had to try it one more season and hope with care, he'd last enough for a good run.
Yes, everybody who seriously thought he would be his old self in 2011 having to miss a whole season, was fooling themselves. Many were positive it was a long road back and he would probably come off the bench first few months. His rehab went better then expected, but again he went down (for good). Yao was not going to be a star anymore and everybody was just praying for an Ilgauskus miracle, one of the few who was succesful after similar problems and operations. Rebuilding made a lot of sense, that way we maybe wouldn't have rushed back Yao because even though he was out for a year, the beginning of 2011 season was still probably too early. We would've had a chance at a high pick in 2010 if we had traded some players who had a high value. I am sure a lot of our players were (over)valued after that 2009 playoff series, seeing what they could do. We could've gone a lot younger and chase draft picks. As far as last year goes, I never said we were chasing a ring. What we were doing was indeed trying to get a star player in Gasol. So far you have said nothing new or contradictory to what I said. I am sure in 2011, the year prior, Martin & Scola's trade value were high and they could've traded them along with Battier & AB. It's like the Rockets were indecisive: not going for a championship and not trying to rebuild. Hence, the Dalembert signing. I never said they should dump them, but Martin & Scola should've been traded and not for Gasol. The Gasol & Nene backcourt idea would not have brought us back to championship level. We should rather have tried to trade them for draft picks / young talent, in both the 2011 deadline as last year's offseason.
It doesn't matter if people knew he was coming back or not. The fact is this will be the first full season without the possibility of Yao coming back.
LOL now I get why people are responding to you the way they do in your thread about Davis, you are clueless
Igauskas was the first to get such a surgery, so there was reason to believe Yao would actually do better. Docs had a better idea of what to expect and do, including workload and a timetable. Yao was also more skilled than Z ever was, so Yao could have still been good at his position post surgery. If you start rebuilding, then you're wasting any good years he has left, as you're not going to rebuild a contender overnight. Dally was a good signing for anyone, contender or not. Center is a position that's very important and with there's few true capable centers in this league. Any team needing a defensive big could have used him. Not a risky contract, for a good center, who could be moved easily (and was). A lot of moves were made by other teams. The gasol/nene move could have set up another potential move to acquire someone like Deron or even DH, if Orlando wanted either. Remember we almost had a deal in place for Deron. Also nearly had a deal for Tyson chandler at one point. I know people say it doesnt matter because it didnt happen, but it showed planning and possibilities. You've got big names wanting to move, you've got pieces, why not try to get them? So, they basically waited one season for Yao and then fiddled with a quick re-tooling for just over a season and a half (lockout season included). It takes time to rebuild and there's no guarantees when you have picks because they're faceless. As a fan, you've got to appreciate they at least tried it, and then quickly flipped guys when it didn't work. It's easy to use hindsight now and say they shoudn't have.
