Same here. Patterson's career has gone down the drain since the ankle injury. I was not impressed from what I saw the other night.
not a starter but a good back up 3 opportunity is everything and it looks like he wont get it even as a back up
He has the opportunity to beat Delfino out of the rotation. I don't expect him to be in rotation at beginning of the year, but he has a season to make it work especially since Martin will likely be traded near deadline.
That article was spot on by you and I've said the same thing many times. Many have argued with me, but I know what a limiited tweener looks like. Morris doesnt have the lateral quickness or ball handling to play 3 and he's too small to play the 4. Now you can look at a guy likee jones who can handle and have good lateral quickness is a tweener also, but he's more capable to play the 3 than morris or white.
The first thing that stands out about Jones is that he has solid-4 size (6'9" or 6'10", 250 lbs), and when combined with his assertiveness inside, it makes him exempt from most 'tweener analysis. He has some 3 skills, yes, but it's somewhat pointless to play him there when he can matchup size-wise at the 4 and exploit agility/skills advantages there. White is more interesting. He has some very unique skills which make him far less of an open-shut case like Morris looks to be. White looks like he has the muscle to guard 4s, and that, mixed with smart positioning will be key in how much he's used. Offensively, I don't think he's going to have a fixed position - as he's going to be used as a high-post/point-forward hybrid regardless, to exploit his handling and passing gifts. As long as we have shooters and the right guys around him, I think he'll be quite an asset on that end.
Interesting thing is....about 9 years ago, you could replace Morris' name with Melo's name in your post and you would have gotten a lot of support. Melo is too slow to defend 3s, has a great face-up game which gives him a mismatch at the 4, etc. etc. etc. I'm not saying Morris is going to be Melo. I was high on him coming out of school. I still think he has the potential. But he's got a PT issue right now with Parsons taking over here. What I do feel very strongly is he has been mishandled by the Rockets and as a consequence his value has gone down and now we are most likely not going to get anything for him in trade except a couple second rounders. He has no trade value. And in my opinion, that has been the result of the Rox mishandling him. Even if they don't feel like he can play, you gotta put him out there and let him fire out some big scoring games. He's a scorer. If he's gonna be successful in the NBA it will be shooting the basketball, facing up against bigger guys from the perimeter and taking them to task, and posting u against smaller players and taking them to task. We could have been running offense through him to make him look as good as possible for a trade. After all, he's not some second round pick trash. He was a lottery pick. So, if you decide you don't like him and don't want him, at least make him look good so you can move him for value. Just letting him rot away on the bench ..... is stupid, especially when you aren't competing for a championship. You play him, let him accumulate some scoring stats, then move him for a future lottery pick. But it's too late for that now. I still think Morris will have a fine career in the NBA. I seriously doubt if it happens here. I suspect he is released or traded and winds up on some poor team like Charlotte or Orlando and lights it up for them and earns himself a nice contract. I suspect he is a future 20-point scorer in the NBA. I suspect in a few years we're gonna be looking back wondering why he couldn't get it done here and we wind up not getting anything out of that lottery pick. Sorry, even when you blow it on a lottery pick, it is in the best interest of the organization to make that player look good. Even if you know it is fool's gold. Some other team will bite thinking they're gonna catch a good deal...and will give up value for him. We messed up with Morris.
I have to disagree completely here. People seem to underrate the hell out of Melo's explosiveness on CF. He has always had a devastating first step, with an incredibly advanced offensive arsenal for his age - from his handle, intermediate game and his overall skill-set. The defensive concerns about Melo as a prospect were not physical, they were a question of effort. In his one year at SYR, he started all 35 games at SF, and did it incredibly well. Morris didn't start one game in his college career at SF, and moved between the PF/C spots in his final year with his brother. Physically, Melo has about 4"-5" on Morris in his wingspan and clearly has him beat in athleticism. There was a reason many compared him to LeBron as a prospect, and that may have been largely due to his offensive arsenal (inside and out), but they wouldn't have done it if he was only "average" physically.
Is it the Rockets job to just inflate Morris' trade value or actually develop him? He's got holes in his game that the coaches wanted fixed before he got time, namely defense. He's admitted that his ego was huge last year and that he needed to come down and focus on improving. Benching him rather than placating his ego might be best thing for his long-term development. Very few teams fall for fool's gold. Did you see anyone knocking on Minnesota's door for Beasley when he was dropping 19ppg on low efficiency? The only rumored offer was a Lakers 1st. No one values a chucker that plays the wrong way. And I'm sorry, but being a lottery pick means jack squat when the lights come on. Thabeet was a #2 overall pick and I don't see many people blaming Memphis for developing Gasol, a second rounder, instead. Parsons deserves to be developed too and playing time is limited. Morris has a chance to compete as a backup this year. That sound fair to me.
It was a strain or a sprain. Minor injury and he'll be day to day. I still think Morris can play in the NBA. I like his scoring skills, but his strength and speed held him back last season. If he can get to the point that he can defend the 3, he should be fine. Big if, I know. Still a very interesting prospect.
Last year when the opportunity to break into the rotation was there, he simply didnt look ready. Now, it may be the case that he is ready, but there may be no rotation spot available. I dont think the Rockets mishandled him. For the most part he just didnt look good out there last year, and D-league allowed him to play rather than watch from the bench.
--Jones will be able to play the 3, 4, or 5 depending on Mchale's lineup, and match up situations...Tjones looks like a clone so far of maybe a blend of Larry Johnson, Kevin Garnett (When he came out of high school a little lengthy, but brutal strong, and DUNKS HARD) Josh Smith, Ibaka (But a tad more touch, and less strength, albeit, but more of a shooter Tjones is, and will be) Jermaine O'neal (BUT WAY MORE UPSIDE), Batum (our guy, that was our guy), or even a young Lamarcus Aldridge, I know I'm naming a couple lefty-s, but Josh Smith man he does remind me a bit of him so far I don't want to Kelvin Cato anyone...but Tjones looks like he can play whatever position you want him to in the front-court line up.... --So that leaves Morris open to play the 3 to back up to Parsons, which would be a smart move, maybe Morris can play 6th man type of role, and relish it... I don't know what the starting lineup will be, but if Tjones starts at the 4 with D-Mo at the 5 which I highly doubt, I'm thinkin Omar Asik will start at the 5, and Patterson like, I believe has been said will start at the 4...So that leaves the 6th man up for grabs, of course, that is if D-Mo continues to have trouble, and Tjones stepping up, or Morris stepping up...Look there was not enough room for Morris to play as a Rook, espesh since we were trying that Twill experiment which blew up kind of in the Rockets face, since that was a first round draft pick, and all...but that is another "Magic" story which after watching, and seeing these guys I'm glad we are building through the draft, maybe one, or two, or three will turn out pretty pretttty pretttttyyyy GOOD! Lamb looks like he will ball, Morris is not a bust there just was no room to play a rookie on a team that could have, and should have made the playoffs, too bad Camby, but thank you Camby, you showed Dragic weaknesses...Lin will pay off...the question will lie in Tjones, Morris, Lamb, and White....I callled Tjones since the get go, but we got a lot of young guys, and still Martin taking up (possibly a lot of minutes in a contract year, I don't expect him pouting, nor doing the things last yr. that put him in the dog house "injuries" cough), it is his contract year, and Martin now feels comfortable as the Vet. now that Lee is gone, I regress, but if Martin is not traded, he will hurt the progress of some rookies depending of course if Martin plays like "ballers haha" do in a contract year, I think he'll be dumped, and Morris, or Lamb will take over the 2 position...Starting Line up for Game 1 of season C-Asik PF-Patterson SF-Parsons SG-Martin PG-Lin 6th man-D-Mo you'd think, but is he instant points...that is what a sixth man is supposed to do...So to me the 6th man should be a fight between-Tjones/Morris/Lamb, not in that order, but let um fight it out test the waters the first several games, but see if one of these guys gets a rhythm as the sixth man, and then let D-Mo come in with the 6th man for Asik, or let Asik play 9 min. of the first...I think Morris, Jones, and Lamb give you the best "6th man capabilities", but then again Tyson Chandler was a 6th man right? I forget so I could be wrong...sorry for the long read, and a little off topic here, and there, but Morris def. isn't a bust, I'm glad we didn't give him up for something stupid, but gotta give Morey credit, everyone bashed him, but he didn't give up Morris bc he thought he saw "BUST"-he held on to him, let Lee go, and we KNOW Kmart isn't in our long term plans, so that leaves Morris to live up to his ability, which should be at the 3, but if he can play the 4, let him! We will see though what happens, this year will be interesting to say the least, it won't be boring ball, I see a lot of "Lob City" coming to the one, the only "CLUTCH CITY"- END OF RANT SORRY....
Being a lottery does not mean jack. I never said it did. What I said is you have to make your lottery picks look good until you can decide whether you want to keep them or trade them. Yeah, playing time has to be earned. Of course I believe that. But I also believe that you make certain guys look good because it is in the best interest of the organization to do so. If you recall last season.............we started the year with Martin and Bud manning the wing spots. That was a total disaster because not one but both of those guys are among the ten worst wing defenders in the NBA. And McHale was running them out there side by side. It was painfully obvious. Then he started inserting Parsons in the rotation for defensive purposes and finally Parsons became the starter. But neither Martin nor Bud were lighting it up even then. And finally Martin goes down with injury...McHale still has Bud playing at the 3 spelling Parsons and he's going with all those small ball lineups with Lee playing the 2/3 and Dragic playing the 2 until Lowry got hurt. At no time did McHale stick Morris out there at the 3, give him consistent minutes, and play Parsons or Lee at the 2. In hindsight............the wing minutes last season should have been split with Morris, Parsons, Lee, and Bud...with Bud the one getting bumped. Bud really didn't have a good season. He never became adequate defensively and his shooting didn't pick up until the last quarter of the season. He didn't earn the rotation minutes he got. He was played because of necessity.....and because McHale did not want to play Morris. There's no way that Morris would have been worse defensively than Bud was. I'm still convinced Morris is a player. I am much less convinced he's gonna be a player here. I suspect we trade him out...for peanuts...and he becomes a player somewhere else. I suspect we'll look back on Morris in a couple years and realize that there was a strained coach/player relationship that caused him to be underdeveloped here.
Not last year man, look we are now in the present, and look at the past as sort of a "waste" because nothing happened...but look we lost what 6 games in a row because Camby finally couldn't play with one arm any more, we brought him back, but it was too late, and he was a little too banged up, and getting more banged up, so we had our chance, we held a seed pretty much until we fell out of it losing that 6 game stretch after the great "OKC comeback" So..getting back to your point last year we had a chance to make the playoffs we weren't playing too young, we were playing guys that we knew had "PLAYED", we missed out, and are on totally different terms. So ya we can look back, and say well we could have had Morris doing this, or that, posting up, getting in a rhythm, but that wasn't getting us to where we ended up, yes the 14th pick, i know, but the 14th pick ended up in-what we have now...Morris def. is still not the answer, but like I said above, Morey didn't see him as a bust , but a project, and last year was not that time. This year is. We can't look back...Morris hopefully learned a lot last year espesh watching Parsons, I hope he learned to understand the NBA, and that you "earn your minutes." Like I said though, yes we could have, but we almost made the playoffs, unfortunately we did not, but then again, maybe we don't end up with all these players now to surround a young Morris, who will learn, and teach these guys lessons, and vice versa lets all hope! I didn't see a lot of promise in Morris when he played, but he never got enough time to assert himself in the offense that wasn't giving him plays....This year will be different....BECAUSE IT DOES NOT MATTER if we make the playoffs to LES this year, he got his stud Lin- Speaking of what a new house he bought Les Alexander that is, or not a house, but "Flat"/"Penthouse" in Manhattan!!! Morey has basically come out, and said there is going to be lots of minutes for these young guys to prove themselves...Morris will show his true beastly nature I sure hope!-Just in case though we got some other guys!! I BELIEVE hahaha in Morris not being a bust, I hope y'all are right, and he is that beastly
I am not sure what point your making here, but bust or not, there are players ahead of him THIS YEAR (Jones, Dmo, Delfino) that he will have to beat out in order to have regular minutes.
Well we weren't exactly hoping for Bud's trade value to drop, so we thought he was in a funk, I think he'll play well, and we got a solid deal from Minny where he knows that system! haha!...But Bud deserved to keep on playing through his funk, he had played a great rookie season!-Morris wasn't showing anything, and didn't even want to go down to the Vipers, he got all upset about that, if I remember correctly in a chron.com article, but aside, we were hoping Bud was the "Great White Hope", and he'd be the Novak shooter, but with slashing abilities, he ended up having his "Soph. Slump", I think he'll be fine in Minny, and we got a fair deal. We finally got rid of Bud so that opens up the flood gates this year for Morris, or whoever, last year was last year, like I said above, we almost made the playoffs, and should have prob. had a 6 or 7th seed not even the 8th, alas, we failed...I think we played the cards right, we might not have ended up with who we have now, Morris isn't the answer by himself, and Lin, isn't either, building around Lin though will fit Morris (think of Shumpart Spelling??), or any of those guys in NY who fit the mold that Morris CAN bring to the table. Morris could be that Fields type of player which, I think Lin got to play with, but anyways. This year is a new YEAR, and brings out tons of opportunities for Morris, and all the other guys to show!-We aren't worried about the playoffs, if we make them (I'm sure that is the goal in the "clubhouse"), but I think Les, and Morey know this is time to let the guys fly....and McHale is on BOARD....let's HOPE right! I don't know why McHale was hated by so many players, maybe it was just Martin, and a couple others' attitude, let's hope it's fixed, and these young guys, Morris, and the rookies should understand that coach is the coach. I think these guys are going to be fighting tooth and nail for playing time. If Morris doesn't pan out, maybe him, and Martin get shipped out, who knows, but Morris is no BUST, he will be better than TWILL
