Its aggravating that Ric kept criticizing the Rockets for the Royce's pick while the Wolves had so many bust with their lottery picks, Wes Johnson, Flynn and now Derrick Williams. Royce is a good talent but its his mental illness that's really preventing him from seeing the court because of his actions. You can't blame the GM for the dumb selfish actions of a player. Plus, Royce was drafted with the 16th pick and base on the past, its rare that the 16th pick would turn out any good. Royce has potential and the Rockets took a chance on him. Its not like he's playing but he sucks so bad like Flynn and ends up out of the league. Royce isn't on the floor because of his own selfish actions and Morey can't control that. A player that decided to go AWOL because he's not in the rotation isn't the GM's fault. He can't force Royce to work hard and work himself into the rotation. Morey's job is really to find great talents in the drafts and work out deals to make Houston better. So far, Morey has been doing a much better job than Khan is.
Sure is funny how this "article" was posted after the Rockets beat them in their house Watching Harden go to town on his boys probably caused this alcohol induced rant Prolly made him feel better afterwards
Well he's right about Royce White. If Kahn had taken White, the media (Bill Simmons in particular) would be killing him on a daily basis. Sounds to me like the Bill Simmons/Morey friendship gets under Bucher's skin and now we know where his anti-Rockets bias stems from. Grow up Bucher.
THIS. Asik and Harden going down means more minutes and touches for Smith and Lin. Rockets are deep, down to the point of having redundant skillsets.
Harden has a decent midrange game. He just chooses to blow by people and try to draw fouls, much like he chooses not to pass to open perimeter players at times (like last night when he was hot in the 4th). Hopefully the latter will change as he trusts his teammates more.
The last time I saw Bucher on tv, he was almost as orange as Hulk Hogan. I think all that time in the tanning salon must have cooked his brains in addition to his hide. When I think of Morey, the main thing that jumps out to me is that he inherited a team that would fall through the floor if T-Mac or Yao so much as stubbed their toes, and he upgraded the supporting cast so much that they became too good to tank for really juicy picks. I don't agree with everything he does or says, but he's a fantastic GM.
Yes, and 88% lifetime FT shooter. He shot 49% from the field, 48% 3-pointers, and 95% FT's in his final year when he was 36 and still playing significant minutes. And he was a pesky defender too, didn't just get his steals from gambling. Sure, he had a bit of trouble guarding MJ 1 on 1, but he fared no worse than guys like Majerle and even Payton in that role.
In my opinion, Morey giving out poison pill contracts and being more into statistical analysis than most teams seems to irk some of the media. Coincidentally, it is the reason I like Morey. He does tons of work to minimize his chance for misses. I hate Royce White and his situation but at least Morey swung for it. I don't think there is any room for debate when you consider the rockets perpetual 14th pick and the Wolves getting high picks. Two different approaches got the Wolves and Rockets to where they are, and Morey's approach was not to tank, to accrue talent, maximize potential, and then cash in. He desperately wanted to trade for a top 3 pick, but he wasn't going to tank and give Houston a subpar team to do it. I appreciate that. Kahn will look even worse when Love walks outta Minny in 2 years. Bleacher Report ranked the Gm's before the harden trade and had Morey at 11 and Kahn at 25. I can't help but think he would have moved up a couple spots after he landed Harden.
That's exactly my point. How much more devastating would Shaq be if he had hit his Free Throws? Probably a few more rings. Harden is amazing. But his quickness and speed will fade away with age so he's doing to need to diversify his game to be a 10 year superstar. I'm not knocking his game, I'm just saying what's going to benefit him in the long run. Lebron James was similar in shot selection his first few years in the league. No one would critique his game. But when he came to Miami and made to develop a more diversified game - he became even more devastating. Harden is the most efficient scorer I have ever seen in Basketball ever. But he's also 23 years old and has a lot of room to grow. It's scary.
In terms of efficient scoring, Harden reminds me alot of Andrew Toney before Toney went down with undiagnosed stress fractures (before technology could detect them well). Look up Toney's stats. Incredibly efficient shooter, could score from anywhere. Harden has a better 3-point shot than Toney and is stronger, but Toney had a much better post game (incredible post game for his size) and was just as good as drawing fouls and hitting clutch shots. Both could dribble and pass and turned the ball over quite a bit. Harden can rebound better. Toney also happens to be one of my favoriate players ever.
Jesus dude just give it up. You're harping on morey for not finding an all star at 14? I don't see anyone getting pissed for taking a critical eye, only that the comparison you're trying to make is asinine. It's no ones fault but your own if your expectations on our mid-round draft picks are moronically high. And I'll just ignore that harden comment and chalk it up to you being frustrated that you were so incredibly wrong on your expert assessment a couple of months ago.
Great analysis from Bucher that echo's what I've always been saying. Alot of "fan approval" is about relating - and you can see that on this board with average players like Lin. Because morey is a geek who's never played the game, sits in front of computers all day, is always accessible to the media and makes a plethora of lateral moves (scrub in , scrub out), the average fan overrates and applauds his most ordinary moves (and damn, did he make a lot of those laterally useless moves). I spat out my mango shake when I saw he went on his knees to superstar Bosh with a $300 ipad in his hands as the clock struck midnight. I mean.. if you can't see how clueless that is, then clueless is you. Meanwhile, Riley had his legs up on his desk, cigar in his hand, and laid the framework, albeit illegally, to create a dynasty. That's how a boss does it. This team was headed for it's 4th straight 9th seed (the absolute worst spot in the league for a team to finish) before Harden fell into their laps. But hey, it's like any job. There's a learning process involved and now that Harden is locked in as a Rocket, I think Morey is a good guy to surround him with talent. Not because he can find the jewel in the rough or lure superstars, but because he isn't incompetent enough to **** it up with bad, overpaid contracts like a Billy King-esque GM. But pretending there's a huge diff between an outspoken guy like Kahn and a guy next door like Morey is all emotion, not reality.
Morey has made some great trades and you won't find any disagreement from me on any of the trades he made. I thought we gave up too much for Harden and admit that I was wrong about the trade. I did not realize Harden had the passing and leadership qualities he has displayed. I give him an A for trades, and a B+ in draft picks. B+ because Batum - regardless of whether we were picking for someone else or not - clearly was a talent we didn't recognize so. Still too early to judge the 2012 draft, but Royce White was a bad pick. And PP was not a great one either - he put up good numbers his rookie years but I think he's hitting his ceiling vs. any kind of sophomore slump. So for those three reasons he's not an 'A'. And if you aren't an A, i find it hard to argue that he's been "incredibly" successful. He's be good but honestly, he's made mistakes and as I have said many times, not above criticism.
Dude, I never harped on him for "not picking an all-star" just saying he isn't some wizard either. Geez.
No he wouldn't. Bill Simmons loved Royce White. You have to take risks at the 16th pick. You can find role players anywhere. Morey does that in the 2nd round. He finds better role players than most teams in the first round. I'm actually really disappointed in Bucher. If a talking head like Stephen A. or Skip says something I don't care. They're paid to just have opinions. But when you're a freaking NBA analyst for ESPN, a job so many people would kill to get you should have some idea what you're talking about. That part annoys me.
