You can double emphasize that Morey drafted tons of PFs. He signed PF projects. Not counting in Scola. The only guys are Landry and Patterson that were decent. Problem we never kept them, trading them for other players but the PF remained a weak spot for draft entrants.
We never sucked or sucked enough to be in the Top 5 drafts that is where a lot of elite young PFs went in recent years.
D-Mo shoots 29% from beyond the arc. He seems never the brick a three point shot. Most go in and then come back out. Very few if any air balls or long rebounds on D-Mo three point shots. He needs 6 out of a hundred of those close shots to go in. If they do then D-Mo will become that rare stretch power forward. It is also interesting that instead of dumping D-Mo/Jones and Smith, Morey gave away Thomas Robinson this off season to clear up cap to sign Howard. Robinson was the forth pick in last years draft.
You are fright on both points. The Rockets would have had to dump Jones and D-Mo to free up enough salary. Thanks.
Ok. Lets emphasize PF's than (not just draft picks, but also trades) -2007- Carl Landry (draft trade) -Solid NBA player - starter quality -2010 - Patrick Patterson -Solid NBA rotation player - borderline starter -2010- Jordan Hill (trade) - specialist but definitely an NBA rotation player -2011- Marcus Morris - specialist but def. an NBA rotation player -2011- Motiejunas - yet to be seen -2012- Jones - yet to be seen -2012- Royce White - Out of the league -2012- Thomas Robinson- yet to be seen So since Morey has been the GM, he's really drafted 6 PF's out of 15 picks. However its important to note that none of these picks were high lottery picks, and Royce White is the only PF he's drafted that hasn't turned out to be valuable to the team in some way shape or form. Look, here are some of the things that these PF's have turned into- -Landry- traded for Kevin Martin -Hill- traded for 1st round pick from Dallas that became a piece in the Harden trade -Patterson- Traded for Thomas Robinson who was then moved for Euro prospects and cap space to sign Dwight. Now I know its frustrating that none of these guys have been kept and developed into a clear star player, but also keep in mind that the horse trading scenario that came from drafting so many PF's and trading them was a reason why Morey was able to A. trade for Harden, and B. sign Dwight because of moves. Maybe the lesson to learn here is that if you have a roster soon to be in flux, PF's with upside hold their value, rarely bomb out of the league completely, and can be moved if needed. I think Morey's track record here shows that pretty well even though you aren't generally going to find star players at this position and where you would be taking them in the draft. In the end, it looks like Morey did the right thing by taking the players he took.
According to you he did the right things. BTW you forgot the likes of Jeff Adrien, Greg Smith that came undrafted Let's look at the Top talents in recent years He didn't get Chris Bosh - although not his fault.... Riley came up with the master plan Jordan Hill - Top 10 talent but did not live up to his draft position Morris - tweener - does not know his position, spot up 3 point shooter only Royce White - called Top 5 talent in this league Dmo/TJones - about to get less playing time #Patterson and Landry about the only guys who were blossoming but by that time we traded them. While Thomas Robinson did probably help us snatch Dwight, he was also a Top 5 draft pick. One of the weaker top 5 draft picks if you consider Kevin Love and DM Cousins were drafted at that spot, much better offensive players. I would say he did alright, did not have the luck to draft a guy like Boozer late in the draft. Never had the chance to get his hands on a Top 5-10 PF. You could argue about Scola but by the time we moved on from the Yao era, Scola was already declining. Alexander never allowed him to be real bad and get top draft picks. However, I have to say he also did not go strictly after 'NBA ready PFs' that could come in and play straight away.
Just would like to see his D and 3 point shooting improve this year. I think he will be great with Jlin and the 2nd unit. Jlin, Garcia, Casspi, Dmo, and Greg (D Jones) will give our starting unit fits in practice.
It's not about getting star players. In all these years he could not find one young guy who was a solid starter and high quality guy. IMHO, I think he does not care that much about the PF position in comparison to C, PG, SF/SG. Landry was a best sixth man and an occasional starter. Patterson is a starter on a bad team, but on a contender? They weren't solid starters when they were on this team anyway. We shall see about Dmo/TJones.
We were talking about younger players in recent years. Scola joined when he was 27-28 during the Yao and Tmac era.
You can debate whether someone like Morris is a NBA rotational specialist or a lottery bust who now is a specialist who can shoot threes, but its a moot point(chicken/egg)... he's an NBA player. Out of 6 drafted PF's(out of the top 10), to have 5 of those in the NBA after 4 years is an accomplishment either way if you take an objective look at the success ratio of teams drafting player that are even still in the league much less quality players. -However, my point is, maybe there was something to him taking the players he took at that time other than best player available, and while some people look at it as a flaw (so many PF's so much turnover), might have actually been a strength for a team that was TRYING to make moves, and needed young players that could be moved easily. If Jordan Hill would have been the SG/PG equivalent of himself as a C/PF, would they have been able to get that kind of value for him in trade???... its debatable but a valid argument IMO. I think there might be something to the players that he took at the time he took them. -Shifting back to D-Mo & Jones- With D-Mo & Jones, I disagree with anyone who thinks the lineup today is what is set in stone for the year, and that its inevitable that they will not contribute this year. Alot can change in a short time in the NBA, and just because McHale is going Superbig/Small instead of right sized doesn't mean that they wont find their way into the rotation at some point this year, and it doesn't mean that they had a bad Summer & preseason. I've actually liked the development I've seen up until this point. The only reason why they aren't in the CURRENT rotation is because of positive surprises elsewhere (super big lineup working & what looks like a gift from above in Casspi who could come back down to earth quickly at any point). Whether they get playing time or not actually depends more on external factors than anything else. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm totally fine with the criticism, but wish it would be given with an objective outlook instead of being so subjective. There is too much Sh$#ing on players just because they like X player they feel like they need to take a dump on player Y because he stands in the way of their guy.
Good post. I agree with most of what you say here. 1. We were that team last year before we traded for Harden. That changed the dynamic. Before Harden it was questionable at best whether we were a playoff team. Odds are without a Harden trade we would have been out of the playoff picture by the All-Star break and we would have been looking for trades of Patterson and probably Morris so we could run DMo (and TJones) out there every night and let him learn on the job. But that possibility changed with the acquisition of Harden. From then on it was full bore for the playoffs. Now....in that environment...DMo languished. He did get his shot. I was advocating starting him early and often alongside Asik. I felt like we knew what we had in Patterson and although a good player, Patterson was on a contract that was fixing to go down in value if he stayed on this team and went into his contract season (this year). I knew we had to move Patterson to keep our assets fresh and our cap space clearable. So, I was hoping we'd run DMo out there early and often and I was hoping he'd shoot the corner 3 well enough and defend well enough to grab the 4 spot alongside Asik. But that didn't happen. He couldn't shoot well enough or defend well enough to earn a spot in the rotation much less the starting PF spot. Then he got another opportunity after the trade deadline. Still didn't happen for him. Despite being handed the starting PF spot...he didn't contribute in a meaningful winning way. You can look at stats, etc. You can point to potential, etc. I understand that. But last year we were making a run to the playoffs. We didn't have the leeway to let DMo go out there and trash up the D and miss a bunch of shots like a lottery team would be able to do. And DMo wasn't good enough to earn his minutes. Fast forward to this year, DMo had all offseason to work on what he needed to work on to get into the rotation. He knew Dwight was coming the first week of July. The Rockets communicated to him what he needed to work on. And here we are now, primed to compete for home court advantage throughout the playoffs after having gone through training camp...and DMo is at the end of the rotation. We've all seen what he's done on the court. He still can't shoot the 3 and he still can't defend the paint. That's the worst combination when he's trying to earn minutes from Asik and 3-point shooters like Casspi, etc. So the question becomes what do you do with him at this point THAT BEST BENEFITS THE TEAM??? Team comes first. Then DMo's development. How can DMo best be used to benefit the team? Some of you say DMo's just a backup center. We ought to keep him and make a backup center out of him and trade Asik. I think that's illogical. DMo has shown zero propensity to be a neutral paint defender, much less be a positive paint defender. And this is a team that needs DEFENSE in the paint when our big man goes to the bench. Because of our style of play, going small and playing uptempo, our backup 5 has to be a guy that can defend the paint and the rim. Making DMo a backup center makes zero sense to me, on this team, with the other power forwards we have and with Asik here. Asik is the backup center. He's going to get the 5 minutes when Dwight goes to the bench. DMo was ineffective playing alongside Asik last season because the strength of DMo's offensive game is in the post and the weakness of his offensive game was on the perimeter. Nothing has changed. He's still the same guy as last year...only a little bit more. A little more post moves. A little more range on the hook shots. More experience and creativity around the rim offensively. But the same porous defender and the same piss poor 3-point shooter. Making him the backup 5 on this team would make this team essentially the same team as last year...the starting unit walking away from people and the backup unit giving back the lead and then some. Some of you say DMo is a star/superstar waiting to happen. Frankly, I can see this happening much easier than I can see DMo becoming a career backup center. He does have a lot of potential and the base of an outstanding post up skill set. That lone will likely lead him to becoming a star in this league. Because the NBA is about scoring points, lots of them. However there is a difference between becoming a star and becoming a winner. There's lots of stars in the NBA. But they can't win .... Know why? Because they won't play winning basketball. They won't grind it out on D and they won't maximize their offensive efficiency. But they will put up a lot of shots, use up a lot of possessions and pound the stat sheet. The empty stat sheet. Sadly, that's what I think DMo is going to become. Unless he learns how to defend the paint or unless he turns himself into a stretch 4 that can use his incredible size to have mismatch heaven on his defenders at the 4. .....while having a stud power player next to him that does all the dirty work defensively. Sadly, we don't have the minutes to give DMo for him to even become that. The only way he realistically will get over 10 minutes a game here is if one of our other guys goes down with an injury. And hoping one of our guys goes down with an injury so we can develop DMo is foolish when we are pushing for home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Timing. A lot of what is happening with DMo has to do with timing. The timing of his career and the timing of this Rockets organization. They're not on the same path.
TLDR - DMo will develop and be fine, you don't give up on tall, quick, athletic players even if you are in win now mode. Thank God Morey knows this. DD
If we trade DMo it will have nothing to do with giving up on him. It will have to do with what we can get in return to help us win now.
To piggy back on DD's commment- You dont give up talented 2nd year players for nothing when- A. They are talented 7 footers (dont come around very often and hold trade value) B. They have team options on low paying rookie scale contracts C. They are the 8 - 10th person in the rotation & can develop further without hurting the team D. There is nothing better out there for you to get currently at the moment. E. You dont need the cap space F. You dont need low level draft picks D. being most important here. There is literally NO POINT in getting rid of D-Mo right now. If you can name one player available in free agency that can be picked up that can potentially help the Rockets more over the next 3 to 5 years than I'm all ears. If that's the way we are thinking than there is no point of the Rockets holding onto Canaan, Covington, or even drafting next year either. In July, lets just give away that pick too because that player wont be able to beat out Asik for the starting PF job and shoot 3's right away. Oladipo is currently playing behind Jameer Nelson....uhh ohh... maybe the Magic should move him.
We are championship contenders NOW as assembled, and Dmo is not going to bring back that piece, now Asik might and TJones might be tossed in with a pick...that might happen. DD
This is Morey's M.O. Get rid of players the minute they show that they aren't going to get much better than what they are, and find the next high potential project. This strategy is sound. It corrects any roster mistake quickly before letting the assets drop too much value. The down side is that some prospects may be able to develop if only you give them more time.
Maybe, maybe not... Depending on whether some GM would see the D-Mo potential. Look at last year, Orlando traded Dwight freaking Howard for Nic Vucevic, basically. Everyone, including me thought they were crazy. I mean, they initially wanted Bynum AND Gasol, and ended up even without Bynum. you have to give it to their FO, they saw something for the future and turned out to be the right move. A deal of D-Mo + Beverley for Greg Monroe would make Detroit a better team down the road and help us win now. Or you could use D-Mo alongside Asik to bring in a top-shelf PF, like Al Horford.
