Jordan Hill looks pretty good, Marcus Morris is more than serviceable and T-Rob could be decent in time. We have this habit of over accumulating talent and letting go of youth before allowing them to grow. I know the others had more to do with Howard than not, but my mind set is that we shouldn't trade these young players (Smith, Jones, DMo, Canaan) unless they are part of a larger plan to get a third star, my gut tells me that Morey is starting to eye that piece and will slowly but sure inch his way to acquire him. Love please.
The Spurs have old stars and a lot of veteran backups. When Duncan was 24, he played the exact same minutes Harden is playing now, 38.7
Trading Morris was part of a "larger plan" because it coincided with trading for T-Rob, who's contract was needed to clear cap room for Howard...and failing that, we'd still have T-Rob most likely. If you are looking for "larger plans," don't dissect each trade individually outside of a larger plan.
Hill and Morris are backups, and Robinson is completely out of Portland's rotation. When you are making big moves, you can't always keep all the small fry.
No where did I say that I regretted the trading of any of them, it's just a pattern, Hill and Morris are rotation players none the less. Hill would be great on this team. My point was more of the notion that Morey used them as pawns in his giant game of chess despite their "potential." I think he is planning something more than one move and it may be over a year or so as we plan for summer of 2015.
I blame the coach for using such a small rotation other teams are using a bigger rotation and still doing well. I blame the coach for giving less confidence in his players and not letting them develop
I don't know why people are complaining about some players having success after leaving Houston. First, if a guy gets into the NBA at all, he at least has some skills that gives him at least a chance at being a useful player even if he doesn't do it in his first couple of years or at a particular stop. So, when you look at guys who pass through any particular team without becoming a regular contributor, a number of them are going to do better at a future stop either because these players improve their skills or because they find a better fit. Second, given the number of transactions made by Morey during the post-Yao/TMac rebuild era, there is an unusually high # of "ex-Rockets"-- whether we are talking about guys who stayed for many seasons like Scola and Lowry or guys who were here for only a brief moment like DMarre Carroll or Jon Leuer. I think someone at ESPN or NBA.com mentioned that there are a total of 29 ex-Rockets on NBA rosters this season. Given the sample size, it's not surprising that at least several of them are going to be contributors for their team. Third, teams never have minutes for all 15 guys on the roster. If a team is actually good at selecting talent, all 15 guys should have some kind of talent and potential to be good. So there will be guys getting less minutes than they perhaps need in order to grow. It happens. What's Morey going to do? Make sure there are only 9-10 guys on the roster who can play and fill the other spots with total scrubs?
well, maybe he is doing too much as even if he plays he gets little touches. that's frustration right there. clearly he did too much just to show to mchale that he's indeed worthy of some floor time. however, it came back to bite him, when he played badly. it's sad really.
Parsons - yes TJones - yes Howard - no Harden - no Bev - no I guess we need a little time for them to play together and develop - but I think we could really use DMO as a backup center as he gets better over time. Having a contrast at starting and backup Center would be pretty good for versatility. DD
If D-Mo and his agent doesn't complain I'm sure the Rockets won't have an issue giving him more time to develop.
I'm on the fence as far as possibly losing Dmo. I want to believe in him but the majority of the time he has gotten playing time, he just looked lost. He's never really seized the opportunity consistently like Tjones. I do feel he has a good skill set but like I said in another thread he just strikes me as a project at this point. The Rox focus has shifted to more of a win now mode and playing time for project players on teams that are trying to win now is very limited. I would hate to give up on him and see him go but he has not shown enough to "demand" playing time.
