Zach Lowe: "Loser: Houston Rockets"

Come on man, no he wasn't.

The trade wasn't catastrophic because you gave up a late first round pick. Lots of teams sell those for peanuts and the Rockets will probably be right back in the same spot next year where they don't want that pick to have a contract.

But let's be honest. Jeremy Lin would have been getting his minutes still on this team. The idea that he was just some dime a dozen scrub is just wrong.

 

Who cares about the expiring contract aspect of it?? We didn't take any money back in the deal, therefore we freed the money up anyways. If anything, it allowed us to free up the money EARLIER than normal. The pick aspect of it hurts a little bit, but it's a protected pick, and if anything, it allows us to push Canaan's development farther along.

 

"Houston will still be a strong playoff team, but it’s worse (for now) than it was last season, and that counts as a crusher. One last word on Bosh: He was intrigued by Houston, but he’s 30, he’s super-smart, and he just spent four years playing with two like-minded stars on an older roster for an organization that takes basketball craft seriously. The Rockets do, too, but there is an undercurrent around the league that Harden and Howard don’t represent the most appealing duo of teammates for any star who has lived within ultraserious professionalism.

Howard was great last year, but the jokiness and free-agent dithering hurt his image. The viral videos of Harden’s defense damaged his reputation. It wouldn’t shock me if Bosh at least considered some of that in his decision."

Ouch...!!!!

 

Bob Meyers made the GSW better this offseason. Morey retained Mchale and resigned Joey Dorsey



Daryl Morey<

 

I don't believe this crap. Bosh and Melo took the extra money to stay, plain and simple

 

yeah...a D-Leaguer who shot 35.6% last season was gonna take Lin's minutes.

 

As I see it, the only real fubar by Morey was making Parsons a RFA. You do something like that ONLY if you're willing to match whatever offer he is going to get. Telling CP25 to go out and get the best offer he can and that you'll match it only to not do so while it may have been the fiscally responsible thing to do, it was certainly somewhat cheezy on Morey's part.

Anyway, I can give him a pass on not matching a clearly over inflated offer by a desperate Mark Cuban. As for Bosh, I think Morey got played by Bosh & Co. who used his offer to get that max money from the Heat. The article references this:

But Bosh never made a hard commitment, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. There was no guarantee of signing him when Houston made what is now a catastrophic trade with the Lakers, forking over Jeremy Lin and a first-round pick to clear space for Bosh.

I never got the impression that Bosh was ever interested in leaving South Beach because there never was any evidence that he would do something of the sort. There was merely the widespread supposition (which Morey bought into) that if LeBron left then so would Bosh. Like everyone else, Morey misread the events of 2010 when it was Wade colluding with James & Bosh to form the Heat's "big three". Riley and Aronson didn't have to sell them on the idea and that's why Morey failed this time and will continue to fail in 2015 & 2016. The only way Bosh would have come here was if Howard & Harden had closed the deal. I honestly think there some validity to this part of the article:

One last word on Bosh: He was intrigued by Houston, but he’s 30, he’s super-smart, and he just spent four years playing with two like-minded stars on an older roster for an organization that takes basketball craft seriously. The Rockets do, too, but there is an undercurrent around the league that Harden and Howard don’t represent the most appealing duo of teammates for any star who has lived within ultraserious professionalism.

The two are tremendous basketball players but their professionalism & commitment to winning is questionable at best. Anyway, what's done is done. It remains to be seen if Morey learns from this experience. Judging by his defiant & defensive interviews thus far, I would say "no".

 

McHale just said Flexibility doesn't score on NBATV during the sumer league. LOL!

 

An undersized rookie PG is supposed to play major minutes for a contender in the PG superstar-laden Western Conference?

Scott Machado, Toney Douglas, Aaron Brooks, Patrick Beverley have all been beneficiaries of the Lin Bump, the phenomenon of Rockets PGs automatically get rated super highly simply for not being Jeremy Lin.

Now Isaiah Canaan has officially joined this group, I see.

 

Man some Rox fans are delusional. Anyone but Jeremy. Wait and see before declaring the summer a bust. If they get adequate replacements for Asik and Lin, then they may salvagesomething. But right now cap spacedoesn't put therock in thenet.

 

there are some r****ded NBA agents out there... seriously. how houston didn't land one of these guys just amazes me.

just goes to show there are many levels of complexity at play in these negotiations - and sometimes it's the little stuff that makes the difference. i bet the agents are as prima donna as the players are.

 

Man, Houston... we fked up big time.

Houston got rid of one of the best bench in the league for basically nothing to try to sign who? Chris Bosh, the alligator man which I'm totally not a fan of.

Instead of getting Parsons another year for $900, houston let him walk. Gave up Lin+Asik for nothing. Now, all we have is D12 who can't shoot free throws and ball hog no defense Harden who failed 1st round playoff terribly. Remember, Harden failure was also the reason OKC didn't win in the finals.

This is a bad bad season. Houston have to admit this one. You all complain about LIN and Asik. Look what we have now. Parsons also gone. A bunch of nobody on the team. Good job Houston!

 

Don't worry, don't you know we have a second rounder in the summer league? Lin can't compete with that.

 

He's referring to on-court behavior.... I disagree with Zach on Dwight, considering he was the only starter consistently putting in the effort in the playoffs... but, as far as perception around the league...? Yeah, Dwight's smiling when he misses free throws, or is whistled by a ref is the more prevalent image around the league, than the Dwight that will actually get upset and dismiss a ref's call with pejoratives that can be easily lip-read on camera...

We can't argue with Zach, however, on his take on Harden, whatsoever... That's the sad part of this... especially this previous season... His defense is on way too many "highlight reels" for all the wrong reasons... and his performance and body language in the playoffs only served to compound and highlight this for players around the league...

Pat and Deke may have been right there with harden on off the court activities... but on the court...? There was no question they were all about winning...

 

Will McHale run Harden to the ground again with ~40min a game this year? I just don't see anyone who can generate offense once Harden is off the floor.

 

Our bench was one of the worst in the league, that was the problem. Those bums got outplayed by the Philadelphia bench....TWICE. Our starting lineup om the other hand was the best starting 5 in the nba....

 

Ever since Jalen said to Simmons that Durant will go to Houston, there has been a long hit piece out on them from Grantland (it's almost comical how serious Harden and Durant are when playing each other). But to suggest Bosh, of all people would be influenced by irrational negative press is tantamount to r****dation. Bosh? Bosh?!?!? the same Bosh who has been the victim of it non stop for 4 years? that guy?!?

Bosh is 30 and was offered a mountain of money, once people are over 30, those longer deals become infinitely more valuable than they do to a 27/28 yo who would probably prefer to be in a place earlier to get that last max deal before they become Wade, Dwight's age actually worked against the Lakers in deal length (the tv deal doubling the pain). Bosh also made it really obvious his priorities, he basically said, I'll sign with Houston at 4/8x rather than Miami at 4/7x or 5/8x but if Miami offer me 5/118, I'm staying in Miami.

 

Lowe admits Dallas overpaid and is taking a gamble on Parsons... But they are winners in the free agency world. Hmm.