I'm typically a Morey defender, in general, but we all have to agree: Morey isn't really going to be laughing in this figurative sense until we win a championship. Period. Gotcha trades and upgrades are great, but... eye on the prize. Sometimes I worry that he enjoys the dealing SO much that he is subconsciously emphasizing "future flexibility" in part because he can't imagine not having his sandbox to play in.
The loser is Dwight because time clearly isn't on his side. My guess is that Morey will go to work again next season and pull some asset swaps before trade deadline rather than commit our capspace and go all in for this season. If that's true, then it's a total fail for this year...
Even if that was part of the agreement for Howard coming here as rumored? If that's true then you do it without thinking twice.
I think that was still the correct move. If anything it draws more questions to his "no extensions" policy. While it may not have applied to this situation, it certainly backfired with Dragic. I still prefer this approach to overpaying middling talent.
Yeah I would like to hear more about that. Last I heard he didn't have any short term interest in coming over.
Yeah I think Morey is banking on some of our younger guys RGV play translating over to the big team. Of course not to the degree they had in the D-league, but I think he is figuring they can be somewhat productive. I think young players do better in a uptempo system where they can spread the floor and not play against a lot of defensive pressure in a half court game, leave that to James and Howard.
That rumor doesn't even make sense honestly. Was Dwight's agent going to put a gun to his head and refuse to let him sign with Houston after he picked them because the Rockets wouldn't promise the Chandler scenario? It's just a dumb theory from the start. Simplest explanation is usually the truth and the simplest explanation here is that Morey gambled on restricted free agency doing what it NORMALLY does to players which is cripple their market. Eric Bledsoe can't get a whiff because of restricted free agency. Greg Monroe can't get a whiff. Morey gambled that the same thing would happen to Chandler and he would keep him at a bargain deal.
I think his emphasis on reaching for a 3rd elite star comes from lessons learned during the TMac and Yao era: Mavs and Jazz series = fail Plus Artest at Lakers series = yearrrrrgghhh Until he kills that whale, his geek collection is never complete.
I think his plan has always been to get 3 stars and then fill in around them. Until he gets that he will always be looking to improve the team (so he keeps flexibility). Once he gets 'his stars' I think all of the big tinkering will stop and be limited to just swapping out role players for needs. He felt like Parsons was not that 3rd star so he didn't want to pay him 15+ mil. I tend to agree so we keep it moving.
Why was it necessary? So what if he becomes an unrestricted fa after next season. We could still attempt to sign him just like any other team. We could have likely been able to sign and trade him too if it looked like we were going to lose him.
Who's really the loser? The smart rockets fans. They are likely going to watch their team to lose the first round playoff again with a frustration.
I agree we couldn't match the ridiculous contract, but Morey completely misjudged the market. I understand the market can be irrational but it is his job to have a good feel for these things especially when he is putting a valuable piece of the roster at risk of being taken.
As someone who believes in championships or nothing, I wonder how much it effects Morey to think like this.
I think the definitive-ness of some of his statements might be off, but to give you color on where he was coming from: Lin had veteran experience but usually played like a rookie, in his entire tenure here. What do I mean? the dude was as consistent as it gets. take a look at his game scores for the games he played last year, graphed out (thank you, thank you in advance for the mad graphical skills) Spoiler ^anybody who watched the team regularly knew this and was extremely frustrated by it. yes, his high was great. But he'd suck the next game. It was an inconsistency that was maddening. True, what do we replace him with? Unclear at this point. Give it time. But considering Jeremy Lin wasn't "taking" them anywhere, the bigger issue is did we lose an "asset" without getting fair return? Or any return? Which might be true... or maybe not. It is clear no one was knocking on the door for Lin and his contract. Would that have changed at the deadline? Only if someone wanted to dump salary on us. Of course, that might be something Morey would like to do... if a Kevin Love was coming back. On the one hand, you are absolutely right. Anyone expecting anything meaningful out of Joey Dorsey is delusional. As far as Asik himself, though... the dude only played 48 games for the team last year... the first group of which he did while starting that turned out to be a pretty bad combo. he only played 20 mpg last year. he was a distraction as much as a help. the team still won without him. what about the playoffs? the idea that he "turned the tide" so to speak against LMA is a bit overblown. LaMarcus took Asik to school, too. LMA struggled the most against Dwight. But yes, Asik was way better against LMA than TJones... and backup center remains a question mark. That said, the Pelicans pick in the draft IS DEFINITELY a big asset to have. The Rockets had homecourt advantage and lost in the playoffs last year.. partly because their bench was horrible. That we lost Asik and Lin shouldn't be a shocking blow. Had we kept them, and ALSO upgraded the bench, clearly it'd be a better team.... ... not good enough to win a championship. Had we kept them, and kept Parsons, you're looking at the exceptions to improve your bench. So maybe you add 1 solid off the bench player. Great. We know this story. It doesn't end in a deep playoff run. The issue is and remains, asset value. Because absent getting that third elite star, building a championship roster this offseason would have been very very tough. So it's what DM did with the assets to position himself moving forward to continue to build towards that goal. Getting the Pelicans pick was a great deal. Trading Lin, not so much... but not horrendous. Letting Parsons become restricted was the crushing blow. I, for one, think there was agent play involved, and Dwight is here as part of a "quasi-trade there". I don't think it's as black and white. For one, yes value increases logarithmic ally... but whether on that scale, or arithmetically, the difference between Parsons and Ariza remains small. How is it possible so many fans have so often overlooked the teams HUGE glaring weakness. The team can't play defense for ****. It's unquestionable Trevor Ariza is on another level defensively than anyone else in the Rockets 2/3 position... and definitely Parsons. Second, RFA status is tricky. It can both induce overpays, or create underpays. See Eric Bledsoe... or maybe Greg Monroe. The issue was this year, (i) for whatever reason, there was a run on small forwards, and (ii) there were a bunch of SF's in the market that had questionable value. Hayward, Parsons as the prime examples. But I'd even say Ariza, or Stephenson (though a 2 guard). Whereas Bledsoe might more obviously be a max player, meaning other teams aren't really even offering him cause they know Phoenix will match, overbidding on a Hayward or Parsons might actually get you that player, as it did in once case. However you look at it, though, declining Parsons option was obviously a mistake. Again, I wonder how much influence Fegan had on the process. Everything lines up too perfectly for it not to be a big agent power play. Parsons switches to Fegan. Dwight uses Fegan. Parsons is a big Dwight recruiter. Dwight comes. Seems likely there was a "promise" in there. See Martell Webster and the Wizards. Sure, one could say screw Fegan and screw those types of promises. I suspect that wouldn't end well either. ... just some thoughts. I am actually eager to see how this team performs next season. First DM clearly needs to fill some holes on the bench. I don't suspect a ring... BUT, I can very easily see this team making it to the second round next year. And that's an improvement.
Not sure. I think in the past he has mentioned that 3 stars might not be necessary. But after last season, he realized that our two stars weren't good enough to carry a team to contention. So we needed a third guy that would be better than Chandler Parsons for us to have a chance. The tune has changed slightly due to the realization that the H&H combo is not "elite" enough.
Morey wanted Gentile to come over this year apparently, but I'm pretty sure Gentile already re-signed with his Euro team.
I could be wrong, Parsons cap hold if his option was picked up woulda been $3 mil I believe. To get more cap space to lure elite free agents, it was advantageous to not pick up Parson's option. Doing that would added $2 mil more to cap. It still backfired though. Its all a matter of "bird in hand more than 2 in bush", seems Morey is willing to take risks toward the "2 in bush" at expense of bird in hand.
Good post, JuanValdez. I am a huge Morey fan, but this offseason as been a monumental disappointment. Ariza and Dorsey back, Parsons gone to the Mavs, Lin and Asik traded for...what exactly? Nope, not a success by any means.
