I am beginning to wonder if the true mastermind for the Rockets was Hinkie all along and we are giving Morey credit mainly because he is just media savvy. I know it takes two to tango on trades, but the Rockets had legit pieces to move so either Morey went back on what he said about chasing a title this year versus going for flexibility again or he is not on good terms with many other front offices.
What?? Do you even look at the numbers?? Prigioni is a BETTER shooter than Canaan, guy. And KJ McDaniels has a very good chance of becoming our poor man's version of Kawhi Leonard.
We'll have to see the 'real' result of Hinkie's work with the Sixers after a few more years to really have insight into that.
I am not sure how this is the case - they are tied for 3rd in the west despite a myraid of injuries to key rotation pieces all season long - including their second best player missing 1/3 of the season so far. Despite all that they were third. The Rockets traded away two guys who collectively probably have played 20 minutes total in the last month for two guys who are ready to play for the second unit right now -- yet they somehow are one of the weakest playoff teams now? Here are the players that played for the Rockets last season against portland: James Harden Chandler Parsons Jeremy Lin Dwight Howard Patrick Beverley Omer Asik Terrence Jones Troy Daniels Francisco Garcia Here is the players that most likely will play for the Rockets in the playoffs this year: James Harden Trevor Ariza Patrick Beverley Donatas Motiejunas Dwight Howard Josh Smith Corey Brewer Terrence Jones Jason Terry Pablo Prigioni KJ McDaniels subtract the hold overs we've basically flipped: Chandler Lin Omer Daniels Garcia for Ariza Smith Brewer Prigioni Terry McDaniels Dmo how is that not an improvement?
This is what scares me. Theoretically it would awesome to feed it into Dwight, assuming he's healthy. Let's not forget how much of a beast Howard was last year in the playoffs. Also you could feed it into Dmo once Harden gets doubled and triple teamed. I honestly don't know why we aren't feeding it more to Dmo now. Even if he doesn't score on a possession, he's always a threat in the middle which should open up our three point shooting. Really hoping Mchale gives it to Dmo more. So basically come playoff time we have starting: Bev Harden Ariza Dmo Dwight (assuming he's healthy. I think he'll be fine IMO) Then our bench looks like: Prigioni/Terry/Johnson McDaniels/Terry Brewer/Papa Jsmoove/Jones Dorsey Starting 5 is honestly one of the best in the playoffs. Will the bench come through in the clutch? Remains to be seen but it's not looking too promising. No one on our bench is capable of running the offense and creating enough points to keep up with the big guns. Defensively? We're SOLID. Maybe Mchale and Morey are gambling on our defense to be our saving grace come playoff time, who knows. If our squad is really looking to go deep, Mchale is gonna have to really switch up the rotations. He's gonna have to keep one of either Dmo or Harden on the floor at all times. They are basically the only two you can give the ball to and say "here, get a bucket". It's definitely gonna be interesting that's for sure. I just get the sense Harden is gonna have an amazing playoffs. He wants to prove he's the best in he world and he's gonna try to get the bad taste of last years playoffs out of his mouth. At this point just gotta have faith.
These moves however do give us insight about the Rockets front office. The following are the two questions that they had to ask prior to making significant changes to the lineup: 1. Does a "mid-level" PG (Dragic, Knight, etc) allow the Rockets to have a deep playoff run? 2. Does losing a current contributing asset diminish the skills of this team below where this team is currently? Sure Dragic would've tremedously helped Harden, but what couldve the Rockets done in order to prolong their success? Here is the bottom line: losing both DMo/TJones and Dragic this offseason may hurt the Rockets more than anything else. Morey has been looking for the third piece, but he essentially doesnt believe that it wouldve been Dragic either(refer back to Chandler Parsons: a good player)! So far what the Rockets have done is create an excellent defensive oriented team to mask any offensive liabilities that we may have. This team also has tremendous size and length...allowing mismatches to be created at all times. Considering all the moving parts we have had...Since the arrival of James Harden, this team has consistently gotten better and is on pace at being one of the top 4 seeds. Thats all we can ask for at this time. Until then James will have to continue to carry our team's offensive duties and Dwight will need to get healthy. Hoping for some buyout cheap deal steals (Larry Sanders would be a nice back up big imo...and so would Perkins), but we should not count out this Rockets team. B/c they always find a way to surprise us. Go ROCKETS!!!
These moves are somewhat of the head scratching variety. However I've had that reaction to a number of DM's moves only to see the light later.
A lot of these posters are subject to the primary theme of that children's book "If you give a mouse a cookie" Things don't work out in your way 100% of the time, every time.
So let me get this straight guys. We acquired two guys who will most likely crack the rotation for 2 guys that were not getting any playing time? Hmm.
Yeah, and Dragic did not want to be here. Also, it would be a stupid move to give up DMo for a guy that can bolt this summer. That would have been a horrible desperation panic move.
I'd say no. It was throwing away a bunch of low-value picks for players that don't move the needle this year. The future RFA rights to KJ and his potential is a good get, but only in a nebulous "asset" kind of way, I don't imagine him as a rotation player for a title team this year or next. And Canaan was arguably in the same asset class, or at least close.
I'm having trouble finding a more overrated player than Isaiah Canaan on Clutchfans compared to his actual production. Dude had like 2 good games
In NFL terms these 2nd round picks are 7th round picks. They are nothing, we may buy them back when the time comes. They are nothing at all.
This. People need to relax. We traded two players who couldn't sniff playing time and three 2nd rounders. That's it! Morey is playing a few moves ahead of all of us on this message board (except maybe Bimathug). It would have been nice to get an upgrade at PG, but the price Miami just paid for Dragic was way too high.
We are not better today....but paps, dmo, tj, mcdaniels and Capella are an intriguing next generation group.....I think we come up short with gs, lac, and portland....it will take some lucky bounces for us to get past those three.
I'm happy no one here is GM! Glad it's Morey behind the helm making improvements to the team. Not acquiring LeBron James doesn't mean we got worse. People just speculate and get heated. I think we can expect a lot of crow to be eaten by the end of the season, although people will most likely forget that they ever thought the trade was a bad one (like the Josh Smith signing)
Lets look at the best shooting guards in the league over the past decade or so and who their PG's were when then won championships: Micheal Jordan: Steve Kerr, John Paxson, BJ Armstrong, Kobe Bryant: Derek Fisher 2006 Dwayne Wade: Jason Williams These guys didn't have all star point guards on their team and that didn't stop them from winning it all as the best player on their respective teams at the time. What most of them had is a PG who can knock down the open three and play defense. If Beverly can get out of his slump and pick up the defensive effort he can be adequate. I'd be fine upgrading the position, but even with Dragic, we would still arguably have the worst PG out of the western conference playoff teams. The key to playoff success is Dwight's health even if we had made the Dragic move. Expanding further, I'd say that only the Spurs, Celtics and Pistons have won the title with a PG as one of their best 3 players in the last 24 years. Granted the Spurs won 5 of those, but that still only makes 7 out of 24 years where a PG was among the best 3 players on the winning team. Point being that it is not a requirement to contend.
