I think it's everyone else who has been quick to swallow the propaganda that need the history lesson. But, I've had this argument several times before and don't really want to derail a thread to have it again. My feeling is that we treaded in place a couple of years on a strategy that didn't work out. The point here being that the strategy since then -- since dismembering the team and then picking up Harden -- has worked out great. Maybe some minor things like trading Canaan (maybe) were suboptimal, but big picture those things don't matter nearly so much as the big pieces like Harden and Howard. It's the big mistakes that kill you -- like OKC trading Harden, or Dallas breaking up their championship team, or LA extending Kobe Bryant.
Who? You are silly if you don't think he was trying, but what starting PG could you have gotten? The Nuggets refused to trade Lawson (though it seems they will this offseason) and the Pacers didn't want to trade George Hill. What was the "starting PG" you could get that was better than Beverly (remember, Bev wasn't hurt then) that you wanted to dump TJones and a first round pick for?
This is ridiculous. Two star players broke down and he had a mandate from the owner not to tank. He's made it pretty clear that the ideal situation is to tear it all down and build it back up. Just for the record though, that takes a long time as well. Let's compare the Rockets and Warriors since both were in the WCF this year. The Warriors went the build through the draft route, picking Curry to start the 2009-2010 season. The Rockets had to rebuild on the fly following the end of Yao Ming as the star due to injury. Yao's last year on the books (meaning Morey had flexibility to start adding to the roster) was 2010-2011. It took the Warriors 6 years from the time they added Steph Curry to get to the WCF (and the Finals.) It took the Rockets 5 years following the end of the Yao era to get to the WCF.
Is this some kind of joke? Morey is the reason we have the team we have. We would be terrible without him
He's been our GM for several years, and he has remade our team many times over. It's impossible to predict where we'd be with someone else, I think.
This I agree with. I will argue that he's done a good job, but I won't argue that we'd be horrible without him. There's no way to know where we'd be. I think Morey has proven to be better than most GMs because he's been able to rebuild without a tank and without saddling the team with bad contracts that lock you into mediocrity or worse for years, but there's no way to know that we wouldn't have hired a good GM.
Please show us proof that this unicorn PG was out there available and Morey just refused to pay up for him? Dragic and Lawson didn't work out for their various reasons. So who then? Did you not see what Phoenix gave up for Knight? You honestly think this NOLA pick was getting Knight? Once again you guys are delusional with your trade expectations. The only upgrade the Rockets were priced to trade for was Rondo... You think he actually would have helped? Let's see what he can do this Summer and what comes of the Pat Bev situation. Yeah his defense wasn't up to par this year, and you give up playmaking but he still brings positives and can continue to improve as a 3 point shooter. I want an upgrade as bad as anyone but I'm not delusional. They aren't that easy to acquire for a late first rounder and often come with risk of damaging basketball chemistry with conflicting styles of play.
I'm just a little irked that Morey couldn't add another competent play-maker in the backcourt alongside Harden all season. It was an obvious glaring hole that killed us in the end. Should've traded T-Jones or D-Mo along with the 1st rounder. Did Morey not expect the Rockets to get this far so he decided not to go all in?
Lou Williams was available for D-Mo. Not a difference maker IMO. Mo could have been obtained quite cheaply, Morey apparently didn't care much for him. He could have been a sixth man scoring PG, if nothing else. Isaiah Thomas was available per cyberx, for not very much, but Morey didn't go for him either. I don't think Collison was on the trading block. I am not anti-Morey but he went for Lowry from Memphis when Rafer was struggling. He went with Ish Smith at the 1 at the start this season. He could have easily gotten Mo Williams for little from the very beginning, or Aminu instead of K-Pap. All these steps ended up hurting us to some extent IMO, because we had to come from far behind at the beginning of the season. He does deserve a lot of credit for getting Josh Smith and Brewer which helped us salvage the season. Ariza was a solid addition, not overpaying Chandler Parsons turned out to be a great move, I admit.
He's not perfect, but what GM is? I wasn't a fan until this year's playoff run. I still think we rely too heavily on 3-pointers, but it's really hard to argue with the results this year.
I'm a Morey critic. Now is not the time to criticize him...sure he has flaws and made mistakes but we also made it to the WCF. Hopefully he can retool.
It wasn't for lack of trying: - We tried to sign Bosh and Melo before the season started, but obviously they were not interested in winning. In hindsight, we should have signed Lowry instead, but hindsight is 20/20 for a reason. - We were in trade talks for Rondo, though if we were seriously chasing him or just raising the price for Mavs is unknown. Ultimately the Mavs won out by trading basically their entire bench and we saw how Rondo and the trade worked out for them. - We tried to trade for Dragic, but it was obvious from his list of teams that he was more interested in being the man than winning. Denver was looking too much for Lawson, which is why he is still there. Also, did you see what Knight went for? - We couldn't trade T-Jones because he was injured and no team is going to take a pass on the physical for someone who is suffering from a nerve injury. We were also not going to trade D-Mo when both Howard and T-Jones are injured and their futures uncertain.
Reg Thomas - It was obvious that the Suns wanted to deal out East. I think people underestimate how other GM's realize how close the Rockets are from being crazy elite, and will deal elsewhere in order to gain an edge competitively. The Cleveland pick is pretty good only if Lebron gets seriously injured next year or leaves which is highly unlikely, but I get why Phoenix would want that pick. Its 2016 which allows them to have it as a trade asset rather than essentially getting a guarantee rookie with a pick in this years draft. Phoenix already has two picks this year, potentially 11 returning players on the books, and cap space to add through free agency. Have a pick for next year vs. this year might actually make more sense with what they want to do. Mo Williams- Is Mo Williams making a bigger difference in this series than Jason Terry? He's a worse defender, a similar shooter, and a slightly decent play-maker (although his shots are for himself, not others). Do the Rockets want a player that can make like easier on Harden, or do they just want a guy who is taking shots away from Harden? Maybe this one has some validity to it, but I'm assuming the Rockets are thinking long-term here, and Mo Williams kinda seems like more of the same (Terry, Prigioni type). You had to do it again, I think I'd trade for Mo over Prigioni but I don't think he's a difference maker honestly. Lou Williams - Important part of what the Raptors did this year, and probably not available. They were in a playoff run. He's not actively shopped to our knowledge. Collison - Why would he be available? He was signed as a long-term PG for the Kings who actually think they have a shot. And he was injured for pretty much the back half of the season. ................... So really you can only make a case for Mo Williams as a player that we know almost surely you could have gotten with the Pelles pick vs. what he ended up being sold for. So let's leave it up to the GARM, knowing the slight upgrade Mo Williams COULD HAVE been over Prigioni, would it have been worth it to give up the 18th pick in this years draft for??? I dunno. I wouldn't have done it honestly, but some folks think the Rockets were very close this year, and Williams would have put the Rockets over the top.
Mo Williams would have made perfect sense if he had been available at the trade deadline. The sequence of events matters here. Mo Williams was traded BEFORE the deadline and BEFORE Bev was injured. We weren't looking for a backup to Bev or a guy to fill in as an emergency, were were looking for an upgrade. When Williams got traded, Morey had every reason to believe we could still snag Dragic or perhaps another player who could move Bev to the bench. When the deadline came, everything went up in the air when Dragic refused to come here and the Suns pulled off a crazy deal that got them Knight. Suddenly the music stopped and we didn't have a chair. Mo was already gone. It would have been fine honestly except then Bev got hurt. It was a double whammy.
See my above post (Phoenix purposefully trading East), and also are we sure Thomas is a "unicorn PG"? Who is Thomas going to defend? How did he look in the playoffs against Cleveland when defenses knew what was coming? I think Morey very much is paying attention to "fit next to Harden" over anything else. Thomas would have been a good pickup at the cost of a pick & expiring, but is he a good fit next to Harden despite being a good shooter & play-maker? That being said, I think if Morey could have gotten involved in these talks he would have been, and he would have ended up with one of Knight or Thomas. However I get the nagging suspicion that Phoenix just did not want to trade with Houston, and that trade was as convoluted as it gets.
