You go with butterscotch flavor all day err day. @don grahamleone has the worst post of the week. ffs.
OP: "AARGH! I'M SO MAD AT MOREY FOR NOT RE-SIGNING DRAGIC... *checks notes* ...EIGHT WHOLE YEARS AGO! AAAARGH!"
giving poison pill contracts out to Lin because of 2 weeks of hot play and a C like Asik is what u do when you’re irrelevant, desperate, and can’t get anybody good to come in free agency...we were all 3 back then that season was shaping up to be almost as painful as the 05-06 season before the Harden trade...I had spent a whole summer trying to talk myself into a team featuring Lin, Parsons, Lamb, and Asik to top it all off, even if we were absolutely atrocious that year and got a top pick, it would’ve been a top pick in the 2013 draft, aka 1 of the most garbage drafts of all time
It was said that Dragic wanted a player option in his contract and Morey only does POs for star players. Therefore, Dragic went to Phx and we moved on to Lin.
Because Morey's number crunching makes him a poor at evaluating players. He's let go off improving players who have blossomed elsewhere after leaving Houston.
iirc... Dragic came down to him wanting a player option on the last year - and DM wasnt willing to do so... so he went to the Suns... Lowry and McHale had issues - so he was traded the day after Dragic signed with the Suns... Lowry has since said he was outta line... so we went the poison pill contract route with Lin - after the Knicks had proclaimed that they would match any offer...
most of Moreys worst blunders were reasonable swings at the time... Trying to trade for Pau and then giving Nene a buttload of money was prob his worst move - that cant be attributed to Les (Lin) or Tilman (WB) ... thankfully 'basketball reasons' Lawson had like a 95% approval rating on this board - but flopped. Thomas Robinson, TWill, Flynn, Thabeet, etc... were all missteps... but calculated risks in DMs attempts to rejuvenate underachieving high draft picks... Of moves that actually happened... I think DMs biggest blunder was Melo. On paper it was a good move imo - but didnt account for MDA bein a lil bi*ch and imo thats why Bzdelik left right before the season started... Just caused some upheaval that coulda been a championship season if focuses had been maintained... DM is still one of the best in the league though...
Amnestied Scola, traded Lowry for picks, let Goran go, signed Lin and Asik. Our supposed to be lineup would have been: Lin Kmart Chase Patpat Asik Reserve: Parsons Lamb If you think that this lineup is competing for playoffs spot then good for you.
It’s small things like Gary Clark or Hartinstien just cut with no replacement in an area of need. Both showed promise and Clark is a rotation player on a play-off team. Not the end of the world but still a head scratcher. Hartinstien was a FRP a lot of time was put into him. He could be a back up. (If he sucked so badly then why was he drafted to begin with?) Neither will ever be an All-Star but cost management contracts always help the cause.
Rockets jsut don’t want to develop players. Adelman played rookies or sophomores(Brooks, Wafer, Landry). D’Antoni would’ve never. That’s part of the reason I’m aight moving on form D’Antoni, and ultimately Morey
Morey's hubris has gotten the better of him from time to time, like: 1. An iPad to woo one of the top Free Agents in the offseason, thinking that analytics and an AppleCare plan would have done the trick 2. Chris Bosh, the sequel, where he traded Lin to the Lakers by way of attaching a 1st Rounder to his jersey even before getting any kind of commitment from Bosh. 3. Believing that Carmelo was the last piece needed to win a championship: here, here, and here. 4. Not getting any value out of the most recent drafts because either he thinks the 6-man rotation MDA ran was going to be enough or he REALLY had faith that Zhou Qi was going to pan out. Last 5 drafts: 2019: No Pick 2018: De'Anthoy Melton. Used in the disastrous Ryan Anderson to Phoenix trade that ended up being all for nothing. 2017: Isaiah Hartenstein and Dillon Brooks. Brooks was traded on Draft Night to Memphis for the pick that became Melton but the has become a solid role player for the Grizzlies averaging 16 points while shooting 36% from 3. As for Hartenstein ....we know the rest. 2016: This is the draft where, looking back now, you gotta wonder wtf was Morey thinking. Chinanu Onuaku and Zhou Qi. Both have played a COMBINED 25 NBA games and neither are still in the league. Were they 2nd Round reaches? For sure they were. What were you expecting? Well, based on this draft, not much as Zubac and Brogdon are the only ones in the 2nd round from this draft who are still playing significant minutes. That being said, why didn't Morey just draft and stash or trade both picks to move up? 2015: Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell. Drafting Harrell in 2015 makes drafting Onuaku in 2016 even more baffling but I digress. Drafting Dekker and Harrell allowed for the Rockets to get CP3 so I can't be too mad about that though, at the time, no one knew CP3 was going to end up in Houston. This is probably all nit-picking as I still believe Morey, when given a certain level of autonomy by ownership, can build a great team.
The biggest Morey blunder in recent history was the signing of Ryan Anderson. Sure, there's the excuse of a spiking salary cap that year. But it still was bad giving a guy whose only use was shooting 20M per year for 4 guaranteed years. It took a boatload of assets to get rid of him and the residual dead weights. And then there were some small missteps that turned out to be costly like getting rid of guys like Lin and Covington when they were dirty cheap, and later gave up a ton just to get them back. Of course, the picking Morris over Leonard was notorious. But few people mentioned about trading Morris for a second round pick. Those two things together meant that he got a second rounder instead of Kawhi Leonard.
