I see what you are trying to say....but who made it to the next round? Who is sitting at home and who is contributing in the West Finals now? Small ball worked to take their big out the equation but that did nothing overall when their smallest player is the same size as our center.
That is all TRUE. I'm thankful Harden is not like that. I don't think it's a cheap shot it definitely sucks though....but it may be a true statement. Howard may very well get one before Harden that doesn't take anything away from Harden. Guys like Lebron, Howard, Josh Smith, D Wade, C. Anthony all came into the league at the same time. Lebron and D Wade got their rings. So these other guys are going to team up and ring chase towards the end of their career. I believe Harden will at least get one with the Rockets but the time is now. No more experiments. Let's get young athletic defensive players that can hit some shots, and ball. Every one play their natural position unless game calls for it. Russ and Harden work best off fast breaks and screen and rolls. I don't know what this punk fake pass, pump fake pass, pump fake pass **** is. It's too predicable.
The thing about Lowry is that he wanted to come back to Houston when he established himself in Toronto like most of us expected, and for a reasonable 10-12 mill I think. Then Melo's agent dropped Houston as a destination, and Murry broke Lowry's school girl heart by holding him out as an obvious Plan B.
Yeh, the Ryno contract was def one of his worst moves... but everyone was clamoring for a stretch 4 and we did get a couple good years before he went to crap... the EGO contract I think was even more questionable at the time - given injury history... and Kawhi I put under the heading of hindsight being 20/20... arguably picking Royce White was even worse - didnt even recoup a 2nd rd pick for that piece of excrement... lol Yeh, Morey has made quite a few blunders (again hindsight being 20/20)... but at least the dude was always trying to pull a rabbit outta his hat - and not just content with mediocrity...
Yeh, I'd forgotten about that... I think there could be a whole subcategory of DM blunders based on guys we missed out on bc DM was busy chasing a pipe dream that never materialized... like Bosh just using us as leverage while we jettisoned assets to make room while missing out on other available potential targets...
I still appreciate the hustle he puts in. You can't make ten+ risks per season and expect them all to be good or neutral. That Lowry thing was a personal disappointment though. Oh Me-low...
Man....you can literally go through any GM and list out the MANY blunders. The people who actually want Morey gone are the people I trust the least on here.
we have no picks and westbrook takes up all of our salary cap while choking in the playoffs and playing in a reckless manner that will for sure get him injured. If your goal is to make the playoffs, then you're right. If your goal is to begin the path to winning a ring, it's time to start now. You need two stars to win a ring. Russ prevents us from doing that.
Not sure I said or implied that. Dwight Howard having a championship and Harden not having one is the point of the post. Dwight Howard (potentially) being considered a champion irks me.
Not having picks is the reason it would make no sense to start a tank and rebuild now. If we had just swapped Russ for CP3 straight up instead of getting fleeced for all those picks/swaps and someone got desperate and made an offer for Harden something along the lines of what the Clips gave the Thunder for George, then sure. I'd do that in a second. But the trade to get Russ basically took doing something like that off the table.
If we trade with a team that wants Harden so they can go for bust for a championship for a lot of picks it's basically just a bunch of lottery tickets that could land in the 20's. And note that when you actually set out to rebuild rather than being a approached by a desperate team the offers aren't going to be as good. I don't think anyone who would trade for Harden has any individual franchise building assets we could really get. Trading one of the greatest scoring guards in NBA history off a team that just got to the conference semis for salary flexibility and some picks that will more than likely wind up in the 20's to turn into a team that probably won't make the playoffs for another 5-10 years and wouldn't have their own pick in four of the next six seasons isn't something any front office executive would do unless it's solely about cutting costs for the bottom line. Trading for Russ and giving up those picks/swaps took that option off the table. If we were acquiring assets AND tanking to get good picks AND getting salary flexibility then it's a different story. If there was some kind of trade that could reload our asset chest, get us much younger franchise cornerstones that could develop into top 10 players in the league, but still keep us as a lower tier playoff team in the west, then I'd think about it. But that trade almost certainly doesn't exist.
Given Dragic is leading the heat to the NBA finals along with being a legit star yeah player option should have been granted
Moreyball has been extremely successful. Only 1 team wins the title every year that does not mean the other teams were failures. As much as I despise Utah you can't exactly call the Malone/Stockton era a failure deserving "blame". We have a win rate of .611 under DM as GM and is in the top few winningest GM's in the last 12 years.