Where are we going? Where will this end? Are we going for continuity, youth movement, win it all? All of the above? (desirable of course, but most of the time not possible) Something is strange coming from the Rockets these days. Some can say it is media savvy and it may be. But there is not continuity in the message that this teams conveys to its fans lately, or at least none that I see. -We spend $6 million dollars on draft picks (I like Buddinger and Taylor) but that is a salary for a decent established player in itself. -We talk about Tracy being back for the playoffs next year, and then we comment on how we have to listen to trade offers because its "my job' And yes it is DMs job, but rarely have I seen a GM toggle in between the polar extremities of similar situations. -Our Starting center and best player is injury prone and will continue to be that way, and we are statistics based, yet ignore this statistic. We are probably a little short of talent in the back court, and durability in the front. -We want Ricky Rubio, even though, I think his potential at max would mostly consist of a helpful back up pg for this year and maybe two. We are in limbo. With Yao and Tracy's situations, Ron and Wafer being free agents, and the fact we are built around some talented young guys who are closer to role players than building blocks. We have a talented team, but we could easily fall off next year. What we have done the 2 seasons is pretty remarkable. I dont think you can have your cake and eat it too. You can say you are getting Ricky for 2, 3 years down the road, but not next year. And certainly not for championship aspirations the next few. I just hope we are not being TOO shrewd, and that all these moves which dont seem connected, are.
i agree different rumors make it seem like we are going in seven different directions. we are not as close as people here want to think. i just have to trust and hope it all works out...... one thing is that none of this matters unless we have a healthy yao
Home run post, and you convey exactly what my own concerns are. I'm afraid all the hustling for Rubio might have kept us from going after Vince Carter. Morey needs to keep it basic and pursue a veteran pg, a veteran big man, and a veteran wing.
Raven- I agree, I dont want to go youth movement, but if we do, ok. Go either way but be consistent. Personally, I think we are ready to win. I have been championing someone like Carter, or Hamilton. We just need a guy like that, and a decent back up center. I can believe McGrady and Landry are not assets enough to do that.
I think Morey is trying to do both at the same time and take both into consideration. You could say that is evident when we trade Rafer for Lowry. You do that to see if Brooks has a future here but also incorporate him now to get experience for playoffs, which he did good in for the most part. I dont know if this method is going work but we will see. As some said, why trade for a guy like Rubio if you are in win now mode. And then of course vice versa. If you asked me, which way we were to go, I'd say win now mode. I dont want to say its an all or nothing year, but this is a big year(upcoming season) as in where we go after it.
its not that hard to explain all of this. On Tracy - My "gut" is that Morey would have liked to move Tracy a long time ago but was not really given the opportunity to by ownership. Now, Tracy is old and broken and useless and has no value. We waited too long. On Yao - We all know the situation here. No amount of statistical analysis is needed to understand why for as long as Yao can play, this will be his team. He's an amazing, dedicated person, and an international superstar. He increases the value of the franchise and allows this team to be financially stable despite the economy. On Ricky - If he is indeed a "once a decade" talent as some of the experts are saying, and the team that drafted him does not have the leverage to bring him over from Spain, then why wouldn't you pursue him? It would be a risk, but a calculated one. Apparently the rockets are not the only team that really really wants this guy. On the overall situation - The rockets wanted a year of Yao+Tracy+3rd option (that turned out to be Artest) to really give it a shot. Tracy essentially sank that plan when he wasn't able to play last season. Now you're faced with the reality that the Yao+Tracy experiment is over and have to try to get max value for tracy's deal in a trade. in a way, we should be thankful for this economy because if it werent for the fact that a lot of teams are struggling financially, tracy would have even less value than he does. when you consider the kind of asset this guy once was, its kind of sickening, but thats what happens when you build a team around a "superstar". For better or worse, your fate is tied to him, and Tracy really screwed us over.
I think summer league is going to play big factor in getting moves done. If Donte Greene did not drop 40 in the summer league we would not have gotten artest I think Morey is counting on Budinger or Taylor lighting it up and him being able to pull of a trade. Morey is building a rep around the league as being a good evaluator of low risk high reward talent. If teams start seeing his picks doing well they are going to be making plays for them early so there stock wont get to high. Mark my words if Budinger goes off for multiple 30 plus point games you can bet Amare will be in a rocket uni before the start of training camp.
I have been hearing this same thing for the past 2 years after Brooks, Landry, and Donte Greene got drafted. Why are the Rockets trying to acquire so much young talent? They can't improve. In the end, it worked out better than I thought. We improved our team and made it out of the first round for the 1st time with Artest, Landry and Brooks. We were able to improve and develop talent at the same time. One round down, 2 more to go.
Von Wafer and John Lucas III put up record scores in SL... Donte had pre-draft hype and greater expectations for his future. None of these other guys do.
Without question, summer league will play a big part if we're able to land a star. Doubt STAT is coming, July 8 is scheduled to announce his trade to GSW.
Lol Basically, you're asking the Rockets front office to lay down their cards and tell us fans exactly what is going on. Don't stay up waiting for a reply. How can you expect them to signify clear intentions? If we are to be in a dominant position wrt trading and free agency, the opposing players must have doubt in their minds as to what our organization can accomplish. As fans, we just need a little patience. I think we got some great draft picks and thanks for spending this attention-grabbing sum of money.
No offense, but most people on this board are acting like impatient brats. If assembling a knock em dead championship squad was easy it would be done already. Morey is a great GM, Les is a great owner, trust they are doing everything they can to make this team as good as it can be.
The $6 million don't count against the cap and luxury tax. And $6 million may be salary for a decent established player (say, Pietrus) for ONE YEAR, it could also very well be the salary of Stromile Swift, Mike James, Tim Thomas, Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic and numerous non-impact player for one year. Are you serious? Pretty much every GM who ever has a player he wanted to trade talks this way. Nobody just goes out and tell the world that "Yes, we must trade this guy cuz he's broken down and a cancer." How do they "ignore this statistic"? If they don't "ignore this statistic" what would they have done differently? Is there someone out there just as good but more durable that they can trade him for? Should they be taking 50 cents on the dollar in terms of talent for this guy because of the injury risk? There is nothing wrong with building for BOTH the short and the long term. If the team determines that this guy is gonna be a multi-time All Star impact player 2 or 3 years from now, and you got the pieces to get him, you get him. People are so damn binary on this board-- either we win now or we blow it up and rebuild. Don't have to work that way, it would seem that Morey's goal is to take advantage of opportunity the best he can, whether it comes in the form of a recognzed talent like Artest, a "no stats all star" like Battier, a potential lower-level pick steal like Brooks and Landry, a specialist like Hayes, or a 18-year old lotto pick from Spain. Every team, to one degree or another, is in limbo. The Lakers have two important FAs in Ariza and Odom. If they lose these two, are they still gonna be as good? The Celtics are aging. Orlando is putting a lot of eggs in the Vince Carter basket-- which has been known to leak a few times. Cleveland is at risk for losing Lebron. Unless you have personal control over it, it's kind of useless to get stressed out. But if that makes your day... oh well. Like I said, opportunities is a limited commodity in the NBA, you take them in whatever forms they come. I don't see why trading for Rubio means we have to blow up the and give up on winning. Hell, Detroit carried an 18 year old 2nd overall pick on their roster, getting DNP-CDs while winning a championship.
Chase was expected to go late 1st not the second round He put up good numbers at a major program and measured and jumped well at the draft camps. No one thought we would land in the second round. The suns are looking for a reason grab him. We might be able to pull Robin lopez at a minimum if Chase puts up solid numbers. Lopez would be very serviceable backup center.
