We get it. You like "athletic" players like Stephen Jackson who have "street cred", you dislike "clean", smart, eloquent players and proven winners like Battier and Scola. Your "path to being competitive" has epic fail written all over it.
Stephen Jackson: NBA Champion, multiple trips to the 2nd round. Scored 33 points, including 7/8 three-pointers, in Golden State's series-clinching win against Dallas in the 1st round of the 2007 playoffs. That was the first and only time in NBA history an 8 seed has beaten a 1. Baron Davis: Multiple trips to the 2nd round. Teammate of Jackson on that historic 2007 Warriors team; he averaged 25 points per game on 51% shooting in the playoffs that year. Holds career playoff averages of 19.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 2.5 turnovers, on .440 FG% and .353 3P%. For comparison, Battier's career playoff averages are 8.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.2 turnovers, on .432 FG% and .378 3P%. Oh, and according to basketball-reference, Baron's career Defensive Rating in the playoffs is 103, compared to 110 for Battier (you know what they say about defense being the key come playoff time?). Shane Battier: One trip to the 2nd round of the playoffs (never advanced any further).
I like battier and all, but i do agree that SJax is a great player, very good defender and can push the ball hard up front, puts a lot of pressure in defenses because he can go to the rim or shoo the 3, and the best of all, we would suddenly have an SG.
Moreys done MUCH better in 2 years than CD did in 10 years. CD had a decent team, but he neglected younger talent, and relied on 3 aging future HOF's. Then he was a horrible evaluator of talent and gave max $ to them. I have no problem giving SF3 big $ because he was young with talent, and there was a chance to improve his game with a teacher coach (Larry Brown with AI). But Cato, Mo Taylor, Kenny Thomas, Moochie Norris, bad drafts picks outside of Yao and Mobley, picking up Bryce Drew, Matt Maloney, Brent Price, Sedale Threatt as point guards with 3 HOF's. Then with Yao and Tmac, he got Charlie Ward, Weatherspoon, Ryan Bowen, Scott Padgett, Torre Braggs, Lonny Baxter, Stromile Swift and Derek Anderson? Morey has a good eye for talent, and found players that can contribute for many years. AB needed a year to develop, but Scola and Landry came in and only needed a couple of months to contribute. He was also smart enough not to resign Artest, just because we got to the 2nd round...he knew he wouldn't be a good fit around our young talent. He didn't trade Tmac just for the sake of trading him. Overall, he's proven himself to be a good GM, but the test will come when/if he's around when the Rockets are a lottery team and will have to rebuild from scratch.
Daryl Morey is the only person in the whole organization, players included, that give me hope for the future. He assembled a roster last season that didn’t skip a beat after McGrady pulled himself out, even changing starting point guards with 30 something games into the season. Morey has always kept his cards close to his chest so take whatever he says with a grain of salt. He defended Alston against criticism and we all thought he would be there to stay at least until the end of the season and yet he traded him … no one saw that coming. The only thing that is sure is that he won’t make a trade for the sake of it … he’ll wait for the right deal to come along because his sole agenda is to make the team better.
This role player thing will not work if that is morey's plan. You win with superstars adn we don't have any.
Unfortunately for the Rockets, acquiring quality role players is the only option actually within the organization's control. Acquiring superstars is extraordinarily difficult. Other teams are not readily offering up their superstars. The only way to acquire a superstar is to either (a) amass enough cap room to entice a free agent superstar to come to your team (which is by no means an easy task) or (b) amass enough "assets" to entice another team to trade its superstar threatening departure. Morey has a nice combination of both. Not quite enough cap room for a max player, but enough to possibly swing a sign-and-trade using some of the "assets" acquired over the past 2-3 seasons. I think this has been Morey's plan all along. Complaining about not actually having a superstar RIGHT NOW is pointless and unfair.
I'm not even saying I want to trade for him. I just think it's ridiculous how, in all these discussions, people go on and on about what a 'winner' Battier is compared to 'losers' like Jackson, even though he's accomplished far more than Battier. And the thing is, I hate the whole notion of labeling guys winners and losers to begin with. I mean, you can't just ignore the effects of the other 14 guys on the roster and say, 'Well his team beat that team, so he's better than that player.'
I can't tell if Bob Sacamano is being serious or it is a cleverly disguised character poking fun at some of the ridiculous scenarios being thrown around. Stephen Jacksona and Baron Davis winners?????
Your post is on the money, or on the Morey, as case may be. I don't know if CD was totally responsible for all those bone headed drafts and contracts, but there were a boatload of them during his watch. Somebody had a strange view of talent, because the Rockets didn't get much of it. After they painted themselves into a corner with stupid bloated contracts, there was no where to go. Morey has been impressive so far, but I think Les is the reason behind the "building around Yao/TMac" fixation. And frankly, the "something for nothing" approach (the other extreme from the CD era) won't always work. If TMac and Yao get signed to new long term and bloated contracts, the Rockets will have their nose in the corner for years to come.
give me a ****ing break. the guy has nabbed solid players left and right for next to NOTHING. wait, let me guess... scola for vspan nor artest for donte green and scraps count as pulling a "big fish with a small lure" :rolleye add lowry, wafer, landry, and brooks to the list of acquisitions, compare that to what we've given up, and you and the OP are gonna play this card? sure thing, buddy... you and the OP deserve each other, as you both suck.
I like the job Morey has done amassing quality role players. I thought nabbing Artest for a one-year tryout was brilliant. He has drafted well in the second round. The miscalculations he has made (Francis, Wells, Dorsey, Barry) did not affect the team much and he has done admirably in correcting them. With that said, he will have to get stars on to the team. T-Mac, whether he plays for the Rockets this year or not, will not fit the bill, but teams are not willing to trade anything of value for him, be it a high first rounder or real talent. Not even the broke teams value an expiring contract that highly. Similarly, Yao Ming can't be traded for anything worth a damn at this point. His contract far outstrips his contributions to a team due to his annual injuries. Teams will only trade bad contracts for him. The Rockets best case scenarios are polar opposites: Either Yao and TMac both come back better than ever (shyeah right) or they both quickly retire. Once TMac and Yao are truly gone, the real work begins. High draft picks are gambles; they aren't guarantees. There are many more draft busts than superstars selected in the first five picks. Morey has shown a talent for drafting in the late first and in the second round thus far. He'll have to prove he can find superstars next, through the draft, through free agency, through trades. Without superstars, the Rockets aren't going anywhere. Problem is, superstars are extremely hard to get. All the Baron Davises and Stephen Jacksons in the world aren't worth a single REAL superstar, and there isn't even a true superstar in every draft.
Lol...Cmon man you can't be serious. Gstate has a plethora of wing players so if you can send them Battier plus the Rockets' 1st round pick next year for Jackson you do it and you take a chance with his "anger" issues. The Spurs don't win the 2003 title without him and the Warriors don't beat a 67 win Dallas team in the 1st round without him either. He gives you good offense, good defense, and clutch play and his contract is a great value vis-a-vis his skillset. Lol @ team chemistry...it's practically an entirely new team. Also, in relation to Amare, you need to go back and reread my initial post that said to pursue him as a free agent in 2010. Thanks for the constructive comment. I like Scola as much as the next guy, he's in my signature after all, but he's not getting any younger and he's going to demand a lot of money and he's going to want a multi-year deal. His style of play isn't conducive to him playing at this level for the next 4-5 years. So the Rockets and Scola's camp are probably not going to see eye to eye. It would be best to go a different direction unless Scola agrees to a 2-3 year deal for about $5 million a year or something. In sum, it's unlikely. Role players are nice, but you need star players to win. Lol @ your proven winners like Scola and Battier comment. Stephen Jackson was key cog on a championship team and on another team that made history by knocking out the #1 seeded 67 win Dallas Mavericks team. Also, Amare has gone deep in the playoffs on multiple occasions including two trips to the Western Conference Finals. Sorry for the facts getting in the way of your irrational comments. What's your plan for rebuilding?
So shane on the decline already has 5-7 yrs left and scola also? If so, at what level? I don't hate any rocket player, I just see them as value pieces. Lets say Shane has a worse year than what he had offensively last yr which is possible, highly possible. What can you get for him then? Let also say scola puts up better numbers, but struggles from a fg% and the team sucks. What is his price tag? I like scola a lot, but what if and its highly possible that yao comes back like big z? A slow, jump shooting big and teams no longer double him. Remember the playoffs vs Lakers when even with the big game scola shot 40%? Again,we're talking about a team being stuck in the middle. A 30-40 win team. Now we can sugarcoat this thing all we like, but it is what it is.
<insert elaborate trade that ruins our cap space for next off-season while crippling us with terrible contracts all to get a pseudo-all-star in exchange for Tracy McGrady's contract and a valuable, young promising player's contract>
-insert elaborate trade that ruins our cap space for next off-season while crippling us with terrible contracts all to get a pseudo-all-star in exchange for Tracy McGrady's contract and a valuable, young promising player's contract- (apparently enclosing things in angle brackets is treated like HTML)
Hey, I'm not the one that gave up a playoff game ticket . Scola was a steal considering the rockets gave up vspan. Artest was a 1 yr rental for a draft pick that hasn't panned out. Brooks was adelman's guy, but he was the gm so i'll give him credit. He drafted landry and dorsey and traded for lowry which is all cool, but like I've said before, gm's either draft a all star caliber talent or trade for one. 2 years is still early, but so far he has done neither. Truthfully, as much as I like brooks, he's the closest we have to a young all star talent if he keeps progressing. We will see though, but we have a lot of good role players right now.
I think he was brought in to reign in the franchise, but that no longer mattered once Francis was traded.
