ITT: Post as if it's June 23rd and the Rockets just gave the 5th pick to OKC

Chris Paul himself said it went downhill once we lost Ariza. I think he is right. Paul was a critical #2 but not replacing Moute or Ariza haunted the team for years. James Ennis? Iman Shumpert? Danuel House? Lol. No. We should have stuck to the team template we had in 2018 which was a proven way to maximize Harden. Trading Paul for Westbrook was doubling down on stupid and trading Capela for the wing we needed was too late and a step off the cliff.

 

That is why we should have just run it back and traded westbrook and harden next year where we would have kept our pick.

 

But everyone told me John Wall was better than Westbrook.......

 

Unfortunately Tilman pissed off Morey and Dantoni which in turn pissed off Harden and Westbrook. Harden was done after game 2 of that Lakers series.

 

Ariza was not good the year after he left the rockets.

 

I said "replacing Ariza"

 

It would be devastating to have the worst record in the league and end up with like the 19th pick. **** Morey, Fertitta, Harden, and whoever else signed off on that dumbass trade.

 

Thanks Fertits!

 

I fear that Silver will hand over the Number 1 pick to OKC so they can select Cade Cunningham from Oklahoma State. I know it's irrational, but this is the first time I came up with this horrible thought.
He hated James Harden on the Rockets.

 

This is fine by me. It doesn't matter where you pick, what matters is who you pick and what you do with him....ie are you able to nourish and develop or at least not stand in his way

 

It's always darkest just before it goes totally black.

— John McCain (fake-quoting Chairman Mao)

 

whew, almost had to pay cade millions

if tillmen excite, then i excite

 

Who you pick is greatly determined by who is available to be picked.

 

I said many times that I thought it was a no brainer to bring Ariza back because his bird rights were the only financial mechanism the team had to maintain the talent level , it was Ariza or minimum's.

When Morey made the statement that Ariza wouldn't be brought back I was in complete shock .... That I was the first of the very un-Morey-like decisions that were attributed to "Luxury Tax Savings".

After that was the whole long process of dumping Ryno's contract that culminated with Shumpert expiring for nothing. That cost the team Melton , 2 2nd round picks & a first round pick and the cap space above the cap that they cold have used to improve with.

I'm hoping that Ferntits has learned his lesson .... Can't be a cheap ass when you are close and not to meddle in personnel decisions.

It wasn't the player or his performance , it was the financial vehicle his bird rights represented. Without that , you were relegated to veteran minimum contracts. With Ariza's contract , you had the financial ability to move salary & acquire talent as a result.
Ariza signed with PHX for $15m for one season , he probably would have stuck around with the Rockets for less than that.
They traded Ariza for Oubre & Austin Rivers ....and Oubre was part of what eventually got them CP3.

 

Obviously it could be Tilman’s decision to not re-sign Ariza but I thought it could also be bad judgement on Morey’s part. Even before Tilman, Morey had a tendency of overvaluing flexibility and refuse to commit to non-star players long term (e.g. Dragic and Parsons). I think he genuinely thought Ennis and Melo were going to replicate the production of Ariza. I remember he was so giddy about the addition of Ennis.

 

technically true but the draft history teaches us you can always pick better with a later pick if you know your stuff...KNOW YOUR STUFF...losing on purpose is not a replacement for doing your homework and its pathetic...

 

Say what you want about Tilman but Morey genuinely thought Ennis was going to be a good addition.

 

Westbrook didn't want to stay in Houston even with Harden. He is getting his triple doubles but he isn't good for a rebuilding team.
Wall started off quite nicely with Harden, but he completely imploded after James got traded to the Nets. That hurts us a lot, I admit.