Since Amen is so good, what would you trade to get Ausar?

I'm kind of amazed that you don't remember the Rockets drafting Marcus Morris over Kawhi Leonard, then trading him after 1.5 years so he could play with Markieff in Phoenix, both of them raising their level of play and famously getting told during their contract negotiations that there was $52M available for them, and it was up to them how to divvy it up.

Because that total chain of disasters is burned into my soul for as long as I'm a Rockets fan. Imagine having Kawhi Leonard and James Harden together at 21 and 23, rather than 33 and 35...

Ironically, looking at how both of their games have developed, I do wonder if Amen and Ausar are just better playing apart for now. Like if you swapped out Tari for Ausar and made the Biological Terror Twins, is that actually an improvement from a fit perspective? Tari's shooting at times already feels like it's barely passable, and Ausar's shooting is substantially worse.

 

I remember those years lol.

I always thought Morey's weak point was drafting, I mean the lotto picks we had, Morris, Lamb, Patterson, basically turned out to be depth players at best, not even starters.

Passing on Kawhi was an all time miss, I remember most of the board here wanting him too.

This is not me saying Morey was/is a bad GM though, I just think sometimes having a pure analytical approach allows you to miss the mental part of the game. Like I know no way in hell are we drafting Amen if Morey is here but I bet the Stone/Ime had more faith in Amen because they sat down, talked with him, and saw he had a drive to get better and improve and believed in the character and athleticism of he person, which is something consistent with nearly every player we've drafted.

A project isn't much of a project if you know he's going to work his *** off once he gets here, and I think Kawhi coming in as a non-shooter probably put Morris on the board over Kawhi for us, unfortunately...