CD's job is a batting average type job AND a shared job with the coach. So CD and JVG working together have a better batting average than CD and Rudy had since '96. But God Bless Rudy. He brought us two trophies. Now let's thank the good Lord that JVG and CD can continue working well together and stay on the same page!!! I am really looking forward to this season!!
CD's top 10 best/worst moves as GM: BEST: 1) Trading Francis/Mobely/Cato for TMac/Howard/Lue 2) Drafting Yao Ming with the number one pick 3) Traded Price/Dickerson/Harrington/Carr/1st round pick to Grizz for Francis/TMass/Ndiaye, sent Mayberry/Rhodes/Smith to ORL, received McLean. 4) Drafting Cuttino Mobely in the second round. 5) Signed Swift as FA for MLE 6) Traded 2nd round pick to MIL for Kevin Willis 7) Traded Kevin Willis for Roy Rogers/2 first round pics in '98 8) Traded Roy Rogers/2nd round pick for Pippen 9) Traded Wilks/A.Griffin/Piatkowski to CHI for Dikembe 10) Drafted Dickerson. Without him, we could never have gotten Francis, who got us TMac. WORST: 1) Not drafting Lewis 3 times, after we promised him as a local hometown favorite, because we didn't want to offend Pippen. Pippen gave us sour grapes, Lewis became All-Star. 2) Not trading Griffin for Lewis, when we had another chance, then waiving Griffin only months later. 3) Waiving Griffin. No excusing Griffin's actions, but they had too much invested in him to do this. They should have hired someone like John Lucas to mentor him and be his personal coach, earlier, not later, or trade him to a team who could mentor him. They invested 3 first round draft picks that could have given us Jefferson, Randolf, and a great PG. Now, because he has rehabilitated himself, he plays for MIN, and will become a good player IMHO. We should have gotten SOMETHING for all that investment. 3) Not trading Pippen when he did have value, then trading him too quckly for a bunch of bad contracts. Even on this deal, if we'd have sweetened the deal, we could have gotten O'Neal, instead of Cato. 4) Not completing a trade with TOR that included TMac, because we didn't want to throw in Drew. 5) Traded Najera for Langhi and 2nd draft pick. 6) Traded Cassell/Horry/Brown for Barkley. We did this to get by Seattle, but this put us on a bad track, causing Clyde to retire early, and McDeyss not to sign with us as a FA, because we didn't have a good PG. I like that he's had such a high profile since, though, since its given HOU a lot of recognition. 7) Nixed the trade of Olajuwon for Willis, Christie, #5, #12. We could have picked Marion and Miller in that draft, and if we'd have sweetened the deal, gotten McGrady instead of Christie. None of us wanted to see Dream go, but he never had it after that, and ended up forcing us to trade him later anyway. 8) Signing Maloney to a huge contract extension. 9) S&T'd Anderson to NY for Glen Rice and Kyle Hill. We should have let him walk. We had to give UTA a first round pick and 2 second round picks to get rid of Rice's contract. We could have gotten Delonte West and Chris Duhon with those picks. 10) Trading Joel Prizbilla to MIL for 2001 1st pick/Collier. We could have picked a better player, such as Magliore, Turkoglu, Peterson, Mason, Jaric, Redd, Richardson, etc. It was great to trade the pick, but of course, we used it on Griffin instead of Tinsley or Arenas. The biggest change I've noticed in the last couple years that has made CD a much better GM, is that he's much more patient to let the deal come to him, more frugal, willing to trade favorites for what's best for the team, and has JVG doing the research to get the best players who fit. He's always been a good ole' boy, and had great Texan charm, honest as the day is long, and a good trader, but now he has better balance, and someone advising him much better in terms of talent evaluation.
Jeez...CD doesn't seem to be getting all that much love from the board. Let's not forget who brought JVG to the Rockets in the first place. And after doing so, he then acquired players that fit the current coach's style. What else can he do to get a little credit?
Very impressive Sherlock. It's difficult to find an argument anywhere in there. In defense of the CD/Rudy era I do believe that he really could become "the Franchise". Indirectly I think it colored every decision that was made thereafter. I still love SF, but now I have no idea who is a complementary player for his game other than an above average pg. And everything went south until he got injured and we hit the lottery. Then EG melted down and Rudy became ill. If there had not been a disgruntled superstar sitting in his hometown with a complete idiot of a gm we'd still be struggling to stay a lowly second-tier team and we'd all be screaming. Good luck, bad luck whatever CD has done a good job getting things done. We could dissect every team in the league in terms of decisions and CD would come out fine.
Carroll Dawson is one of my all-time dawgs! God bless him for helping us get two championships to Houston. I think he's done way more good than bad for our franchise. He's in the top five of all the GM's in my opinion. He listens to his coaches and works well with them. That's what makes a good GM a good GM.
Not only has he turned us into a contender, he's also turned us into a team that is fun to watch again. With playmakers like Tmac, Yao, and even Jon Barry; almost anything is possible (cross court behind the back passes, amazing dunks, over the head passes, and etc.) Thx CD.
He's fine as a GM, but just wanted to throw this out there to see what you guys think ... is it just me, and I don't mean to poke fun at the guy, but he has some really poor communication skills i understand in his profession it's mostly hush hush and he needs to be careful with his words, but he will wait and wait and say something in the most basic english ... "you know, he's, he's , he's a special player, you know ... we're happy ... yeah we reallly, umm errr, liked him" you can pretend it's his GM role, but it's not... guy's spoken like this forever....used to be on sports night live a decade ago when he was an assistant and he was the same way ... not asking him to be a toastmaster like Pat Riley but you watch a press conference and you wonder "shouldn't the General Manager be better with words?" btw I love the guy and think he's a great person...
dont forget about the signing of brent price, and its arguable whether trading our championship team for charles barkley, was a good or bad move.
Nice post, Sherlock. I disagreed with number 10. Francis alone did not get us TMac, it's TMac himself wanted to come to Houston because of Yao Ming and wanted a trade. If TMac doesn't want out, even dumb ass Weisboro would not pull the trigger on that one. 2. I agreed with you it hurts the most not getting Lewis and putting too much into Eddie Griffin and have it not pan out and drop him like a bag of dirt.
A great person with words are good for PR people job. CD has other ways to appeal to free agent, it's more about psychological approach to appeal to a free agent than saying nice things. Like he leads them to championship trophy showcase, it's a very nice touch. It doesn't hurt that Houston Rockets has been a first class organization for sometime and we have two championships to show for it even in the bulls-dominated 90s, it speaks volumes.
I'd give CD a B - a quality GM that you wouldn't want to change because there's no guarantee you can get anything better (unless Jerry West comes knocking). Jerry West, Rick Buford, and Sund (with seattle) - great GM's, but i can't think of others. Maybe Pat Riley has a lot to do with the Heat, but really, after those four, CD has got to be amongst the top 10.
Seattle was in the running for MoT that year as well... MoT refused a bigger contact with the Clips and was deciding btw the Sonics and the Rox for the same contract offer
Way do fans still whine like children about Rashard Lewis..... that year,if we had not have gotten Michael Dickerson. whowas part of the Francis trade, who later sucked bad enough to get Yao But was good enough to be traded for T-Mac... Stop living in the past and embrace yourself for the bright future we are about to embark upon...
CD has made some great moves this past year or so (TMac, Swift, James). He does need to ease up that logjam at the 1/2 spots; signing every available guard has landed us some good players, but it's time to tighten up that roster, no doubt. Still, we're gonna have a great team next year, so I'm not going to sound too glass-is-half-empty right now.
what do i think of cd? when i think of cd i say now that is a texas man. he represents everything that is beautiful about the greatest kind of people on the planet. he is kind, gracious, honest, and has a intelligent simplicity that creates comfort in the most anxious of men. he is everything all gm's should strive to be. where is his statue? put it out there for all to see and bow down to. make it of pure gold to represent his heart and the heart of this franchise. he's our golden man leading the franchise into a new golden era. all hail the king CD!
