Adam Morrison is an elite offensive player. Rudy Gay is a POTENTIAL pick. Morrison is already extremely developed. You don't trade up from #1 to #8 for Rudy Gay, I'm sorry.
I don't think so. We may have talked with some teams about the possibility of moving up from the 15th spot but we were not about to sell the house when we already had the #1 pick in the same draft and it appeared to everyone on this board that Boki was Rudy's target at 15 even before the draft. I think there was some talk about moving up to get Tshkishvilli (sp?) but once again I don't think the Rockets were going to sweeten the pot very much when they already had the number one pick. It does seem like there were reports that the team was very impressed with Amare's work outs and might draft him if available at 15.
There was a pretty strong rumor that the Rockets offered EG and the #15 for the #9 pick to the Suns because they wanted Amare and thought he would be there at 9 and thought the Suns would take him. They also thought the Suns would bite on EG and the 15, apparently the Suns wanted no part of it and wanted Amare. Also I have heard several times that Jerry West believed Yao was going to be a total bust and Amare would stink, he then reportedly fired all his scouts who had been recommending them to him when they turned out good and he blamed them for not going after them. This is only proof that media perception creates the views of these GM's, the Suns have been run much better than anyone else lately and it's starting to pay off.
Um, no there wasn't. They had just traded three first rounders for him the year before and he showed incredible potential in his rookie year. They wouldn't have entertained trading him PLUS another high draft pick just to move up six spots in the draft for a high schooler. This couldn't have even been speculation on this very board passed off as a "pretty strong rumor" because at the time, most here even balked at including him in deals for the likes of Rashard Lewis and Jermaine O'Neal. EG was the next KG over here.
Unless you're an insider, which I highly doubt, what you fail to realize is that any shred of information worth a damn is posted on this board within minutes. If it was printed or said on the radio - this board knows about it. It's not going to be that easy to make things up and hope something sticks.
Show one place where it was said at any point in time. As thacabbage mentioned, there were actual rumors of the Rockets declining to trade Eddie Griffin for Rashard Lewis in a sign and trade. http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/0826/1422891.html According to the News Tribune, the Sonics have made calls around the league looking to do a sign-and-trade deal, but haven't put together a package. One proposed deal had the Sonics and Houston making a deal involving Eddie Griffin, who averaged 8.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.84 blocks in his rookie season. The Rockets, however, don't want to deal Griffin. If you're going around making a claim the Rockets would deal Griffin to move up 6 slots even though they wouldn't budge on moving him for a 23 year old local product coming off a 17-7 season, you better have some sort of backup.
He means minutes after something hits the public domain. This is pretty much true for any kind of news. Go to thehangout and you'll see breaking news there before many major stations start covering it.
One of the Suns management team it may have been Jc or someone like that mentioned after Amare's rookie year that several teams had tried to get that pick to take Amare or even swap once the Suns got Amare. One mention was Houston had offered EG and the #15 for the #9 and #22 pick or something like that if memory serves me correctly as well. He mentioned several teams that wanted Amare, wow what a shock the Rockets thought Amare might turn out better than EG.
I don't know if we made that offer to Phoenix or not(I've never heard of it), but if we were trying to trade up for Amare then Phoenix was probably the stupidest place to try. I remember that Amare only got to work out for 2, or 3 teams before he suffered a minor injury. He worked out for us, and phoenix(and maybe/maybe not 1 other team). So basically our staff, and Phoenix's were the only ones that got to see Amare overpower, and dunk on whatever college, or average NBA'ers that were brought in to work out with him. This was a BIG advantage for our 2 squads. That's why West was so pissed at his scouts, because he had to rely on their opinions. Had he saw Amare up close I'm sure he would have been smart enough to take him on his size/speed/power ratio alone. And that's why it would have been stupid(imo) to try, and trade with the 1 other team that worked him out. We should have gone to 1 of the teams immediately in front of Phoenix. I think Denver was right in front iirc, in front of them LA, or NY(not as sure on that one).
Well if I remember right the Clippers wanted Wilcox at#8, and in general it was thought the Suns were the only team considering moving a pick, but that was probably only until before they saw Amare workout. It really makes perfect sense if only Houston and the Suns got to work him out that Houston tried to pry him from the only other team interested in him, which in turn makes sense that they would not make a deal, which in turn makes sense why West was ticked off, because someone must have blown getting some type of workout in.
You're right on the Wilcox thing. I remembered LA, and NY being in front but I got Denver wrong as they were well ahead(#5). I knew a pf went right in front of Amare. I was thinking Nene, but it was Wilcox. Check that, just looked it up, and Nene did go around there 2 picks ahead to NY, and was traded to Denver. I think that was the McDyess trade. Top picks that year. 1 Houston Yao Ming, C, Shanghai Sharks 2 Chicago Jay Williams, G, Duke 3 Golden State Mike Dunleavy, G/F, Duke 4 Memphis Drew Gooden, F, Kansas 5 Denver Nikoloz Tskitishvili, F, Italy 6 Cleveland Dajuan Wagner, G, Memphis 7 New York Maybyner "Nene" Hilario, F/C, Brazil (Rights traded to Denver) 8 L.A. Clippers (from Atlanta) Chris Wilcox, F, Maryland 9 Phoenix Amare Stoudemire, F, Cypress Creek HS (Fla.) 10 Miami Caron Butler, F, Connecticut 11 Washington Jared Jeffries, F, Indiana 12 L.A. Clippers Melvin Ely, F/C, Fresno State 13 Milwaukee Marcus Haislip, F, Tennessee 14 Indiana Fred Jones, G, Oregon 15 Houston (from Toronto) Bostjan Nachbar, F, Italy Couple of things I also remember from that draft were that Rudy liked Caron, and was friends with Dunleavy's father(Chicken Man), and supposedly we were considering him too. Man that would have sucked if we had like the 3rd pick instead of the 1st, and took MD2.
Thats what I was trying to figure out a way to do...Even if it just got us Morrison, Gay, or Bargnani. I think Bargnani is going to be an All Star just watching his tape he looks so good...
In today's NBA, I don't think positions really matter. I mean just look around the league and you realize that teams play multiple guards, and wing players without a center. Thats a result of the lack of big mean that are out there since other than Houston and Maimi, there are no centers in the league who can run the offense through. Kaman and Kristic are good centers, but they are expandable. If you look at like Phoenix and Dallas and the others, the have like two PFs, maybe a SF, and two PGs. Phoenix plays Boris (SF/PF) and Amare (PF) at the center position along with Tim Thomas (SF), Bell (SG) and Nash (PG).... so many GMs are willing to go on "potential" and the best athlete when they are up. TMac maybe a three, but on the Rockets, he is actually our PG since he handles the ball more than Alston, Head, and Sura combined. So why not play Morrison at the two if we can draft him. From reports, I hear that he is a good defender so I don't think he will get murdered as badly as Reddick would. You just can't pass a talent like that that fills so many of our needs. He can shoot, defend, and score!!! Thats like the Rockets "dream girl"!
I remember bringing up the trade idea of trading Kenny Thomas, #15 and #38 to the Clippers for the #8 pick so we could jump ahead to get Amare. Figured it was dim since we had just drafted EG the year before and that would still put us in the same position of having two PF's. I just remembering wanting Tayshaun Prince that year instead of Boki. Oh well hindsight is 20/20.
