Below is my attempt to write a Rockets "article" about the off-season. wrote it at work today when I was bored. I know there's grammatical errors but im posting it as is for general consumption. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do you like "Morey-ball" now? Most Houston fans feel silly for doubting (if not berating) new Rockets GM "the Wizard" Daryl Morey. The man known for being big on statistics, a numbers man But here we are, just weeks later and the management has pulled the offseason back from disastrous to seemingly stunning. The first move, which was plotted even before the hated cross-town rival Spurs raised yet another championship trophy, was to dump the salary heavy Juwan Howard to Minnesota in a classic buy low move, for Mike James. James is familiar with the franchise, and at his best can be the much talked about third scorer the Rockets have pined for at times when stars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming have struggled with either their shot, or injury. Although, there was some initial talk about Tracy and Mike not having the best offcourt relationship, Mcgrady was quick to shut that chatter down commenting on how he loved what James brought to the team in his first stint (their 2005 run, which only ended after 7 gruelling games against the Mavericks) Howard was a valuable contributor over the years for the Rockets, especially last season when he stepped in after Yao went down with a knee injury and gave Houston much needed scoring and rebounding. However, his contract still is forever an albatross, and now something Glenn Taylor has to worry about. So as the Rockets waived goodbye to the most maligned player in their recent history, they said hello to a PG upgrade, saved some money, and set their sights on the 28th June. Draft day. Which is precisely the date Rockets faithful turned 180 degrees on Morey. Houston held the 26th pick in a deep draft. They were guaranteed a shot at a decent power forward, for which they were now in desperate need with Howard gone Chuck Hayes, who at 6'9 in his shoes, is not even a lock to be a Houston uniform next year as he's a restricted free agent. Several names were almost certain to be available, even towards the end of the 1st round, that promised to give a boost to their big man stocks. Nick Fazekas, "Big Baby" Davis, Josh McRoberts, Tiago Splitter were all names bandied around. Amazingly, come the clubs turn to pick, all these names were still on the board. Then things took a shocking turn. "With the 26th pick in the draft, the Houston Rockets select Aaron Brooks of Oregon University" - David Stern. Brooks is probably shorter than the 6'3 he's listed at. A speedy point guard who had gone under the draft radar. Someone nobody had predicted the Rockets would look at with their needs being so obviously tailored to a big man to go alongside Yao Ming. After some initial thought, confusion, and desperate hope about a possible trade of the pick, confirmation soon came that the Rockets were more than satisfied with their pick up. With this, and the later selection of unknown Australian quantity, 6'6 Brad Newley (yet another guard) at pick 54, the knives were soon out for Morey. The new whiz-bang statistician's nous was being more than seriously questioned. Sure, he knows maths, but does he know a damned thing about Basketball? As the rage continued, only slightly eased by the trade for Seattle's second round pick Carl Landry (who is a PF, but doesn't come with the credentials that some of the bigger names who had been available, the Rockets and Morey appeared to stand pat. Even throughout the serious rush at the start of the trading season, the rumours coming from the Houston management camp were few and far between. People were even desperate enough to jump and down of the minute possibility home-town son Rashard Lewis would accept an offer of little more than the MLE to sign with the club that snubbed him not once, not twice, but three times when he was a draftee coming out of high school. Daryl admitted to campaigning with phone calls, but this was always a long shot. The consensus was, if Morey was banking on Lewis only, then this franchise had officially gone several steps backward. Little did we all know, there was something cooking in that iron-clad kitchen all along. Something BIG. Ok, not Jake Tsakalidis big (where for art thou Jake?) but figuratively the move of attaining Luis Scola (27 yrs old and 6'11) a proven winner and dominant Euro PF for both his local club Te-Ciramusu in the Spanish league and the Argentinian gold medal winning Olympic team. Scola was drafted to the NBA back in 2002 by the San Antonio Spurs, and despite his desire to come and play in the US league, the Spurs weren't willing to negotiate a buy-out with his Spanish club. Undetered, Luis developed into a star in the Euroleague and in it's most recent season won the league MVP. His league averages of 15pts and 6rebs don't tell the full story on this guy. The more team orientated style in Europe means 15 and 6 are impressive with the way the ball darts around as if it were in a pinball machine. Scola is a polished player, who at 27, has been considered probably the best prospect to come out of Argentina (yes, even ahead of Manu Ginobili). How long he will take to adjust to the style of the NBA is the question. But with plenty of professional experience under his belt, the Rockets are confident he can be a serious contributor as soon as next season. On top of that his reported 3 year, 10 million deal is likely chicken feed compared to what he could command on the league's current free agent market. The price for this was merely Vassilis Spanoulis, who is headed back to Europe via San Antonio after achieving nothing in one year with the Rockets glued to Jeff Van Gundy's bench and the acceptance of Jackie Butler who the Spurs had no intention of using. It remains to be seen, but Butler, himself a solid body and 6'10, could prove useful and see minutes in an extended frontline which may or may not still include the ageless Dikembe Mutombo and Hayes. Amongst all the quagmire, Morey's choice of Rick Adelman as coach promises to improve the visual quality of the Rockets as his style promises uptempo assaults on the basket, a nice change of pace from Van Gundy's renowned ''knock down, drag 'em out'' defensive approach where the first team to 80 wins most of the time. The signing of Rick as the new coach was the single factor that brought Bonzi Wells back for a second run with the team after a disastrous first season with Houston which included numerous injuries and spats with the coach, and culminated in him walking out on the team a mere five games prior to the beginning of the playoffs citing the fact he felt he was "disrupting the teams chemistry". Bonzi had a good run in Sacramento with Adelman at the helm. He likes, and knows his system. Wells promises to be the X factor again this season. Houston hopes he delivers with his tremendous talent this time around. And most recently, for those that enjoy a stroll down memory lane, Morey engineered a 2 year, 6 million deal for Steve Francis who for so long was the heart and soul of the Rockets before they shipped him to Orlando for McGrady, largely due to Van Gundy not appreciating Steve's approach to the game. After unsuccessful stints in Orlando and New York, the player they used to hail as Stevie Franchise, found himself bought out by the TrailBlazers immediately after they obtained his rights, and fielding aggressive offers from the Heat (who offered a chance to play alongside Shaq and Dwyane Wade) and the Clippers(where he could be re-united with old running mate Cuttino Mobley). You can bet Morey-ball hasn't come full circle yet. It would appear further trades are in the works with the addition of Francis only adding to the Rockets already full to the seams crew of PG's. Houston fans will continue to debate the potential trades of guys like John Lucas the Third, Luther Head, Rafer Alston and Bob Sura (well, his contract at least) but one thing they can be sure of, this Daryl Morey guy is more than just a numbers man. How do you like him now? Houston Rockets fans are liking him just fine.
Let's summarize our current roster situation. Ideally, we want 3-deep for each position. So here we go: PG: Alston, James, Francis, Brooks, Lucas, Sura Of all our PGs now, the only one who can play good defense is James. So we must keep him. We don't sign Francis to trade him, so he'll stay. So will Brooks. Looks like Alston and Lucas won't be back. Lucas has no trade value. We'll just let him walk, or as a throw-in in a package. Sura is nothing but an expiring contract. He will be dealt for its value. Contrary to what many here believe, Alston can be the starting PG some teams need. We can trade him to further solidify our front court. Projected depth chart: James, Francis, Brooks SG: McGrady, Wells, Head, Snyder McGrady and Wells will stay. One of Head and Snyder, maybe both will be gone. (If both are gone, we might want to keep 4 PGs. James and Francis can play some SG.) I am inclined to think that they will keep either Head or Snyder for future development. It is a good possibility that Wells won't be here after this season. Some people suggest that we start Wells at SG and McGrady at SF, pushing Battier to the bench, or to the 4. I don't think so. Wells is better off coming from the bench. Head has more trade value than Snyder. But Head also has more value to us because of his 3-point shooting. It is going to be a toss up. My guess is, Head won't be a Rocket next season, although I wouldn't mind if we keep Head instead of Snyder. Projected depth chart: McGrady, Wells, Snyder *** You can see each guard spot has two legitimate scorers who can create his own shots. That is awesome!! SF: Battier, (McGrady), (Wells), Harris Not much to say on this position. Harris won't make the roster. Projected depth chart: Battier, McGrady, Wells PF: Hayes, Scola, Novak, Landry This is the most uncertain area right now. I am pretty sure Scola will be ahead of Hayes, eventually if not immediately. The questions are: (1) Is Hayes the primary backup 4 for our future? (2) Can Novak play? (3) Can Landry play? (4) How good will Scola be? You see, none of the four players is a sure thing. We need something more sure. I think Hayes is too valuable to just let him walk. Is it likely that Landry doesn't make the roster? (He's a second rounder, so no guaranteed contract.) Projected depth chart: Scola, Hayes, ? C: Yao, Butler, Mutombo, Tsakalidis Butler is likely the primary backup. Will they sign Mutombo, Tsakalidis, or neither? I think if Mutombo wants to play, they will probably sign him just for sentimental value. Jake will walk. I assume that Mutombo won't see much floor even if he is signed. In the past, we had no post presence on offense when Yao is not on the floor. Now we have Scola, and Butler seems to have some offensive game too. Projected depth chart: Yao, Butler, ? Projected roster movements We need to move the surplus players for something that can fill the needs. Surplus players under contract: Alston, Sura, Lucas, Head/Snyder, Novak Players to sign: Hayes, Mutombo (possibily) Players not to sign: Harris, Tsakalidis, Landry (possibly) Needs to be filled, in order of priority: 1. A better backup (or even starting) PF, someone who can rebound and play defense. 2. A third or second string C for insurance, especially in case Butler doesn't play well. 3. Perhaps a third string SF, preferably someone who can shoot the 3 well, especially if we don't keep Novak. I believe the roster as of now is pretty good already. The only area that needs to be addressed is a surer PF spot. Other than that, we should trade for the future, i.e. draft picks or young players with potential to develop. The beauty is, we still some surplus assets, Alston, Sura, and Head all have considerable trade values. I am confident that Morey will turn them into something solid.
The only moves to be made should be trades for future picks and cuts...that's it. I've already said this on another thread. Most of you guys think that you're gonna get somethin for nothin on every trade you make. When a team makes a trade, they look at what's best for them and the team their trading to...not just the team they're trading to. Neither Miami or Indiana is gonna take two ratty-ass point guards for a player they think is a piece to their own puzzle. Besides, the only player worth trading for mentioned in this whole thread is Haslem and the Heat probly aren't gonna let him go.
What puzzle does Indiana have? They are in full rebuilding mode as soon as they move Jermaine Oneal. The Heat may still have a shot this year if they stay healthy so I agree they do not want crap.
With the Pacers signing Travis Diener, their point guard position is no longer their biggest concern so any trade with them wouldn't seem likely. As for the Heat, offer Alston, Head & Sura for Haslem and everything would be complete, Haslem has won a ring and knows his role on a team and would be my pick to go after but I'm not 100% sure if Miami would go for the deal.
Getting Jeff Foster is NOT a dream offseason. STOP getting all these 1-dimensional player, they're no use!! We already have Chuck Hayes.
Yao and McGrady already are on the team so calling them out is unnecessary. Considering his salary, Camby is too risky an acquisition.
I would say he is worth the money. It would instantly propel us to become contenders, not that we are not "potentially" one at the moment.
Actually, the reason Blake signed with Portlan was because Denver signed Atkins. If you read the stuff Blake said after he signed with Portland he basically said Denver blindsided him and thus he returned to Portland. They got the point guard they wanted in Atkins - they could've had Blake if they wanted him. They don't have as much of a need at point as they did earlier in the off-season when their pg situation was up in the air...they certainly aren't in a dire enough situtation to trade Camby for Alston. They may trade Camby for cap room...but I'm sure they can do better than Alston.
Wouldn't REBUILDING MODE suggest that they have to have pieces to put the puzzle back together? I still think a trade is possible with the Pacers. They have one of the worst starting PGs in the league, if not the worst.
Maybe the Clips would trade us Livingston for Alston if they think he will never play again. By not picking up the option on Livingston, he is basically and expiring contract, and we could save the last two years on Rafer's deal. This would give us more flexibility under the luxury tax threshold next summer to sign a player(s).
Why do people still want alston?????// It makes NO SENSE. HE IS NOT NEEDED. WHAT DOES HE PROVIDE TO THIS TEAM????? NOTHING
i could honestly say this. if it was not for rafer's shooting (37%), we would've passed the first round last year.
These are the moves I want to see. Alston & Head - to MIA for Haslem JL3 - to NO for a 2nd Rounder + Cash Sura - buyout his contract unless you can move him
Is there anyway to get Matt Barne? Seriously he fit in great!! I mean the guy can shoot....drive and dunk and play D. He fits perfectly. And if we can get rid of Rafer and Head for Matt, i am all for it. Off the bench lineup will be James, Barnes, BOnzi!!
