Go read my post on how Morey thinks. Yao Ming's injury was not a surprise to him, if you saw Yao walk out of the final game he played, you would have see this coming. Ariza was a big steal. Morey can still get Lebron or Dwight or Lamar Odom. Any of those teams can implode. Artest in LA, Shaq in Cleveland, and Loser syndrome in Orlando. If none of those pans out, there are still moves to be made. Our priority now is a center, and another wing player, I'm sure Morey is waiting to see how James White performs in summer league to determine if to wait for the Lebron sweepstakes or make a move with T-MAC now. White is a HUGE upgrade over Wafer, but we can still keep Wafer just for parts. Morey is simply stocking talent
I don't think Morey's that concerned with whether the team gets into the playoffs or the lottery this season. What I see is that Morey is making choices now with the ultimate goal of making a championship-caliber team in 2010 and beyond, and he's targeting guys like Ariza, Gortat and Rubio because they fit his scheme. It seems pretty clear he's set his sights on the 2010 offseason to get the team's next franchise player, but is keeping an eye out for a potential trade that could make the same thing happen sooner. Meanwhile, he's busy getting together the right role players who can grow with the new star or stars.
Ariza replaces Battier for a cheaper contract AND frees up Battier to be our most desired yet expendable asset to trade. That part is crystal clear. Being competitive is in Les' DNA. The Rockets need to put the best product they can on the floor in 09/10. But you can't make dumb cap strapping deals because of the unusual nature of next year's Free Agency. Adding Amare' now, adds competitiveness and would still play well if Yao returns. Discounted for the chance of not being able to get Chris Bosh, Amare now is about as good a deal as we might expect. Wafer, well for 50% of the fans he's fun to watch; a high energy spark plug. And not all wings are the same, 3's are not necessarily 2's and 2's usually aren't tall enough to play the 3. So Wafer adds excitement now and could develop into a credible 7th man for the future. It's about as likely as our draft picks and won't cost a lot more. Anyway, Morey is holding a couple of cards; Tmac's expiring and Battier's desirability for a contending team. At this point he is just looking to get the most value. or if he doesn't get what he wants, he can wait out the 2010 FA's. I would love to have a tap on his phone line today. There is probably some big time poker being played.
We signed Ariza for more than a year you know. Are you really thinking that Ariza by himself is going to take a team out of tank mode? I'm optimistic about Ariza's growth as a player, but I don't see him doing that good. You are misjudging the talent on the team without Yao and Artest, just because they won a couple against LAL without Yao doesn't mean they're not in big trouble this year. Why did they use the injured player exception rather than the MLE? The only answer I can come up with is that the injured player exception can only be used on 1 guy while the MLE can be divided. So they are not going to use the whole thing to sign someone, it's going to be split.
I think Morey master plan is a little bit adjusted to Les Master plan, and Les master plan has always to be entitled as "Yao Ming Owner", Morey master plan is moving forward on resigning Yao because "he has to" and he is creating the enviroment to make it look that suddenly it is "the best option for us". Our whole plan, from here on, is hope that suddenly we find a great great PF, so that he can carry this team nicely. And then expect the "great wall return". I think that when we trade TMac we will have a better view of this "plan".
Actually if you watched the Ariza press conference, Morey actually seemed to be favoring keeping Trevor with Shane. Battier was the only active player Morey even talked about.
He was advertising Battier, if we get any good offer, then Battier is gone, but if they try to give off dumb offers kinda like Dalembert for T-Mac, then Battier is staying
I think Morey is just playing the waiting game, being patient. He knows the offers are going to get better for Tracy eventually (either this summer or by the deadline), and they HAVE to hold out for a star player to rebuild the core. If they don't get a star for him, they let him walk and enter 2010 FA. I'm sure they're hoping a deal works out this summer (Amare), but if it doesn't I think they're ready to accept having a rebuilding year and coming back stronger with a new star, and hopefully Yao. But say we got Amare and J-Rich/Barbosa, then maybe make another trade for a backup big and use the MLE to fill any potential holes, then we might be right back in the race. The way I look at it, we have 4 significant trade assets. Mcgrady, Landry, Brooks, and Battier. You'd hate to see any of the latter 3 go, but if we can turn over some of them into a superstar and a scorer like Amare/J-Rich, then use the MLE to finish out the roster after the deal, I think you have to do it. Otherwise we're counting on lottery balls and praying that Bosh chooses us next summer.
I personally think Battier will be traded for a C who makes around $5.5 mill. under the 25% rule. It gets a reasonable C and drops some cap money. But I don't have a clue who that would be.
Morey's master plan is rather simple. Use technology, statistics data and research to get a leg up on the competition, and determine the true value of players, rather than traditional stats. Find the hidden gems. Find the deals. Figure out how players fit. Then, gather as many player "assets" as you can, in whatever way you can, through the draft, exemptions, exceptions, trades, players out of favor, players squeezed in negotiations, etc. Then trade up to build a contender. Its all statistics, business and trading for him.
That's where Adelman's input comes in. Brooks was an Adelman pick, and it looks like Ariza is a player Adelman wanted. And if the rumours are true, it's Adelman that doesn't want Amare.
How can people not be confused? They don't know what he's doing behind the scenes, they don't know the players like people in the Rockets organization do, they don't know the direction the team is taking as well as the Rockets' people do, and they don't know about potential trade talks going on behind the scenes.... yet, people here come up with adamant opinions and judge individual moves and rumors as if those will be the only moves they ever make. lol. Sit back and enjoy... stuff happens.
What I can say is Morey can admit when he made mistakes. When he made the trade for shane, he thought he was getting a guy that could be the 3rd wheel. Once he started seeing what others have seen about shane, he's changed his tune. Battier doesn't fit what adelman wants to do.I've said that before and have been challenged on that , but I know he doesn't fit. Some on this board always talk about just a piece here and a piece there, but morey can see its more than just a piece here or there. When he inquired about rubio, it set off a alarm in my head that Yao was worse off than what was being broadcast to the public. A ball dominating pg and yao isn't a good match. So that told me they were mooving on from the yao-mcgrady ers. Now with the re-emergence of the amare deal, morey is assembling a quicker,agile, slashing team. Gone are the players and days of trying tto set up yao or iso with tracy. Getting richardson and amare along with ariza combined with brooks sets the rockets up to compete now and if yao comes back. Amare is a guy who can score without a lot a time elapsing off the clock. He's young enough that he fits the profile of a young star playing at a high level. He also still runs like a gazzelle and rebounds pretty well. He fits all the way around. Even if he plays center, which he played during his best yrs, if yao comes back, yao will be a more catch and shoot type.
No one on this board has a clue about what is going through Morey's head. Just sit back and enjoy the show. To steal Lebron's advertising slogan, we are all witnesses.
