I agree... I like that route just fine. Morey obviously thought that we were not in the position to do that this past offseason, but he's also clearly open to the idea. I'd rather have to flip a coin with Oden on one side and Durant on the other (a good case-study of the extremes of high picks) than pick up a superstar via a trade, MOST OF THE TIME. If said superstar is available to trade for, they have baggage of some sort that may rear its ugly head (TMac) down the line. Maybe with a rosier cap picture this offseason, we will be in position to swallow a team's poison pill contract in order to land a top pick. We can also include extra picks of our own to sweeten the pot. I guess your original post makes it seem as if you don't think Morey is open to this option, and I think he is.
Dude, you just replied to YOURSELF on this page. What more evidence do i need to point out you rush to post before gathering your thoughts some?
Anyhow. Now that Battier and me are done talking. I think a trade is the way to go if he can get one good player here that consolidates the roster of its one dimensional players into one real solid one. Maybe you gain more minutes for your young guys in the process now. You have that flexibility with Ish Smith, Hill, Patterson, Lowry, Budinger, Lee. Alot of young guys could play even more after the trade. Thats not a bad thing after the win we saw last night in which thats exactly what happened. Draft? Yeah ok. Tell your gonna get into the top 10 next year when you draft then we will talk about how you can make the team better. Right now we are looking at mid round selection or below top 10 slightly. Not gonna get a Superstar there most likely. Especially the drafting habits. Not the low round drafting habits but the higher in the draft. So far Morey has had two shots. They turned into Battier for Gay and then Patrick Patterson of the Rio Grand Vipers. Now whether that last pick is Adelmans fault he is down there? its still not a star yet. So trading is what we have to make this team more attractive. We have the assets. We have the picks. We dont have to give every pick away. We have Martin and Brooks. One or two can go in order to get a Superstar. They both have adequate replacements if we move them both for one superstar. We might be light years better off for getting them both out of the lineup at the same time and putting in one superstar next to either Ish or Courtney Lee or Lowry.. I n fact I would be comfortable with giving up both and saying we would get better with starting the star we get for Brooks and Martin next to one of their backups. I am 100% positive thats an upgrade.
Your obsessed with me RV6. I know I have that personality. People follow me around alot when i post because of the good ideas. Its ok to hang on to my every thoughts.
Charles Barkley and Tracy McGrady and Clyde Drexler. Yao Ming and Hakeem Olajuwon. You can do it with trades. I would rather get a top 3 pick, personally.
I think you mentioned the reason yourself before: it's all about hype, doing business to keep the Rockets name relevant in the trade/FA market (at least during off-season) so that our fans have something to aspire for and don't get bored.
Well yeah hype. If you are constantly one peice away from winning the Cahmpionship? What if you finally get lucky though and get that one peice you needed ebcause you keep yourself close enough? Thats what happened to the Rockets with Hakeem when we finally drafted Horry and then traded for Clyde. Before then? He was always one peice away from being in contention. Got to keep the Rockets relevant to make those moves. Unless we go into full tank mode and start all over again. The only two ways possible.
I hope you are wrong, but that is what it looks like to me, I was kind of hoping to be talked out of thinking this way, but I kept seeing the people saying we need a superstar etc....and it got me to thinking.....how easy is it to trade for one, and then looking at our current situation, and thinking, we are not really going to get one, are we? DD
This is a quote from Rileydog's post about Morey's post-draft lunch with the season-ticket holders. "- Top of the Draft: Morey revealed that Wall, Favors, Cousins and Turner were on the top of his board. It sounded like in that order, but not clear. He said they tried very hard to trade into the top 5, and at times he had to ask himself if it was really worth all they were offering. Here's where it gets interesting -- Morey said they got closest with Philly, and it meant Les Alexander was taking on significant contract obligations with millions of dollars in salary, IMO - a clear reference to Elton Brand. A couple of hours before the draft, Philly said no. " I'm pretty sure our front office agrees with the strategy of swallowing bad contracts for great picks, but in this case Philly said 'no' With any luck, we may be able to pry one of those premium picks from a club worried about the upcoming CBA. We shall see.
In 1983, the Rockets got lucky. They ended up with the #1 pick in the draft and were able to grab the most heralded college player in a very long time, a guy who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated 6 times in 4 years. He had won College Player of the Year 3 times. Heck, even his name implied power... Ralph Sampson. The guy was coveted by every NBA franchise and we got him. That we got Olajuwon the next year was another case of sheer luck and caused the NBA to change the rules of the draft. Sampson played extremely well. He was the MVP of the All Star Game in 1985. Less than two years later, the Rockets traded him for essentially a bag of Fritos. Why? Because he was injured, medicine wasn't what it is now, and he never recovered. So the Rockets dumped him. People tend to forget Sampson because we were so freakin' lucky to have the Dream. We could have easily not been lucky in 1984 and could have been completely screwed by Sampson's injury. Instead, because of Sampson's injury and rampant cocaine use among some key Rockets players, a future dynasty, the Team of the Next Decade, had to wait a decade for its first championship. I think depending on the draft if you have a good team, which we do, is a fool's paradise. Can you get lucky? Yes, you can, but you cannot depend upon luck. If you can get an established player with a history of success in this league, than you grab him and let the bottom feeders hope for luck. It's not that you dismiss the draft, because you really never know when you can get that "diamond in the rough," but good teams don't depend on it. Not in my opinion.
But some of the good teams right now are because of the draft lol. Kobe for lakers, Dwade - miami, Duncan - Spurs, etc. etc. Actually I can't remember when the last time someone won a championship after they traded for a legitimate superstar.
The Celtics? But I don't think they qualify because at the time of the trade Pierce was their best player. That trade was like the Drexler trade for us...where old guys come in late in their careers and help a younger star get his. DD
I think your're discounting the draft a bit to much. It can be done both ways, neither is incorrect but in the Rox case, through the draft may be the only way to go about it. Lakers acquired Kobe in a bold move on draft day, Dallas made one of the better trades in recent history to acquire Dirk via the draft and the Spurs lucked into Duncan but he was drafted while the Celtics, and the new Lakers used trades to get back to glory. Thing is outside of DWill, down the road, who is a realistic superstar we could acquire? We've gone through the names and it's slim pickings.
I'm not discounting the draft at all. If you watched the Rockets back then, you would have seen a team that earned those picks. They sucked. If we can trade for a top 3 pick without taking on a monstrous, long term salary and/or gutting the team, and Morey has a target in his crosshairs, then I am all for it. The alternative is to suck bad enough to earn a draft pick, and I am against that.
Gasol to the Lakers, Drexler Rockets, Shaq to Miami, Celtics, pretty much half of the modern Championship teams through trade won after trades. Team who got better after trades? Phoenix with Nash Us with Tmac Us with Artest Us with Battier sort of? Trades work. Dallas with Kidd
2008 - Brooks for Brandon Rush, spec/rumor from Clutch 2009 - Brooks + Battier for Rubio or top 3-4 PG in draft, various reports from media 2010 - ??? trade package incl. Brooks? for second overall draft pick from 76ers Morey said it was Philly who pulled out of that trade for the no.2 pick at the last minute.
Question then is, are we a good team? We are a 42 win team that has started the season 1-5, I want to believe we are a good team, heck I picked them to win 53 games however If we are mediocre by new years, wouldn't making a deal to acquire a better draft position trump acquiring a star that may make us a playoff team but not a title contender?
Thats a good question? How long do we keep waiting to make a deal is another? What if we dont move up in the draft? There is another. Then we lose Brooks to free agency a trade peice for most of these deals? Lose Yao to free agency? Then did we wait too long?
