Im not sure any of these could be considered mistakes necessarily. I voted for signing Brad Miller but Brad last year vs. this year is remarkable as far as decline. I dont mean as far as skill, athleticism, etc. I mean him being in shape and in good health. He has probably put on about 20 bad pounds this past offseason, and his knees are feeling the brunt of the punishment. However, again this is not Morey's fault. Coaching staff and training staff need to manage players weight, diet better in the pre-season and season. They scored a D on this signing because of his health issues. Good news is, I think he could get in much better shape next year and be much more affective, he is still a great veteran to have around young egos, and is basically like having a coach on the floor with the young guys like Hill and Patterson.
Morey's biggest mistake, IMHO, was to overvalue his assets. I like both moves yesterday for the simple fact that they designate a clear direction for this team. I do however think that Morey believed that Scola, Martin, AB etc...could have brought back the significant difference maker we sorely lacked and it became obvious that they can't. Melo didn't want to come here but even if he did, Denver didn't like what we had to offer even with 8 million in insured money. Utah might have dealt DWill to us but the whole West Conference thing was always going to be an issue, so how real was that possibility. Paul will be a similar situation, are the Hornets REALLY going to deal him to an division rival for what the Rockets have to offer?
agreed...we should have traded with 76ers and eat brands contract and traded our assets to move up at get cousins or favors. Morey himself said he could have but he didnt because he wanted to save his assets for a superstar. That was a mistake a HUGE mistake...the other...passing asik, erden...not signing mozgov all those guys were available...as well dandre jordan. We all knew for 2 years that we need an insurance policy to yao but instead we get dorsey and budinger and taylor who we give a way. Morey drafted brooks well...landry well....but since then the only thing he got right was patterson falling in his lap. Everything i saw had patterson in top ten.
Fixed it. If you're saying you would have traded him before the playoffs injury you're 1) throwing away are only playoff series victory in over a decade, and 2.) the possibility of beating the Lakers in the second round (which we almost managed to do without him playing). And don't forget T-Mac's was considered a fringe MVP candidate some of those years and we acquired Artest forming what many people thought were a big three. Let's look at ESPN's power rankings the four seasons before Yao had the major injury. 2005-2006 - 4th 2006-2007 - 12th (after the injury plagued season where Yao/T-Mac barely played half the season). 2007-2008 - 5th 2008-2009 - 6th I think people forget how promising many of those teams were. Imagine the backlash of blowing up a top 5 contending team. No team or GM in the league would do that, and many of you are being unfair to even suggest it. Funny enough I don't recall many people on the board calling for the team to be blown up during this period. All I seem to remember is excitement. Of course the Rockets knew Yao's and Tracy's injury history was extremely risky, but that's part of the deal in the NBA. If you're franchise players go down you're pretty much screwed and left without many options. If you're talking about trading him after the big injury in the playoffs. There's just not a huge market for trading a max player who is currently injured or even worse in Yao's case, possibly undergoing career-ending surgery. We could have probably traded Yao for not much better than we traded for yesterday. For a comparison, what do you think the Blazers can trade Brandon Royfor now? That's what we would have gotten for Yao. And much like the Blazers have decided, it's better to just wait and hope your star regains even a little bit of their old form than trade him for nothing. That, or its just simply impossible to trade him.
