A. I really like this draft. All three players seem to possess a lot of skill and basketball IQ, which is something that we can't really say about the last round of young players that the team recently acquired (Hill, TWill, & Thabeet).
MMorris just reminds me of K.Cato. If Scola, or Patterson are traded than this draft would be significant, but I don't see how Morris can crack into the lineup with Jordan Hill. I think the Rockets should of drafted K.Leonard who singlehandedly made SDSU, I think highly of Spurs draft history over Rockets draft success. Rockets did good by dumping Brad Miller and his salary. C+
here's how I'm looking at it... we went in with 3 picks, we came out with 3 picks. we dumped Brad for Flynn by giving up a 1st next year. We picked 3 power fowards all capable of playing the 3, one projected as a possible center (I wouldn't want to see that). I say B-
To the OP, you are doing it wrong with this thread. This is how you grade Rockets drafts: No matter who they pick, where they pick, when they pick, they get an automatic A+. Then, in the coming months, as the season plays out, you judge the draftees in real time and hindsight. Then, working backwards, you factor in this evaluation to adjust your draft grades accordingly, up or down. Well, just down, since you already start with A+. What is this method called? The Benefit of the Doubt. Because the current management regime has earned it. None of us, not you or me or the Old Man sitting in his basement thinking he has better player evaluation skills than Morey actually know more than the Rockets themselves. That is why, at least initially on draft day, grades from fans are pointless. We are not fit to judge.
This draft is a crapshoot. But I'd give him a B. The Marcus Morris pick is terrible. E- The Motiejunas trade is a A So overall I give him a C. But I don't think this draft is much of a deal, the Brad Miller trade was genius. But I hated the Morris pick. I loved the Motiejunas pick. If he trade away the veterans however and let the young guys like Morris and Motiejunas develop, then I'd give him a A. However if they just going to get 10 min per game behind Scola then I wouldn't think thats too good.
Don't put too much emphasis on Hollinger this time. He rated Nicolas Batum and Landry Fields terribly in his draft rater and yet they came out as rookie stars. I'm happy with this draft. Thats all we can ask for.
Dang, he should apply for a 7 figure salary running a multi-million dollar sports team then. Beats sitting on his calculator at ESPN. EDIT: It is truly pathetic if you actually believe that. John Hollinger and his rudimentary understanding of statistics, and most importantly, utter lack of common sense and any other factors in its application, rated Patrick Patterson as one of the lower tier prospects in last year's draft. I am going to go out on a limb and say he isn't looking at the same formulas as Morey and co.
Do you realize Chad Ford backed Oden over Durant and basically had low grades for Carl Landry, Aaron Brooks and Patrick Patterson when they were drafted as well?
Not a fan of the Marcus Morris pick, but I can see why they took him. Was a bigger proponent of taking Kawhi Leonard, and thought he fit an area of need better. Also thought we would have taken a longer look at Vucevic who I thought fit an area of need, even if he isn't a tremendous athlete. I'll let his play do the talking, but he reminds me of a mix of Scola + PPat, which of itself isn't a bad thing but considering the fact we have those 2 players already, the pick didn't make much sense to me. The Motiejunas pick was good value, I'll grant that. But it also doesn't address an area of need. What we needed was at least 1 solid defender/rebounder out of this draft class, which was not addressed at all. Getting rid of Brad Miller is great and all, but I just don't see us getting better. Lateral/marginal move. Parsons, once again, might have been good value, but CBud redux isn't going to help a team with CBud, the original. In the end, this was one of the few drafts where I just stopped caring. After the Morris pick, I could see the Morey MO of getting BPA, regardless of need, was in full effect. That's not a bad thing when you have the luxury of not having glaring holes to fill (or when you're so bad you need to build the foundation), but the bottom line is this team is a flawed one that needs to balance the roster. We still need a capable 2-way 3 and a strong inside presence on defense and on the boards. Those were the 2 obvious deficiencies which we failed to address. I gave it a C. Mediocre draft; we took BPA available by all accounts, but we also didn't address any needs. In the end, near-miss is the best way to describe the drafts: could have moved up but didn't; had trades in the works which didn't pan out; could have shaken things up but went safe...all things point to another season of Houston mediocrity, which is what this draft ultimately ends up being.
We didn't give up a first next year. We gave up the Memphis first round pick that is lottery protected and we wouldn't be able to even use it until 2013 at the earliest.
B+ or A-. I voted B to stay on the conservative side. Don't get me wrong, I love this draft and I'm more than happy with the two main guys we talked away with. Just saying that A+ spot should be reserved for something earth-shattering and/or unexpected going down.
