I would just like this team to have an allstar, and i would much rather prefer an allstar we draft and have as a rocket his whole career, than some b**** thats forced to be traded to the rockets. I do hate tanking and think its stupid, i also enjoy our current squad but unless one of our young player develop into a star i don't see this team isn't going to go anywhere.
Find a new team I am new on here but if you don'y like what the Rockets are doing doing well there are alot of teams in the NBA!
Why do fans assume you aren't a fan when you want the best for the team? I still believe the best way to get back to a true contender status is through the draft and picking at 14 every year is not going to get that done. And yes it may take years as each draft has it's own gems that you may not be able to reach because some team stink so bad we can't "catch" them unless we do purposely lose from the start. I'm not for tanking right out of the gate but I am for blowing this team up to build a new foundation. And I am 100% on board with playing 2nd and 3rd team players extended minutes when the season is over. If you want to call that tanking then fine but that doesn't mean I'm not a Rocket fan. This team is not a contender but it is my Rockets. I want to see the best for my team and I think you have to feel the pain before you realize the gain.
The only tanking I'm happy with is where we all jump in a massive Rockets Red tank and run over every team that stands in our way.
IMO, tankers are not basketball types. Rarely does tanking work. Rockets and tanking shouldn't even be in the same sentence.
If we have 2 more years of being the 8th or 9th seed Morey's going to quit. Hell, even if we get to the 6th seed he's going to quit. Can't blame him. I, of course, enjoy watching the Rockets win. The last time I was disgusted by them winning was 2005 and JVG ground the team to bits in the last two meaningless regular season games. We're on a treadmill we're likely to be on for a looong time.
For those that have such a hardon to draft at a higher position - why arent you simply looking to trade up in the draft? If Morris, PPat, etc are not the 'superstar' you desire, why dont you proclaim we should package our 1st rd, Knicks 1st rd and maybe a youngster or two and move up? Les has said he aint tanking (kudos to him) - so that ship has left he dock... On a related thought, why dont more teams trade their draft picks in a straight swap? I mean, If Morey can look at a team that is projected to finish higher than us and he feels we're better, why not offer to swap picks straight up? That would be a gamble that may payoff...
I'd be fine with that. Let's do everything we possibly can to get as high a pick in 2012 as possible.
It's one thing to tank, miserably. It's one thing to simply not make the playoffs (yet have a team that is competing or one that is simply not good enough to win most of their games), or even end up with a top 10 draft pick. Making the playoffs would nice, but not making it wouldn't exactly be the worst thing in the world, especially for our future.
That's the point. I think you have to have a top pick to get a superstar. Right now we have a 24th pick, 26th pick, 8th pick (09er) and 2 second rounders for our starters. They have done wonders but there is no way that you can have a contender team with those type of picks. You need a top 1-3 on a good draft with someone who knows how to pick them. You might be able to find a superstar in the top 5 picks on the right draft. After 5 though...verrrry rare... The problem is those top 3 picks are highly valued. Who is going to take Patterson and a late 1st for the top 3 (or even 5) spot? You could throw in Bud, Morris, all the 09ers and you still won't be getting a call back. And those super bad teams generally don't want veterans because even they know that it won't help them to get out of the hole they are in. They know a superstar (Blake) is their only way out of this mess. So I don't see trading up as an option for us unless we have something like the 6th pick to add to our list of assets. And you don't get the 6th pick by playing .490 ball. So we could trade for our superstar who was a high pick. Problem there is it's not going to happen. No team in its right mind is going to trade him away unless he already has 1 foot outside the door but then we have to be on their list or it just becomes a rental. We haven't been on someone's list in years. Now you could trade for a 1-5 pick that has already been picked and is still young. Morey's done this on the cheap with Thabeet and Flynn. Both were let go as a mistake. But that I think will be a case of you get what you pay for. You won't find the Wizards trading Wall or the Clippers trading Blake anytime soon with what we have but you still might find a stud on an impatient team that hasn't given him the time or training or system for him to blossom (Cousins after a few bad games). Those players won't be cheap though and may turn out to be a total bust but you have to swing for the fences to be a contender. Or sometimes being really bad with a good FO is a really good move.
ArtV, I do agree for the most part, the Superstars will mostly likely come out at 1-6, but there have been alot of exceptions to the rules. While, there have been alot of busts over the years in those top 5 spots. So you aren't guaranteed a superstar for any particular draft, unless it is a dominant player coming out of college. *Excluding Rockets' drafted players 2010 Draft: Landry Fields, 39th pick - serviceable starter 2009 Draft: Ty Lawson (17th), Jrue Holiday (18th), Jeff Teague (19th), Eric Maynor (20th), Darren Collison (21st), OT: Stephen Curry (7th) is probably out of our range. 2008 Draft: Eric Gordon (7th), Brook Lopez (10th), Anthony Randolph (14th), Roy Hibbert (17th), Serge Ibaka (24th), Darrell Arthur (27th), and DeAndre Jordan (24th). 2007: Nick Young (16th), Wilson Chandler (23rd), Marc Gasol (48th), Ramon Sessions (56th) 2006: Rajon Rondo (21st), Thabo Sefolosha (13th), and Paul Millsap (47th) 2005: Andrew Bynum (10th), Danny Granger (16th), David Lee (30th), Monta Ellis (40th), Lou Williams (45th), and Marcin Gortat (57th) 2004: Andre Igoudala (9th), Al Jefferson (15th), Josh Smith (17th), JR Smith (18th), Jameer Nelson (20th), Kevin Martin (26th), We might have to actually trade for a superstar, anyway. While, we can still get a good pick, within the 10-19 range, even an all-star caliber player. Even more so in our case, we already have few of our positions filled. We are solid at SG, PG, and PF (but Scola is getting older). We could end up like maybe, Trailblazers or Nuggets, and have many good players in a deep rotation, which will consistently get us to the playoffs So, we are probably going to draft the best player, period, or go for a small forward or a center. Maybe a power forward.
Possible Draft picks available from 9th to the mid 20s (that might interests): Perry Jones (seen him as high as 5th and as low as 13th) - SF/PF Terrence Jones - SF Meyers Leonard - C Khris Middleton - SF Austin Rivers - SG John Henson - PF Michael Gilchrist - SF LeBryan Nash - SF (all over the place) Festus Ezeli - C (solid 2nd Round territory) Mason Plumlee - PF/C Kris Joseph - SF Thomas Robinson - SF Tyler Zeller - C Steven Adams - C OT: Whoever does this mock draft sessions, seriously needs to watch Rocket games, because we are nearly maxed out at point guard. Lowry is a budding all-star at this point, while Dragic and Flynn are serviceable backups. It's our most pressing need, unless a player is exceptionally to above average in talent. Kendall Marshall would be a good addition, but he might not get minutes (and he cannot score like Lowry), as we could definitely use him as trade bait. There's also Josiah Turner, Marquist Teague, and Myck Kabongo. http://www.nbadraft.net/2012mock_draft http://hoopshype.com/draft.htm http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2012/ http://www.nbadraft.net/ranking/bigboard
plutoblue11 - Any one of those players would be nice to add but they still don't make you a contender - not on this team. If you used hindsight and put all those players on the same team, I still don't think you have a contender. You can get some good players in that range but it is extremely rare to get a player you can build around and that's what we are missing. And the last superstar that was traded to a place that he didn't have any sayso in was KG. Another extremely rare scenario and when a true superstar does come up for trade (that isn't on a decline) do you think we could beat out 28 other teams with what we have? And the whole point too is that "tankers" are not looking for playoffs. I don't care if we are as good as the Blazers or Nuggets because I don't consider them to be contenders either. I want to be as good as OKC or the Heat and they didn't get there by picking in the teens. I think every "tanker" knows that there are no guarantees. And a lot of those bad picks were made consistantly by bad FOs. Even if we did take that route, I think it would be more than a 1 year appearance. History shows those 1 year in-n-outs are very rare (usually it's a very high followed by some trade). So it can be painful but if we can't get a superstar (foundational piece) via trade and we can't get one via FA then I think that only leaves us with the draft and picking in the teens is not going to get it done.
Imo if the Rockets are in the running lets say around the 5th seed range we will make a trade and bring a super-star player in but I can also see the Rockets if not in the chase trading K-Mart and Scola away for picks. I think if we can add another quality player then we are there with the rest of the West! Go Rockets!
Tanking is intentionally losing. I do not support that. What I support is getting rid of all the players that are too good to prevent us from losing. Play hard. By all means. And lose big.
^ Yes but if you get down to the last 10 games and you are out of contention, you can put guys in like Flynn at C and tell him you want to see the best 1980 Magic Johnson impersonation he can do. Still trying...still losing...and very entertaining... jk
Every year before and during the draft Morey has a huge hard-on for moving up in the draft with no success. It ain't easy. He usually comes away from the draft with blue balls.
