Hey Les, take a lesson from Drayton

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=94906

 

I'm curious...

What players are you referring to as the players the Astros wouldn't let go?

 

As far as I can remember Drayton was trying to let go of everyone who made more than the minimum before he sold the team.

Before that he got stuck in some really bad contracts that could have been avoided if he would have done his homework and didnt chase big names who are past their prime.

Thats all fine and dandy, but the thing that Drayton didnt do that he should have is focus on developing young talent better.

The Rockets develop young talent just fine, and they would be the perfect baseball team if their worlds aligned.

The difference in the two sports is that in the NBA top talent puts you over the top. and you only get that top talent with two approaches.... you either are located in a star power crazy place like LA/ New York/ or Miami or you strike gold in the lottery. Farm systems have yet to pay off in the NBA. You either got that one player or you dont.

The Rangers got to the World Series two years in a row by making smart aquisitions, and developing young players. They were able to beat the star studded Yankee's, and go head to head with a team that had the worlds biggest superstar baseball player in Albert Pujols. In the NBA, a team like the Ranger would be... well.... the Rockets.

 

There are more trolls on this board than other sport boards I frequent. The post police...lol.

 

I like how you throw the 4 years number out there like it's a standard. The Wizards, Bobcats, Kings, Raptors, Warriors have been on that trajectory for the better part of a decade and they are not closer to a title than we are.

 

It wasn't the holding on to players that was the problem, I think...it was the Pedro Feliz type deals. Overpaying for veterans to fill a gap because you think you might make another run, instead of recognizing where you were and getting on with getting on. In that sense, the Dalembert and Camby deals feel very very much like those old Drayton signings.

 

If I understand dreamshake97 correctly here, I believe the lesson for Les is to sell the team to an owner who will move it to the Eastern Conference where the Rockets would be an automatic playoff team. In fact, hasn't that been the official lament of the Houston media for the past few years?

 

You know, the more I think about that alternative, it might not be that bad. The perfect scenario is for Les to sell to a great, knowledgeable, aggressive owner who takes the team and actually moves it forward instead of what Les did; turning a Mercedes into a Yugo and taking 15+ years to do it. Oh, and stay in the West. But the East over the status quo, I'll take it. I'll take almost anything over the mess the Rockets are in now.

 

If any team gets moved to the Eastern Conference it will be New Orleans. The Rockets arent going anywhere, and they arent getting new ownership any time soon.

There's nothing that Les can learn from Drayton. The two teams are miles apart in terms of direction.

 

For it to be a valid comparison, the Rockets would have to be sold to an owner who allowed the team to be moved to Euroleague, not the Eastern Conference.

 

What???.... since when do teams sign crappy D-Leaguers to stay competitive? Why would that be a measure of winning in the NBA? Wow.

In NO WAY should you ever compare Drayton trading for Tejada and signing Carlos Lee to the Rockets signing Dalembert to a 2 year contract (second year buyout) and taking on the expiring contact of Camby.

Do you have any idea what sort of financial bind the contract of Lee(100 million dollars over 5 seasons) & trading 5 young prospects for Tejada put the Astros in for years? Why do you think the Astros had one of the worst farm system's in past years?

This is MLB Vs. the NBA. Totally different worlds but I dont think you know what your talking about here.

 

They're not perfect comparisons...but in both instances they illustrate the owner's view at that point of his own franchise. In both instances, I believe the owner was playing make believe with himself...it's really easy and understandable to do that.

 

I honestly think that Drayton viewed Tejada/Lee/Berkman as his own version of the big 3 baseball style. Lee turned out to be a terrible 100 million dollar investment that killed their flexibility going forward, and Tejada/Berkman's best days were behind them. I dont think Drayton was the worst owner ever in sports history I just hated the way he left the organization, and he deserves blame for the poor farm system that was left over.

With Les, there is no way he was viewing Dalembert/Camby as the answer or his version of the Big 2 or whatever you want to call it to actually compete for a title. I dont see Les giving Camby a 100 million dollar contract in the Summer, do you?

Those were low risk moves made to get this "young" team that was already projected to be a fringe playout team over the hump and in the playoffs to help create valued experience and exposure to the young players.

The mentality with every owner should be Championship, but its unfair to put these two owner side by side and say there are hardly any comparisons to the way they have built their teams in the past 5 years or so.

 

I'm not thrilled with where the organization ended up either at the time he left...but overall, the Astros organization is in far better health after him than it was before him. Easily the most successful and stable years of Astros history.

And remember...there were a heaping helping of Astros fans b****ing after the 05 World Series saying we needed another big bat. He went out and got the best one on the market at the time.

No, and that wasn't my point. I was pretty clear the analogy isn't perfect. Just that both illustrated that the owner was out of touch with where his team really was from my opinion....and both were unwilling to "take their medicine." I'm not suggesting the Camby contract and the Lee contract were comparable...nor was Camby the kind of player in hoops as Lee was in baseball at the time he was signed, either.

I see the moves as both coming from owners who were unwilling to recognize where they were with their franchises. I've been noting those similarities for a very very long time now.

 

2011 Lance Berkman disagrees with you.