I think his combination of unusual skill sets for a man his size may have misled folks into overestimating their value. It's unsusual to find an Anthony Mason type player who was an outstanding ballhandler in addition to being a rugged defender/enforcer type, but his teams rarely were able to translate this into consistently high production (though he was very good/borderline allstar his last year at NYK/first year in Charlotte).
He's still going in on his rant toward Bleacher Report. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/bleacherreport">bleacherreport</a> Teams have and will continue to draft players with mental illness whether they like it or not... Cont:</p>— Royce White (@Highway_30) <a href="https://twitter.com/Highway_30/status/269130645857509376" data-datetime="2012-11-15T17:32:00+00:00">November 15, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/bleacherreport">bleacherreport</a> The only thing to decide is, are we promoting player honest on the front end, or deal with it once its bad! <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23TRANSPARENCY">#TRANSPARENCY</a></p>— Royce White (@Highway_30) <a href="https://twitter.com/Highway_30/status/269131193319047168" data-datetime="2012-11-15T17:34:11+00:00">November 15, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/bleacherreport">bleacherreport</a> Ill wait for a response... unless you don't want to tangle with the kid. Your dead wrong, the reason I tweet. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23StopStigma">#StopStigma</a></p>— Royce White (@Highway_30) <a href="https://twitter.com/Highway_30/status/269131741871083523" data-datetime="2012-11-15T17:36:22+00:00">November 15, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
We are having this vary same discussion with every trade that does not instantly pans out for Morey (Lowry, Dragic, Morris, etc). I think that before throwing dirt on the wall, we should sit and wait before discussing anything.
....instead of being with the team, he's currently enmeshed in a twitter fight against an inanimate object, the Bleacher Report... ... I don't see a road back.
Maybe it will be Morey's biggest fail. Unless a player drafted behind Royce has a break out career, I don't know that it impacts the team too much. Most players drafted around this spot are average at best. So it may be a mistake, but time will tell how much impact it really has compared to who the Rocket's could have taken instead. Expecting 100% correct picks is unrealistic for any team.
Morey picked him to turn him around and trade him for Dwight, not to hang onto. Dwight fell through, and now we are stuck with him. When he was picked, it was with the mindset he would be the Magic's problem.
If you want the biggest mistake of DM's career, its not White, its actually when he traded that frenchie on the Blazers (forgot his name) for Dorsey and that dude with the liver condition. If Memphis didn't trade us Greene for that dude, and we weren't able to flip Greene for Artest, that pick would still live in infamy to this day. Regarding White, it's all about potential. White's potential was definitely sky high, coming in WHite's biggest weakness was shooting and D, his biggest strengths were bball IQ, passing ability and court vision. From a developmental standpoint, all the stuff he's bad at were stuff you could improve, while all the stuff he's good at are basically you-have-it-or-you-don't qualities. You're talking about how DM should have seen White's flakiness as an issue, but then again coming in it seemed like mental toughness was one of his strongest points. People who go public with mental problems are usually guys who have already conquered it and are taking steps to keep it under control. This is probably the first time I've seen someone champion fighting against a cause then fail so miserably afterwards. For example, when you have someone advocating against smoking you usually have someone who's a reformed smoker or someone who lost family to lung cancer. You don't have a chain smoker campaigning against smoke addiction, which is basically what happened here.
I disagree, the fact that he had a history of "false starts" (High school/college) seems to belie the opposite. Sure, he's resilient, but only after his first employer gets fed up.
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the T-Will fiasco is probably the most obvious case of Morey outsmarting himself. The lottery protection definitely seemed liked a good idea at the time, but has simply become a hindrance. Only the FO truly knows how many deals have been compromised due to our inability to trade our own pick. Not to mention this was all over a petulant man-child whose self-entitlement paved a similar (though much more incoherent) path of stupidity via social media...eventually forcing the team to release him outright. numero uno fail to date in my book. #wordapp White, despite all the bad press still has plenty of time to rectify the situation. that's one good thing about our society having such a short attention span. it grades an N/A at this point. but would still fall behind the T-Will debacle in my book.
Worst Muary Fails 1. Letting Dragic walk and signing Lin savior 2. T-will trade for first round pick 3. Battier for Gay (Don't care that Gay got the max...doesn't mean we had to offer him that) 4. Trading Lee for nothing 5. not bringing back von wafer on the cheap
royce looks bad...probably will be a fail but its to early to call it already. Heck i was ready to call Morris a fail and he's turning it around.
too early to tell. If you created this thread last year, and change the subject to Morris, you'll get a lot of ppl agreeing with you too.
There are only a handful of people on this entire planet who has his combination of size and play making ability. White was a risk you had to take with a mid-first round pick.
And if Morris refused to participate in training camp/missed games & practices/to go to RGV, by way of a 48 hour twitter tirade, we wouldn't be talking about his renaissance this year.
1.) Rockets don't give player options, because they lead to bad contracts later. A rebuilding team cannot afford to give out bad contracts. Media is saying Lin was a Les ($$$$) decision. 2.) Who cares? What has it cost us or prevented us from doing? Nothing. 3.) Battier for Gay was an excellent trade for us. 4.) Lee was a free agent, oh and BTW, he replaced him with James Harden. 5.) Who the **** cares about Von Wafer.
How do you know? People are acting like White is finished as a Rocket. The Rockets will keep fining him and eventually he will make his way down to the D-League as all our other rookies have done and dedicate his time to the game. Or he won't, just like every other rookie. These aren't mistakes, they are called taking risks.
Again: Royce White is the biggest fail of Royce White's career. Morey is not responsible for what this moron is doing. We knew it was a high risk/potentially high reward gamble. It didn't work out. I still think Morey did nothing wrong here.
