- I am not saying that Morey is unwise to have done what he did, what I am saying is that Morey seems to have decided that, given the options that he had on the table, it was better to keep the arrows in his quiver. - Judging by the amounts that they ended up signign for, the Rockets' could have made at least competitive offers with the Room Exception to the likes of Mo Williams, Dorrell Wright, Marco Bellinelli, CJ Watson, DeJuan Blair, Wayne Ellington, Jermaine O'Neal and many others. Not all of them would have filled a need, and maybe Morey did go after several of them but got turned down, but the way the reports were in the summer basically had Morey going after a couple of guys early (Dunleavy, Brewer, maybe someone else) but there wasn't much news of Morey signing or pursuing anyone but minimum wage guys for most of the offseason. In fact, Jonathan Feigen mentioned early on that the Rockets were most likely reserving the room exception for a player who got waived by his team (the Andrew Bynum and Turkoglu situation, but according to Feigen the Rockets never pursued Bynum and Turk, either). After the trade deadline, there is going to be another group of players under contract who are candidates to be waived/bought out-- most notably guys on expiring contracts whose teams don't particularly want to keep them beyond this season and don't manage to trade their expiring contracts for value. This happened with, for example, Terrence Williams and the Rockets a few years back. The Rockets cut Williams right after the deadline. For this season, Kris Humphries and Chis Kaman are examples of players in such a contract situation. These kind of post-deadline cuts can be targets for the room exception signings. - As for the possible trades: Morey has already reportedly rejected a Boston proposal with Courtney Lee and Brandon Bass plus a 1st round pick coming back. This is the kind of deal that would have provided some immediate on-court help (Courtney Lee is playing very well in Memphis, and played very well for McHale in Houston, Bass is at least a competent big body) compared to the long-absent Asik. Now, I agree with this decision, but this isn't necessarily a "win NOW" choice. Morey had chosen to keep the disgruntled Asik at least for a couple of months and hope that either he excels in a backup role or an acceptable trade opportunity is available come the deadline. -Jones and DMo have only recently significant gained value as they become part of the rotation, but these guys and the Rockets future draft picks each carries at least some value that can be used in a trade but has not been. The league is full of smaller salary vets whose teams could be willing to trade them in exchange of future value (Mike Dunleavy, Patrick Patterson, etc.).
Indeed. That was his decision. But his decision is based on circumstances special to his team. His decision was that he would use 100% of his capspace on Dwight Howard even though he knew the rest of his FA signings would be Casspi, Garcia, and the such. He could've signed Josh Smith or Millsap and had money for the likes of players mentioned below. Do you think that would've been a wiser decision? The only player there that MAY improve the Rockets to an extent where it matters, aka enough to win an extra round, seems to be Bellineli. Here's what he said about signing with the Spurs though. The Rockets could not have beaten the Spurs offer financially. For the same money, why would Bellineli choose the Rockets over the Spurs coming off a near championship run? Most of Morey's trades and signings come out of the thin air. I wouldn't say just because there are no rumors, it means for sure Morey didn't have these players on his radar. Did anyone believe Lowry or Dragic were on Morey's radar before those trades were made? Does getting Bass and Lee make this team good enough to contend? I don't really think so. Suppose Asik sulks until the deadline, and assume no one else gives Morey a competent return, Asik comes back to the team. Say he plays 80% for 15mpg for the rest of the season because he's sad. In the playoffs Asik plays 10mpg for most of the series at 100%, but in one game Dwight gets in foul trouble, he comes in and play well for 25 minutes. That's his playoff performance. In the above example, would that be more or less valuable to Bass and Lee on the team instead? I would say if Morey values Asik as highly as I think he does, the answer is likely a wash. So it's very reasonable to believe that Morey declined that trade even from a win-this-year perspective.
Is that the same patience that wasted the remainder of Dirk's career after they won the championship?
what? he just landed Ellis and VC? What are you talking about? You are just making **** up. hmmmm...not getting your point. What is it you want? You are not really saying you would trade Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Chucky Brown, and Mark Bryant for Charles Barkley are you? hmmm. yet, I am. If it Charles Barkley. TheFreak...I pretty much follow every post you make, but this thread is weird. You are contradicting yourself. But let's forget that. The FIRST WEEK OF MARCH....Lebron, George and Aldridge...let's GO!!
Patience is good when building a contender and adding the right pieces around them. Otherwise you can get stuck with a lot of ugly contracts, no way to move them, and frustrated superstars (most obvious example of this is the LBJ cavs) Being "patient" (aka hoping stars pick your team as FAs) with a team that just won a title, and not allowing them to try 1 more time was a big mistake.
