Morey's comments today were what you would expect on 'goodbye' day .... nostalgic. Given some time and space, he will do what he does: evaluate players, explore options and pull triggers. There are so many balls in the air with Smith, Beverly, Brewer, Lull, Love, Aldridge etc., all that have outside influences beyond his control, you couldn't predict exactly what will happen. Stability might not even be a choice outside of 4 or 5 players.
He really did. I couldn't be SUPER mad b/c he was being asked to do so much at his age, but it def got to the point where I 10000% expected him to miss.
Terry is like most other one dimensional spot up shooters, there is just going to be hot and cold games for them depending on luck and how many open opportunities they get-- factors outside of their control.
The reason he should be believed can be summed up in 2 words: Les Alexander. Les is definitely a hands on owner. He doesn't generally interfere with what the GM or coach is doing on a day-to-day basis, but when his gut likes something, it seems obvious he makes it known. This is why Kevin McHale got the 3-year extension. Period. Morey doesn't operate as autonomously as many posts here seem to imply. Morey preaching stability is an echo of the fact that Alexander likes what he saw overall by the end of the season. He may in fact feel the same way, but it is driven by the owner. Stability is not overrated in this case. Players have come and gone for many years now, but the Rockets never reached the WC Finals. It just so happens that Brewer and Smith seem to be the right pieces for this mix of players. The right mix gives rise to chemistry and that then has to give pause to the concept of stability; i.e., keeping those pieces together. As has been posted by several here, with 2 starters missing, to still perform as well as the Rockets did in the playoffs can't be overlooked. And I would argue that the WC has never been stronger or more competitive than it was this season. I don't know that there can be a dominant team anymore, like the Celtics and Lakers of olden days. There has been no more stable team than the Spurs over the last few years and they couldn't repeat this year. The WC is just plain tough. Chemistry is hard to define in terms of player skills. It's how those skills and personalities mesh. Most of us fans have the same sense that this particular group, if given another year together, will only improve. As far as Harden requesting "guard" help, the tweet in that thread doesn't specify PG. I think it is his reflection on his performance in that last game. I think even he realizes he has to handle the ball too much. It doesn't necessarily have be a PG to help relieve him of that stress, just a guard that can shoot well and pass well. Quickness above average, too. Lowry would be good but is unattainable. What Lowry has is the same ability and fearlessness to drive in the lane as Harden does. Finding a guard with that skill and mindset would make this backcourt special just like Curry/Thompson is special, only in a bit different way. It might be easier to get opposing big men in foul trouble. Another tweak that would help is to alter the game philosophy just a bit to DE-emphasize 3-pointers by a few percentage points in shot selection. Too often, the transition 3's become turnovers with no Rockets near enough for rebounding. Josh Smith actually did pretty well with 3-point shots, but showed that his main strength is driving the lane, along with his post-up game. FT's. That is the one thing that, likely, will remain a weakness next year. And that hurts. The players who can't shoot them, with the exception of Capela, (who actually did better as he got more playing time and settled down a bit), are players who've had years to correct and/or improve the skill and haven't done so. I still wish Calvin Murphy would be given the special detail to work with anyone who can't shoot better than 50%. I think it is mental as much as mechanical. I just hope they change the rule in such a way that it doesn't take over the flow of a game the way it did sometimes this season, especially in the playoffs. I think Llull may very well be the primary target for Morey. We'll just have to wait and see. I don't think there can be a serious run at Love and keep most of the pieces intact. Even if it could happen, now you have to think about chemistry again. If it didn't happen in Cleveland, who's to say it would happen here. A "bird in the hand..." Chemistry logically leads to stability.
Just FYI, morey specifically denied that report and said we wouldn't have that kind of money to offer him
Which could be true, or could be b.s.. Other free agents on the team might be sniffing after that money, to no avail (Josh Smith, Kj).
We just came off a great regular season and a deep postseason run. We have several RFAs and FAs with key ones saying they want to come back. We have lead players who like those players. What exactly is Morey supposed to say? Well, we were a hair from being a second round out and we are actually another major piece away, so stability isn't really my focus right now. Morey has to say these things but he is not at all wired to just keep the status quo. Brewer and smith are desirable but replaceable. Morey will go big game hunting and see if he can land a difference maker at PG. maybe Lowry becomes available. Maybe Dragic sees problems in Miami. Who knows. I can see Morey handing out one year deals to brewer or smith in the name of continuit, but hardens window is many years and he locked up at a bargain price. we have "continuity" even if we lose smith, brewer and bev because the core will be the same. The question is whether big game is available if you include ariza. That would impact continuity.
We didn't have that kind of money in March. ;-)- Regardless of whether the report is true or not, Llull has to be seen as a serious option, in my opinion. We have his rights. I can't give you a quote at 4am, but Morey has said in the past that he'd like to get him to Houston, multiple times. The guy checks a heck of a lot of boxes. He plays both the one and the two. If we ended up with both Bev and Llull, they could make a nice combo in the backcourt while Harden sits, which he needs to do more of. Llull is a better defender than Harden, IMO, and shoots a good percentage from behind the arc. He would immediately improve our free throw shooting. We'll see. I'd be happy if that was Morey's guard "solution." Maybe I'm too optimistic about the guy. I don't think so.
So Llull is rubio 2.0? Hate to give up Pat Bev. My concern is hes a euro bust aka kostas that cant find the nba range.
What really makes yall think anyone from a career in euro ball will be savior next season..im just curious. I mean yall really trust this guy to go from eu ball to starting pg for a team that just went to the tough WCF? Kostas in pg form? Lets be serious.
Jet is fading. At the end of his career. He's just fading away as a legit player. Can't deny it. He is a true professional. Gives everything he's got. There's just not that much left in the tank for him to give. Despite all the bravado about bringing back the "headband of brothers" (which is just a players marketing ploy) I hope Morey seriously considers upgrading from Jet to something else. There is plenty of young shooting talent at the PG spot that has both skills and youth on their side. They've got a full tank. The only thing they are lacking in is experience. But experience can only take you so far against young up-and-coming skilled ballers. I'm afraid Jet has reached that point. I'd rather sign Corey Hawkins as a rookie free-agent to a rookie minimum scale deal to shoot 3's and provide some offense for us than to bring back Jet. Hawkins is a young, highly-skilled 24-year old player of similar size to Jet but just a little bit longer, and much quicker, fresher legs. Seth Curry is another young shooting PG out there that should be in the NBA on a minimum deal. Both the players I just mentioned are superior shooters at this point in their careers than Jet is at this point in his career.
They weren't all good looks. A lot of Terry's shots were bailouts late in the clock. On my recollection, he rarely got uncontested 3s the way that Smith and Ariza did. Here's the thing though. Terry took 82 three-point shots over 17 games in the playoffs. The difference between 35 percent and 40 percent shooting is a whopping 4 makes, 12 measly points. That's 0.7 points per game. Given the small sample size, the difference between Terry hitting 35 percent and 40 percent is not significant at all.
I think people forget that Terry was never brought in to be the starting PG for the rockets in the playoffs, he got thrust into that role because of injuries. He was brought in to play spot minutes in certain situations and not have to chase Paul and Curry around with his old legs. I would to see him back with his leadership and experience plus his ability to spread the floor in the role he was originally brought in for. If you've ever played basketball you'll know shooting has so much to do with having your legs underneath you.
This to me was almost a given as once they did'nt make a major move at the deadline their options for adding salary / talent became limited because of how much $$$ they have tied up in Howard , Harden & Ariza ($46.278m). Add in the contracts of KPap , DMo , Jones , Prigioni , Capela , Dorsey , NickJ and they have $61.587m in salary for next year not including cap holds with a cap expected to be about $67m.
