[BP.com] Treadmill: Breaking the Cycle of Mediocrity

There is risk in EVERY strategy. No one is suggesting the draft is a panacea. However, this article suggests that it's far more likely to reach the promised land through sucking and drafting high than playing make believe with the 14th pick over and over again.

 

Yeah this article echos 100% of my thought process. The strategy of hoping a stud free agent wants to come to your team doesn't work for me. This is what you look at if your already at that elite level to push you over the top. Besides, where do you think those key free agents come from originally?? Look at the guys we've been wanting(Howard, D-Will, etc.) High draft picks! Be proactive instead of standing still...

 

I understand how bringing in a top player who was a top pick is useful in making a championship run, but aside from the Lakers it looks like the teams with titles already had a top pick on board that they had drafted.

I assume these teams drafted from the tank, so to speak. I guess there were a couple of lottery winners, but really don't know if any traded up to get their picks.

I guess if management had tanking as an option, it would have happened when Yao went down for the final time. It doesn't seem to feel right now, but the numbers are starting to look inescapable.

 

I could not agree with you more. And this is what I consider to be the signature failure of the Rockets under Les Alexander's ownership: a totally inept front office and an organization with no direction. It's why they find themselves frmly stuck in mediocrity today. There has been no organizational direction or plan in place since winning their last championship and the end results bear that out. And while Morey as GM is a definite upgrade over Dawson, that really ain't saying much. This team is no closer to contending under Morey that it was under Dawson. Not all his fault of course but we are now well into his tenure as GM and nothing much has changed.

I fully understand the dynamics involved with Les supposedly not wanting to rebuild and all but to date, all I've seen from Morey is that his following of CD's flawed plan from 2006 to the bitter end has done nothing but further mire this team into mediocrity. I have avoided the "tank vs. no tank" debate because I do not have faith in this organization to put talent, system & coach together even with Morey calling the shots. In fact, Morey strikes me as a guy who really doesn't know how to dig out of the hole this organization has dug for itself so he's taking the path of least resistance for now and incrementally tweaking here and there. The only problem with this approach is that the years can go by without much improvement in your team's fortunes.

 

And I do not agree with you on this. Morey has done everything he can possibly do working under Les' mantra of always competing for the playoffs and improving the team. There is nobody out there that could've done better.

 

awesome thread

 

How soon we forget that we had the former #1, #2, #6, #8, and #11 draft picks on the squad last year.

 

we have two guys on our team that saw the talent in those players. Everyone b****es because there is a possibility for acquiring a bust. Well, when this team squanders a top 5 pick, it will be news to us.

 

It's much more than just a possibility. Terrible draft selections involving top 5 picks are being made almost every year. If that weren't true then the strategy of tanking would be sound reasoning.

It's not like we're talking about the difference between one non lottery pick versus another.

Bad teams make bad selections because they're operated by incompetent buffoons.

Otherwise there would be no explanation for the LA Clippers.

 

Well, I do agree with you (I usually do); I see the same thing. I suspect we both have been watching the Rockets for a long time. Les is virtually the only "constant" since the championship years, so.....

 

Maybe so but the bottom line in all this has to be results and under Morey the end result hasn't been much different from the end result produced by Dawson. I really hold Les responsible more for this situation more so than Morey because as the owner, he sets the direction for the organization. and over the past 12 years or so, that has meant no direction at all.

But Morey isn't completely blameless here. He bought in Dawson's plan and tried his best to execute it and when that failed, he had no plan B. Well, he is the GM and at some point in time he has to produce. The question is when. I think folks here are too willing to give him a free pass and as a result, the mediocrity just rolls on unabated. I admit that I don't believe in his current mode of operation as all it appears to be doing is rearranging the deck chairs so to speak. That's why I don't believe that Morey knows what to do and that he's running in place for the time being.

 

Sure and that's why Morey has been given a free pass to date. But at some point in time, it has to come down to results and Morey has to produce some else what exactly is the point of all this?