excellent, look forward to stotts telling his assistants can't play that guy after harden enters BBQ chicken buffet mode
I asked around about Markieff Morris as a person and the response was very mixed. Seems he is very moody and emotional. I was told he defends inside very well, especially as a small 5. Between the comments you received and the advanced statistics and what I was told, I have concerns. At this point I have some real questions about the overall make up. All we hope is that we are healthy in the second half. Capela/Tucker/Shumpert and Paul lock down a lot of the defensive issues and Whoever we add provides SOMETHING. I am usually optimistic about the front office and the group we have on the floor but my gut is telling me not to be.
Ideally you get Morris and House and go to war with what we have. I have heard nothing on House and at this point I question how much he would help. I really think we should have worked something out earlier.
Remember, Morey was picking out of the absolute dumpster. He had almost no money to work with. I don’t think they ever thought Ennis would give them what Ariza gave them, but someone had to take Ariza’s minutes and Ennis was the best in the Rockets price range. MCW was a lost cost, high reward type signing with a low chance of working.
I’ll never accept that he was a high reward signing even if it went great. He was bad player. You were hoping for a miracle
No doubt it was like playing the lottery. They liked his defense and hoped he would shoot well enough. He didn’t, it failed. They knew it was a long shot and it failed.
I think if House works out you don't really need Morris . Likewise with Morris . We already have 6 guys for the 1-3 ... realistically only need 2 for the 4 and 2 for the 5 . If The failure to work something out with house is due to tillmans luxury tax mandate then I'm disappointed. House was playing at a pretty high level earlier (albeit small sample size ) . Even if you are assured of getting him for the rest of the season ... having him sit out for 2+months and lose his rhythm is NOT a good move . This whole roster construction this year has been bizarre to say the least . But then again so have the PT decisions sometimes . Clark was looking like a budding defensive ace early in the year and his time vanished with his shot .
A lot of the bizarre signings were a result of Morey having to almost exclusively look at league minimum players to fill major roles on the team. Clark lost playing time because his shot just disappeared. He became unplayable unfortunately. I agree with you on House. He and the Rockets were thriving together. He fit a lot of the Rockets needs and we really cannot count on him suddenly playing like he did after a lay-off. I would be happy with Morris and House because Morris is at his best as a small ball 5. I like House as a 3/4.
Morris. Faried gives up too much defensively to me (just my opinion). I am fine keeping Faried for particular match ups but defensively it is really ugly.
The craziest thing is that we really didn't give them too much of a chance to work out (not saying that they would ) but Melo played like what 10 games ? MCW 5 ? Ennis I actually liked and still liked when they traded him . He's athletic and when the defense was in scramble mode (aka lots of energy and on a string ) I though he fit right in . Maybe shumpert is a smarter and better defender ... but we still gave away Ennis for nothing (outside of LT savings at this point ) Agree that Morey is severely constrained . We are probably gonna go without using a significant portion of our MLE. We could have used it several times : early in free agency , to sign House , or to get buyouts (tbd , I guess ) Still . Even with the roster being in a flux . MDA has never taken advantage of all the options he has . Hartenstein and Clark have been here all year . We played then early on and then not at all and then very sporadically. That's probably not textbook on how to develop young players . MDA usually opts to shorten the rotation when guys are out . Then after several nights of playing 7-8 guys inevitably one of the 8 guys playing heavy minutes starts to get worn down a bit and the cycle continues . Then the one young guy he does play consistently runs out of NBA time and we can't sign him back lol . So frustrating.
Not working this out was front office malpractice. Not having House, the best starting SF of the season, has cost them at least 5 games and will probably cost them home court.
I agree on the number of games. I just don’t know how much blame goes to the owner and how much to the front office.
It looked to me like Markieff just stopped competing. I’m suspicious of this signing as well. I’m hoping that having a chance to compete for a ring will motivate him to give max effort like he used to in Phoenix. I think the veterans on this team would hold him accountable if he slacks. If he comes I just hope he is motivated. He used to be a beast.
These are the simple questions for the #10 guy on the roster. With vet min and buyout guys they are there for a reason. You need to find a guy to fit a role. Right now we are a worn out, inconsistent, bad effort/bad defense team. After the ASB, this teams needs to be held accountable with a full roster.
