I would argue that your point is quite debatable. Let's take a look... -The Rockets have come out of that deal with Tracy McGrady and Juwan Howard. -The Magic wound up with Trevor Ariza and Darko Milicic. Even if Tracy never plays again (knock on wood that doesn't happen) we still got a solid season and a half and a trip to the playoffs out of him. You cannot say that about anybody the Magic got from that deal. (Cuttino Mobley sure has helped the Clippers out, though. That has to sting a bit) edit: (Oops, Clutch, you beat me to it...I fully agree with your points!)
Hasn't McGrady already said he doesn't want to play into his old age? I think that if his back was bad enough that he couldn't play anymore, he'd just hang it up. People rag on him for having no heart and if that's even remotely the case, wouldn't he be satisfied just walking away? If he retires due to injury, doesn't that take his salary off our cap? We wouldn't have any trouble finding another disgruntled superstar to fill the void. It happens almost every season.
Well, OK. But I think CD has done a GREAT job the past two years ....considering what he had to work with. CD just got unlucky with a string of injuries but last season many around here were saying CD should be the GM of the year. Saying all that, what CD "had to work with" was of his own dealings from prior seasons. The aquistions of Bryce Drew, Shandon Anderson, Matt Maloney, Glen Rice, Maurice Taylor, Kelvin Cato, Moochie Norris and Eddie Griffin (etc) were all gigantic flops that really hurt the team. I think CD did a good job of unloading all that crap for decent parts recently but he shouldn't have made most/all of those deals in the 1st place.
I started suspecting managerial disarray in the Francis era. Francis' problems were so obvious that paying him a max salary was amazing at the time, at least to me. I would have never traded for him in the first place, but, that is another story. (at this moment who in the league thinks Francis is a max player, who?) The trades, the drafts, the contracts; absolutely inexplicable. Some of the deals the Rockets have made during the last ten years are beyond rationalization, they were just plain dumb. Injuries, yes. Bad luck, yes. But good managers make their own luck with smart decisions, timely moves, and clever innovations. Not this bunch. Lopez is right on. The millionaries need to get their act together, and fast. The commoners are at the gate, with pitchforks!
Umm, I'm pretty sure, even if they both retired today, that Steve Francis and Tracy McGrady had better NBA careers than Michael Dickerson and whatever mid to late round pick or picks ended up part of the 1999 deal.
the only other thing I'll say about the mcgrady deal is this, the magic were a 21 win franchise before he was traded and he wasn't happy. they were a low 40 plus game winner in his best years. weisbrod didn't have a lot of choices. it just bothers me that we can't lay off the guy. you'd think after the way this season has gone rockets fans would get the message. constantly clowning this guy after he gave us a top 3 player is causing bad karma.
The Hosuton Rockets have had bad kharma ever since the Charles Barkely trade... And then it was compounded by the Pippen deal... And don't forget about the spree of albatrose contracts for MoTay, Cato, Francis, Maloney, etc. Compound all the above with pitiful draft picks and POOF you get your current Houston Rockets, a team with two dynamic super stars in Yao and T-Mac with not much else......LOL
To me part of the problem was the that fact that Rudy wasted a lot of draft picks looking for the next Matt Bullard. Mirsad Turksan, Dan Langhi, Bostjan Nachbar all come to mind.
From that perspective, who could disagree? I just didn't want Francis to begin with. Ever read the "classic" early scouting report on him posted by Almu I think. Dead on: absolutely prophetic. I never liked his game when he was here. I think you and I had many arguments over this. He was certainly entertaining at times, but his constant mistakes overwhelmed his contributions. I actually think it is sad what has happened to him. He may be facing the end of his NBA career. I doubt he has a bright future in NY. I would actually like to see him have a glorious comeback with some team. I disliked many aspects of his game, but, I liked his passion on the court.
Rudy T was great for his charisma, so if you want to read this article from the perspective of "franchise image," I'd agree the Rockets are certainly much worse than they could be. However, I don't think this idea of having a single leader makes much difference on either trades or drafting. Rudy's history in terms of personnel acquisition isn't bad, but really isn't that special. Don't forget he was one of our key personnel guys throughout the Buck Johnson/Derrick Chievious/John Turner era. As far I'm concerned, the most important thing about the Rockets is their W/L record -- I could care less about managerial harmony. What bugs me about the Lopez article is that he doesn't provide any evidence that the two are related.
Nobody here has the right to point fingers at anyone else's GM considering what we've seen here in Houston for the past 10 years. While our GM was doing such a stellar job through the years, this franchise has been caught and passed by teams like Dallas, Memphis and now Denver. The Rockets have a lot of question marks that's true. What is especially dismaying to me is that they had the same question marks last year and the year before that and the year before that and so on. This article on reinforces what I've been posting about for some time now: This organization lacks direction and that there is no coherent plan for returning this team to the status of NBA contender. The results speak for themselves: 5 out of the past 7 years this team has landed in the NBA lotto. That simply doesn't happen if your organization has got it's act together. While they have a long way to go to match the ineptness and futility of historically sad-sack franchises like the Clippers, that is not the type of company in which you want your hometown team to belong. The fault starts at the top with Uncle Les who has tolerated poor results and rewarded mediocrity and incompetence and now thinks that he can use "spin" to hold onto fan interest. I wish him good luck because it's going to take a whole lot more than free t-shirts giveaways and having T-Mac give out popcorn to right this ship.
I'm more interested in who is scouting for the Rox. Why do we never draft any good players that fill holes that we have? Why do our draft picks stay in their home countries? Why do we pass good players to find the crappy players? These are some of the questions I have about problems that are every bit as big as who is the leader of the team...
I have totally lost confidence with this "management team's" competence to assess and acquire talented role players. They seem to be able to find coal among diamonds.
I didnt know you were this much of an idiot. First of all, Denver drafted Jameer Nelson, and traded him to ORL, so dont give hockeyman credit for something he didnt do. Second, it was a no brainer to take Dwight as he impressed hockey's advisors in workouts, and then they put out rumors of him being injured at the draft. Third, Tmac carried that miserable club called a team to the playoffs 3 straight years with the best player being an undeveloped mike miller next to him They drafted wrong, got rid of all of the players who helped them, and put everything on tmac alone, because broke ankle hill never played. Even when he asked for help they ignored him and picked up stars like Jeryl Sasser and Corey Hightower. Its not that HOU fans are clowning hockey, it was Florida residents giving the moron death threats for trading Tmac. Do you understand that? Obviously they love him more than the wannabe franchise who quit on them and all you see are leftovers from the trade that sent him out of ORL. You are nothing but a hater plain and simple. Post Shaq, Kobe has only racked up 40+ wins, even with help, yet im sure you would rather praise him as some player on another plane than Tmac If the management had got some real players mcgrady could've rested and got fully healthy, but instead they made the same mistake ORL did and not put some actual basketball players on this team. Give the man time to heal, because just last year he was a beast and for the most part has never missed more than 5 games due to his back. I think you speak too much out of the back of your neck and can't wait until Tmac returns so you can go away and let us enjoy the season
