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[CHRONIC JSolo] Masterpiece? Morey's work far from done

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Rockets34Legend, Feb 25, 2011.

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  1. Rockets34Legend

    Rockets34Legend Contributing Member

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    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl...(chron.com+-+Top+Stories)&utm_content=Twitter

    At the interview podium in Toyota Center, Daryl Morey, obviously drained and exhausted, wore the sad look and sound of a man who had been up all night.

    Not that the moves he made could have been done in his sleep, but had he known his hard work would result in trades for three players — Hasheem Thabeet, Goran Dragic and DeMarre Carroll — with fewer than 20 starts among them, the Rockets general manager probably would have taken a nap.

    Understandably, the trade-deadline moves didn't awaken much excitement among Rockets fans.

    Go ahead. Think about the trades with Memphis and Phoenix and try not to yawn. Is the person next to you yawning, too?

    "Fans are going to see two major All-Star-level players (Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams) change teams, and I think if I was a fan I would want to see that (for the Rockets), too," Morey said. "We're going to continue to work toward those moves or have our players develop into All-Stars.

    "That is the goal."

    Morey says the trades of fan favorites Shane Battier and Aaron Brooks gave the Rockets more assets that could pay off in the future. The future certainly isn't now, and Morey has no idea when that more positive future will get here.

    Morey is the one who keeps saying the Rockets need a star. He is right about that.

    Morey is the one who keeps saying the Rockets, because of their bevy of assets, are in the best position to acquire such a star. He has been wrong about that.

    Or at least that is what NBA teams with stars keep indicating by not responding to those assets with the kind of enthusiasm Morey and Rockets fans would like.
    On outside looking in

    When the clock struck 2 p.m. Thursday, it was almost as dark as midnight in Rocketland. The relatively minor trades did little to improve the team's position: on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

    The Rockets did get a couple of draft picks out of the deals. Neither will be in the lottery, as their trading partners made sure to stipulate , and the one from Memphis can't even be used before 2013.

    If the goal was to gather assets, the Rockets picked up a couple more. If it is about competing for a championship, there is plenty of work yet to be done.

    "The reality is right now this team as constructed isn't a championship-caliber team. I'm not telling you any secrets," Morey said. "So we need to figure out how to upgrade the team, and these moves position us better to get there than if we had kept Shane and Aaron, for sure."

    By trading Battier and Brooks, both opening-game starters, the Rockets got something in return for two players who were likely to leave the team as free agents this coming offseason.

    In that sense, Morey got something where he could easily have ended up with nothing. That is a positive. The question is whether what he got will ever produce or if the newly acquired assets will someday be part of a package that brings the Rockets what they desperately need.

    Boring trades perhaps, but in the long run, they probably won't hurt any. Even the $7 million in salary they added for next season won't prevent the Rockets from going after free agents this summer.

    And with a little luck, Thabeet might surprise us all and turn into a player. One way or another.

    A collective yawn

    "(Major trade) opportunities come, and you don't know what it'll take," Morey said. "At one point in this league, it took Kwame Brown.

    "At one point in this league, it's taken a little bit, and sometimes it's taken a lot. We're positioning ourselves to be ready for the opportunity. That's the plan."

    It is not often that a Kwame Brown-level player can fetch a Pau Gasol-level player in a midseason trade, but if that rare meteorite slams into the earth again, Thabeet is even better — and in this miracle trade scenario, we actually mean worse — than Brown.

    This time around, the Rockets simply didn't have enough of the right pieces to land a star.

    So stop yawning and take a nap. There is not much to see here.
     
    #1 Rockets34Legend, Feb 25, 2011
  2. Prince

    Prince Member

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    this news is a copy and paster from last year :eek:
     
    #2 Prince, Feb 25, 2011
  3. Shaud

    Shaud Member

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    Masterpiece? Righttttttttt :rolleyes:
     
    #3 Shaud, Feb 25, 2011
  4. Rockets_4_life

    Rockets_4_life Member

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    Wow, I don't know how many times I have repeat myself... smh..

    People, these trades puts us in great positioning come draft night (the next trade frenzy), to move up on the draft board!
     
    #4 Rockets_4_life, Feb 25, 2011
  5. agslai

    agslai Contributing Member

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    Well Morey is stockpiling assets, which is good. Either lose AB and Battier for nothing in the offseason or get something out of them....He couldnt predict AB was going to get hurt and sux especially in a contract yr.....Melo didnt want to go anywhere except NY bottom line.....Utah refuse to trade with Houston. Morey cant help that Utah didnt want to face DWill after trading him. Rox also didnt have a Top 3 pick in Favors either.

    We are a work in progress....this trade makes this team weaker this yr, but our team was already weak and not even .500.....our contracts are flexible and we have assets......

    Let's not forget the days of MoTaylor, Shandon Anderson, Cato days, MAtt Mafhoney, Swift days in dishing out large contracts to ppl that didnt deserve them and setting the franchise back years.....
     
    #5 agslai, Feb 25, 2011
  6. emjohn

    emjohn Contributing Member

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    Yep. Nothing at all to feel good about. I slept on it...and woke feeling worse about the state of the Rockets than I did yesterday afternoon.

    A year ago, Brooks was probably enjoying the very peak of his career (and I mean that to include his remaining years). Now? Morey straight up knocked him by saying a mid-teens to mid-20s draft pick in a starless draft was "for sure" better than keeping Aaron going forward. His value apparently is tied to BP stock.

    I get that he realized it was time to cut ties with Shane and avoid the bad PR asking him for a 50+% paycut in the summer. Maybe it's worth the one year, $5M flier to see if they can turn Thabeet into a better shotblocking version of Kelvin Cato (and don't kid yourself - that's an optimistic ceiling for a guy this out of his depth at NBA basketball). The draft pick is horrible (lottery protected 2013?)

    We are going NOWHERE until we turn up a top 15 player to build around. I can count on one finger the number of teams that did anything of note without one in the past 4 decades.

    Morey got creamed because of shifting trends. He had a good plan that was silently outdated before he could pull any triggers:

    1) TEs are in, expiring contracts are out.
    We had $35M in expiring deals....and only Shane pulled any interest. Teams have no interest in paying out a bench guy...they want the immediate savings of a fat TE. Sadly, we had several of those too...and flipped them for nothing at all.

    2) Superfriends Syndrome
    Amare, Bosh, LeBron, Wade, Carmelo....they all made up their minds well in advance of where they wanted to go, and none were going to sign on the dotted line here. It's not that we're Houston....it's that we're not one of the 4 or so marquee celebrity cities. It's not like they were flocking to SA or Dallas, either. Morey was cut out before the game even started.

    If I'm disappointed in Morey...it's that Perkins (a good fit for us) got moved for a relative song and the Celtics had interest in Battier. We couldn't have expanded the Battier talks to land him? Battier and Hayes? Battier and Brooks? I have a VERY hard time seeing how Jeff Green was an offer we couldn't counter or beat. I'm not as bothered about Wallace, given that Portland had to send two firsts to take on a (nice) third option type with a heavy contract. I liked him, but not quite that much.

    It's going to be a harsh, long winter for us as fans unless some incredible lightning of luck strikes. You don't turn a franchise around behind mid-first draft picks. You don't swing a blockbuster for a superstar unless (a) that star is insisting to go to you or (b) a pissed off franchise calls you up specifically.

    If there's anything to feel okay about....
    In the event that hard-cap-boner-owners (Kroenke, Starver, Kohl, Leonsis) get their way and the NBA institutes a hard(er), lower cap after the CBA, the Rockets will be in position to move forward with little issue while the big dollar squads (Lakers, Magic, Celtics) could be hit hard if they aren't somehow grandfathered. Small comfort though.

    This coming free agent class is pitiful (M Gasol RFA, Z Randolph UFA, T Young RFA, C Landry UFA, A Thornton RFA). 2012 looks a lot better, but we don't know yet if the new CBA will have a franchise tag yet or some other form of increasing "home" team advantage.

    I hate it. It dawned on me yesterday that this is the lowest I've felt in terms of optimism for the Rockets' future in almost 2 decades. It almost makes it worse knowing that the front office is strong, has resources, is doing their best....and we're still in this quagmire.
     
    #6 emjohn, Feb 25, 2011
  7. RudyTBag

    RudyTBag Contributing Member
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    I feel fantastic about the trades. Fantastic.
     
    #7 RudyTBag, Feb 25, 2011
  8. RudyTBag

    RudyTBag Contributing Member
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    I feel fantastic about the trades. Fantastic.
     
    #8 RudyTBag, Feb 25, 2011
  9. pippendagimp

    pippendagimp Member

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    les needs to give up the team to a new owner willing to spend.
     
    #9 pippendagimp, Feb 25, 2011
  10. AggNRox

    AggNRox Member

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    very well said
     
    #10 AggNRox, Feb 25, 2011
  11. emjohn

    emjohn Contributing Member

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    (Delete-double post)
     
    #11 emjohn, Feb 25, 2011
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2011
  12. shortfuse3

    shortfuse3 Member

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    That Brooks for Gortat proposed trade is looking mighty good right now. :(
     
    #12 shortfuse3, Feb 25, 2011
  13. rocketsqtc

    rocketsqtc Member

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    Uhm, Les is willing to spend. That isn't the issue. Having 2 All-Star quality pieces go down to injury has been.

    And if the NBA is going towards a hard cap then it isn't so much about spending as it will be about being flexible and not overpaying talent.

    Morey is doing the right thing in the long run. Overpaying for Brooks and re-signing an aging Battier wouldn't have kept us as lean and flexible and that's the reality of it. Overpaying for Brad Miller was something Les was willing to do since we all thought Yao was 100% and ready to go.

    Things change. This isn't a playoff team much less a championships team. But we have a bunch of rookie contracts on this team now with the flexibility to make something happen down the line.

    A disgruntled Howard to Houston in the future via trade or Free Agency? I can only hope, but who knows.
     
    #13 rocketsqtc, Feb 25, 2011
  14. jcee15

    jcee15 Contributing Member

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    Enough to post twice? :)
     
    #14 jcee15, Feb 25, 2011
  15. emjohn

    emjohn Contributing Member

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    The boards have been glitchy
     
    #15 emjohn, Feb 25, 2011
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