On the subject of bashing Morey, I would say that he seemed to be a genius 2 years ago, but then proved he didn't know what he had. Ariza was a step down from Artest. Then we traded Ariza for another step down. Landry was a big factor closing out games, and we traded him. I definitely don't understand his methods, but I don't see that he looks at the playoff differently than the regular season. More specifically, he seems to get guys that can put up the numbers against the majority of the league, but can't step it up against the best competition. That has become more pronounced this year than ever. If I were crunching stats, I would look at the 4th quarter against playoff teams, and ignore EVERYTHING else.
The one big prob I have is Morey not understanding chemistry and that's the Rockets biggest problem beside personnel. I understand about the big projects at work.. Have on going on now.
That we know of, the Rockets have recently attempted to acquire: Chris Bosh Marcin Gortat Amare Stoudemire Carmelo Anthony Now, I can understand the criticism from the aspect that we haven't been able to land them, but a couple of guys in here are going on about 'we don't try to make big moves', which makes absolutely no sense.
Morey made a move for Bosh knowing that it would never work. The top talent in the league right now is not jumping to come to Houston. We must fall hard, so we can draft high.
How does this thread have 3 stars? Sports fans are freakin ridiculous. Morey, in spite of his "Wizard" nickname and some of the epic trades he's pulled off, is not actually capable of magically pulling a solution for every possible problem we can face out of thin air. This team has faced major adversity in the recent years, and considering the circumstances, Morey has done an excellent job. I know years like this suck, but you simply cannot be a contender every season (and yes, we WERE contenders back when we had Yao and Mac... it just never happened due to injuries). You have to live with some years like this in between sometimes. It's not like we're the Clippers.
Artest got us into the 2nd round of the playoffs, is an elite defender, and a serviceable to well-above-average offensive player. Everyone has been screaming that we have one dimensional players. Ariza was oversold, but also an elite defender, and serviceable offensive player. He could have taken Battier's role when he is gone. Lee may be a good defender, but he has an undeveloped offensive game, and he is a 2 guard. If you give me 5 elite defenders to choose from, a PG, SG, SF, PF, and C.... I want whatever guy is the tallest. No matter how good Lee is, he will never be able to defend PF, SF, and SG, and PG like Ariza could.
Gross misconception. Artest was atrocious in the playoffs. Yao and Brooks got us into the second round. I can't disagree enough. Ariza is not a starter in this league. To say his offense is "Servicable" is a slap in the face to any serviceable player in the NBA. He is atrocious offensively. No fundamentals, no shot, bad decision making, etc. What PG did Ariza guard? Ariza could guard SGs and SFs. Lee can guard PGs and SGs. Defensively it is a wash, but it is night and day offensively and salary wise.
Yao and Brooks were more important than Artest, but Artest played a significant part to the wins. Reality seems to differ. Ariza was a starter for the World Champion Lakers, then he started for the Rockets when they looked like they actually knew how to play basketball, now he is a starter on a team that is much better than us. Sorry if you don't like his game, but he would improve the Rockets. Ariza has the ability (speed, length) to defend point guards, but I don't have any specific examples. It is definitely NOT a wash. I'll take an elite defender that is 6'-8" tall over a good defender that is 6'-5". There is a HUGE difference, particularly when your best defender gets assigned players like Lebron, Kobe, Wade, Durant, who are ALL taller than 6'-5".
If anything DM's main mistake here is letting Batum go in the first place. DM isn't perfect a lot of his small moves don't pan out like getting Artest, Francis, JT, Dorsey etc. However I look at the good he's done and frankly I would consider him and his staff to be the best FO in the league bar none. The way he managed to run the team despite building around fragile stars in Yao and Tmac deserves special mention. Take out KG and Rondo, Kobe and Gasol, Duncan and Manu etc. what do you have? Utter garbage. In our case this is as low as it gets.
Have you actually watched Ariza this season? Trevor Ariza: scoring 0.384% from the field. And that's with the CP effect working in his favor. He's garbage at this point. Yes a pretty good defender, but 100's of other wings can defend as good as he does, and none of them make 5M+ a year.
Well, that's not totally fair, either. It was a total team effort. Our incredible depth got us into the 2nd round. Artest was a small part of it, but he did come in handy in that 1st round, but in the second round, Artest probably did more harm than good. My god, he was ATROCIOUS against the Lakers.
Adelman will probably be the next coach to 1000 wins, and def. a hall of fame coach.Morey raped NY, and also got us Martin, but alot of people in clutch fans seem to think they make better coaches, and/or gms.Jordan , and Thomas were amoungst the best players the sporst has ever seen, and failed miserably, but you guys think you have the answers?I guess you guy would be happier if the team got an injury prone Amare, or under achieving Joe Jhonson to max out,and still under perform.Morey will be patient, and make the right decision.
Disagree here. We would not have defeated Portland without Artest. He was crucial, especially in Game 6. That said, Robert, have you SEEN Artest this year? He's awful. BATTIER is scoring more points then he is, and at a significantly higher percentage. There's also the fact that I doubt Artest would have gotten us into the playoffs instead of Ariza, last year and he's old. I like him, still like him, but god I'm glad he's gone. Complaining about letting him go is stupid. And Ariza isn't doing much better. I like Lee, and I'm glad we have him instead of those two.
Agreed. I would add that Gasol was a gift to the Lakers, Duncan was the result of tanking, but Manu and Kobe were the result of good scouting and management.
