Its time for people to man up and stop crying like spoiled children who don't get thier way. We have had a terrible string of bad luck and it set our frachise back greatly. Get past it. Our team is in competent hands and we will bounce back.
In this thread alone, i have said at least 5 times that the problem lies in Les. Morey is smart and crafty. I am not blaming him for the players he got, but rather for the players he didn't or couldn't get. More specifically, I don't like Les' settling for mediocrity, Morey doesn't do anything to change that - he's either with Les, so he should be fired; or he doesn't try to convince his boss to do the right thing, so he should be fired too. Again, we can't fire Les, can we? Then, maybe a stronger voice in a GM would be helpful? I don't want to argue with you about a 3M or 4M or even 7M bad contract, focusing on that is what got us here. Bad contracts may not lead to win on the end, but if you are so afraid of getting a bad contract, and hope for a steal in every trade or dig out diamond in garbage can, you are not going to win. BTW, please don't get me wrong, I am not talking about championship, but rather some strong presence in playoffs, like consistent 2nd round, conference finals etc.
What evidence do you have that we are in competent hands and will bounce back? Look at Portland they have had as much bad luck as the Rockets and they are making strides to bouncing back much more quickly. I am not certain about your "Competent" hands comment.....there is no proof of that. I don't think Morey in particular is bad, but he has his faults and has certainly not proven to be GREAT. Look at this year...for example. We were going to get Pau.....which was an upgrade.....right? But, we were going to be giving up Dragic, Scola and Martin......for Pau, and Nene....which it turns out was not that good of a pick anyway. So, you are saying the guy that wanted Nene and TWill is competent? Yeah, not so sure for me. DD
1 playoff series victory in 15 years suggests otherwise. that puts us in the ranks of some of the very worst franchises not just in the NBA, but in all of sports. that's ridiculous for the Houston Rockets.
One playoff series win in 15years and no WCF appearance since 1997. Rockets fans are far from spoiled.
Except current management hasn't been in place for 15 years. And I can use selective benchmarks too! 2 championships and 9 playoff series wins in 17 years. That puts us in the ranks of some of the very best franchises, not in the NBA, but in all sports.
Try no playoffs 3 years in a row and we're on our 3rd coach in five years. One very good coach, one Hall of Fame coach, and now Mchale. Some blame Les & some blame Morey. You could make a case either way.
Come one Larv, why have you become such an apologist, don't you think 15 years is enough time to rebuild? Sure we had some bad luck in TMac and Yao's injury, but shouldn't part of a good "COMPETENT" GM's job be to recognize those troubles and make changes to the roster to compensate for that? Do you honestly think that the Rockets should have kept Yao for as long as they did? I think a 'competent' GM would have flipped that contract, and dealt with the obvious reality of that situation. DD
We rebuilt twice in 15 years. One was Francis/Yao which was a trainwreck. The other was Tracy/Yao which produced two years of teams which were contenders. This is the third. An apologist? LOL. I have super high expectations. I want smart rational moves which I will base my decisions on and management has made good moves. I am not going to call for heads when our current situation is based on bad luck, not poor decisions.
I have to disagree. We never really rebuilt. We "retooled", but Yao had chronic injuries, and it was obvious that his reliability was questionable. Same with Tracy and his back issues. It became very clear early on that, while on paper you could argue we might have had a contending team, the reality was much more volitile. We never really had two years of "contending teams" because Tracy and Yao were barely on the court at the same time. And assuming otherwise after it became clear that both were extremely injury prone was delusional thinking IMHO.
Excuses for Morey: -We lost two superstars to injuries (even though Utah did the same thing and was successful) -Adelman held us back and wasn't showcasing young talent -Its all Les's fault and Morey has no accountability You guys sound pathetic.
The unrealistic expectations of people built up solely on hindsight is hilarious. Keep it coming clutchfans, today is a great day for laughs.
We are in agreement on pretty much everything except I don't believe that it has anything to do with luck, but preperation or lack thereof. How could they take on TWill and not know his history? How could they not know the history of big men over 7'4" in the league with foot issues? How could they not recognize Tmac and his serious entitlement issues when they had him in the locker room all those years? How can they continually draft low risk or safe bet prospects? Sometimes you just have to stand on your balls and scream and wonder why you are screaming and take that risk. DD
The one guy who is always complaining about not swinging for the fences, coming in here to complain about high risk high reward moves that didn't pan out. Love it.
I've been a Morey backer for nearly his entire tenure (didn't love the initial month with how the JVG firing was handled). I don't *want* him gone. But he's probably used up his political capital in my book. This is a business, and business doesn't give two shi+s about bad luck. Ultimately, Morey's job is to get things done. He's been first class with minor to moderate moves, but he's batting 0.0000 with big ones. Maybe he never had a shot. Maybe his religious dedication to moneyball value assignment has killed deals that were close and/or soured his relationship with other GMs. Regardless, he's batting 0.000 and there's no indication his pool of assets or the league's supply of available star players will grow in the upcoming year. And unlike the 2008 playoff team, THIS is Morey's team. No one inherited. All of these players were brought in by him. This is the coaching staff he wanted. And forget the 0-6 collapse. This was a team, throughout, that was constantly bullied down low, struggled on the boards, and couldn't draw double teams. It was Morey's vision to assemble a bunch of whiz kid assistants to run the offense and defense while McHale kept the team working hard. Granted, they had no offseason, a micro-preseason, and few practices, but has there been any evidence that they are bringing something to the table? Are they adapting at all to what the strengths/weaknesses of this roster are? Are they implementing schemes that need different personnel? No matter how you dice it, Morey was tasked with putting this team in the playoffs. He made the moves. This team is, if overachieving, first round fodder. I'd prefer that Alexander wake up and sign off on a total rebuild. But I can't say he'd be completely unjustified cleaning house in the front office. Morey has had 5 years and has come up empty finding a new franchise player. Say what you will about CD, but that man brought in 3 different HOF players during his tenure (possibly 4), and 6 All-Stars. The Celtics, Knicks, Thunder, Grizzlies, Heat, Bulls, and even Clippers have become relative powers in the time Morey's been on the team...and he inherited a decent squad. Hell, even the ******* PACERS are going to have homecourt in this postseason. I do like Morey, I do like most of the guys that are on the team. But there's been no direction. The team has been floundering for 3 years. Something's going to have to give. Status quo has failed.
If you fail at taking them, you get held accountable. The high risk/high reward players we were discussing are the ones in the draft. Morey needs to dig his heels in and swing away. DD
