Not really interesting, most of them were traded for better pieces, directly or indirectly. Yao was worth keeping, so we kept him. The rest really weren't.
A better question - who is it that we missed out on by not keeping them around? Most of these guys saw their stock drop precipitiously after leaving Houston...I guess they weren't getting good player development in their new teams.
Yup. 7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1 block on 57% is pretty damn solid for a 20 mpg backup, especially one that is just about to turn 22 years old.
You are reasoning in circle. If they were traded for better pieces, then they were not worth keeping. If we could trade Yao for a better piece, would he have been worth keeping? If we could trade Harden for better pieces, would he be worth keeping? It's like say, I know I am better than you because I know you are worse than me.
I disagree. The silly premise here is that we would be better off if we drafted and developed guys, and signed them to deals after their rookie contracts, rather than letting them go and using free agency / trades to improve. Majorty of our draft picks ended up resulting in better pieces. Theory disproved. Narrative still pushed? Yes.
They were really the only ones worth keeping. Parsons was not worth the contract he got. Brooks was good, but we traded him for Dragic and a #1 pick. No brainer. We did re-sign guys last year, Bev and Brewer. Do they count? Bev has only played for the Rockets in his NBA career and is okay. Brewer is trash.
Parsons has been rehashed to death. Scola was lousy in his last year in Houston and improved slightly his first year away, bu otherwise he has never had a year as good as his early prime in Houston ...now he is no better than an average player at best. Do you really think keeping a declining 32 year old PF was the optimal move for a lottery team in 2012? They missed out on Dwight and ended up with Asik instead that year....then added Lin and Harden. If you think that rolling with an aging Scola was better than "can-kicking" and getting Asik, Lin and eventually Harden, well, sadly it wouldn't be the most ridiculous thing you have posted here, but it would be close.
Actually the comment was made when someone mentioned that we would likely not have both Jones and Motiejunas after this season. These two guys are the epitome of our draftees. We either trade them before their rookie contracts are up or we let them walk because they are not worth the resigning prices. If a first rounder is worth only a cheap contract after 4 years of development, that pretty much means it's a wasted pick. If we just didn't want to keep expensive role players, then well that's what the Clippers had been doing for years before they got Chris Paul. To be fair, we did sign Brewer and Bev. I count Bev as coming off an rookie contract. So we'll see how long he will stick. Brewer was signed as a veteran. He was not developed by us. And whether it was a good signing is still questionable. Morey is good at flipping players with marginal improvement. In a scale of 10, is trading a 5 player for a 5.2 player worth it? Maybe, in a vacuum. For the long term, how the mix of underdeveloped young players and the flux of ever changing role player veteran corps works is still not clear.
Exactly Daywalker. Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. And right now none of our power forwards are living up to this team's expectations. Man name me one more team that keeps starting different players at that position. It seems like every 4 to 5 games we are starting a different player at that position. We have to get some consistency from one of them at that position.
Great post. It's fair to see #1 picks that aren't re-signed as wasted picks, or as blown picks on players not worth keeping. But I don't think any of our transactions were done in a vacuum. Every transaction so far has had context, part of a direction for the team. Most of the people we let go were to keep the flexibility that let us get Harden and Dwight. I'm not sweating the players we lost. If we had a Jermaine O'Neal/Portland situation where our guy went on to become a multiple appearance all-star and DPOY, I'd be furious. But our players tend to have their best years here. There were two exceptions of course: Lowry and Dragic. Dragic is the one that pisses me off, the one we really let walk away. He could've had those beastly years with us. Instead, we gave his contract to Lin. It's enough to make me grit my teeth. As for Jones and Motiejunas, specifically, I think the situation would be different had DMo not been injured. Jones is just a wasted pick. But DMo probably wouldn't have been traded if not for the back surgery. Heck, DMo still might be re-signed on a cheap contract anyway, though I doubt it. Either way, I don't think it's fair to characterize him as a wasted pick.
Fair enough. DMo's injury indeed clouded the situation. If he was healthy and played at around the level he did last season, it would be interesting what Morey would do about him. Would he match if someone offered 15M+ per year? My gut feeling is that DMo would probably be traded before the deadline for a good draft pick or a high end role player.
317 pages for a role player. This is like Lin all over again. Can't wait for the NBA forum thread next year
The thread has gone 317 pages becuase after each game both sides come out and proclaim they've won . Hillarious . There is no objectivity in analysis on either side for any player on the rockets . This remains true for Dmo .
