The best thing about Scola is his style of play puts, seemingly, less wear and tear on his body. He's not a sprinter, he's not a leaper. He just chugs along, does his little dance in the paint, and makes people look foolish below the rim. I could see him logging 28-30 minutes well into his mid-30s.
yeah, don't get me wrong. i root like hell for them every night...i've been to more rockets games this season than i've been to in a very long time. i just question strategy big time. there are no sure things in the draft...but i like our chances there a helluva lot better than i do waiting around for gold to land on our doorstep if the goal is to build a real championship contender.
I guarantee you Patterson still gets his minutes. Dally is going to wind up getting his minutes cut the most because he is so up and down. McHale is gonna pull Dally if he's struggling. He's gonna pull whoever is struggling and give the minutes to the next guy. Dally is the worst player of the 4 bigs.
I don't think that's a good analogy, at all. The Rockets legitimately are ONE player away. They're a good team that's very young, now, and needs one closer to put them over the top into true contention. Not to mention the impact that one player can have on a basketball team, compared to other sports. The Astros were night and day different... the team as a whole was aging, saddled with awful contracts and needing a complete rebuild. They were much, much further than one player away. The Rockets have a lot of very good young talent, and I really do think they'd be near the top of the West right now had the Gasol/Nene plan worked out. After being that close, I think it's a lot to ask to immediately walk away from everything and start an Astros-esque rebuild. Maybe I'm stubborn, but I want to give Morey one more offseason with this group - one that hopefully won't involve a Stern veto - before blowing everything up.
Undoubtedly true. Nobody is gift wrapping a star for us anytime soon, and now that we've whiffed on Bosh/Gasol/Bogut/Howard, and the FA market looks totally dead until 2014, I think we'll see a change in direction by the FO. Change is coming, nothing that Daryl has done in the past should indicate to us that he isn't going to swing for the fences (either by going for big names, or high picks).
Agreed. It's also important to note that both the Bucks & Nets (for this season, their future sucks) got much better, increasing the Knicks competition for that last playoff spot. If Dallas ends up with a top 10 record (I think they ultimately will), then we could have 1 top 10 pick and 1 top 22 pick. Look at it this way - we turned Carl Landry & a rotting TMac into Kevin Martin and 2 top 22 draft picks. Pretty good deal. Also, with the 2 Euro's we have stashed away, I don't see us taking on 2 more prospects, so a draft day trade could be highly likely. I'd also like to point out that Morey isn't going to sell low on anybody. KMart has been extremely inconsistent this season and apparently has some injury issue. We all know he isn't untouchable like some insiders have written. Morey is likely just waiting for this season to play out, hopefully increasing his trade value now that he knows/thinks he's safe. It's also important to note that he's a pretty big expiring next season, which in and of itself will increase his value. I read somewhere on this board the idea of trading our NYK pick along with Martin on draft day to the Wizards for their pick & Blatche, giving them a new start essentially. Not sure if this is going to happen, but look for something similar.
I get the idea of a 28/20 split at PF but it might now work like that. There are gonna be times where mchale will want to go big and play dally and camby. For example against against a bigger tLakers. There might be times when he will want to go small and play patterson at center even if evidence shows it hasnt worked. Then there are tims where he might go small and play parsons at PF.
Yup I was totally bump out about that, Rockets had a chance at two lottery picks had they made moves to miss the playoffs.... But that's just water under the bridge at this point. Hopefully the Knicks continue to suck, and Dallas(pick), Cleveland and Milwaukee continue to win...
accidently hit submit The point players play out of position. McHale will go with matchups and what works. It could mean less time for Scola, Patterson, Camby, or Dalembert.
I think you're missing my point...I said one "bit" player away. Of course we're a superstar away...and we'd have to trade away the bulk of that "very good young talent" you claim we have to get that guy. I have no disagreement with you...in the NBA virtually every team in the league is one superstar away from being a legit contender. If you have someone in the top 2 teams of All NBA, you're in the discussion. I think we're playing make believe suggesting we can trade for one like this...and Gasol is a non-starter with me, because I don't believe he's that caliber of player anymore and I believe we've already seen his best years. But let's please not start another discussion about Pau effing Gasol here. I'm personally hoping I never hear of that connection ever again.
Yah not really sure why this matters...but I doubt camby gets 24...and its not like its an exact science here. If we are winning significantly or getting blown out camby and dally will be rested more than if we are competing. Plus at every point in the game there will be times when they are playing small ball...which has been one of the best line ups for us this season. What was it in OKC: Dragic, Lee, Budinger, Parsons, Patterson Thats small as it gets
Ok here is when I call BS on this stat nonsense.... can we be serious Rockets fan for a quick second and make this the last post on the Patterson/Scola minutes between you and I, Orem? We all are Rockets fans and claim to watch the team, so let's not be attached to season averages because we should personally know the ebb and flow of these games. When things are rolling or we are getting blown out, you can sit your starters (or when Kevin Love steps on your face :grin, but when we have been fighting to win games, Scola is racking up 35+ minute games and if you deny that then I don't think you're really watching this team and I'm calling you on it. Just look at all the games this month.... So don't sit here and say he is going to play less than 30 as a game plan. Luis Scola... 28 mpg? Be serious. You should know your team. You know that's not possible over the rest of the season when we need a scoring threat with Lowry/K-Mart both out. When this trade was made, Morey had to calculate where minutes would come from, and I'd bet you the solution wasn't a game plan for Scola to hit the bench when he hit 28 minutes and Patterson to play 20 instead of his 22." I believe it was, "We have to ride Scola as we have been with our back-court out, and Patrick will lose 8-10 minutes to Camby." You're entitled to your opinion that we acquired Camby because Scola was playing too many minutes, but I'm entitled to call you a Spurs fan for thinking that!
+1. Add to that FA market the last relics of the old CBA contracts and you'll see a lot of FAs interested in signing extensions with their current teams as a business practice making it harder and harder to crack that ceiling of even singing aging superstars. The reason I stay hopeful is that it can be done while the team is a playoff contender, but it will take some pain and sheer luck of timing. Ex: If the Lakers owned the rights to an amazingly high lottery pick, Morey would have dealt a Lowry package for Gasol and that high pick and taken his chance on the lottery bringing him a star. But that's why it takes some timing luck because the Lakers had a PG need and Lowry would have been perfect from as a contract and the PG Brown needs on the court, but the Lakers didn't have enough for us to deal Lowry. Stay optimistic, there are worse teams to be a fan of.... I shudder at the thought of growing up in Charlotte.... to lose a team to New Orleans and never get a real one back. :grin:
Max, you and I are sharing the same brain on this. Eventually you have to get to the point as a franchise where you have to go make something happen, i.e. rebuilding, draft, free agency. I like Morey's ideology if it could actually work but nobody knows IF and WHEN it will. How long do you wait with waiting? Morey is either actively passive or passively active! He's essentially building and compiling assets and then leaving it up to other gms and players to decide when something will happen. Although those astro teams had worse contracts they were doing the same thing thinking about here and now instead of the future. I'm glad they at least are aware of that now and are finally rebuilding!!
From 1980-1995 this franchise made the Finals 4 times. Now we take solace in not being Charlotte Bobcats fans. This is what I'm talking about when I lament the state of our favorite NBA franchise.
Preposterous nonsense. After our meaty exchange one would have thought that you might've paid attention to what unfolded with the Laker brass yesterday. There were no fire sales by the way. In the end, Lowry being offered 4 weeks from now when he recovers was the deathblow. Otherwise Morey would've blinked and pulled the trigger. There was NEVER a deal without Lowry. So there certainly wouldn't be a deal for Lowry predicated off of some additional imaginary lottery pick. The Lakers would keep the high pick. The Rockets have no additional stars to offer in trade. The Lakers have a point guard now and it didn't cost them Pau Gasol to land one either. And they didn't feel obliged to have to dump Gasol's salary yesterday either because the Buss children were panic stricken over the luxury tax implications. Instead they managed to dump multi-year constraining salary on Houston and Cleveland whilst holding onto the Odom TPE money, service their immediate point guard needs, keep their core 3 players in tact, and even manage to add a decent younger 4/5 reserve player to fill-in a thin area of the roster. Kupchak at the helm as usual and no sign whatever of a franchise in disarray.
I hardly ever post MM but I just got to say your whining about the Rockets management is tired. I know you gave the Astros a much longer leash and they were run by incompetents for the last decade. Just know you are on the DD side of the Morey spectrum. For the most part these players all play hard, are professional, are fun to root for and Morey is the one that uncovered all of them. Given that you have no idea the parameters placed on Morey by Alexander judging is tenure is best made on a transaction by transaction basis and other than T-Will it is almost universally recognized that each decision can be defended. I wish fans would realize that he is too good at his job to tank. It is NEVER going to happen. Even if we traded Martin and Scola and played "young players" we are miles better than the Hornets, Bobcats, Kings and the rest of the bottom feeders. All because Morey fields an entire two deep that can play and is on a reasonable contract.
