James. Jury is out. James playing great in a contract year doesn't sell me. Swift. A great signing. Just didn't work out but a good move. Anderson. Came cheap. How was that a mistake? Just didn't work out. He's apparently had a huge influence on Yao. Cost: Priceless. Signed for vets min. Who cares. I'll agree here. That said, the PF spot looked set w/ Stro. But Padgett wasn't the type of impact player that would have had ANY affect on the results last season. So, no biggy. There isn't a GM in the league that would have held out on that. Not one. I'd call that an unfortunate turn of events but not a mistake. Definately. But I'm talking about the last 4 years. I don't recall a Rashard Lewis trade. I recall when was a Rashard FA but I don't recall a trade. Disagree. Undersized PF that hogs the ball. I've never missed him. Good riddence. agreed. At the time, it was a good signing. Just didn't work out. But nobody was betting the farm on him. He was added late in the summer as a throw in. His addition didn't otherwise affect the team negatively because it was a short and small contract. Agreed. But he was drafted in 2001. 4 year rule. 04-05: 8ppg/4rpg and 30% behind the arc. 05-06: 7.1/4.8 (at least he shot better but stats don't show it) That isn't worth 7million. He was a tough loss but the Rockets just can't keep getting suckered into bad contracts. At that point, they had Moochie, Cato, MoT and Matt Maloney on the books. I hurt to see him go but you gotta draw the line. If we didn't have all that other crap, I'm sure we'd have retained him.
I don't think you can look at it and NOT say it was a mistake. Primary acquisition to cap filler in 8 months? Yes, I am using hindsight. But yes....it was still a mistake. Those of us who carbon-date back to the early 90's remember 1991. if you recall, Hakeem was injured by Bill Cartwright that year and missed like 30 games in midseason - the Rox hovering around mediocrity outside the playoffs at that point anyway. What happened? Instead of folding, the cast of role players (Kenny, Max, OT, Buck Johnson were the starters) rallied, Larry Smith stepped up huge, and the Rox went on a serious hot streak and posted one of the best records in the league, post-all-star break, most of it without Hakeem, and ended up winning 50 games and got the 6 seed. Don Chaney was coach of the year. Now, it ended in a disappointing first round loss to one of Magic's Laker teams, but that was not a listless, fold-the-tent, fetal postion struggle that this past season was.
Actually at this point IMO It isn't on CD anymore. . . *IT IS ON JVG* I think CD has brought the Groceries JVG has to cook the meal Rocket River
this is what I mean by low standards. teams make the playoffs all the time missing superstars becaus their team has depth.
The similarities between Mike James and Bonzi Wells begin and end with the words "free agent". Mike James' was cast off and not made an offer for anything not even a SnT by the team with his Bird Rights. James' wife is from Houston, he was all in the media about wanting to be in Houston, he met with the Rockets LONG before any other team, and the team that signed him came out of nowhere at the last minute. And the reason he wasn't a Rocket was the possibility of a 900K trade kicker after season 2. Wells' first agent miscalculated the market and declined a signifcant offer from the Kings for which he was fired. The timing of the decline happened while most teams were chewing up their MLE $. Wells had to wait before the league would sanction his new agent. Meanwhile, more MLE $ is getting chewed up. The only real "player" for Wells was Charlotte. Wells chose Yao and McGrady ahead of the 'Cats. And he'll be a Free Agent again next summer. I'd have been impressed if we could have locked in Wells for 3 years with a TE SnT for a 2nd rounder. As it was, we were among the last teams with any $ not bumping hard against the LTax.
We did a LOT better this yr than last yr. It was all fool's gold last year. I am going to give props to CD....he has done a good jod this offseason....adding Bonzi gives us the veteran a lot of people were looking for. So we will have youth mixed with vets. A good combo in my opinion
I'm not going to bother with the point-by-point, you said there were no questionable decisions, and there have been plenty recently. (cutting it off at 4 years when you know he screwed up royally right before is a cop-out IMO) I also don't get the distinction between "good signing that didn't work out" and "mistake". Ultimately, I see the two as synonymous. The only thing I will address is James: The jury is not "out" -- the jury is in. That jury's name? Carroll Dawson Trading him was a HUGE mistake, that's why the Rockets went crawling on their knees and tried to get him back this offseason. I'm not going to bother with the substantive reasons, because basically all you need: the admission that they messed up, is there.
Sorry CD didnt impress you .....he impressed me just bc he got it done. Bonzi will test the FA market next yr and thats understandable.
It takes more than just luck for these types of deals to fall in your lap. It's not just working the phone, it's the gift of gab, networking, charisma, credibility, etc. When so many things fall in your lap, it's because of the whole package that a good GM offers. For the record, I've never been in the 'fire CD' camp, so there's no revisionist history for me. Sure, I've been upset about some deals, but CD's record speaks for itself. If he's just lucky, I need to get some lotto numbers from him...
If you think Bonzi Wells signed with Houston because of CD's "gift of gab, networking, charisma, and credibility", there's really nothing I can say to you. He came here because his options had run out and we have Tracy McGrady. It's as simple as that, no matter how much you want to sugarcoat CD's contribution. I'll give a GM respect for great talent evaluation (Barbosa, Ginobili) and pulling off heists in trade (Diaw and 2 first rounders for JJ), not for having a guy fall into his lap one week before training camp because your superstar player was the most attractive teammate. Some of you are way too kind.
Let me say this also, I've given credit where credit is due in the past: "Let's hear it for CD" and am not saying he's been all bad - in fact he's been almost the definition of even-steven. Half his moves work, and half don't, or are good for one season, and awful the next. However I've been around the Rockets too long, particularly in the post-Championship years, to be jumping upside down and turning cartwheels before the games are played. Derek Anderson, hell Shandon Anderson, Pippen, whatever. If being a rocket fan recently has taught me anything its that htings on paper don't always work out.
I do think Bonzi had limited options, and this was definately the most attractive for him at this point in time. Maybe his agent just called and said 'sign us' with no prior discussion. But I can tell you this: Sales is more than just having the superior product. That's what CD does; he sells his product. And he does it well.
It's not too hard to sell a product that includes Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, especially considering the other two options were the lowly Bobcats and Denver who was reluctant to sign Bonzi to begin with.
you skip over most of the thread? how you can say last year was "fool's gold" and then say we've done "a lot better this year than last year" without even having played a game is somewhat illogical.
You paraphrased what I said. As a whole, I think CD deserves his props. He's a damn good GM in this league. And that's my point, and the point of this whole discussion thread. It's like Rocket River said. He buys the groceries, it's up to JVG to cook 'em. EDIT: I will say, since it's been mentioned here and in the interest of fairness, that his drafting over the past 10 years, outside of Yao, Head and Mobley has been pretty substandard.
I'll give Carroll Dawson his props. He always figures out a way to make the big deal. He has been the best GM in the NBA at that for a long time. His talent evaluation for drafts hasn't always been up to snuff, but overall he's been a very good GM.
I credit T-mac more than I do CD for the Bonzi sighting. I'm still not happy about trading away our first round pick either, but I wish Battier the best of luck.
san antonio has good managment. they constantly spot talent and fits they no one else sees. how many teams chased finley, where did they draft ginobli. phoenix has good management, they have a plan, they find talent to fit it. houston doesn't even have a plan, one year its youth movement, the next its trade your lottery pick. cd got francis because francis was a malcontent and he had the best package, he eventually turned that into mcgrady because mcgrady was a malcontent and he had the best package. yao fell into his lap. the same year he signed sura, he signed ward. the guy is average at best, along with van gundy, since the championship years. and once again, everyone believes we have a champion and we haven't had a legit contender in 10 seasons. that's not all francis years.
