If you were a Midwest GM how much would you worry about the Rockets?

I think they are tearing their hair out in clumps, knashing their teeth, fouling themselves , dribbling and moaning and wishing they had never been born.

May they wish their souls to the devil.




(I've been reading a good book.... forgive me)

 

I don't think GM's concern themselves with us in terms of playoffs and being a championship contender.

Dallas, San Antonio, and Minnesota will all be better. And Divisions in the NBA doesn't really matter.

In the Western Conference, we'll probably finish around 7th, at best.

That said, I don't think GM's in general concern themselves with other teams.
Their goals are:
Keep their job, make the team as competitive as possible, and blame it on the coach if the team sucks.

 

not until the Rockets demonstrate that they can get into the playoffs...

 

This is a ridiculous attitude that pervades the bbs. Of course Carroll Dawson is doing his job.

perhaps we might not be in a position to pick up a key player right now. Or... other teams might be trying to pillage our team.
Hell, what is a FA supposed to think about our team? That we have a cool hard MLE. So what?

I wouldn't doubt that most big men FAs are hesitant about coming in as a PF simply b/c noone knows what Yao's ceiling is. Other FAs look at Steve and Cuttino and wonder where they'd fit in. Ooo! Oooo! We have a small forward slot!! Well, we're shoring that up by trying to hold position with Posey.

Calm down. It's July fifth. We have a new coach that doesn't seem ready to part w/ players that he doesn't know yet. Maybe we'll trade, maybe we won't. Maybe we shouldn't. This is actually a pretty important epiphany.

Whatever happens... if we're not able to do what's best for this team this summer, don't assume it's because Carroll is not doing his job. It's not like he can hold a gun to other GMs' heads. Not everything goes our way just because we're Rockets' fans.

 

The most annoying troll is somebody that pulls **** out of their ass, AB. You don't know that Carroll Dawson isn't doing all of these things. You're just making **** up b/c your panties are in a wad that we haven't traded for Shaq and signed the other O'Neal for the MLE.

Grow up. There are now 30 teams in the league. Ours isn't special just because they have a couple of losers typing away their Saturday afternoons on a basketball bbs.

And ps, of course you were attacking CD. Read your own post funny man.

Hmmm... who does this refer to?

Yeah none of this has anything to do with Carroll Dawson.

 

Allright, boys. Touch gloves and go back to your corners...

Complacency wasn't the reason we signed/traded for players like Drexler, Pippen, Barkley, Francis, EG etc. If anything, I think we press the panic button too soon more often than not.

Some of the best teams in the league didn't get that way because of a mammoth trade or signing. They got that way because their front offices were patient and gave their teams time to gel. Look at the spurs and mavs.

OK, I'm done. You can get back to yelling at eachother again.

 

This Poll already indicates that the posters consider, that if the Rockets stand PAT, they are going have another season, much the same as the last. Without a significant Roster improvement it is looking that way!

 

No.

 

It doesn't matter what other GM's or team think about the Rockets; they will let their improved play under JVG dictate their thoughts. They jsut gotta go out and play.

 

This is incorrect! Dallas is always looking to trade up and the Spurs are always looking for just that right role player. This season they are looking for a Starter or two.

 

A GM's job on his team first and foremost.

You don't worry about what other teams do, but yes in the back of your mind it may make you think harder about pulling a blockbuster deal if a team in front of you is screwing up your shot at a ring.

CD is not lazy. If you want to harp on Larry Brown, well Detroit in all honesty probably had a deal with him in principle before they fired Carlisle.

I guess because we have missed the playoffs for 4 years some of us have forgot the Barkley trade, drafting Sam I am, the Clyde trade, hiring RudyT, trading for Steve Francis, drafting Cuttino Mobley in the 2nd round, and then while it very well may have helped us win title number 2, the Horry for Sean Elliott deal.

The Rockets are in a TRANSITION phase. They can't get the best veterans because they don't want to play 3rd fiddle to Yao/Steve, and more young players doesn't help our biggest weakness: Experience. They need a bruising pf and a backup 1/2 who are willing to go unnoticed but bring veteran leadership and step up when the team needs them most. See Steve Kerr in the playoffs.

Plus you can't start signing free agents until JULY 16TH. Today is the 5th, so you can't blame CD for nothing getting done yet.

In conclusion, No. GM's worry about their own teams, then if they have legit title aspirations they look at their biggest threats division and conference wise and may make moves off that.

 

Sorry if I was being too aggro AB. I've read posts in which people have declared that CD is developmentally disabled. I had that in the back of my mind when I read your words about CD. My bad.

Incidentally, I've chatted w/ the guy at a few rocky mtn league games and he's been nothing but a great guy to me (jo-schmo-random-fan).

That being said, I still think that our team tries to be in the mix of things, if and when appropriate. And I light-heartedly (sorry for another old unhip saying "I'm not down with that") it would be fun to see a team screw over the Lakers chances of dominance for a few years. Those aren't mutually exclusive povs.

 

In hindsight, all except for one of those moves could certainly be argued was a questionable move. It is not just making moves that make the team successful. It is making good decisions and building a team that can play together.

All in all, this management team has not shown it knows how to do that. It is a hell of a lot harder to **** up a team that has Olajuwon dominating as he was.

There is absolutely NO REASON for CD to still have his job. He was responsible for 50% of the decision making when Rudy was here. Those two brains together are the ones responsible for Maloney, Rashard, Taylor, Moochie, Rice/Shnadon, and we have not yet mentioned Cato, and we may one day say the same for Griffin (hopefully not). Now that half of his brain power is gone, we continue to see decisions that are twice as bad.

 

I like you TheHorns, but this is ridiculous. You are telling me the Barkley move was questionable? We gave up a mediocre sf, and a solid pg for one of the best pf's in NBA history. If you have a chance to get that lucky, you do it. We still had smith to cover for Cassell and Horry is really replaceable but would have been useful that postseason.

Drafting Cassell at 24? At that point in any draft, all picks are risks, but you can't not give him credit when it panned out, sorry.

The drexler trade? We gave up a decent pf in OT for one of the best sg's of all time, who happened to be a college teammate and best friend of our superstar and was revered in the houston area. And we need someone to take the load off Dream. Clyde was the perfect fit and it panned out. Another plus for CD.

The francis trade? We gave up two players struggling to hold down roster spots in the league in Othella my fella and Michael Dickerson, plus a 13th pick for one of the top 20 players in today's game. Another no brainer if you ask me.

The mobley pick? As I said earlier once you get into the end of round 1 and round 2, all picks are risks. And we found the gem of the draft in the 2nd round. He may not fit now, but that doesn't change the fact he is a productive player from a spot in the draft where most guys get cut. Another plus for CD.

The griffin trade? This is questionable, but when you have a chance to get the next potential superstar big men for 3 mediocre draft picks, you do it. And griffin was arguably the best player in the draft around that time. Just because he hasn't fufilled expectations and Kidd made jefferson look better than he is, doesn't mean you wouldn't have made the trade. At some point its on the player to improve his game anyway. Again, another move I make if I'm CD.

The Rice trade? The worst one up here so far, but we traded Shandon I was terrible in houston for one of the best 3 pt shooters in league history, and has veteran experience to boot. You werent going to get enough cap room for shandon leaving to get anything better, so we made a move that isn't that bad, it just hasn't worked out because of glen's health. A push for CD.

The Moochie signing? Norris was a fan fav, and played hard and so you reward your guys. It's not cd's fault that moochie got lazy and the fat cat syndrome.

The Taylor signing? You really underestimate how good mo is. Most great NBA big men get max deals, and taylor got half of the max. Guess what, mo is right square in the middle of the best pf's in the NBA, hate to break it to you. Not CD's fault the injury happened.

The Cato signing? Dumbest of the bunch, but look around the league and almost every team has a drastically overpaid mediocre big man. See calvin booth in seattle. A mistake, but Cato is coming around. CD loses.

Then you mentioned mirsad over rashard. Well right now the NBA is going to europe over its homegrown talent, esp high schoolers, yet when CD was looking for a player to help pippen, dream and barkley(a veteran team) he gets knocked for essentially trying to do what the spurs did with ginobili. That's ridiculous. CD loses because rashard developed right and mirsad never played, but it wasn't that bad a thought.

So in conclusion, you have some unnecessary hatred of CD that you need to seek counseling for, and I think I can recommend a good shrink or two in the meantime .

But seriously, you are going way overboard on a class act and one of the better gm's in the NBA.

We could always be stuck with scott layden, or gerry st. jean mind you.

 

I'd say all except for one of those moves were pretty good moves at the time. My point is that given those "big splash" moves of the past 10 years or so, you can hardly say the Rockets front office has been complacent.