(Long read) It has been a crazy offseason for the NBA so far, and the Rockets have laid really low and out of the NBA spot light. We lost out on the Bosh and Lebron sweepstakes, but Morey still took care of his own and kept this young team intact. Bringing Lowry and Scola back for decent prices sets this team up to be one of the deeper and more flexible teams in basketball. Morey has done such a fantastic job making moves that are both " win now" and " for the future". Looking at this squad on paper, we are the 3rd most talented team in the West behind the Lakers and the Thunder. PG Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry This might be the biggest strenght of this team. Brooks has the speed to blow past almost anybody. Add also that he is one of the best shooters in the NBA, and just came off a season in which he won the Most Impoved player of the year. He is still young and has room for improvment. Has the chance to be and allstar this year. His backup, Kyle Lowry, is getting paid like a starter for a reason. He is the best backup pg in the NBA and brings toughness to the point gaurd posistion. He has great speed and lives for contact in the paint. Can get to the rim at will and plays great defense. He could start for almost half the teams in basketball. Both of these players are young and both are still improving. The future looks set here for a while. SG Kevin Martin, Chase Budd This might be our strongest posistion on the team as well. After trading for Martin last year for Landry, he averaged almost 25 a game for us after the allstar break. He was born to score the basketball. He gets to the foul line 8 or 9 times a game and he also is one of the best shooters in the NBA. He will get even better looks this year with the big fella back. C- Bud had a great rookie season and looks like a player that could have a breakout season. I watched him play in the summer league yesterday and he outscored the Nuggets 12-3 to open up the game. He is a pure shooter and has hops to go with it ( white man can jump). Both of these players are not known for there defense but the can fill up the bucket. SF Trevor Ariza, Shane Battier Defense wins championships and these two are elite defenders. Ariza had a rough start to last year but that was due to the fact the he was playing as a "go too scorer" and that does not suit him. He played much better when Martin showed up. His game is so much sharper when he plays off of great offensive weapons. He should average around 15-5-5 this year. Battier is getting older but he still brings tons of leadership and great team defense to the table. He is a spot up shooter on offense, but he can shut down the opposing teams best wing. Ariza should make great strides this year playing with a healthy Yao. Having Battier as a backup puts us in a great place at the posistion PF Louis Scola, Jordan Hill, Pattrick Patterson Scola is going to give you 16 and 8 and he also will play smart baketball. He really stepped up last year and became our low post offense. He has shown that he is one of the best power forwards in the game and he can still improve. The other two our both lottery picks the last two years that should help us a bunch with depth. Hill seems to have more upside but is still very raw. Patterson has a smooth game and should be part of our rotation by the allstar break. Im very excited to see how these three play this year. Hill has the chance to be a great player in this league. C Yao Ming, Chuck Hayes, ????? Yao is the big key to everything. If healthy he is the best big in the west. I hope we bring him along very very very slow. The one good thing about him being out for so long was that the rest of his body got some much needed rest. He also looks stronger in his upper body. Im looking at Yao with the glass half full and I feel that Yao's best years might still be ahead of him. He will be rusty and a bit slow for a while but his work ethic and a little luck in the health department and our big fella can be a 20-10 player by the end of the season. If healthy, he still is the best low post scorer in the WORLD. He is our fondation and we will go as he goes. Having Martin and Brooks on the court with him shoud really be tough for teams to stop. His defense is going to be a difference maker. Having a 7 foot 6 body in the middle of the paint makes things so much easier for our perimeter defenders. Hayes plays so big for his size but he is not the option for us. We need another center and Brad Miller would be ideal considering he knows the offense and could help us limit Yao's minutes. Yao is the best player on this team and a top 10 talent in the world if he can stay healthy and play. Time will tell....... Others Jernain Taylor has a chance to crack the rotation if he scores the way they think he can at the 2 spot. He could have a Von Wafer type impact if given a chance. Jared Jeffries is a good defender and can gaurd muliple posistions. He should not be part of our big plans but he could see minutes when facing some teams David Anderson is a player that I hope does not make the roster. If he is playing then we are losing this year. He can score on the block but thats about all he can do. He can't play a lick of D and he can't rebound. Lets hope Brad Miller signs and we can end this discussion on the Aussie. Overall This team has depth everywhere. We can score the ball from every posistion. Brooks, Martin and Yao will form a great threesome. Having really really good role players in Lowry, Scola, and Aiza is wha can really seperate this team from others in our division. Morey has set this team up for the future, yet they should be really good this year. Having the chance to switch picks with NY in nexts years draft and owning there 2012 pick looks great right now with thier lack luster off season. The Knicks looked to be bad again next year. Looking into the top players in next years draft, it is a top heavy draft with about 6 kids that will be one and done next year in college. Perry Jones looks like he will be a beast!!!! Im just day dreamin but the point is we are lookin pretty good for the next few years. This is all on Morey. He has done a great job of geting faster and younger. There might be a few more moves this offseason, but Im okay with that becuase Morey seems to be playing Chess while others play checkers. They say King Me! He says Check Mate! Thats just how he roles and he has put this franchise in a great situation. Prediction 2nd in the West If Yao is healty, and thats a big if, this team can compete with Miami and the Lakers. Our collection of players is as deep as we have ever been. If our young players CBud and Hill can continue to eveolve this team could be really really scary. In Morey we trust!!!!!
just one more move Morey...a very good big backup to Yao...could be B. Miller or any good one thru trade..
We have so many assets on this team that anything could happen. Other then Yao, I won't be suprised if anybody else is traded. And with Morey's trade history we will be better for it any way ( I hope). In Morey we trust!
Playoff experience in that cut throat (literally) 7 game series with the eventual 2009 Champion Lakers is a big plus. Some of our players were toughened via the Jazz series before that. Btw, talk radio was talking big game about the j*zz.......
Didn't realize how much nut hugging was going on with Brad Miller before this thread :grin:!!! Agree we need him but not the end of the world if we don't
I luv DM as much as the next guy, check my sig, but lets not worship him "In Morey We Trust" thats just a bit much
DON'T get too high on your purch , just yet, see if there is another improvement coming and I don't mean Miller at back up Center. Wait and see how they play together and hopefully there won't be any tricks played by Rick Adelman on his players, including Yao Ming! Then it is time to praise Morey, if he deserves it!!
Daryl Morey owns the greatest Poker Face of all-time. It helped him win the 1983 World Series of Poker despite him holding just a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game Uno.
As much as I appreciate the revamp Morey has done, given two oft-injured stars, I will wait until we harken back to our championship contender days before I heap on the idolatrous praise.