Intelligence has returned to the board. Okay your on the clock ABCD. Let's hear your alternative argument.
The GM's job is to get players, not to dictate how much PT they get. IMHO not playing Mutombo was RA's mistake, as was playing Yao Ming too much in the regular season. Our depth chart at the C was pretty good at the start of the season, you had Yao, you had Deke and if things got desperate you had Hayes and Scola. Having a 3rd "good" center as you put it was already excessive because in an ideal situation the 3rd C won't get any PT at all. The backup center next year/starting center this year was supposed to be Andersen,if he had projected to be the Scola level player they thought he would be we would have been in the playoffs. Unfortunately that didn't really work out, call it one of DM's misses. Paying 6M for a center uses the salary cap, while buying 3 2nd round picks for 9M does not. Do you see the difference? If you went out and got a C for 6m and he turned out to be not worth it, it'll be a pain to get him out of your books. On the other hand if your 2nd round pick doesn't pan out, you can get out of it much easier. Also there isn't any cap on pick buying, Les can blow 100M on buying picks and it'll be ok. I think the Rockets need a healthy Yao the most, or a center in his mold. Aside from that the Rockets don't really need anything else, they have no visible weaknesses aside from the shotblocking defensive C position. However they could probably upgrade any of their positions (i.e. from Scola/Hill to Bosh/Scola), so maybe that's what Dm's trying to do.
Honestly I think if DM was the GM at the time he would have flipped Tmac to the Raptors for Bosh, then he wouldn't have to trade for him now
Honestly standing pat seems a good strategy as well. If we end up drafting or trading for a C we have a nice lineup: Yao/14th pick/Scola/Hayes/Jeffries Scola/Hill/Hayes/Jeffries KM/Lowry/JT/C-Bud Ariza/C-Bud/Battier/Jeffries Brooks/Lowry/Llull(?) Seems like a team comparable to the Magic in talent to me.
I agree that if we stand pat that we will be a good team. Adding Bosh would however make us a great team. The benefit of adding a guy like Bosh is that he can make Yao's life easier by spacing the floor and making it tougher to double Yao. On the flip side when Yao isn't in the game or isn't effective then Bosh can be a low post goto guy. That's what we're missing right now. No matter how good your team is, if you have a chance to make it better then you do it.
People say Morey is a magician. What's your criteria for a magician? As a GM, his team didn't make playoffs, no national tv, tickets weren't sold out in toyota center. How successful is he?! The reality is that he didn't get even ONE vote for the GM of the year.
It's been kind of discussed why not making the playoffs wasn't that disappointing. Jesus, this is the same junk Solomon was spouting in that BS article of his. And now Morey's responsible for selling tickets and ESPN?
He took over a team built around 2 fragile stars, that have been perpetually absent, yet they have still remained competitve. And we are loaded with assets and draft picks people want. He essentially bought Carl Landry in the 2nd rd when nobody wanted him, and turned him into Kevin Martin. Stole Luis Scola for a bag of beans. Turned an Expiring contract into Jordan Hill and Picks (that might turn into Chris Bosh) Turned Rafer Alston, who they just wanted to dump, into Kyle Lowry. Aaron Brooks - late first rd pick Chase Budinger - second rd pick
If he is, then there's something wrong with the organisation. In your world, Tad Brown (the CEO) is probably picking up coffee and donuts for Morey and updating Morey's twitter page. GM's job should be about improving the team with the assets he has available (within the financial framework, in which the ownership lets him operate in).
Rockets is a business organization. As a leader, if tickets selling is not good. The GM needs to take a responsibility.
I edited my post above to further clarify what I meant. There is not much sense in having the GM use his time and resources for marketing purposes. Morey should concentrate on assembling a winning team with the resources he has available. If that does not sell tickets, then that's too bad. I'm hoping the goal is still to win basketball games. If that has changed, I'm supporting the wrong team.
If tickets selling is not good, it means the team is not very attractive. Making a team attractive is GM's responsibility.
....................You do realize that's what the Astros did, right? In the interest of selling tickets and getting people to come, they kept screwing over all of their prospects, and now they're in an utter mess and remain so for a very long time. Pardon me if I don't think the Rockets should borrow from the Astro's managing policy.
http://www.nba.com/media/rockets/StaffDirectory.pdf As you can see, Daryl Morey is under the subheader "BASKETBALL OPERATIONS" Daryl Morey may have some guidelines regarding the marketing side of things which he has to sometimes consider, but arguing that he is responsible for making the team "attractive" is nonsense or at least should be if we wan't to be a respectable organization in this league. Or maybe you are talking about the different kind of "attractive", maybe you should discuss that with the poster Carl Herrera, it's more of his area of expertise. * * Edit: LOL, I guess I was too slow. CH probably has written some program to alert him anytime the word attractive is mentioned :grin:
Billy Beane who was sort of a pioneer in the moneyball world of GM's, but its important to note that Beane was dealing with a strick budget and an organization that was struggling financially. Morey has alot of flexibility and the ability to go as far as he needs to. I think Morey used the moneyball approach for his supporting cast but he has just been waiting for the final piece to the puzzle to come along. I do not believe it is just Bosh and only Bosh but rather than an All-Star Caliber player, still in his prime, and thats in good health. That one player really is going into a perfect situation for winning a title. Most GM's take the approach of getting 1 or 2 All-Star Calliber players and build what the can around them. Look at what Walsh and the Knicks are trying to do this summer as an example. But if you have young, talented, and cheap assets filling your Roster, you are not locked into one option. Morey is an opportunist yes, but he has built a team that is very low risk and can move quickly if it needs to because of the high value of its assets. If Morey has the keys to the car and the competition continues to do what they do, The Rockets will be more and more competitive each year and will never suck.
