I've been a Rockets fan my entire life and I am really, really, really worried about our club. The combination of Dawson (the Big Moron) and Alexander (the Cheap b*stard) is really getting on my nerves. There is no owner cheaper than Leslie, Sterling included. The guy got a new arena, Matress Mac built a training facility for him, the biggest marketing phenomenon (Yao) since Tiger Woods falls right into his lap and he can't spare a couple of mils to fill out the roster? b*stard! Meanwhile Dawson is the most punchable persona in the entire NBA. He exhudes this amicable and relaxed confidence and people who don't know would say "What a nice dude". What's hiding behind that persona though is that he is totally r****ded, doesnt know talent, is lazy and incompetent. The only thing he knows how to do well is to pretend that everything is OK and that he's buddy with everybody and everything will work out. Long time Houston hoops fans know that CD dissed Clyde the Glide early in his career, only to pretend later that nothing had happened when Clyde returned home triumphantly. Then he sided with Charlie Thomas and Steve Peterson against Dream in the early nineties. Then he made all these boneheaded moves with Moochie, MoT and Cato. Then all these other boneheaded moves with Pisskowski, Nachbar, Collier. Then he drafted a highly talented teenager and let him totally out there to deal with adaptation to NBA life, knowing that the kid had troubles in the past and knowing that all other teams that draft teenagers have all kinds of counselors, mentors and other folks to help them. And see now what happened with Jones. The dude is a hard worker, really wanted to stay in Houston. What did CD do? he waived him. And again pretended that it's for the best of the player, supposedly there was no PT in Houston, he was doing him a favor by letting him hook up with another team. Puhleasee. There is no PT when your only backup is Moochie Freakin Norris?? Give me a break. And know they can't bring him back, when we have nobody to run the team...
I don't know how you guys continue to deride Alexander as cheap. The Rox have a middle of the pack payroll, they were 15th last year; that's not exactly Donald Sterling. Couple that with the fact that, the past few years, the Rox have had awful attendance, among the very lowest in the league, and a lousy tv deal in a relatively apathetic sports town, that's not too bad. He's no Mark Cuban either, but be fair.
Houston is the Fourth largest city in the U.S. and has only one NBA franchise. In comparison, the Clippers live in the shadow of the Lakers and have to divide the market with them. The reason attendance is low is beacuse the product sucks. If they invest in the team attendance will improve. Forget about Cuban, look at what owners in much smaller markets like Memphis and Minnesotta are doing.
we had the worst team in the nba the last two seasons? and God forbid we have decent attendance coming off of 2 championships, an extra WCF appearance, about 16 playoff appearances in 17 years or so, and then even have decent records (and an exciting player) while we're rebuilding. we should win the title every year if we expect fans to actually show up (not that i go) i guess.
Even if all this is true, I wouldn't trust a young new GM with this team. We can't afford any screw-ups, and no matter how bad CD has been in the past, he still has experience. I say we're fine right now. He's not the best, but he's not the worst. As for Les, the real test will be enxt year. We'll have had the most games on national TV, and be among the leaders in jersey/merchandise sales. We'll still have 2 starters in the All Star game as well, and we'll probably go deeper in the playoffs and win more. I expect him to up our payroll limit to around 60M. The Kings are ok with 62M, so the Rockets one year from now should easily be worth 60M. New arena, tons of cash coming in... It's not a lot to ask.
No. The Rockets have llagged behind teams like Denver and Minnesota even when those teams had inferior records. Hell, the T-wolves have never averaged less than 14,000 a year throughout the history of their franchise. Hell, the Bulls have been far worse than the Rockets every single year since Jordan left but still have drawn around 20k a game during that span. The Rockets, meanwhile, have been outdrawn by the Clippers the past 4 years running. http://www.kenn.com/sports/basketball/nba/ The Rockets are the same team that couldn't sell out playoff games in 1994 on the way to the title. Look, i've lived in several cities; Houston's sports fans are not great when it comes to attendance; sad but true.
I don't have a problem with the amount of money spent over the past few years. The Rockets were just shy of the luxury tax cap last year. My problem is what we have wasted money on and player personnel decisions in general.
I don't think you can fault Alexander here. He's been willing to spend to a fault. It's the bad contracts that have killed us. Dawson on the other hand has been for the most part inept since the championship days. He's had nothing but questionable trades and horrible signings in the past decade. Yao and T-Mac both fell into his lap. All this being said, I'm glad he's wisened up this summer. Aside from Barry, none of the players on the market are worth the money. We'll see what Dawson's next move is. If the TE is allowed to expire, heads should roll. That he wasn't creative enough to make use of such an asset will be nothing short of pathetic, if it comes to pass. Remember, we gave up Glen Rice's contract AND 2 draft picks to Utah. Teams like Minnesota and Memphis were able to turn their expiring contracts into the likes of Bonzi Wells and Latrell Sprewell. Still, I'm willing to withhold judgement and give CD till the end of summer before I jump the gun. It's way too early. But that TE had better not go unused again like last time ($4.5millTE in I think 2001).
dawson has had far from a sparkling record (plenty of mistakes to go with the kt and cuttino picks along with the francis and tmac trades) but if it doesn't get used wouldn't that fall mostly on les? i realize arguing he didn't find a good way to use it could fall to CD but if the owner says don't use it (or trade glen rice with a first round pick to get under the LT limit) what are you gonna do? and that doesn't make les cheap. it just makes him like the other 90% of owners who don't wanna go over the LT. edit: was CD the gm when we traded for barkley?
What a crybaby... Sheeeesss. Les and crew are probably no worse and perhaps better than most. I freaking HATE hyperbolic, blanket statement rants such as these.
So apparently all it would have took was hiring a "mentor" (or a shrink) for Eddie Griffin and -- POOF -- we have an All-Star PF?? ....and might I add, I am glad that didn't happen because: 1) We're a better team which means we don't win the lottery & have Yao fall into our laps (dumb luck) --and-- 2) Who knows if given the circumstances, a T-mac/Francis deal would be logical T-mac/Yao > Francis/Mobley/Griffin
Name 3 teams with salary higher than ours that has both lower attendance and better record the past 2 years. Then compare it to the total number of teams with salary lower than ours but have higher attendance and better records in the past 2 years. Let's face it, we have middle of the road salary (ivestment) and records (results) but are near way in the bottom in attendance (income). Stop complaining.
Don't confuse attendance with income. The attendance numbers you see include free tickets, comps, etc. Believe me, it makes a big difference when you're building a business model. I also don't think Houston fans are bad -- that's a cop out. We've been up dramatically in attendance the last two year (and we did it the hard way, through straight up sales and not giveaways), and we weren't coming off of playoff appearances in either of the those seasons. Fans are coming back, and it didn't take a championship to do it. That said, from working with Les, championships are ALWAYS the goal. It also just happens to be the same goal as a number of other well run teams. I know, a shocker. And only one gets to accomplish it each year. Tim
Alexander has been a great owner. He has made bold moves to bring in high priced talent. (Pippen, Barkley, Drexler, Francis, T Mac). It hasn't always worked out but the man has put forth an effort. If we hadn't brought in Drexler, I highly doubt we'd have that 2nd Championship. That clown in Dallas has won nada and has a hodge podge roster of mostly gunners to show for it.
Tim, I was defending Les So why did Les make the Glen Rice deal last year? Every way I looked at it, it seemed like a bad deal to us. But overall I can understand the desire to have both a well run franchise with possiblity of profit ( as much as I hate to say it, I think SA is the most well run franchise in the league). Heck if I was rich enough to own a team I probably would go the Sterling route, at least that's what I did in Madden NFL to stay in the black. I personally believed that the Rox have ran a pretty well team. I've said it in many other posts that we almost always seemed excited at the begging of the season for over an decade. That to me is a well runned team.
I don't have a problem with Les yet either. But seeing as how we'll sell out more than half our games next year (somewhere around 25/41), and we have T-Mac so jersey sales should go up, and we have 24 nationally televised games...etc etc... The spending on the team needs to go up accordingly next summer.
i think that given this offseason, its pretty clear who was the bearer of bad contracts... rudy. think about it, its common knowledge that CD gave rudy anything he wanted, and every major contract was given to players rudy T just loved. is it possible that dawson "suddenly" saw the light and stopped handing out crap contracts and stopped trading for washed up players? i doubt it. i aint rudy bashing, its gonna kill me to see us whoop his lakers, but i think its true. ps- stop whining about griff. the kid has a ton of problems and no amount of mentors or hand holding was gonna do anything but enable him. Les pays for stars, always has, and CD did get us mor blockbuster trades that alot of GM's in the league.
