oh my god if it wasn't for desert scar, i wouldn't have seen this post. First time ever that i agree with your post. Meh, you're off my ignore list, at least until your next post
Generally I like to respond to threads with constructive criticism rather than just bash. I can't do that this time. This is the stupidest thread I have ever had the misfortune of opening. Thanks for wasting my time, Kayman.
So your only issue is with what players get paid? I'm sure Les appreciates your concern for his wallet, even though the Rockets were below average in payroll in the years following the championships up until Rudy was fired. Do you think Rudy sat down and negotiated contracts?
But to see the Timberwolves or the Nuggets, you did not have to sell the family farm. While the Rockets had an inferior product, their ticket prices were among the highest in the league. If I am not mistaken, the Rockets are still amongst the most expensive teams to watch. I agree that historically, Houston does not have the best fans when it comes to attendance. However, a big part of that falls on the shoulders of the stingy owners that we have had over the years. The two that immediately pop to mind are Dr. John "Moron" McMullen and Bud Adams.
Uh, all those contracts were signed when the Rockets were banking making your whole point irrelevant. But the mere possibility of a lux tax lead us to let KT/JP for nothing, give up our own draft picks for a TE that might not be used, and may be keeping us for adding significant role players now. Same point as above. Les was banking then and no whiff of a lux tax. Of course he would spend some when he was bank rolling on the product anyway. The quesiton is if the Rockets have shifted strategies over the last 2 seasons, and are now at a serious disadvantage to the Maloofs of the NBA (e.g., the Minn and Memphis owners), let alone the Cubans and Allens. Further, JJ and Cat were some of the best bargain contracts in the NBA, they certainly are not a sign of freewheeling spending. I hope we land a PG too so my fears Les is no longer willing to spend modestly now that the Rockets may have the core (but not the roll players) for a championship can be put to rest. I'd love to have my gut proved wrong, but have not seen anything yet in the last 2 offseasons to suggest we will spend to win. I'd like nothing better right now than for the Rockets to use the TE to bring in a PG significantly better than Jones or James. 1) we would have that PG we need, 2) it would show we are not going to have two hands tied behind our backs by the owenership. But again, based on our actions in the lux tax era (KT/JP trade, letting JP go for only an MLE, trading Rice and giving up picks to lower salary, only having a couple of months left to use our trade exemption, I have to say I am not entirely confident. Last year everyone said it was OK top pass on matching Posey b/c he was a role player and we were more than roll players away from title contention, well now even the somewhat skeptical realist has to say with the right roll players we can be competing for titles, tomarrow.
Desert Scar, I don't believe managing the cap in a prudent, responsible way correlates to a lack of desire to win on team management's part. Dr. Buss has always ran the Lakers that way, and they managed to win 3 straight titles. Getting the core in place (Tmac and Yao) is the key; all else will fall into place if those two maximize their potential. Another example is the Bulls: Jordan and Pippen turned nobody's like John Paxson, Bill Cartwright and Steve Kerr into household names b/c they were able to raise the level of play for their teammates. Presumably, if Yao and Tmac never become that type of tandem, this is all academic b/c I think even you must agree we will only go as far as they can carry us. And, since you brought up the free-spending Maloofs and Cubans of the world, HOW MANY TITLES HAVE THEY WON COMBINED? The answer: ZERO Why? Because they both freak out after every dissapointing playoff loss, spend a whole lot more money, and fail to see all they are really doing is spinning their wheels. True greatness comes from the internal growth of a TEAM, a lesson that the Maloofs and Cubans have failed to realize. They still see the NBA as their own personal fantasy league, and I'm glad I can say Les does not share their fever for rash change. I, for one, do NOT want to keep up with them if all it amounts to is a bunch of wasted 55-win seasons spent running in place with a constantly rotating cast of characters. I'd rather follow the Spurs/Lakers model: Step 1 - Acquire superstar core Step 2 - Prudently surround said core with low-cost, homegrown role players Step 3 - Have patience in allowing the team to mature together, then add the final piece or two when you are knocking on the door of a ring Do that, and I'll see you in the 2006 Finals.
There is no way Uncle Les should be lumped in with a jackass like Donald Sterling. We may have spent 4 years in NBA lotto land but Houston fans have never been forced to put up with a steady exodus of talented players from the team because Uncle Les' not wanting to pay them. He's an OK owner and right now he's looking a helluva lot better than Mark (The Benefactor aka if only money were a substitute for brains) Cuban. Aside from the fact it was he who gave CD that 2 year extension, he's been an OK owner. Folks around here have forgotten what it was like before under the Maloof regime. My feelings on Dawson have been well chronicled here. I believe that he has overstayed his welcome. His overall record for the past 10 years has been terrible when you look at his talent evaluations. His draft record is an absolute disaster. His head should have rolled over the Eddie Griffin fiasco yet he was rewarded with a 2 year extension. This franchise will do nothing more than thread water until he's gone and Les finally hires someone who possesses an actual plan for putting together a winning team and who can find and evaluate NBA talent.
Milos The primary reason the Maloofs, Allens and Cubans don't have rings is not because they "freak out" but because they have not been fortunate enough to be able to draft a Hakeem, Jordan, Duncan or Shaq. Even without one of the elite players, until Detriot this year, Sac 3 years ago and Portland about 6 years ago came closer than any other teams to winning titles. You can't fault the efforts of the front office/ownership, they did everything within their grasp to try to put a winner together. Sometimes it is better to be lucky (hitting the lottery for Duncan, Hakeem, Yao) than being good or being free spending. Also, beg to differ about the SA/LAL "strategies". SA's cap room was kind of a fluke. They had 3 things come together, not all under their control. 1) they had all sorts of veterans, starting with giant salaried DR, retire about the same time. 2) after those guys retired they had only 1 FA player worth a darn, and it happened to be a doozy (TD). 3) they got some late draft picks work out terrificly. But now their cap days are over, yet they are still throwing MLE money to add role players (Barry) and probably will in the future. True LA had Oneal and Kobe developed into another superstar. But LA had a big salary and was stilll almost always using their full available exemptions, resigning their own guys at comparable monies, to add roll players. Those acquisitions included Fox and Horry--key to their success (at about full MLE money I believe). LA was pretty much free spending within the constraits of their allowance with league rules to add and keep good role players. Finally, lets look back at the Bulls, Rockets and Lakers. The Bulls did not win titles with just Jordan/Pippen. They only won titles when they also had an all-defensive caliber PF, plus the right role players. Look at the Rockets, Mario Elie was an important roll player added to the mix. Finally, again with the Lakers, they were good but not NBA chmapions until they added their role players and had a coach to get everyone on the same page (Fox, Horry). What all these show is 1 stars, or even 2 stars, are not enough. Hakeem almost left town because despite how great he was for many years he had nothing around them. You need high quality roll players with them. Guys like James Posey (we let go), perhaps KT (ditto), and guys you get with ful MLEs (perhaps Barry) or can get with a 7 million TE (we will see). One other problem. We have traded so many of our 1st and and 2nd rounders making FA even more likely the route to role players (than home grown type you refer to). We have reduced our chances to draft the next Horry, Cassell, Fisher, George, Parker, Manu, etc witgh cost saving moves the last 2 years. In sum, we have left ourselves few options but to acquire and pay for top flight role players. Right now we also have a TE, but if this expires were about about only left withe base exemptions, which we seem shy to use for fear of the lux tax. The Bulls and Lakers never wavered from using MLEs to acquire such players, we should not either.
DesertScar is right. C'mon you can't compare the Rockets to Spurs, Bulls, Lakers. Of these three teams, maybe the only player that they didn't take care of was Stephen Jackson. A little known fact is that Jordan's "retierement" to play baseball allowed the Bulls to add payroll above the salary cap (mainly Tony Kukoc's contract). Lakers had huge payroll the last five years. Spurs had a small payroll, but it was mainly because they had an All-Star caliber backcourt drafted in the late 20ies picks, which brings us to the other point I wanted to start with this thread, the moronness of Dawson, who could not produce even a decent role player with multiple picks in the teens and higher. Name one player that Spurs/Lakers/Bulls failed to land or keep because of money (ther than St. Jackson), the way we failed on Posey, KT, D-Fish, Brent Barry and Antonio Daniels (last year).
it is amazing how people can still knock cd after getting us TMAC. stop using griffin as an excuse. seriously just STOP IT. back then everyone thought it was a great trade and he had lots of potential. shoot who knew he was going to be some druggie that waves a gun around. like that is CDs fault. he sure isnt jerry west, but i think he has done a decent job as our GM.
How did we fail with any of those you mentioned? KT was moved to give EGriffin a chance, which seemed like a good move at the time...in hindsight, I'm sure they would have kept KT. Posey was overpaid by Memphis, and rather than match, I think we wisely signed JJ to replace him at a much better value...not a failure. With BBarry and DFish, I say thank god...I couldn't stomach either players salary when they are 34-35-36, so good riddance...still not a failure, just smart business. And besides, if you are going to count FA's who weren't signed, the Bulls/Lakers/Spurs missed out on plenty...Remember when SA couldn't sign JO'neal or Kidd and ended up with Rasha? Daniels would have been nice, but Seattle backed out...not the Rockets fault...i.e. not a failure.
Just to clarify. According to Forbes the Rockets rank 11th in networth amoung NBA teams and 19th in total revenue. 1. The only team to come close is Memphis. They beat us by 5 games this year we beat them by 15 the year before. 2. There were two teams that made more revenue with less salary and outperformed us with wins: San Antonio and Detroit. The only team to make less revenue, have more salary and fewer wins was Atlanta.
