What're you talking about? SF and his weird banana green suit should get all the credit for landing us the #1 pick. How else can you explain we beat the long odds to do that? And I don't think Piakowski was JVG's mistake, he was signed before JVG was officially hired by Rox.
My point was what you said...it's CD, not all JVG. I wasn't trying to take away credit from JVG either. I definitely think he has influenced the decisions, and I think the Charlie Ward signing is evidence, yes. But I'm saying you can't say it was all him...and totally knock CD out of the equation. I think he's improved as a GM, and he has had just as much to do with the improvement in signing as JVG..and who knows, potentially more.
I said CD handles the drafts. So all the "Why Head? Why Boki? Why ?" should be directed at him. As far as players, that's JVG. JVG might not take them to dinner, or be at the airport waiting for them -- but he tells CD who he wants, and CD pulls the strings. From Doc's inside info, he made it pretty clear JVG tells CD, "I want Stro.", and CD will do his best to handle rest. Yeah he's done a good job of facillitating trades and signings, but everyone coming in was via JVG. So yes he deserves some credit -- I think GM of the year is probably overrated anyways.
Id like to profound a bit deeper then theCabbage and give props to Les himself. In an era when few owners fill the burden of trying to put a winning product on the floor or field at all times, Les has been the man. When you think of it, over the past few years, Free Agency has to be a decision that is made directly or maybe indirectly through Les. Weather or not they have panned out, how many NBA teams had the luxury of picking up players like 1. Clyde 2. Barkley 3. Pippen 4. Anderson (at the time a major coup that went sour fast) 5. Mo T (see above) 6. Francis 7. TMac 8. Swift And yes Even Yao. Yao had some clouds over his head before being drafted. CD has made more then his fair share of mistakes through drafts, I cant even begin to expound upon the atrocities that have occured in our drafts. (ack ack Bryce Drew, Turkan, and Dickers over Rashard to name one) to have very very few bright spots, Cuttino Mobley, but to me the Man with the magic is Les. Rock On Les, you are my FAV owner in the world.
A talented but leaderless and heartless lineup. Every one of these players can't make it to the playoffs without another superstar at their side to do make the next step. Steve, Cato & Cuttino needed Yao Odom needed Wade Amare needed Nash
This is flipping insane. While there is all this bickering about whether it's JVG or CD the real man responsible gets no credit at all. Les Alexander. Les is respoinsible for all the great moves in the past and in the recent past and present. He is the mastermind behind this and soley responsible for what is shaping up to be the most talented Rocket team ever assembled.
touche however, we will never know what the sum of those parts would have equaled, nor do we know what other moves would have been made had we traded that #1 pick. maybe we could have had a line up that looks like this: pg: sura/mike james sg: tmac/jim jackson sf: odom/jim jackson pf:amare/howard c: fa/mutombo now dont get me wrong, im perfectly happy with what we have now. Just trying to get into a fun debate.
My fellow Rocket Brotheren, we are failing to to see the obvious. It really doesn't matter who is pulling the strings. Some people just seem to work great together. (1) Batman/Robbin (2) Laurel/Hardy (3) Starsky/Hutch (4) Skipper/Gillligan (5) Yao/McGrady (6) CD/JVG Kudos to both of them!
Although he bashed me quite hard when I didn't want Cato to be included in the Tmac trade, I think this is a good thread. It's a feel good thread if you will. But I think this is where JVG and Rudy differed. I'm not even talking about who sucked and who doesn't. It's just I think JVG is more adamant and a go getter than Rudy was. Not a knock on Rudy, but I can never see Rudy saying to CD: "Look, Carroll, I want (insert player's name) on our team. We need to get this done. We just have to. See what you can do and we'll go from there. He's just too big of a piece not to get". Rudy just seemed so laid back like a player's coach should be. All in all, we DO need to give CD credit though. He's the GM and he's the one that's making the phonecalls.
Has any of you seen the movie "Seabiscuit"? A rich but heart-broken owner who has recently suffered many family tragedies, an old washedup trainer who went jobless/homeless, a beatup race horse who was viewed as a hopeless loser, and an overly tall/half blind jocky whom no one gave a chance. Guess what, they got together, and revived each other's careers and lives. When they worked in cynergy and trust, magic happened. They together achieved something legendary until this day. Of course, it'd be foolish to say who did the most for their collective achievements, since they all depend on each other for something they individually don't have (financial, intellectual, physical, mental and spiritual). That heavy dependency was in fact the core of their success. Now, let's see if Les, CD, JVG, TMac and Yao can replicate that. BTW, when people started saying who did the most and who should be rewarded with the credit of success all by himself, that's when jealousy creeps in, cynergy disappears and the team falters. Just look at the USC Trojans. They can't handle their own success, and that led to the departure of their legendary Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow. Can they replicate their own success this year? Maybe, but I really doubt it.
So, Les = A rich but heart-broken owner who has recently suffered many family tragedies JVG/CD = an old washedup trainer who went jobless/homeless TMac = a beatup race horse who was viewed as a hopeless loser Yao = an overly tall/half blind jocky
Also the deal with Vancouver to get Francis. Think what you want of Francis now, but looking back we were pretty happy with his performance until his last couple of seasons with the Rox. Also no Francis, no TMac.
i agree taht the jvg/cd have done a great job the last couple of years. but, in all fairness, imho, it's rudy/cd first. they used the #1 pick to get yao, even when most people, sports writers, fans, and others, were predicting he'd be a bust. then tmac was drawn to houston by yao, a good center with potential to be great. do you believe for a second that tmac would have come here without yao? do you believe that rudy/cd would not have pulled the trigger and keep the old roster when tmac said he liked to come? then, here comes swift and derek.
