@DreamShook I remember our frustrations of always feeling like coming up short. It's a Morey/Harden issue. I count my blessings everyday with the kids we have even if they are still not ready for primetime.
Morey Harden and Cp3 are notoriously unlucky. I liked them all, but it feels like the Rockets luck had turned around since they left. If Jabari, tari, sengun, gup, green, kpj, tyty and all those bk picks turn into generational talents or a chip, we will know Morey has a hex on him
Also, although I loved Morey (he built two championship contenders), he is a terrible drafter - in the rare moments that he keeps draft picks.
Help me out here - aside from the obvious Morris-over-Kawhi selection, Morey has never whiffed incredibly hard in any other draft where he had a first round pick. I guess you could argue that in 2007, upon assuming GM duties, he drafted Aaron Brooks over Marc Gasol. But I don't think you could criticize any GM for that decision, without hindsight.
Sam Dekker, Royce White, Terrence Jones, Pat Patterson. All busts. Could easily include Jeremy Lamb but I’ll spare him. 2 of the better first round selections were traded away for nothing. Nikola Mirotic and Nic Batum.
Capela was a solid one, probably his best. Dekker was a huge whiff. Royce White was a bad risk. Terrence Jones and Lamb were mediocre but one of them got us Harden, so there's that! Patterson was mediocre but only really one guy after him (Bledsoe) hit in that bad draft. Rockets had no 2009 picks but his eventual acquisitions of Flynn, Thabeet, Hill, Williams, Lawson and Carroll and other scrubs from the scrubby 2009 draft was always funny too. I just got the feeling after all of those years that his analytics modeling was bad at factoring in player IQ. Again I like Morey, and in the end his prioritization of trading over drafting was the better strategy.
We traded Mirotic for Dmo. I think that was a good trade. Dmo is a rockets legend. Too and he hurt his back.
The Morris pick didn't end at passing on Kawhi. Morris (a decent 14th pick) was later traded for a second round pick, which turned into Isaiah Canaan, who was later traded for KJ McDaniels, who was later traded for cash considerations.
Players aren't part of tampering rules--they can recruit each other all they want. The investigation is over whether Harden has a secret deal established with Philadelphia waiting for him next year, kind of like the Joe Smith/Minnesota situation way back.
No, you should definitely include the guy the Rockets drafted and then flipped for an NBA 75 greatest player prior to entering his prime as an example of bad managementing. Nothing would be a more appropriate post from you
And this line of trading happened multiple times, where a 14th or decent draft pick was eventually turned into dog ****
let’s not misunderstand the king of checkers here. dork elvis costello wasn’t allowed to tank by l3$$.