responsible for keeping them here, yes. come on...this is ridiculous. he inherited a team that already had its starting 5 set to win an NBA title.
max we've had this argument before, its harder to win in basketball because dynasties are built on talent. are you going to blame les for not being able to rip shaq from the lakers. the rockets won two championships couldn't win with francis so made changes that you were personally estatic about and now les isn't a good owner. talk about moving target two big men have won the last few championships since the rockets, i guess that's les's fault.
Can't watch the (cheap) video at work, but if you're taking (cheap) exception to my mocking (cheap) another poster's (cheap) post, I under(cheap)stand.
read the thread fully before you respond, i actually posted that money isn't my problem with les and then address those issues, thanks in advance. talk about the sky being green, hell if you put words in my mouth then there's no way i can win
he ALWAYS gets blame for them leaving - that's been our point. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. what's been missing is his credit for getting them here in the first place so they can then leave because mclane is cheap and everyone can flood talk shows and message boards to complain about it. endlessly. i think MM, RM95 and msn would all agree that drayton keeps a watchful eye on his wallet... every owner not named steinbrenner, henry, jones, snyder or cuban does. he DOES have a budget - nothing wrong with that. but he's fit some pretty unbelivably great players into that budget over the last 14 years.
I did read the thread--I caught that once or twice, but I also caught you dropping the word "cheap" on Drayton about 89 times. Which, in the face of the actual historical facts, is inaccurate (read, "stupid").
i'm not talking about championships, pgabriel. a freaking playoff series win would be nice. making the playoffs has been a lovely change. we have one consecutive playoff appearance...we're on a roll!!!!! i love the rockets. but comparing recent history to the astros is silly. it's not close. i never said les wasn't a good owner. i just don't think he's been nearly as good for the rockets as mclane has for the astros.
That's complete revisionist history. You can't remember the 2 for 1 coupons for good seats at the Summit in the Chronicle in 1986-1988 even with Hakeem and Ralph??? Why was Steve Patterson fired? Was it his talent acquisition skills?? Even when they were roaring into the playoffs, we couldn't sell out the building. And then came the deep playoff runs, the championships, the Barkley era, and we sold out for several years. When John McMullen signed Nolan Ryan to the first million contract in 1980 (?)the Astros were all the buzz. You think Les has not been an outstanding owner? Yes CD and Rudy made mistakes but they brought home the Gold. And they brought in Stevie Franchise - a coup for Micheal Dickerson. And when that wasn't working out, did they sit on their butts? No, they traded for T -Mac - another coup. These are aggressive deals that were made by the GM and it was good when they were made and they are still good. Should they have been fired because they made the right deals but it just didn't work. Teams win, teams lose. However, people don't change their styles. And over the long run, a micro-manager owner who is not an expert is not good.
so the astros are good because even though they've won an average number of games they made the playoffs but the rockets winning freakin rings doesn't count. yeah, this argument is moving
well then drayton must not have been that...because over the long-run, the team has been pretty damn good.
my bad, i said he got players on the cheap which he did, beltran, alou, kent, etc. and didn't keep them
i've CONSISTENTLY said "past 10 years"...."past decade." at one point, i've stated and re-stated that. i'm saying the rockets won titles. and that's great. i loved it. i don't give a whole lot of credit to les for that, because he didn't build it. it was built for him. he bought it. what he has actually built hasn't been that swell.
and getting yao, mcgrady, getting francis back, is terrible. are you telling me les doesn't try to win, and btw, he's made the playoffs a few more times than the rings. but i know its harder in baseball
i'm excited about the moves they've made this offseason. i hope it will work out. i'm rooting for them! when did i tell you les wasn't trying to win??
No. Are you telling us McLane doesn't try to win? pennypinch And by the way, pennypinch how on earth is it harder to make the playoffs in basketball pennypinch than in the baseball???? Or win a pennypinch championship???? Earlier you said that 2 big men have won the last few NBA titles. Is it really that easy? Because pennypinch one pennypinch slugger or one stud pitcher won't win a division in baseball, much less bring home the pinchin' title.
see how much goodwill the astros will retain after a few mediocre years - this is houston, not boston or chicago.
