There's a few more cheap moves out there over Les' tenure. Not resigning James Posey in 2003 was at least in part a cheap move (and Posey went on to earn his salary, at least in his first year, by kicking ass for Memphis and having a careery year, then sort of dropping off but then becoming an integral role player on 2 champions). There's also a few more you can argue - not moving Glen Rice' expiring deal a few years back for soemthing good (i forgot what the trade netted us but it was barely anything) can be couched as cheap also. Probably more but I forget.
He fills all management positions, approves all personnel, and writes the checks. As they say, "it's what's up front that counts." Since Les took over, this team has majored on the regular season and has no playoff success. The two championships belong to the previous owner and GM. It is just the way it is.
Les Alexander is not cheap. No owner wants to go over the Luxury Tax threshhold. When he starts trading players the caliber of Pau Gasol away for next to nothing in order to save money, call him cheap. Dikembe was on the roster last year and only played in 39 games. 25 of which were starts because Yao was injured. Dikembe isn't on this team because he wouldn't be playing. He barely played most of last year. Why doesn't Les go out and get a star PG? The Rockets are limited to MLE money every year, so it isn't like they can sign a big star, and the lack the assets to trade for a star PG, not to mention the salary cap again. JVG was leaving the Rockets on the fence waiting for him to make a decision, so Les made it for him. I can't be angry about them. Most fans of good teams don't realize how lucky they are. I can't complain about the organization. Les is a good owner, quit complaining.
Man, people weren't calling Les cheap when we got Artest over the summer. Les attempts to spend money smartly, not just throw away money like the Knicks. It doesn't always work out, but when we need a player, they usually go get him (Drexler, Barkley, Quitten, Tracy, Artest). He also went and got high profile coaches (JVG, RA). Credit who you want, but the fact remains that we did not win a championship until he purchased the team. From what I hear, he's also a pretty charitable guy. The Rockets have not had a lot of playoff success this decade, but I don't feel Les should be dumped on.
i think everyone also needs to understand one point you made, that les is a businessman. basketball is a business, when not viewed upon by the common fan. if les can make 3x the revenue on less expenses, then he's a great businessman, compared to his peers. think about it this way, if i were to be running the local gas station and my "peer" across the street runs a similar gas station, i don't parade around if i've won the "cleanest or most efficient gas station award" do i? no, i only care that i'm making more money than the next gas station is and continue to do business as such. basketball players and winning isn't the be all end all to a basketball team.
Les is a great businessman, but not a great basketball owner (best one). The basketball is not a pure business, sometimes you need give up some money for the winning, for this standard, he is a good owner, but not the best one.
Ive always felt we've been pretty lucky to have an owner that firstly, is willing to spend the money and not run the team on the cheap, and secondly who is not afraid to blow the team up and make big trades if needed.
Beyond disrespecting former coaches and players, the main reason I think Les is a below average owner is that he has interfered too much with basketball-related decision-making. He may be a good businessman but he knows little about the game of basketball. The owner of the Spurs has been great because he's let the GM be the GM and the coach be the coach. Les has tried to play basketball expert over the years and gotten in the way of basketball people that know the game better than him. We won two championships early in his tenure and he became eager for more without understanding what it takes to build a team over the long run. By overpaying for scrubs like Kelvin Cato, Mo Taylor, Moochie Norris, etc..., this organization was strapped in the FA market year after year. Only recently have we started to get out from under those bad contracts. Throw in several years of poor drafting and the inability to have playoff success was exacerbated. I don't know how much Les was involved in the draft process but from all reports I've read over the years, he definitely tried to get too involved in the basketball side of things. That was a big mistake. He should let the GM and the coaches do their thing without interfering. If he learns to do that, I think he may eventually deserve some praise. I don't think he's cheap but I do think he doesn't know where to draw the line in his role as the owner. Mark Cuban has the same problem with meddling in areas he doesn't understand. The reason he has had some success is that he's willing to spend to the extreme which compensates for his foolishness. If there was a hard cap in the NBA, Cuban would be exposed for overstepping his bounds and trying to be something he's not - a basketball expert.
couldn't agree with you more. Dr. Jerry Buss, first and foremost, is a businessman, a self-made billionaire. at the same time, he is committed to making his team a winner, damn with the Luxury tax. his record as an NBA owner speaks volume, 9 rings ~28 years. show me an NBA owner that has never paid luxury tax---Donald T Sterling and Les Alexander---and, based on the last 10 years' record, i will show an NBA doormat or one that has never advanced past the first round despite having 2 all-stars. contrast that w the way that Dr. Buss treats the coaches that he had to fired and the aging superstars. Dr. Buss had to fire Randy Pfund becuase he was not a good coach. but he arranged to hook up Pfund with Pat Reilly's Miami Heat team, where Phund is now the GM. Dr. Buss tore up the aging Kurt Rambis's contract, with more than 1 year left, so that Rambis could sign a more lucrative contract with the Carolina expansion team. He also built Hawaii vacation home for the aging Kareem. As a show of gratitude, he let Magic Johnson buy 5% interest in the team.
also, upon Rudy T's annoucement (after 2 months on the job) that he can no longer cope w the pressures of being the LAkers coach and had to resign, Dr. Buss continued to honor Rudy's multi-year contract.
But Les gave Rudy T a portrait of Rudy T. Yeah. I think the Lakers ownership > Rockets ownership. Easily. You don't see the Lakers having uniform changes, they have something called tradition that has been respected by their fans.
I'm not one to be defending Les, but be fair here. Not only did we win a series in '96, but the blockbuster trade for Barkley finally got us past Seattle and into the conf finals in '97, a historic bad call away from a 7th game. So they don't count, either?
not exactly. Cuban should get credit for changing the fortune for the Mav---but to a point. despite being a perennial playoff team, Cuban's team could never get over the hump. cuban has been unwilling to hire a capable coach. one year after retiring from the LAkers, Phil Jackson was inteested to coach the Mav, his type of team, one that is a perennial contender but just couldnot get over the hump. Cuban was ok with making Phil the highest paid coach but not ok with Phil's requirement that Cuban not meddle with his coaching and not sit behind the bench. Cuban's ego got in the way. Phil Jackson, arguably, was the only coach who coulda gotten the Mavs over the hump. you mean those pajamas
Yes, I do believe that besides the pg position, backup C is this team's biggest need - especially when your starting center is fragile and has been injured a great deal over the past few seasons. I'm sure if there was we would've heard something about it either in the media or on here. We did hear about Chucky Atkins and a few others so I'm pretty sure we would've heard about it if they had inquired about Williams or Hinrich. I'm just putting 2 and 2 together. Les doesn't want to go over the LT and bringing either of those 2 players would've probably put the Rockets close, which is why they didn't go after them. That is my analysis. I did believe the Rockets improved with the acquisition of Artest, but I was skeptical of Barry and so far that skepticism has proven to be correct since his contribution has been very limited. I did not think the Rockets were championship caliber team on the same level as the Celtics and Lakers because of the severe limitations of Rafer Alston. The pg position is too important to have a guy with such deficiences running your team. I know about LT implications, which is why I highlighted the Rockets getting salaries dumped on them unecessarily and paying for trade kickers they never wanted - especially since Les is too cheap to go over the luxury tax. We would not be having this debate about Mutombo if those things hadn't happened. What about the lack of playoff success since Les has took over? The Rockets haven't won a playoff series in over 11 years. Yet, you call Les Alexander a good owner. As Solid has alluded to, Steve Patterson, the guy Les let go in classless manner, built those championship teams long before Mr. Alexander got here. What about the ridiculous contracts given to scrubs like Kelvin Cato, Mo Taylor, and Moochie Norris as BrooksBall has pointed out? Even when he spends money, he's done it stupidly. What about letting James Posey walk when he wanted the MLE or something, because the Rockets felt he wasn't worth it? Last, lets also never forget about those ridiculous clown uniforms he had legends like Clyde, Dream, and Barkley wearing The Rockets have been a poorly run organization since Les took over and the only reason the team is worth so much is because of Yao Ming and the 1 billion fans he brought with him. Couple this with Les's stubborn insistence not to go over the LT and that's not a good combination for success.
