There seems to be quite a bit of hand wringing after the draft we just witnessed. With so much despair I decided to give some wisdom. 1) The season doesn't start tomorrow. I know this may sound obvious, but it appears that quite a few people have forgotten. Free agency hasn't opened yet and the Rockets have players who are tradeable. 2) Morey has more conversations with other teams' GMs than you do. I know I know. Everyone on here is best friends with the GM of the Kings, Bobcats and Magic so you all know EXACTLY what other teams want on our roster and exactly what they'll give us for them. Now, back in the real world...Morey has conversations with other teams non-stop. He knows how his players are valued around the league. He has shown himself to be a smart drafter. Do you honestly think he'd draft two power forwards if he didn't know he could either package those two together or the others on his roster for something of value? 3) Fans are fickle. One minute the fans here are whining because they want to rebuild and the next they are whining because after the draft they don't see a "direction." Please, get your complaints straight. 4) Lack of making trade =/ Morey Failed to "close the deal." I've seen this statement made quite a bit. It implies that there was a trade to be made that Morey just wouldn't pull off, because of fear perhaps? This is just fan nonsense. Morey has shown brass balls as a GM. A willingness to trade everyone on his roster. When these same grumpy pants fans aren't complaining about the lack of a trade they are complaining that he is too willing to trade and it makes players so sad. Morey can't force a team to make a trade they don't want to make. The word is that none of the top 10 teams are going to move their picks DESPITE all the heavy media rumors that so many top 10 teams wanted out of their spot. Were all the other GMS in the league just too scared to make a deal with those guys? Or maybe the media got it wrong? Perish the thought! If the draft fell the way the top 10 teams were hoping and they got players they wanted and valued more than a trade, what do you want Morey to do in order to "close the deal?" 5) You are not a scout. Don't even bother denying it. I know you aren't one. You know you aren't one. You watch games like the rest of us and that's it. I realize that everyone on the internet knew that Thabeet was a bust, Ginobli and Parker were stars, Rondo was a star, Lowry was better than Alston, etc. etc. If we could just find a way for all the clutchfans posters to get their names into the GM mix around the league, we'd finally have smart people running NBA teams! Again, back to the real world...you have no idea how good most players are going to be. You could end up be right and these players could suck, but to drop into the dungeon of despair before you've seen any of them in an NBA game? Don't be a DaDakota! 6) The Rockets are a successful franchise. Maybe you've forgotten that. Maybe you don't remember that we were just a twist of fate away from being a title contender throughout the 2000s. The Rockets are one of the 10 winningest teams of the last 10 years. We are in an awkward state right now, but it's really only been 3 years, and 1 of them was due entirely to the injury problems of a max player. I've read posts in the last few hours with phrases like "running the team into the ground" "Les has always been a terrible owner" etc. etc. There are a handful of teams that will have the easy way to greatness in front of them as long as they avoid stupidity. The Rockets aren't one of them. They have to make smart moves. 7) Allow the same leeway for players you don't know anything about as you did for others. Who can forget DD whining about Hasheem Thabeet deserving playing time because he would get better? Now that same DD knows that the draft was a bust and the team has no direction because these young players CAN'T produce for us. Sorry to use DD as an example here (not really) but the point is made. Don't attach yourself to the names. The coaching staff loves Royce White. Sampson was ecstatic about his style last night. McHale even had a little umph in his voice talking about him. Edit: I see DD likes Lamb. Confused as to why he would like Lamb but still be despairing over direction... In summation, nobody wants to go on a hike with people who start panicking, claiming to be lost with no direction as soon as you can't see the car from where you are on the trail. Just because you can't see the end doesn't mean your guide doesn't know where he's going.
Yep, now that I have come back down to reality and seen the bright side, these guys we drafted ALL have star potential. The one thing I love about the players we drafted is they all seem unselfish. I think we're going to see a lot of passing on this team like the Spurs, with Royce and D-Mo on the court at the same time. Get ready for beautiful basketball for once Rocket fans.
The real lesson is to quit expecting **** and getting so hyped up on tweets and rumors. If we didn't do that a lot less people would be disappointed. The truth is we had a nice draft, we expected way to much because of all the hype.
What is this wholesome common sense doing on Clutchfans? Get this **** outta here and make a trade or "get rid of ____" thread already. Sheesh.
Obviously. Morey has not shown himself to be a smart drafter in the first round. The only way you could call him a smart drafter is if you were talking about the second round only. Otherwise, he's an average drafter (average awarded based on a lack of a large sample size). As for the other sentence, none of us can know that. Honestly, I think that maybe he thinks he can package a few of our power forwards in a trade. Realistically, we've got to think about the possibility that he can't. You'd be stupid not to. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. How anyone would think they are, I don't know. How do you know that there wasn't a trade to be made? Just like I don't know that there was a trade to be made. How does Morey have brass balls as a GM? Because he makes trades of role players more than the average GM? Or he buys second round picks? Or, wait, is it because he's picked the safest picks in the past three drafts? I'll count myself out of this group. I've never said any of these things. This is fair enough. I see more people just complaining that we have so many forwards on the roster, not necessarily disagreeing with the picks that were made. Individually, I think the players we got are good players. They'll just never see the light of day with this current team. Well, Lamb will, and one of D-Mo and White might. Nobody knows what is going to happen. I'm going to sit back and watch. It'll probably end up with us having the same roster as we do now. But it'll be a fun ride. I'm excited to see any trade that may happen, and I'm sure I'll be happy with them. Right now, I'm (and I'm sure most fans feel this way) just underwhelmed with what went down last night after so many possibilities seemed to exist. I think the biggest thing Morey can learn from this is that he needs to keep his phone calls to other GMs private. All of these rumors floating around are exciting, but they only have resulted in built up hope that's been decimated shortly thereafter. Fans are allowed to be disappointed. Part of the definition of "love", in my opinion, is passion. Passion denotes that whenever you have feelings about something, those feelings are very strong. The majority of the fans that love the Rockets are disappointed right now, and they have every right to be. Not because we didn't get Dwight. Not because we didn't get Rudy Gay or Josh Smith. Not even because we didn't get the number 5 pick. The majority of fans are disappointed because, like me, we thought last night was going to be the end of us toiling in mediocrity, and the chance for us to step forward into the group of better teams in the league. We thought that after the past two or three years of being on the verge of the playoffs, and in "acquire assets" mode, we were ready to take a step past all of that. We deserve to be disappointed. Let the draft last night sting a little bit. It'll make it that much sweeter if and when we finally clear some of this logjam.
Don't read it in a condescending tone, read it in a jesting tone. Read my posts towards Hillboy with a condescending tone because I think he's a hack who does nothing but try to stir people up.
Excellent Post. I agree 100%. I'm actually kinda surprised there weren't more "this is the end of the world" threads yesterday.
Blah, blah, blah. You could have said the same thing the last three years. If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got. The Rockets need a new GM, and not a money ball guy. No, the money ball guy stays in the background, but not the head honcho. Your GM needs to be a shrewd but likeable NBA lifer, someone who doesn't put other general managers on edge, which leads me to this. Isn't it about time we considered the possibility that other general managers might not like Morey or want to deal with him. That his high profile have made other general managers leery of doing anything which will enhance his reputation or make his approach more attractive to other owners. Maybe old school general managers resent what Morey represents and love the fact he's stuck in neutral. This doesn't mean they hang up the phone when he calls, it just means Morey has to really wow them with an offer in order to get their attention. And Orlando was never eager to see another of their superstars go to Houston. I doubt they have ever gotten over being strong armed in the T-Mac saga. And I feel very strongly that if CD were ten years younger, and still managing the Rockets, Drummond would probably be a Houston Rocket tonight.
Things we should all keep in mind. Its just so disheartening when you see these guys we drafted and you cant see how they are going to fit with what we already have. We got some quallity picks but, hows it gonna help if they have no minutes. If Morey starts cleaning house (Lowry, Martin, Scola) and brings in some kind center it would really lift my spirits. As is this team is a jumbled mess of big sf's, short pf's, one extremly old center with uncertainty at pg and sg.
This theory makes no sense. Jerry West has always been able to get deals done despite the fact that he tends to rip off other teams. Why don't teams hang up on him? Just because they like him? This is another example of where fans overrate "like-ability." If you feel that way then you should be convinced that Drummond would be a bust. Seriously. CD? CD? You've got to be kidding. CD made terrible move after terrible move throughout his run as GM.
Keep supporting the old " college try " and enjoy that mediocrrity treadmill. DD Ps I like all the picks just think our roster is crowded and out of balance.
I havent read many posts quite yet, i chose to stay off CF after we didnt trade anybody last night to avoid all the melodramatic fans screaming for moreys head and what not, but this was a great and insightful post and if i could rep you i most definately would...
Screw that. Its a make or miss league. Everyone knows draft time is a golden opportunity to strike. Did Morey strike? No he didnt and thats all that matters. Who cares why/what reasons there were. ITS A MAKE OR MISS LEAGUE. Morey missed BIG Time. Now we have to wait till trade dead line to go through the same ****e all over again. All talk with no action, too much hope to only end up with too much remorse.
