Projects, no matter how long in the league, take time. That is why they are called projects. The Rox wanted him becuase he was a defensive monster at Memphis. UH players were petrified of going to the hole against him when I saw them play @ Hoffeinz. The potential was there, and IMO still is there. It's not like we are hinging our season on Joey Dorsey as a potential role player for us? Are we?
Maybe you should do some research before you make comments like this? Dorsey was just a throw-in, we drafted Batum to block the Spurs then traded him for Darrell Arthur and Dorsey then traded Arthur for Greene. In hindsight the Rox might have been better off sticking with Batum or even Greene, but at the time I thought it was a worthwhile gamble to get a talent of Artest's caliber and besides, wing players are a dime a dozen (see Wafer, Taylor and Bud).
I think this is why DM is disapointed with Dorsey. When they got him in the draft you can see from his comments that DM expected Dorsey to make some sort of impact on the court. Instead the dude who was relatively healthy during his college years suddenly developed PF despite not seeing any PT on the court. Not only that DM and crew were expecting a fairly polished product, and why shouldn't they? Dorsey was already 24 years old, and spent all 4 years in college learning under a major program. Instead, they got someone rawer than sushi. 19 year old one-and-dones have a right to be a project. Dude is already 25 years old, he shouldn't still be a project at this stage.
There is no such thing as a 2nd rounder bust. They are drafted in the 2nd round for a reason. If a player that got drafted in the 2nd round sucks, no one really cares and just move on. But if a 1st rounder sucks, everyone will bash on him like no other and that will be a bust. Like if Dorsey sucks, its not a big deal. But guys like Kwame Brown or Darko sucks, it will impact the team that drafted them the most. I mean Darko is an example of a bust. Because the Piston could have drafted Wade, Melo, Bosh but instead him. If Darko was drafted in the 2nd round, he would make a good 2nd round pick. So if Joey Dorsey was drafted in the first round, we can all say he is a bust because we just wasted a valuable draft pick on him. But as a 2nd rounder, he is a good pick up for the Rockets.
We haven't really gotten a chance to watch him. While I highly doubt he will ever become the dominate defender that Ben Wallace was, he may show a young Ben Wallace, or maybe a Bo Outlaw. Theres also the chance that he will suck if given the opportunity. We will see.
And this is based on what? The fact that Dorsey is out-working Pops during training camp? Or how Pops sucked throughout the FIBA summer games against non-NBA competition? He could barely rebound or play defense, but now he's Dorsey's replacement b/c Dorsey is a "bust?"
I agree. I also got the feeling Morey thought Dorsey could be a rotation player almost right away, rather than drafting him for his "upside". So in that sense drafting him was a mistake. That said, he's not a "bust". Simply because in the end, he's still just a 2nd rounder.
If it's true that Morey thought he could be a rotation player, then he certainly wasn't alone. Most 'experts' before the draft suggested that Dorsey was the kind of guy ready to come in right away and contribute. Probably not the ideal situation for him to come into considering the Rockets were pretty well covered (Ming, Scola, Landry, Hayes) - he just arrived as "deep backup" - got plantar fasciitis and, well - wait until next year big fella. We'll see how he goes in the pre-season, Summer League was promising - rebounds, blocked shots, strong finishing, and EVEN passing the ball. Hope it continues.
Dorsey is not gonna be a dominante player, but he can be a solid 10 minute pinch hittter who'l come in get you 3 or 4 boards and a block here and there.
Reports out of Clipper camp is that Deandre Jordan has been beasting practices and he looked very impressive in his first preseason game. Keep in mind that it was against Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors who plays small forwards as power forwards and centers, but could passing on DJ in 2008 be comparable to passing up on Rashard Lewis in 19998?
The Dorsey expectations seriously need to be tempered down. The guy couldn't even sniff the court last year. There is no reason to use terms like "breakout" and "suprise" or compare him in any fashion to someone like Ben Wallace. Frankly he doesn't seem to have much of a BBall IQ and there are only 2 reasons (which I don't really need to go into) he is even on the roster at this point.
Again, the Rockets didn't "draft" Dorsey over DeAndre Jordan. Dorsey came over on a draft-day deal that sent Batum to Portland for Arthur, then Arthur to Memphis for Donte Greene and Joey Dorsey. Dorsey was just a throw-in.
AXG,roslolian and whoever brings up dorsey was the throw in excuse is missing the point. If another team was throwing in the player or pick,the pick couldve been Jordan vs dorsey since dorsey was drafted befoe jordan. If u follow morey and his logic, dorsey falls inline with a older known vs a younger unknown. He said many times dorsey was nba ready. If u look at brooks and landry,they're both older guys closer to their ceiling. Jordan is a project,but he a 7ft big that's 20 vs a 26 yr old 6'6 guy that couldn't shoot a jump hook.
But Lee, didn't Dante Greene fall in line with the younger unknown theory. I would have prefered Jordan over Dorsey as a project because Dorsey is kind of redundant on this team with having players like Hayes, Landry and Scola. Though I am still surprised that Morey passed on Mario Chalmers especially with his size and 3pt shooting ability.
Jumpshooter, I had no problem with taking green. DD and I talked about who was rated high donte or gerald? If it was gerald,bring him back and don't draft green. If it was me, I wouldve brought a gerald green back to camp and still drafted green and in the 2nd take jordan. Reason why is deke was older,yao had just had another season ending injury, and utah had just out athleted the rox again. They did a lot of moving and shakin to block the spurs and the spurs still wound up with a pretty good player in Hill and the rox still have a small pf-c combo when yao is hurt or out the game.
