Finally some love for Trevor Ariza, the must unappreciated Rocket of all. I can't believe some on this board think he is over payed. If we had someone like him to pair with T-mac all those years who knows how far we could have gotten. Now we can pair him with 4 other guys that can score in the starting line up, I say Ariza is one of the favorites after this coming season
Good read. Thanks. I think the other guys outside of Yao are appealing because of their production compared to their contracts which are manageable.
i'm pretty sure Morey mentioned he was getting calls about ariza during the season as well....so it shouldnt be a suprised he's getting calls still, the guy is on a very reasonable contract
It's unfortunate that unlike Presti, Popovich, Pritchard, and other supposed top GMs in the league, Morey has NEVER had a top 5 pick, let alone multiple top 5 picks or having a Durant/Duncan fall into his lap. Sometimes, it is about luck. And if we had lucked into the top pick this year, Morey would be a genius.
I was with you until you bring up the half man half sheep named TMac. Please Tmac was what he was a flashy selfish enigma. He had talent and individual swagger in a game that required teamwork and hard work. No one could help him. I will give Tmac credit though. He did finally make it out of the first round with the Rockets. Ariza deserves a little love. Toward the end of the season he was exactly what we wanted from him. I won't mention the beginning of the season when he was exactly what we didn't want. All water under the bridge. Ariza will go so much further than with the ROckets than Tmac ever did. And you won't hear him say "it's on me".
Magic Johnson? LMFAO. DM is a boss. I haven't really been keeping up with the NBA, so Lowry and Scola locked-in for next season might be old news, but that's big nevertheless. Great post, Rileydog!
Great threads like this are why clutchfans is so damn addictive. You just can't find this kind of info anywhere else. Interesting what Morey says about Jordan Hill. I'm wondering though if they're molding Hill into a backup 5 out of roster needs, or if they really think he's more suited to play center in the NBA. Being equal in size to 50% of the centers in the league can go either way. Good to hear Hill and Yao are already working out together.
Im just referencing to the many posters on this board that would cry for someone long, quick, and athletic to pair him with. I think many wished we had someone like that to take some of the defensive responsibilities off him. Doesnt matter whether it was on him, on yao, on the the role players or on JVG. As for Ariza, he was given the green light at the beggining of the season to do whatever he wants, to take as many shots as he wanted that were in rhythm with the game. Many people on here act like he was a mad man playing outside of his role. Well when the season started we had no backcourt slasher, cutter, or facilitator. I guess some on here would have rather had someone set a screen for battier and let him try to iso his defender. He was playing out of position and did his best, then we got a real shooting guard and things improved. Trevor was averaging nearly 17pts a game before we got Martin, hes making the mle, Id say that is more than a fair price.
I stand (partially) corrected. The fact is that Morey had Hill ranked #12 or #13. I thought it was #17. I'm glad to hear that Morey originally thought so highly of Jordan. It's a better indicator that the Rockets value Hill fairly highly as a player. I'm glad to be (partially) wrong.
Thanks for the insightful post. I think the whole Morey poker face master clandestine ninja GM thing gets overblown. Seems to me he keeps SOME things close to the vest, his proprietary stats for the most part. Everything else, he's as direct as any other GM in the league.
Thank you for your report Riley. You can't base your opinions on what folks say here, there are too many folks that are still going through puberty that have a keyboard. And then there are those of us like me, that are older than dirt...find someone in the middle to agree with..lol. No need for that, I knew it already. :grin: DD
"- Jordan Hill: The rockets had him as the 12th or 13th guy on their board last year. He was top 6-7 based on basketball skills/talent, but there were some concerns about non-basketball issues. " So by sheer basketball skills alone, Jordan Hill was a top 7 guy but "non-basketball issues" dropped him 5+ spots? The Rockets are raving about Patterson's off-court elements - his character, work ethic, etc. - and said they ranked him in the top 6 overall. Makes me wonder where he would rank on basketball talents/skills alone. 9th? 10th?
I honestly don't think he drops much on that basis. The only guy in that general range taken after him who might have "non-basketball issues" would possibly be Paul George (maybe just maturity). Patterson's a legit #6 or #7 for the Rockets based on SKILL.
Great report Rileydog! One thing I found interesting is the "Philly talk" being a top trade-up options. When the Cousins trade-up news first broke, Feigan had a blog saying they tried with multiple teams, and said they had some talk with Philly early but that went away. I wonder if Feigan knew they still were talking to Philly, but just cooperated with Morey to put disinformation out there. Morey is careful about what he shares. He comes on radio often enough during the season so he can't just totally abstain from sharing. He shares enough to make these interviews interesting (which helps ticket sales), but doesn't share anything that would hurt his team's competitive advantage.
