I agree. I should think the Ariza trade will work out better than most of the fans in the forum expect. Morey is high on players with atheletic prowness, character, and age/potential. The statistics for Ariza seems to be blunted somewhat due to the limited role he plays on the stacked lakers team. Given Tmac and Wafer are out of the picture, I should think a player of Ariza's ability would rise to the occasion and his numbers would inflate after coming to the rockets. Morey isn't silly, if you watch Ariza, his game is beyond the role that he deserved on the Lakers, and if given the right environment and opportunities he could be a star player. Think Detroit 2004, with Rip and Tayshaun. Even if he isn't a star player yet, if given the room to operate I would suspect him expanding his game come next year. And this may be why Ariza was willing to come to Houston in the first instance - he sees an opportunity and he's willing to come with the MLE. Morey was smart to propose a win-win situation to Ariza and both the rockets organisation and Ariza should benefit from this situation. Artest on the other hand is on the decline. Where would he be in 5 years time? Morey thinks like Warren Buffet (ie. value evaluation and investment), and he's thinking long term. You can't ask for more. Bottom line is, NBA isn't about big names and swagger. It is about acquiring the parts that will make a team successful, and fame/stardom comes from winning (Jordan) not just from individual ability (Tmac). If Ariza takes us past the first round next year I would be willing to think he be in the conversations regarding allstars.
Can we stop this in morey we trust crap please. sounds so gay. ok rookies , youngsters. get some balls.
Morey is a smart guy and I really like him as a GM. However, he is not god, so he will make some mistakes sooner or later... IMO, he has already made several major mistakes. 1st, not trading Tmac for Hamilton/Prince last year; 2nd, unwilling to give more for Memphis #2 pick or King's 4th pick to obtain a future franchise player named Rubio; 3rd, building a reputation of being super cheap on players who have worked their ass off to helped the team before, ie Artest and Wafer...
the tmac and yao injuries are unavoidable. morey did the smart thing by going young with ariza. he's trying to create a bright future for the team after the yao/tmac era. just waiting for the next big move
The book's still out on Morey. So far he was given the task of creating a dominant supporting cast around T-Mac and Yao using only late-first and second round picks and veterans minimum FA pickups. He succeeded at that fantastically, but his foundation crumbled underneath him before his eyes. Blame that on his lack of foresight if you want, but really most of the blame goes to CD for overseeing the acquisitions of those two players as well as Les for being strict about maintaining faith in them. Now Morey's task changes. He gets to let one major contract expire next year, and the other in two years (or not depending on the trades he executes). This is his chance to sculpt a team from the ground up, under the tutelage of a coach of his choosing, to play a winning style of basketball that he has envisioned, and to contend for a championship using a business model that heretofore has not been attempted (to such a degree at least) in basketball. His prior successes and failures are not as relevant now as they were before, although you get an idea at his uncanny knack for discovering cheap talent from his first two years under the job. Really this is untouched ground for him--the Ariza signing was the first deal he had made with an unrestricted free agent exceeding 5M in salary (Brent Barry was the previous high if you'll recall). We will see from Ariza's development and (hopefully) improvement as a Rocket how good Morey's foresight adapts itself to the new game of acquiring and collecting expensive and not just underrated talent. Speaking for all Rockets fans, here's hoping he succeeds.
U CHILL OUT! I still believe in Morey. Plus, We are NOT rebuilding. Some people just give up too quickly.
A team is only rebuilding when they lose their star players AND are left with scrubs and bums for players. Brooks and Landry are no Ricky Davis.
Waaah waah "thats my quarterback" waaah waah. "Leave Britney alone waaah waaah".Sometimes this board panics for no reason. Right now its a legit storm. Let it happen.
This is exactly the way I feel about Morey. In the short time he's been here, he's been able to to what CD couldn't do even with 5 trips to the NBA lotto (imagine if you can what Morey would do with 5 trips to the lottery). What's hamstrung him is the so-called belief that TMac+Yao provide the foundation for a championship team. That fubar I place squarely on Les & CD. Because Les allowed the franchise to drift along (more like bump along the ground) under CD, Morey had to work hard to find talent in the later rounds. He's been able to find talented players there but players who suffered from physical limitations most notably size. I don't give a him a complete thumbs up however because I was 100% against the deal he made to get Artest (which has now blown up in his face - yeah I know that Morey had to let Artest walk). I didn't want any part of that psycho whatsoever and I most definitely didn't want to part with Donte Green and that draft pick. That said, compared to what CD did in 2001 (E Griffin), that is one mistake that I suppose I can live with now that Artest is gone for good. Agree on all counts. How he handles getting rid of TMac will be the key. If he can turn a broken down McGrady (and his contract) into a good player or players, then the rebuilding period will definitely be shorter. Honestly, I don't expect them to be ready to contend for another 2 years and that's only if Yao can come back in 2010. I don't expect them to make the playoffs next year given all that has transpired up to now so I won't be amongst the legion of red koolaid drinkers who will be looking for someone to blame and who will blame Morey instead of the real culprit (or culprits (Les & CD)). I'll say one thing: he's DEFINITELY got his work cut out for him. I wish him well.
Interesting to see all the analysis so far written here about Morey and his strategies. I don't know why you are so against the Ron Artest trade. In my opinion it was A FANTASTIC trade. Donte Greene has barely amounted to anything IN SACRAMENTO, the team with the worst record in the league and couldn't even get playtime in a team tanking like there is no tomorrow. The pick we gave up was a late first round in one of the WEAKEST drafts of recent times. It turned out to be Omri Casspi and it couldn't have been much better than that. Overall to get into the second round of the playoffs in the West it was a good rental. I'm really sad to see Ron go but with the direction the team is going now there is no point for us to keep him other than perhaps a sign and trade deal with whoever that wants him. I'd LOOVE to see what Morey can do with a couple of trips to the lottery, IN THE PHASE OF REBUILDING. The previous trip to the lottery I think is one of Morey's BIGGEST MISTAKES in that he traded away Rudy Gay for Battier. He should have seen that Yao and TMac were injury prone players and adding a star player like Gay could have only helped the team. Defensive glueguys are always available with the MLE through free agency and we can get them MUCH MUCH EASIER than we can get an exceptional talent like Rudy Gay. That there is what caused the franchise to collapse along with the health of our stars. Moreys made one big mistake already in the Battier trade. It was a real letdown. Now I hope he makes us into a total contending mode or a total rebuilding mode and not like Milwaukee or Golden State where they are perennially not good enough to make any noise in the playoffs nor are bad enough to get any good high lottery picks. All they end up with is late lottery selections year after year with the team heading into a road of nowhere. I hope Morey tanks the WHOLE season with 5 wins only. 1 win against the Cavs to split the series and 4 against the Lakers to show Ron Ron what we're all about and for our boy Ariza!!! LET THE REBUILDING BEGIN!!! WITH YAO ONBOARD!!!
just the opposite, Battier will be traded. Arizza is the younger and more athetic of Battier. The Rox will keep this version.
Morey had his chance with a lotto pick. Now here's the reason I'm still irritated about the perfect player to backup/eventually replace T-Mc. Morey had all the medical information about the true state of health regarding Yao and T-Mc. No one ever talks about this. He had x-rays of Yao's feet and legs as well as T-Mc's knees. With his brilliant analysis he apparently never factored into his equations the high probability of their injuries -- particularly Yao. His valuation formulas also probably have low values for height and athleticism. His formulas spit out Joey Dorsey when it should have had some common sense and settled on DeAndre Jordan, Carl Landry rather than Kyrylo Fesenko, Brad Newley rather than Ramon Sessions. In Morey We Rust!
This is what I see, if all things remains the same - which they won't. Rockets have a better-than-expected season next season. 2010-2011 we become big players in the free agent market and become a contender. Everyone talks about how great Morey rebuilt the team in just "one year." Only the people who are putting their faith into him now will know that he has been rebuilding this team WAY before then. He has really been rebuilding this team since he got here. Think about it, if he were to try and build around T-mac and Yao, do you think he would be bringing in all of these young, ATHLETIC, hard working players that like to run the floor? Everything goes against a team built around Yao and T-mac on that level - with exception to Yao being a hard-worker. Morey was being faithful to Les' guys and now that they are assumingly over, he can keep building and let those one/two pieces go. The thing about long term success though, it hardly ever is built over night and this team is/has been built on long term success. Not the Celtics one, maybe two or three and done success.
morey needs to convince yao that he must go to another team so we don't have to rely on an injury prone star.
I don't understand all this Morey bashing. It's not his fault Yao got injured. That screwed our whole plan up. TMac will be traded. If not now, then at the trade deadline. Battier is obviously gone too. He will have quite a few suitors. Portland liked him. Why not pursue a deal that includes Bayless and Fernandez? I think it has a higher likelihood of getting done then ever before. I still will never understand fans complaining about letting Artest go. The money spent on Ariza is much better then even a dollar spent on Artest. This team is rebuilding. It's not by choice, but it is reality. Let's see how things play out. Just to add a few more things, Ariza left money on the table in Toronto and turned down the same deal in Cleveland he accepted with us. It shows he wants to be here, and is not going to be one of those guys who was playing hard strictly to get a contract. I've watched him since he was a high school superstar. He was considered a second round sleeper coming out of UCLA. He played his best basketball on the biggest stage at the age of 24. Let's see what he can do. Kobe sure was outspoken about wanting him back before free agency got underway. I have not heard a word out of him since Artest agreed to sign with LA. Kobe's not normally one to keep his mouth shut. If he was elated over this, you would have heard it. Just my opinion
