Talking about Tom Thibideau and how they wanted him to stay but he was looking for the best position to get to a head job. Says Coach Turner actually improved the defense from 3rd to 2nd with a different philosophy. Says Ray Allen was a means to get Garnet but was not really on the Celtics radar. Asking about Paul Pierce and his knee injury and whether he was a drama queen, DM said that he knows that Paul would come out and play unless he was tied up and in a straight jacket, says he is a big competitor. DM says the only one who really knows is the player regarding injuries. Do the Rockets map out the entire draft to get to their own? Morey " we rank on 3 things. 1. what will they become 2. What is the risk or downside? 3. What does the market think Would move up or down to get players they want, no matter what....they don't spend a lot of time figuring out what other teams are doing.....they just identify their needs and then try to get that player. Asked about Rose or Beasley....says Rose......bigger PGs are more rare than a talented 3/4/5 like Beasley. Says a PG is more important and unique than a talented Beasley type....but thinks Beasley will be very good. What would the Rockets like to accomplish this off season? DM: Bench scoring is a big issue, someone that can attack the basket and shoot.....thinks you are describing TMac there. But the trade off has to be worth it...says Bonzi Wells could attack the basket but his defense was bad and the team D fell off when he was in the game. He says you can not go down too much in defense when you get an attacking player. For draft pick looking for higher upside versus more risk.....lower chance of someone that you can plug in right away.....he says too much risk you don't take it, or too little upside you dont take it. Asked about Yao......says he is doing great and doing regular basketball workouts.....and says every follow up has been positive and he will be healthy for olympics and next season. DD
i thought he said they have either the option of a player with "higher upside versus more risk" or a nba ready guy with lower upside?.. followed by the "too much risk you don't take it, or too little upside you dont take it".
He did....taking a guy who is more ready but has less upside versus taking a guy who is less ready but might have a higher ceiling. My typing was off ...thanks. DD
Thanks for the summary, DD. Interesting take on the draft. I guess that makes the CDR's, Rush's, Hibbert's, Courtney Lee's and guys like that probably our likely targets.
that and the bench are our 2 weaknesses right now. rafer is playing better but his backup sucks. and our bench is very subpart in the latter part of the season. our PF is solved. hopefully morey can do something.
We just don't have a consistant scorer off the bench. Green was good, because at least he can attack the rim and put himself on the line. Aaron is too young, Jackson thinks only about shooting long jumpers even if he is not feeling it. We also don't have post up game. I know Landry is good but most of his points doesn't come from the post, he just gets the right pass and finishes inside.
detroit already has a budding PF in maxiell who wants a lot of playng time. no way detroit is trading billups for landry.
That's too bad. Obviously, Morey won't trade Battier for Calderon! The rockets still need a good starting pg. I don't think Rafer is our answer, and at his age he won't get better.
So this means...no CDR? No Courtney Lee too probably. I'm kinda glad, I personally want to see Morey turn our drafting into a Spurs-type deal where we own the rights of like half the prospects in Europe, and eventually someone HAS to pan out down there. We'll see though, I'll bump my comment if Morey ends up trading down for more picks on draft day and gets lots of internationals.
Detroit already has Maxiell, Amir Johnson, and (if he doesn't get traded)Rasheed Wallace, they don't need Landry.
Who else will Detoit need? I think the rockets really need Billups. Not only because he is a good pg, but, more importantly, he has championship experience. Yao, Tmac, Battier and Scola all don't even have the experience pass the 1st round. In another thread, someone asked how far the rockets would go this season if Yao wasn't injured. Honestly, I think it would be the 2nd round, just like the hornets.
Detroit would most likely want a center because the McDyess/Wallace combo isn't efficient in rebounding and isn't strong/big enough to post up any decent frontcourts.
The only international player in the Rocket's range that intrigues me is Nathan Jawai, he seems to be a mini-Shaq. I'd love if the Rockets traded down to get Jawai and Courtney Lee, who in my opinion looks like Brandon Roy-lite.
take it from aussie, Jawai has a long way to go. however, i will say this, I would rather Jawai on the Rockets than Newley. Bigger guy, bigger upside.
