Most NBA teams go through a rebuilding process, why is Les Alexander so against this?

Actually, Kobe's two titles without Shaq should also count. Kobe was not acquired by a team that tanked, but was traded for in exchange for Vlade. Gasol and Odom were also acquired by trade.

In fact, the post-Magic Johnson Lakers managed to contend without truly ever becoming terrible (I think the only lotto pick they've "earned" for losing were Eddie Jones and Andrew Bynum).

 

Kobe was AQUIRED on draft day and developed through the Lakers, he is more of a draft pick it is a reach for you to say he was anything but...

DD

 

So, when did we start talking about tanking? Is that your criteria?

And also, it is a well known fact that the Lakers and Hornets agreed to the trade BEFORE the draft and told the Hornets who to pick. Doesn't matter if he was their pick or not...they chose to trade a vet for a high school kid.

 

The point is the Lakers did not tank in order to get Kobe.

 

Yes. I was talking about tanking.

Remember, reports about Morey trying to trade for a pick in order to get Cousins and Rubio before him? Of course, the team has aquired draft rights for a number of guys: Landry, Budinger, Jermaine Taylor, Motiejunas, Pasons and the 2012 Knicks' pick.

I don't think the Rockets have limited themselves to pursuing established players in a trade. They have been perfectly happy to pursue trades for draft picks (either high or low).

The thread title is about the Rockets refusing to "rebuild"-- if rebuilding means acquiring young players and their draft rights, the Rockets have plainly not refused to rebuild. The only thing theyv'e refused to do is tank for high picks.

 

Not sure why everyone's using history of the NBA back 30+ years. Free agency rules have changed a great deal over the years. The landscape of the league, mindset of players and GMs, everything has changed immensely over the years. Just because something was true before doesn't mean it's true now.

 

Remember that the NBA lottery system didn't go into effect until the Patrick Ewing draft. Before that, tanking was a much better bet.

Now, you can win 25 games and still has a very good chance of getting only the 5th overall pick (in many years, there is a huge cliff between the top 1 or top 2 guys and even the 3rd, 4th or 5th guy).

 

So, a rebuilding approach through the trades seems to be failure one so far. This year is a perfect time to get a high draft pick because it is a good draft year. Also we will not have a first round pick (besides NY one, would be not higher) by winning some meaningless games, resulting in giving up our draft to Nets.

 

If you can name a team who's willing to part with a top 3 pick for Scola then call the Rox FO and point them in the right direction. Otherwise, I don't see how trading Scola just to dump him off to a contender for a low pick or young unproven garbage is going to help us.


The other part of your post is talking about waiting till midseason to do trades. Seems like that's DM's plan right now, so what are you complaining about?

 

True, but for some reason we are not making many trades on draft nights for drafted players.

We wait for those players to flop in a year or so and take a shot at them then.

DD

 

He was acquired for a vet. That's not exactly in line with the "we tank, get high pick and ring" vibe that HP is advocating. I fail to see the difference between trading Divac to get Kobe and trading Alston to get Lowry, apart from the quality of the players traded. The methodology was the same.

 

Yeah, that's because the teams won't part with their players on draft day for the assets we have. There were reports of DM trying to trade for Cousins and Rubio but their Gms wouldn't give them up.

 

Do you think the team is refusing to move Scola or Martin for younger player or draft picks no matter what?

Remember reading about the Rockets trying to trade for the higher picks that would have landed Cousins or Rubio? Do you think they didn't include Scola a part of the trade discussions?


Really, the bottom line is that the Rockets have plenty of good players, and plenty of young players who look like they'll be good players in the future. They don't need to trade Scola for more of those.

They need a superstar (top 15 guy in the league) or two and the question is how you go about getting one: Do you get really bad in order to draft one with your own high pick, or is there some other way ?
Do you think that there are likely bad lotto team calling Morey to trade their picks in the 2012 draft or high ceiling prospect for Scola and Morey told them to go **** themselves?

And if the "younger cheaper" guys you discuss are not the elite high-ceiling propsects, but simply guys who might be good players (like Scola) in the future, then what is the future we are rebuilding toward? A team just like the present one with future Scolas on them?

And if you say, well, the younger guys will lose a ton of games and net us a high lotto pick, aren't we talking about "tanking" no matter what you choose to call it? The former what the Rockets chose not to do, whether you call it "tanking" or "rebuilding."

 

The Astros sold a helluva lot of tickets last season for being a last place club with their worst year (BY FAR) in franchise history. They still finished right around the middle of the pack in tickets sold.

Beyond that, there aren't many cities that sell tickets for all their clubs no matter what. The ones that do are notable exceptions to the rule that you need to win to sell tickets in pro sports towns.

 

It is the same methodology we need to be using for Scola, Martin, and any other player on the team including Lowry etc.

Any shot at a potential game changer.

We have a bunch of good players, but no great player, and the only potential GREAT players we have are all from the 09 class, and the chances of that are really really small.

We need to be aggressive on draft night....more than anything...that is how I would play it.

DD

 

I'm not advocating anything. I'm just showing the history of the NBA so we don't rewrite to say one method works vs the other.



There is no silver bullet. And if you think there is ...

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I guess you didn't see my last comment in the post.

"Should I go on..."

 

Ok. Go on.