Well according to the illustrious Chad Ford, the Rockets had the worst draft as he gave us a "D+". I wasn't happy with us drafting another PG, especially one that is so undersized but if we can get someone decent through a trade or FA to play the 4 AND get rid of Alston at the same time, then I will be happy.
Even if we trade all our guards except for James, wouldn't it be better to get a backup via trade, free agent, mle, lle? You ALWAYS take the best player in the draft and work around it. Was Brooks the best player on the board? Why would we take a guy with the "potiential" to be a shorter version of Luther Head? Because Brooks is not a PG. Why would we do that? Speed? Please, size is also a factor and he's too short to play sg so now we have a rookie pg who shoots first and passes second on this team - great... This makes last years move look even more like brilliant. We deserve an F on this draft regardless of what trades are in the works. I can see Morey getting a call from Bird and saying pick this guy for me to complete the trade. Once the pick is made, Morey calls Bird back with no answer...{Larry snickering in the background}
Seems to fly in the face of the "draft the best person available" philosophy that morey et. al. kept repeating all bloody week. Stupid.
Paxson, Kerr, Fisher, Horry, Elie, Smith, etc... The very best players on the team don't always get a chance to take the clutch shot.
He is not a shorter version of Luther Head. Head is a spot up shooter who cannot handle the ball and cannot penetrate.
The Rockets lost to the Jazz 4-3 in the First Round of the postseason. Prior to the playoffs Houston completed the regular season with a five-game winning streak to put them at 52 wins, the most wins for the Rockets in a decade. The team was led by superstar Tracy McGrady who averaged 24.6 points per game. Injury caused the Rockets to lose big man Yao Ming for two months, but the team went 22-10 in his absence as the Rockets stepped up their game to compensate for the loss. The Mavericks replaced head coach Jeff Van Gundy with Rick Adelman following the conclusion of the 2006-07 season. Lol, the NBA draft analysis had us as the Mavs!
In my humble opinion, I have to think that we are trying to entice Sac to give us Artest by dangling VSpan at them. Trade may still not happen. But drafting Brooks does give us a lot of trade flexibility since most of the league views VSpan as a young asset. Personally, I'd like to see us keep James, VSpan, and this kid and move out Rafer, Head, Sura. Could a deal with Indy still be possible with us sending out some combination of Head, Laundry, plus Rafer for perhaps Tinsley an Ike? Since we're keeping this kid, might as well accept it, accept the positives of his game, and speculate on what could happen. I've been a big fan of VSpan, I feel like he is very talented and I have wanted him to be given a chance. However, if this kid really is all that and a sack of taters, then I wouldn't mind offering up VSpan for a major talent like Artest.
Not only that, it doesn't address any need either. Rockets management is a mystery, as always. Average fans like me can never understand such moves. Hopefully they are much smarter than us.
My first reaction was - why are we selecting a replacement for JL3? Then I had the notion that selecting Brooks must mean he's part of a trade. Apparently that is not the case. The pick obviously made no sense. I was looking foward to the new look Rockets management but now I am depressed. Does anyone think free agency will be any better? Morey will be on 610 at 9:00. I can't wait to hear his explanation.
i still dont understand the pick as is, given there isnt a trade soon, but even if there is a trade the guy is just small. He was a very good college player and he has a lot of basketball under his belt but that still didnt stop me from dropping my jaw when i saw him picked. I was thinking that it had to be a mistake by the part of the announcer.
I really liked watching Brooks play in college. I remember watching him and Oregon early in the season and thinking, "Hey, that's a Final 4 team!" Particularly after they beat UCLA. And Brooks was HUGE in that. We need shooters. So that's good. But I really was surprised they went this direction. Not because I don't think Brooks can be a player...I do think he can. But because I don't feel like we had a need for this right after trading for Mike James.
You are easily to be satisfied. Still even if they get rid of Alston, this still does not show that Rox is good at draft. Basically, the front office sucks. The owner of this team is just messing around the front office by hiring someone who does not have much GM experience and who comes from a front office that is a joke. Ainge's protege, geeze, how suck is this, think about the Boston Celtics who can't win after so many championships, what do they get after so many lottery picks? and Les hired someone from that office? This is amazing! Les can at least hire someone from the Spurs organization!
ESPN 2 already reported that Morey and Petrie agreed on the trade, provided that Petrie got Spanoulis, he apparently thinks very highly of him. Keep in mind Petrie is actually known for his talent evaluation unlike Van Gundy and board members. They also reported that the trade will never happen because as soon as Petrie went to the Maloofs they nixed the deal. Apparently they hate Adelman and said no deal whatsoever with Adelman. As for the draft, welcome to the one year GM club Mr. Morey. I have to seriously laugh at all the posts saying things like "lots of people will eat crow." You know who will "eat crow" it's all the people that believe it's better to have Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier over Rudy Gay and Tiago Splitter. At this point I think Moneyball has officially been exposed a freaking nightmare. The Rockets are going to waste McGrady and Yao. The only way this makes any sense is if Bob Sura, John Lucas, Kirk Snyder, Vassilis Spanoulis, and Luther Head are being packaged for a PF. But I'm not going to hold my breath, because if they are, it will be a "Moneyball" PF and at this point, this is getting ridiculous. And don't get me wrong about Battier, he's quite good for sure, but they really blew it by not taking Rudy Gay, all the he's not good for "win now" arguments are totally baseless. They won't win the title his first 2 years, so guess what, another draft day that Morey seriously blew, no matter how much some people want to deny it. After that and now drafting Brooks, every GM in the league is salivating at owning Morey.
well jvg didn evaluate talent so no need to really drag him into that other than as a whipping boy, which there is no real reason for. im still perfectly happy with the battier trade. as is gay hasnt shown anything other than what we already knew. Great athlete, but not a great player. regardless this draft was highly suspect.
or body double This pick just makes no sense to me, if he weren't undersized I might be more willing to accept the pick but jezz the guys so damn small, quick or not
We really don't need second John Lucas. I think we won't play. We have James we have VSPan (cause I hope they will trade Rafer and somebody for the big guy)
The only solace I find in drafting and keeping Brooks is the kid can penetrate like a fully charged head and has an indefinitely superior floater than Skip-to-my-Lou can ever dream of. Nobody has raved about Brooks' play making skills. That means TMac remains the primary play maker on this team, which is fine by me as long as his back holds up. But then again, maybe there is no need for a prominent play maker in Adelman's offensive system as everyone could be other's play maker. So I don't know.
The whole point of taking Battier over Gay was the idea that within the team's first 2 years with Battier they would win a title, while Gay was "developing." But does anyone think the Rockets are going to win it next year? By year 3 Gay will be better than Battier and the Rockets didn't win a title. Regardless of the fact that Morey keeps getting a pass on this one, it still was done with the assumption that the Rockets would win a title within no later than 3 years. In other words, many fans are simply giving him the benefit of the doubt by holding out hope that he will suddenly become competent enough to indeed bring that championship this off season. At this point, the Rockets will have a harder time even making the playoffs considering how much some teams in the West have improved. This is no knock on Battier, I absolutely love players like him, but at this point he's a luxury player not a guy that should be your 3rd best player.
that's how i felt last year, and it's how i feel about it today. we weren't a shane battier away from winning a championship. too many other holes. and, no...the fact that the Rockets wouldn't have taken Gay never made me feel better about it...it made me feel worse about it. but like you say...i like battier. he's sure easy to root for.
