I agree with the vast majority of your posts, but this particular example doesn't exactly fit. It's more like saying they passed on [Insert any player from 2006 draft who was picked 8 or lower who turned out to be good]. Obviously the Rockets couldn't have traded anyone who was picked before Gay. The fact that they were planning on drafting Sefolosha over Gay doesn't remove the fact that they certainly could have drafted Gay for themselves if they wanted to. If they had picked Sefolosha the arguement simply would have shifted from they shouldn't have traded Gay for Battier to they shouldn't have drafted Sefolosha over Gay. I don't see how that really changes the fact that they could have drafted Gay for them selves without any help from any other team. Of course the only all star player selected 8 or lower was Rajon Rondo at 21, so with complete hind sight should have picked Rondo instead of trading for Battier
I believe Eddie Griffin crashed his car into a house while watching an adult film and participating in masturbatorial exploits.
Looking back especially after Morey comes in. Most of the players are still in the league, and considering that most of those picks are in the later stages. I say we did pretty well. And I could say looking at hindsight. Most of those picks are almost as good as it is. 2005- Luther head(24) over David Lee(30), Monta Ellis(40), Louis Williams(45), Gortat(57). 2006-Novak(32) over Paul Millsap(47). Gay become Battier. 2007-Brooks(26), Landry(31) over Marc Gasol(48) 2008- Joey Dorsey(33) over DeAndre Jordan(35), Ömer Aşık(36), Goran Dragić(45). Batum essentially become Artest. 2009- no picks 2010- Patrick Patterson(14) over no one else. We can go even deeper than that as in what happen to every single pick. But just by looking at the picks taken for Rox and the players after them, I say we did pretty well.
Well said. just look at the picks numbers behind all the people mentioned. for lottery at best picks for most of them, id say Morey has done a damn good job. sure u have a few swing and misses. Dorsey, probably the big one, but that was still a 2nd round pick. I believe we have one of the higher %'s in the league for 2nd round picks that become valuable rotational players: Brooks(last pick in 1st round), Landry, Buddinger, and Parsons. those are pretty darn good players that were found with second round picks, which normally dont stay in the league more than for their rookie contracts, if that. Morey could be one of the best in the league at drafting, especially 2nd round drafting. If we had a top 3 pick in there somewhere I guarantee he wouldnt have had a swing in miss like Thabeet or Wesley Johnson. His trades are always top notch too. I know we all want that superstar, but lets be honest, there are a handful of GM's that can ever do that.
You're absolutely right, and thanks for the clarification on "picked 8 or below", which is obvious but I still should have included. You are proving my point, which is not very earth-shattering to begin with: It wasn't a case of taking a player and then trading him that the anti-Battier trade people should be upset about. It's the same "we should have drafted Player X over Player Y" complaint. Had the Rockets just kept the pick and drafted Sefalosha over Gay, I'm sure people would have complained that we could or should have taken Gay instead. But that would be no different from countless other complaints of the same variety. Side note: I actually think Sefalosha might have helped THAT Rockets team (at least from 2006-2008) more than Gay. Thabo is an elite defensive wing with athleticism who would have guarded the Kobes and the Manus, allowing T-Mac to focus on his offense. Gay was a subpar defender as a rookie. In the playoffs, McGrady likely would have had to take on the tougher defensive assignment (remember when McGrady took on guarding Dirk in the 2005 playoffs?) and the Rockets' scoring would have suffered (Gay was not the scorer he is today). Just saying, is all.
We have drafted very well. The draft is a crap shoot. Morey does a very good job finding guys that can actually play. He does it with a higher degree of success than most other GMs. When you look at our draft history, remember a great Major League hitter misses 7 times out of 10. And so goes the draft.
I agree though there were lots of people who wanted the Rockets to keep the Rudy Gay pick the day the Battier trade happened, which is different from coming back years later with hind sight and saying they should have picked Rondo or people pointing out we could have picked Marc Gasol which I don't recall anyone pointing out at the time. I know that some people love to heap the Battier trade at Morey's feet, but personally I have never seen any quotes to indicate he was any more involved than any other assistant GM would be in any other trade. Morey obviously did value Battier, but to me you get credit and blame for what you do as a GM, not as an assistant. Just like a coach doesn't count all the wins and losses he had when he was an assistant on his record even if some of the plays he suggested lead to wins or losses. I agree, and posting our draft history under CD doesn't really matter at this point when evaluating the chances that the current front office will make the right pick. Luther Head was probably a top 5 non-lottery pick for CD's ten year tenure, and he would be considered a mistake relative to the general success of Morey's picks. Considering Morey's drafting of Parsons, David Lee would have been a likely candidate for that draft had Morey been in charge, a senior college player with proven production.
OJ Mayo is putting up 12 pts, 3 rebs and 2 ast a game. Not great but not trash. Fail in comparison to Love? Yes that much I'll give you. Drew Gooden has put up 17 pts, 7 rebs, and 4 ast a game since taking over the starting C position this year. Amare? 17, 8 and 1. Sure Stoudemire's athleticism made him a much better scorer than Gooden for a number of years but that didn't get him much in the long run and it doesn't make Gooden garbage. You can't base one pick off of how another pick turned out for someone else. You take a pick depending on what you are looking for and what you see in those potential picks. On that basis the Grizz did pretty well. I'd take a lot of their picks over ours.
I understand that the NBA draft is nothing like the NFL draft but I still don´t like idea of tanking to get more draft picks to rebuild through the draft. In fact I don´t like the idea of tanking, period. Sure we´ve drafted better with Morey, but you have to admit that drafting 3 PFs when we were already stacked there made no sense. And I´m a big Morris fan but it was not an area of need. Not saying that Morris, Parsons and Montejunas aren´t good players but we didn´t need them. I know that Morey´s limited in what he can do with our players and picks as far as trades go because we really don´t have any players that have much value so until we get a stud or one of our own grow into one it´s gonna be tough to get back to elite status like we had during the Hakeem dynasty.
It was actually statistically proven that only the Raptors were worse at drafting than the terrible Grizz. I think it was on some BBR blog but I cba to find it. I think Pau, Love, and Lowry are the only first rounders the Grizz have ever drafted who outperformed their draft position. So basically the Grizz literally have not one single player who was a good pick since DM took over at GM for us (since you traded Love and Lowry), so you have 0 room to talk lol.
gay outperformed his; so did battier; so did grevis vasquez and so did conley. like i said, 2001 the grizzlies got the two of the best players in that draft without having the #1 pick; then we flipped battier for Gay. bwbawbbababbababbwbawba, and stuck it to the rockets. In 2001; the rockets had a chance at: Joe Johnson, Zach Randolph, Gerald Wallace, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Dalembert, Troy Murphy, with 3 #1 picks no less, and yall ended up with Eddie freakin Griffin. It was almost a statistical improbability to screw that draft up, but the rockets managed to somehow do it. lololool And the grizzlies are the ones that don't know how to draft?
Cool. Who would not love to take some lottery players over some leftovers? What? Its 2012 and we are still talking about 2001?
Drafting for need just isn't a good idea because you're leaving value on the table. Suppose your team is stocked at small forward and thin at center, but you've got the 6th pick in the draft and when your turn comes up, there's a small forward that you project as much better than the Cs available. Instead of just taking the center you need, you should maximize value. You can either trade back, getting the same center you would have gotten plus some other goodies, or you take the better small forward and trade either him or one of your current SFs for a better center already in the league. It might take a couple years for that trade to go down, but you're adding more value to your team. Morey's stated that we draft players with a four-year window in mind because rosters inevitably turn over a lot and talent usually rises to the top. BPA is almost always a better way to go.
