Home run??? With WHO? Hill??? Yao??? If you can dismiss Chandler as not looking good later, what do you have to say about Yao? Last time I looked, Chandler is still playing which is more than can be said about Yao.
No, I didn't say anything about Hill or Yao. Definitely not them. I wanted Al Jefferson. I'd prefer Al way more than Chandler. Chandler would not have catapulted us to the elite, no way no how. Al has the tools to (he's not there yet with the Jazz though, but he will).
Whiteside, Alabai, Orton, and Pittman have contributed nothing to their teams so far. Maybe these players were drafted accordingly to their actual skilll-level rather than potential due to height, wingspan, etc...
Their teams did not have a perpetually injured center and an old passing one as a backup. Those guys you listed would probably have made a bigger impact on the Rockets, looking at others situations and trying to make some comparison is difficult as the Rockets are in an entirely different situation. DD
So what exactly are you saying? Should we have paid up to get another huge "project" in Whiteside? The guy can't even get 12 mpg in the D-League. Yeah Whiteside is a big guy, but it's not like he is a NBA level basketball player. Or are you just saying the Rockets have started to pay more attention to height and length of their players? If are you making that point then I only partially agree. Yeah PPat is built to play the PF, but the Rockets clearly chose intelligence/BB IQ/hustle over size when they took PPat over Larry Sanders. Also, when we acquired Williams we got a guy who is undersized at the SF and who's true position should probably be at the 2 or 1 (depending on how he develops) if you look at his height and length.
The rockets could have had that same marcus camby who was orchestrating the offense last night for shane and filler. I asked back then who was the better player at their position and most said battier for some reason. Not that camby wouldve been the long term answer, but he could've filled that spot alot better than anyone the rockets have had in a long time while they draft and develop another young propect. Everyone know my thoughts on jordan 3 yrs ago and again, maybe he's not the answer, but i believe in young player growth. Nurtuting,developing,and patience with young raw players especially with the makeup of offensive players and center with lower leg issues. Much like the texans and the west coast offensive linemen, the rockets have been gathering players who fit the offense. In that search, they have been terrible on defense without yan a good team, hayes is a situational player. Hell, if you wanted a limited defensive center, ben wallace signed for the minimum last year. He's a bigger version of hayes,but at least he will block a shot. I'm into sit and watch mode this year. I havent been in the game threads,but I'm here. I didnt expect much out of this team with or without the "if yao is healthy" aspect of it. I just wish they would just fess up and start the real rebuild instead of the late lotto/8th seed type of stuff we're going to get.
We are rebuilding, we are just winning while doing so. If we tanked and went into the lottery, do you think we could get much better prospects than Jordan Hill, Terrence Williams and Patrick Patterson? Other than one or two teams that get a top 3 pick, we pretty much have all the prospects of a lottery team already.
The rookie has two games under his belt and people are already calling for Chuck Hayes to be replaced? Really?
What makes you say that? I don't think Portland was ready to give up on their center position before the season started. Why would they have traded for a 3 when they have Batum only to be left pretty barren at the center position? You don't think that we already have started rebuilding? We acquired PPat (legit sized, quick, smart PF) in the draft and we acquired Williams (clearly skilled with maturity issues) thru a trade. Then Morey is trying to see what he can get in a trade for Yao's contract. To me that seems a lot like rebuilding.
But this is exactly what steams me about the Rockets: How come other teams can do this - get players who can help them compete - while the Morey and the Rockets remain content to merely sop up other teams' draft mistakes? In a sense, not much has changed since the days of Carroll Dawson. This is still a franchise going nowhere and has been doing so now for 15 years.
Morey is a calculating guy, one who likes to mitigate risks, whereas other GMs are more gambling types.....who will let it fly so to speak. Both can work, but I prefer one that is willing to do both......right now our roster has about 3 to 4 wasted talents on it because we just don't have enough minutes on the floor to go around. Thus lowering the value of each of them. DD
We didn't get him because this was still Yao's team. I don't think anyone expected Yao to get injured THIS quickly. And Jefferson and Yao combined would have been a disaster, as they do pretty much the same thing. Not to mention as someone who somewhat follows the Wolves ( I live in Minnesota) I can tell you that Jefferson is not a great defender. At all.
Who said anything about tanking? Tanking is when guys go on the injured list for no reason. Tanking is trading away a productive player for scraps. I want to win as much as anyone, but this team as constructed dont have the impact player or players required to be special. In regards to hill and williams, do you think they wouldve been availible if they were that good? I like both guys, but neither are playing big enough minutes to show the type of improvement we need to see. Hill especially because he's a young guy in terms of playing basketball. He needs 30+ minutes night in and night out.
Look, man. In all seriousness, I'm getting a little tired of this "company man" and "canned message" nonsense. Even though I know your thoughts on a lot of things already, I don't ever try to pigeon-hole you or label you in the context of ALL of your opinions on the Rockets. Frankly, it's demeaning and does NOT foster intelligent discussion. I like you, leebigez. But if you keep up this crap, I'll have to start ignoring you. It's just downright disrespectful.
Camby was with the clippers until the blazers traded outlaw and jeff blake for camby. They then let both blake and outlaw go via free agency. You're 2 moves behind.
