Personally, I'd take Wall and Turner over the chance at Bosh. But both have almost zero chance of coming in here. So it's just a good dream while we still have that 1-2% chance at a top 2 pick.
It'll certainly be interesting. From Morey's comments at the press conference, he seems to be leaning toward taking a PF in the draft, to help supplant the loss of Carl Landry. Also, taking a PF could also play into the Bosh/Amare proposals I'm sure he's bound to make. I could also see him using it to shore up our backup center position - having a legitimate shot blocking threat behind Yao did wonders for our defense (Dikembe). Cole Aldrich, Solomon Alabi to name a few. A top three pick is certainly a game changer. I'm not sure if you take Evan Turner unless you're convinced he can play SF. Kevin Martin is pretty locked in at SG for the foreseeable future. If I was Morey, I'm taking DeMarcus Cousins with any pick besides #1. I think he's got stud written all over him. ...But if Hassan Whiteside enters the draft, you do everything in your power to get him.
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Notice the Sixers sit on him too. I dont think rockets want to move no furthur pass Monroe and who'd they take, but certainly they are looking like wanting move backwards instead for Whiteside and hoping Cole or White fall that far. Certainly wont win pass Monroe though.
You're thinking of the Trailblazers acquiring the Pacers' 1st round pick in the 84 draft. The Pacers were the worst team in the East and the Rockets were the worst in the West (despite having Rookie of the Year Winner Ralph Sampson), thereby each earning the right to coinflip for the 1st overall pick. The Pacers traded that pick a couple of years earlier to the Blazers for some scrub center named Tom Owens. The Rockets won the coinflip and drafted some Nigerian dude. Blazers picked Greg Oden's role model over a certain North Carolina guard.
Ahhh. My mistake--thanks for that. I'd rep you if I could. I still stand by my statement on the draft being a crapshoot, though. You take who looks the best to you RIGHT NOW. There's no way the Rockets could have known just how awesome Jordan would become...but don't get me wrong, I do not blame them AT ALL for taking Hakeem, one of the all-time greats. And lest we forget, he had a pretty late start when it came to learning basketball...kinda like that other rookie we have right now.
The thinking was/and maybe still is that a dominant center is more highly prized than a talented guard/forward, just because they are more rare.
In the Olajuwon draft year, I think no matter which team had ended up with the first pick in the draft, Olajuwon would have been taken first, ahead of Jordan. That's just my current opinion based on what seemed to be the consensus at the time among the vast majority of people who analyzed such things. And having watched Olajuwon through most of his college career, I was certain he was the right choice (keep him "home" and have a relatively home-developed star stay in the same city where he developed the majority of his skills). On Jordan's transition to such a remarkable pro player, almost no one could predict something like that, but I seem to remember James Worthy (as a former college teammate of Jordan) doing just that. I don't recall his exact words, but I do recall that Worthy was adamant about how he felt -- that Jordan would not only be a star but a superstar in the NBA. Jordan played within the team system in college, and Worthy felt that the NBA style of play would allow him to unleash his talent. Good call, Worthy...
Thanks. Nice information. But I'm confused with your conclusion. Do you mean it's too late to tank? Is Rocket really tanking? If Rockets really want to tank, they should play Jordan Hill for development. He was a no.8 pick which supposed to be a better prospect than whatever we will get in the coming draft. I'm not a fan of tanking. I think it's only for coward. This team gave LA hard time last year. This is a playoff team. Waste a season of proven playoff fighters like AB, Scola, Lowry for something uncertain is not an good idea.
He saying the we can't hurt ourselves either way (win or lose its highly unlikely we move up or down) so just "enjoy the season". Since most people don't enjoy osing I would take it to root for wins...unless DM thinks there's a huge dropoff between pick 14 and below...in which case its better to tank. The only caveat against that is from my exp. losing teams generally do better in the 2nd half of the season. If for example the Clippers improve from their pace, then us getting a lower standing then them suddenly seems more likely as technically we are only a few wins better than them. Great post TS. Repped :grin:
Playoff performances could help the Rockets decide their immediate plans for the current cast. On the draft, the peak value of the those NY picks could be over by July 1st. Some kind of combination of Hill, Taylor, the Rockets own 1st round pick and the NY picks could help the Rockets to move up the draft.
One thing I didn't mention in my original post is that just as the Rockets have no need to purposely tank, they also have no need to try their hardest to make the playoffs. Which means no need to ride Scola/Brooks/Martin to 40+mpg in order to make that final push. I think the marginal benefit of the draft position isn't a bad tradeoff for potentially getting 4-0ed by the Lakers in the playoffs. There's no need to tire our top players out for basically nothing long-term. Well, even if they play better, we'd still have to suck pretty badly to overtake(undertake?) them for a higher draft position. 6 game lead with 27 games left in the season is quite a lot to make up. We still need to at least suck like the Knicks to do it.
Never Tank if you have chance to make the playoffs... Lose mentality = Loser culture Always do your best..... Even if we make the 8th seed versus lakers !!! I want to us to battle Lakers like last year underdogs !!!! Playoffs are the best games of the season !!!! teams who tank are Clippers ... they been tanking for years
And 11 of the lottery picks in that are big men. Now you know why Morey felt like PF was a position of strength we could deal from; because he knew (and has told us multiple times in interviews) that he essentially had another PF as a bird in hand out of this upcoming lottery. Personally I wouldn't be surprised to see us take Ed Davis after his injury drops him out of the top 10.
Play the kids, let them get their feet wet. Since rox will not suffer by going to the playoffs or lottery, so why not just play the kids? Really hopeful that Jordan Hill will take over Anderson's minutes.
I think the higher pick gives us better trade value, but not tremendously better real value. If we want to get up into top 5, having #11 or 12 is a lot more palatable for receiving team than 16. This is another potential use of those knicks picks, to combine them with ours to get up higher in the draft.
As I remember, Kobe came out after high school, and the Charlotte had to give up more than Kobe for Vlade.. maybe it was another center.
