[Rockets.com] Daryl Morey Discusses the State of the Rockets

exactly, its a lose/lose for whomever

 

Cole Aldrich = Jason Collier......no thanks!!!!

 

Believe me, everything Morey does, there's a reason behind it.

 

I thought Jason Pryzbilla II.

 

Maybe it is reverse psychology.

If a team, i.e the Knicks, makes a HUGE offer to Scola / Lowry, the Rockets simply don't match it, forcing the Knicks to cry.

 

This is my take on the Rockets:

The greatest area of improvement that we need is defense. Based on our personnel, we have specialists that either are offensive minded or defensive minded. If we wanted to, we could put a top 5 defensive unit out there with Chuck/Jeffries/Ariza/Battier/Lowry. On the contrary, our best offensive unit was Andersen/Scola/Chase/Martin/Brooks. Notice that these are completely different players? In order for our team to take the next step into 'elite' status, the team needs to have players that are good both offensively and defensively. With that in mind, this is what our team next year would look like with resigning scola and lowry: Yao/Scola/Ariza/Martin/Brooks.

Although this is probably a 53+ win team, it is not championship material. There are just too many holes on the defensive end. In my opinion you need 3 of the 5 best players to be good defensive players that are able to contain their man 1 on 1. Not having Yao this year was not helpful but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that he is the cure-all to our defensive woes. Look at when the Celtics were defensive juggernauts a couple years back. Their lineup consisted of 3 top-flight defenders in Garnett, Rondo, and Perkins. And despite not having stellar reputations in the past, Pierce and Allen both bought into the team concept of defense that year. Add Thibadeux's schemes and that resulted in one of the greatest defensive teams of all time. Yao and Ariza are both good positional defenders in that they can usually contain their man 1 on 1 (unless there is a non-traditional matchup such as Okur/Boozer for Yao and some of the stronger 3's for Ariza). That leaves Scola, Martin, and Brooks. I am especially concerned about Martin and Brooks because it is imperative that at least one of the two be a good defender. Most of the "creating" on offense comes from these two positions and so if these aren't contained, then it strains the rest of our defense and gets our bigs in foul trouble.

How do we improve this team? First of all, you look internally and assess whether the players we have can improve sufficiently enough to fill the need. Scola is currently about average as a defender. His strengths are toughness/grit, determination/hustle, and rebounding. He is not very athletic so he is not the perfect complement to Yao on defenese, but I feel that his strengths make up for that in some ways and therefore is not the weakest link on our team. Martin is a subpar defender but it remains to be seen whether that is because of bad habbits (due to shouldering the offense for bad teams) or mental limitations. At 6-7 with good length and agility, the physical tools are there. Therefore I think that with the right mentality, he can be a serviceable defender like Allen was for the Celtics. Brooks will always be a poor defender because of his size. He needs to bulk up this summer without losing speed. He may not have the height to challenge shots and a lot of PG will shoot right over him, but I feel that if he gains 15-20 lbs then he will not be bullied as much on the post and will be able to prevent a lot of players from just running over him when they drive. If we want to be true contenders next year, our success depends on whether Martin can become a more disciplined defender and whether Brooks can gain some bulk without losing his speed.

If management thinks that current player development is not possible, then we need to replace the players manning positions PF, SG or PG. Morey has said that Martin is 'championship caliber SG'. So our targets for improvement is really the PG and PF position. Ideally we would like to have an athletic PF who can cover for Yao's weaknesses as a shotblocking help defender. If Daryl thinks that Bosh is that person, then he will be our number one priority this summer and that's whose doorstep dork elvis will be on the 30th. If we can acquire Bosh then our lineup would be Yao/Bosh/Ariza/Martin/Brooks. We would have 4 players that can get 20pts on any given night and we would be the best offensive team in the league. Does this make us a better defensive team? Without the development of Martin and Brooks that I've mentioned above, the answer is: marginally, but not enough to be a top 5 defensive team.

There are no elite PG free agents this summer. Chris Paul's name has been mentioned but with the imminent sale of NO from Shinn to the bilionaire, the Hornets are not as pressured to move their bad contracts (which is the only reason they would even consider trading Paul). They will proably gauge Collison's value around the league to see if they can acquire talent in a position of need (MIN might bite, at which they will have theirteen pg on their roster :grin: ). If Morey can somehow attain Chris Paul in a 3 way deal, then our lineup would be Yao/Scola/Ariza/Martin/Paul. All in all, that team fits all the requirements of a true championship team. Top 5 player=Paul. Two of the most efficient scoring sidekicks in Yao and Martin. Two of the best role players in Scola and Ariza. Defensively, the trio of Ariza, Martin, and Paul would wreak havoc in the passing lanes and we would probably be top 3 in steals. The team would still need a shotblocking big to spell Yao/Scola like Camby or a draft pick.

To summarize my thoughts, if management thinks that Martin and Brooks can make a significant enough improvement on their defense next season, it will be better for us to get Bosh. If they don't, then it will better for the team to retool the PG position. Of the two, acquiring Bosh is more likely. However, it is important to emphasize that barring good health (fingers crossed) our championship aspirations depend not on the Bosh S&T but on the development of Brooks and Martin as defenders.

Thanks for reading

 

there is no way they can move bosh and hedo together. the salary will be too big for any team to swallow. other teams won't be able to make a deal unless they add an own big ticket. then, it becomes meaningless for the team to get bosh bcoz they will lose their own star player.

 

Reporter: Is anyone on the team untouchable, Daryl?

Daryl Morey: I mean, nobody's untouchable, ever, I think.

Reporter: Not even Yao?

Daryl Morey: No, nobody's untouchable.

 

I thought this was the key to the article. And, thats what I've been thinking they would do...

Basically, try their best, but fail to get Bosh or anyone else big this summer. Then, play the season out (they should be good enough to make playoffs), and then add someone at the trade deadline

 

Great post Valorita. I agree with your assessment.

 

In addition to what's already been said, teams aren't going to make an unreasonable offer just to screw the Rockets. Suppose the Rockets change their minds about that unreasonable offer (or were BS'ing): then the other team is stuck with their unreasonable offer.

 

good analysis.
regarding brooks gaining bulks, could a PG ever gain weight w/o losing speed?

 

I can honestly say that i am comfortable with Morey at the helm. When its all said and done we will all be sitting back with our mouths open thinking, "How did he do that?"

 

Dalembert>Camby.

 

I think it sounds good in theory,but if a team offers scola 7m for 4 yrs and lowry 4.5 for 5, the rox are going to be in a tight spot. Since landry is gone,hill is still coming around and a deep draft at that spot, i can scola being matched, but lowry is different. He's more replaced and a bench player. It sounds good in theory.

 

Regardless of what things look good in theory or not, I trust Morey to make the right, if not the best, decision possible.

 

If it gets that high, Chuck probably gets cut before either of those two.

 

Who was Whiteside playing against in his conference compared to the competition Aldrich played against?

 

That's actually a myth: people losing their speed when they "bulk up".
I am no expert on this matter but you can train to become wiry strong, and as long as you train your entire body proportionally, you can actually increase speed, vertical, and balance. Putting 20lbs of muscle on Brooks' frame might be too much. After all, a lot of great small PG like Thomas and Stockton didn't have Derek Fisher-like bodies but were considered good defenders. However, even those two can bully Brooks at this point in his career. What Brooks needs in addition to getting stronger/heavier is the "never-back-down" and "i take it personal that you think you can score on me" attitude. He has this mentality on offense already, now he just needs to implement it on defense too.

This has been a similar scenario to what Yao has been struggling with his career. We all agreed that he needed to become stronger but some people's frames can't handle the added weight. It's all about finding the ideal weight balance.

We all know he can train with Tim up in Chicago who will guarantee... oh wait.

 

Haha. Yeah, noticed that Jeffries's name was conspicuously absent when Morey rattled off the names of all his bigs. Hell, he even mentioned David Andersen as "depth". I'm sure it was just an oversight and was nothing personal, especially since Jeffries DOES provide an element to the team. I thought it was pretty funny, though, how Morey took the time to praise every one of his bigs, while at the same time talking about needing a better one. It's quite obvious that he's trying to talk them up in order to help their trade value this summer, because there's no way the Rockets can carry all of their existing bigs, plus a first rounder PF/C, plus a free agent PF/C.

Agreed that there is a "nebulous zone" within which it will be a tough call for the Rockets regarding matching. But Morey's comments about being willing to match any offer are intended to keep other teams from even making an offer to those guys. If another team wants to play Russian roulette with Morey, then fine. Good luck to them. Maybe they'll win. Or maybe not.

The Rockets need to make a final decision on whether to exercise their team option on Chuck Hayes before July 1. Free agency doesn't even start until July 1, with players unable to sign contracts/offer sheets until at least July 8. The timing doesn't allow for the Rockets to decide on Hayes after seeing offers for the other two guys.