rockets doomed to be AVERAGE.

I think that they are experimenting with Ariza in the hopes that he'll become at best JR Smith-lite and a Battier-lite at worst.

Of course salary matters. That's what determines a good investment vs a bad investment, especially when you're talking about the future.

And of course it doesn't appear to be an issue with management....it's a guaranteed contract.

 

We're a bit better than average, but are we Boston or LA. NO.

 

Mayne you're not thinking at all ...

 

Ok, fair enough we can go with that definition of Moneyball. Of course, then the Rockets don't qualify as a Moneyball team. We are one of the few teams in the leauge that is willing to still take on extra salary. Morey has repeatedly said that we were wiling to take on salary and exceed the luxury tax.

Do you think Morey's plans are really centered around this year? Nope, every move is targeted to building a team for next year when Yao returns. Again, Morey has said this very thing in interviews.

If you're going to limit Moneyball to low dollar payrolls and moves, then the Rockets don't fit. If you define moneyball by use of statistics and trying to maximize a players value relative to a contract, then we do fit. Of course, if you use that definition then there's examples of Moneyball winning titles.

 

DM: Yeah, I mean this is the third biggest trade discussion time of the year. The trade deadline is the biggest obviously, then the draft and also now since as of two days ago almost all the players became available. So, yeah, a lot of phone calls and I do agree that we have a lot of players that teams want. We can provide financial relief, we can provide players who can help you win now, we can provide players who can help you for the future – so we’re sort of like Target right now in that we can provide everything under one roof. We can give it all and handle any need. Obviously our goals are high though, so I’d expect nothing will happen. But if the right thing comes along and we can upgrade the team then that’s why I’m here.

- Daryl Morey
12/17/2009

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/q_with_daryl_morey_rockets__2009_12_17.html



Group A: To save money and/or shed cap space for next season (and the next two to three seasons).
Group B: To get something for a franchise player before he flees in free agency.
Group C: To give away a top-shelf player as a way to shed an unpalatable contract or three.


And we have Group D: Boston, Dallas, Cleveland, Miami, Houston, Portland and the Lakers … or as they're more commonly known, "The Teams That Can't Wait To Take Advantage Of Someone In Group A, B or C." I am including Miami despite its nightly Monet painting; the Heat have $50-plus million in expiring contracts for panic trades in case Dwyane Wade plays the "I don't want to waste another season in my prime, I'm leaving in July for Chicago or New York if you don't get me some help for the 2010 playoffs" card. Which, by the way, should be happening within the next five weeks. There's only so many times you can kick it to Mario Chalmers for a wide-open 3 and watch it clang off the rim.

Fake Trade 8A: Houston trades Aaron Brooks (expires in 2011) with T-Mac, Scola and Brian Cook (all expire in 2010) for Chris Paul and the Peja-Songaila-Posey cap-killing trio. Considering Houston's deep pockets, it would have to do it -- how else could the Rockets acquire a top-10 player? And New Orleans would fall under the tax (saving them about $16-17 million this year, plus another $25-30 million next year) and replace a decent chunk of Paul's production with a Brooks/Darren Collison combo.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/091223&sportCat=nba


Hmm..deep pockets, willing to take on salary, provice financial relief...does that sound more like the Red Sox or the A's?

 

What is it that you are calling crap? There has been no trade. How do you know what they'll get. How do you know they won't get assets? How do you know that they won't eventually let the contract expire. We don't know what will happen so how can you declare it crap? If you already know the outcome then you should change your screen name to Mr. Nostradamus.

This whole situation isn't due to the Rockets wanting McGrady out of town. They just weren't willing to run things through him and hurt our chances of winning. McGrady didn't like that and asked out. The Rockets have agreed to try and deal him. I'd be very surprised if a guy like Morey takes back "crap" for McGrady. Morey's a bright guy, why would he do that? If they just want to get rid of McGrady then they can exile him from the team ala Stephon Marbury or Tinsley.

 

This is inaccurate. Morey has stated in past interviews that you need great stars and great roleplayers on a team.

Again, what would you have done differently over the last several years? We've had Yao and Mac, both of whom are injured. Should we make a move for Zach Randolph? Maybe we could've picked up AI?

Not making deals is much better than making stupid deals. You have to wait for the opportunities to open up.

If you're upset about anything, you should target your angst at Adelman, who seems to highly prefer team oriented over star oriented basketball.

 

Then you are misinformed on Morey's approach. Why do you think that Morey thinks you can win without stars? Can you show me any place that he's said that?

He's said that superstars are hard to acquire. His approach is to collect as many assets that both help you be successful and can be used to acquire a star. He's said that from day 1. What superstar has Morey passed on? Certainly you're not trying to claim that McGrady is close to being a superstar anymore?

"If we could add all-star-caliber player, that would be a home run. Teams don't give them away. To outperform expectations, we need one of our players to play at an All-Star level or Mac to come back and play at that level, or a trade."

http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2009/07/rockets_morey_forced_to_hurry.html

it’s going to take a lot for us to say, ‘Let’s break apart this really solid group.’ It’s going to have to take All-Star like talent coming our way for us to say, ‘This is something we want to break up.’ We like how our guys are growing together.

http://www.google.com/search?q=dary...-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Read the interview in the 2nd link. He talks about accumulating assets that other teams want. He's love to trade for a star, but as he says in the first link "teams don't just give them away".

Be fair to Morey and don't claim that he doesn't want superstars. That's just silly.

 

That's true, Morey failed at helping the Oakland A's advance in the playoffs. He should be fired today.

 

ur just mad cuz mc.sissy is leaving.

 

so your best solution to win a ring is to keep tmac?

 

Why would playing a still recovering from injury Tmac make us a championship contender? All your follow up posts are not really about how Morey has built the team, but center on him not playing Tmac more. But Tmac is the one who decided to go home rather than accept the 8 minutes of play he was getting. And Tmac has never taken us any where. So you really think he was going to take us to a championship this year? Other wise even playing him would still have the Rockets at best in the same situation they are in now, minus the experience the other players are getting with the minutes that would be given to Tmac.

You seem to be deluded into thinking this is still all star starter Tmac of 3 years ago that we are talking about. This is injured Tmac who still wants the offense to run thru him as though he is all star Tmac. So the greatest irony is the idea that recovering Tmac was going to lead us any where, when he never has even when completely healthy.

 

You are an idiot aren't you? We would get significantly less if we simply let his contract come off the books... only about $7 mil of cap relief with the projected diminishing cap. There are other teams that could use it a lot more than we can and may offer productive role players OR a legitimate closer with a contract the team cannot afford.

 

CHECK YOUR NUMBERS THE ROCKETS ARE ALREADY ABOVE AVG MAYBE NOT ELITE BUT I WILL WATCH AND SUPPORT THIS MAGRADYLESS TEAM OVER A SUPERSTAR TEAM W/ THE LIKES OF KOBY -TMAC A.I.- ARTEST -MELO- RUBIO WHO DO NOT UNDER STAND WHAT AN HONOR IT IS 2 B ASKED 2 BE IN THE NBA AFTER ALL NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT IT, IT IS A GAME YOU GET PAYED 2PLAY " I'M NOT A PLAYER REALLY I'M MORE OF A HOOP ARTIST I THINK ITS THE WAY I PUT THE BALL IN THE HOLE"

 

It's probably more JVG's fault than Morey's fault for the Rockets missing out on Brandon Roy, when they weren't going to make the playoffs. If JVG had played the starters less minutes to develop the bench, we could have had Roy.

Then, Morey talked Les into trading the lottery pick for Battier. Battier was never going to turn into a star.

 

Roy was first on our list, Portland took Foye and screwed up our deal with Minnesota. Only after that fell apart we traded for Battier.

 

he was talking about the denver game, which essentially lost us roy.