I'd be surprised if it did. Morey has been non-committal about Rick staying here once his contract is up. Maybe that's just standard practice, but it seems like the possibility of RA leaving could be increasing.
To me, we are talking about the Rockets not acquiring a superstar, because the idea of collecting the "heralded group of assets" was to flip them, in tandem, for a superstar. Unfortunately, one isn't available so Morey moves to the next-best alternative, which is high-ceiling younger talent. Thabeet and Flynn were top-6 picks all of one year ago. I'm not saying these are stars in waiting, but you don't pull the plug after a year and a half. There's real upside there, as with the additional first-round picks that would presumably come our way. At this point, the Rockets are at a place where they have to gamble on it. I'm sure the Rockets could get better players today than Thabeet and Flynn, using the likes of Battier and Brooks. But would they have the upside? I doubt it. We're in a place where, assuming no stunning last-minute deal, we have to gamble on every upside play we can find. That's a direct result of there not being a star to give up the assets for.
also, Rick clearly wasn't involved in the TWill deal; hence his comment about not knowing why we even traded for him.
Of course..at this point, that's exactly what the Wolves and Grizz are looking at doing. I hear you on this..and that makes sense. I'd rather they blow the whole MF'er up at that point, though. The pieces you're adding don't make you better and likely make you worse...so why keep the higher valued players? why not flip them to accomplish the same goal of finding upside where you can...including draft picks?
Like this... <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4uc7beYpGXM&t=0m33s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If nothing truly happens this break then yes we'd all be disappointed, but I think one consolation is that the impending CBA really has thrust all potential dealing into tremendous flux. What is the value of acquiring a star at a current salary rate now if the entire salary structure will change in less than 6 months? What could be a "good deal" for a guy right now might become a horrible deal later on if the salary cap goes down or gets hard. I highly doubt they are going to prorate everybody's existing contract down to some set percentage of collective bargaining like there were threats about; for one thing that would be equivalent to voiding all legal contracts written between the players and NBA teams up to this point in time, but it would also be an example of an ex post facto law which, although not under the jurisdiction of the American legal system per se, would seem to violate an American principle in the very least of penalizing a group of people after the fact. That being said, I wonder if Morey's goal in this context would be not to acquire any new assets until the market price for them normalizes under the new CBA. It made sense to try to get a superstar because under the current rules those guys are actually underpaid, and by the time the new system kicked in some guys (Chris Paul and Dwight Howard being the best examples) might have their options to choose their team in free agency curtailed or even completely revoked if a franchise tag is what they implement in the end. I'm not going to bash Morey for failing to get a player in this setting, even though it really hurts in the blue-balls sense. At the same time, it probably was warranted, that we all tempered our "genius" language when talking about him. No one benefits when the GM becomes a high profile part of your organization. The best ones stay behind the scenes and don't rile up the egos of other GM's by attaining a reputation as a "swindler".
Maybe, but just like people can change their minds so can forum fans. And the die hards are more likely to speak their minds for the silent majority who don't feel like taking on all the trouble to express themselves (taking the time to call in sports radio, typing posts, even just verbally going through the trouble to find staff and tell them how you feel at games), or just lurk on forums. Since it's much more important to die hard fans, you're more likely to get people who tell you what they're thinking, and to get an accurate idea of what everyday people feel with a diverse high traffic forum. You're a die hard Rox fan like me Max, so I can respect you're opinion and agree to disagree.
I appreciate your comments. Here's my experience. My accountant has killer seats to Rockets games. About 6 rows behind the bench. I've been to 2 games with him this season. Amazing experience. We drink too much...talk about the Power Dancers...and generally have fun rooting for the Rox. He laughs at me for being such a big fan. The people in his section are pretty much like him. Semi-interested in the outcome of the game...more interested in entertaining clients. The entire arena is built around that sort of experience...complete with bars away from the game, itself. Those are the people who make the Rockets a ton of money.
This is going to make all my Aaron Brooks collector cards WORTHLESS! WHAT?! They already are! Ah jeez.
CBS Sports is now reporting that Charlotte is talking to us again about Gerald Wallace. However, the link they provided is dead/inactive, so who knows if this thing has legs. http://eye-on-basketball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22748484/27637683
I agree. But all he gave up to acquire those assets were average players and bad draft picks. Oh, and one expiring contract, which was used to get an above average player. As others have stated, I don't think Morey could have done much better with the hand he was dealt. Another poster listed all of his moves and he has come out ahead most of the time, especially considering what he had to give up. Flynn, I'm not so sure about. But if we move Brooks (who will probably leave) for another PG and something else then I wouldn't mind. Same goes with the Battier rumor for Thabeet, as we clearly need some size. Unless you were expecting Morey to turn pennies into gold then you shouldn't be too dissapointed. This should just be a reality check to anyone that thinks we have more in the cabinet to offer.
The Jonny Flynn deal with Houston involves either Jared Jeffries or Aaron Brooks, sources say. Teams discussing picks, too. Not done. about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by 20 people http://twitter.com/KBerg_CBS
