This was a nice move and Morey deserves credit. V Span was worth nada so getting a young player with upside is fantastic. CD would have traded VSpan for John Amaechi Jr. and a bad contract. Steve Patterson made similiar deals acquiring a young Kenny Smith, cash for Maxwell and drafting Horry (when it was unpopular at the time). Steve replaced his dad who made a ton of mediocre moves.
Uh, that can also apply to the Rockets. Remember a guy named Yao? RM95, I haven't been amongst the Morey bashers nor have I posted in any "Morey Sucks" threads. There have been some pretty vocal people against Morey but I haven't been one of them. What I've consistently said is that while I had not made up my mind about him, his moves to date did not fill me with optimism for the future. This trade was a good move on his part. I have said so more than once in this thread. Now, I'm still not all that excited about getting Mike James back and after watching Brooks & Landry in the summer league, I'm still baffled by Morey's drafting of them. Now what I DO see that I like is that finally a Rockets' GM appears to have a real plan for putting together a team. And that's definitely a sign of progress but make no mistake - they still have a long way to go.
I didn't post that CD was a great GM because of what he did that offseason. I was merely pointing out that the Sonics and Blazers new GMs were greatly helped by their lucky placement in the draft. You've been pretty vocal about you not being happy with what they've done. Now that people are happy about what they've done, you're asking them to wait until November when you apparently didn't want to do the same when making your own judgments about the moves up until this one.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4967005.html Basic Deal reached with Scola, taking Physical in Argentina now according to agent. 3 yr - $10 million
Here is the text... Rockets reach 'basic agreement' with Scola Deal would pay Argentine star $10 million over three years By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle The Rockets have come to a "basic agreement" with Argentine star Luis Scola, less than 24 hours after acquiring his draft rights from the San Antonio Spurs. "We're working on the contract, but we've got a basic agreement, an understanding," George Bass, Scola's agent said Friday. "He's actually taking the physical right now in Argentina." The Rockets traded guard Vassilis Spanoulis, a 2009 second-round draft pick and cash to the Spurs for the rights to Scola and center Jackie Butler. Scola is expected to sign a three-year deal worth roughly $10 million. "He's so excited, he probably didn't sleep a wink last night." Bass said. "He's thrilled, this has been his dream for five years."
Scola is taking physical now. The deal is close to be done. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4967005.html
Got to agree with RM95 here, that is how your posts have looked pretty much lately, you have been pretty upset with the Rockets front office and saying you have no faith in them. Morey has been impressive IMHO......even if all these moves don't necessarily work out perfectly, he is taking chances and making things happen and blowing up a flawed team....well at least the bottom half of the roster... DD
Now thats great news...I was afraid something horrible was going to happen last second...great to see it is confirmed!
While SA seems like a nice organization, I sincerely doubt they did it to help Scola out. They were under the gun before he signed a big contract with his european team because if he gets into a big contract there, his trade value drops significantly here. If his buy out is bigger than the amount he'd make here, it would be tough to get him to the US. Their time was running out on his trade value...not out of a sense of fair play to Scola.
Hm. OK, this is what I have been reading about Scola. i) He has a sick inside game. Arguably (and many people think so) the best interior scorer in Europe. ii) NBA ready body. Not skinny. Not overweight. NBA ready. iii) He is a bruiser. You want someone to bang bodies with Boozer and Brand? You need a bruiser. He is one. iv) Plays with lots of passion. Is a leader. v) VERY CRAFTY PLAYER - in short, high BBall IQ. vi) In Tau, he was the main double team focus. If so, his stats could have been higher! vii) He played on a monster Argentine team of Manu Ginobilli, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto and Walter Herrmann (starters). And he was arguably (and again, many people think so) the second best player (and some say the best) in that team. viii) Very solid international experience. Lighted up Olympic and World games. Not a one hit wonder like V-Span. xi) Dude is MVP of a league that is, in Hollinger's words, 'one step above college level, maybe even one step above NBDL level'. Not only that, MVP twice. Again, not a one hit wonder. x) Very good passer (I know, this should have been at the upper parts of the list). xi) Many teams wanted him. Spurs just didn't want to make them better. xii) Spurs wanted him. But too 'cash-strapped to pay for his buyout' or were force to replace him early with Oberto (BTW, again, alot of people are CONVINCED that he is (much) better than Oberto). xiii) Us acquiring pissed off - many teams (go look at the Bulls forum at Real GM). xiv) Finally, many scouts and GMs think that this guy is one of the best players in the world not playing in the NBA. The Manu Ginobilli of PFs (hopefully without the flopping). We can see many Euro players doing very well in the NBA currently. And I believe that the collective intelligence of some very intelligent people shouldn't be wrong (I think). In conclusion, based on the trade piece we used to get Scola (i.e. a second round pick), his upside potential (very tremendous from the looks of it - a potential Brand/Boozer) and the fact that Scola's trade effectively settles our PF position (though I understand that some of you would want a more established player... on a reasonable level, Scola suffices), I humbly and respectfully conclude that THIS IS DAYLIGHT ROBBERY FROM UNDER THE EYES AND NOSES OF THE LEAGUE!!! P.S. I forgot to add... not only is his body NBA ready... as a player, many people believe (some VERY strongly) that he himself is NBA starter material. Nuff said.
I stand by my past posts particularly about CD, Les and the draft. I put a great deal of thought and consideration in what I post here and your accusation of hypocrisy on my part is completely unfounded. Once again, you seem unable or unwilling to accept anything I post here if it contradicts what you believe. As I said before, that's cool because unlike you, I don't begrudge others their opinions here no matter how outrageous and off the wall they may be. I have been very consistent in what I post because I strive to most of all to be fair. Again: As far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on Morey. This deal is a good move but his draft and Mike James deal just didn't do that much for me. I do happen to like the fact that he appears to actually have a plan. Today has been a really fun day on Clutchfans. It's been refreshing to see so many happy Rockets' fans while reading about so many pissed off Spurs' fans. I'm sorry if you don't feel the same way.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. You've criticized both of those things, yet you're wanting people to temper their excitement about this move until the games are played in November. Why can't the same be done for these moves on your part. Yet, you are "getting a nice chuckle at all of the Morey love going on right now". For the record, I'm extremely excited about this move. We moved someone that was never going to play for us again and some cash for what some are saying is the best basketball player not in the NBA. I'm estatic.
