Propose to me how you plan to just "go get the damn players". MIT calculations are not preventing us from getting star players. It's the lack of star players willing to come here at this point. For the record, I think if Morey had been around when we first got Tracy, we might have a championship right now. Replace the likes of Rafer and Juwan Howard with equivalents of Landry or Scola and Lowry and I think it makes all the difference in the world. The only problem is now, we haven't had a chance to replace Yao and Tracy.
Tanking two years in a row sounds about right. You trade away veterans for alot of first rounders and young guys. Play all young guys. Play Patterson and Twill. Bam. There goes your tank without trying to. Remove Adelman from coaching, because he cannot coach rookies. Its not in his DNA. He always goes with veterans at all cost. Plus we are rebuilding. Which means Adelman is not the coach for that. Him and young players are not a good mix.
And you hit the nail right on the head. I think Morey deserves more than 90 days to acquire our next superstar before people start whining.
DieHard Rocket just sucked the gravity right out of the building! I just don't understand the mentality of these folks.
This. Tmac and Yao's short prime careers were wasted because they had a lot of trash players around them, players that aren't even in the NBA anymore. Once Morey had the time to build around those guys he was the one acquiring Ron Artest, Scola, drafting Brooks, Landry, getting Lowry.
This is such nonsense. He certainly played Scola, Landry, Brooks quite a bit when they were rookies. If posters like you and coachbadlee got stripped of your keyboards, everyone would benefit.
Benifit from posters like you who have been apart of this rah rah group who shoved this role player team up their behinds? Go ahead by all means and take over like you guys have already.
What star is on the market that any team could get right now? Carmello was obviously set on knicks from the start. Considering how much NY gave for him when he was pretty much guaranteed to only resign there, I can only imagine what the Nuggets would have been asking for the Rockets to give up. Too much for a 3 month rental on a team that still would be unlikely to be contenders this season I am sure. Sometimes the best moves are the bad trades you don't make. Had Yao made a full recovery this season with us in contention, perhaps he would have more seriously considered Houston. As for "should have traded Yao and Tmac sooner" there was much debate about that prior to their final injuries that have left them in their current state. I was for exploring that option myself. At the time they were still healthy, most fans here were against trading either of them. Even if we had traded them after one of their earlier serious injuries, it is debateable how much trade value they would have. Certainly you weren't getting a Lebron/Kobe level star back for a seriously injured Tmac or Yao even before their final career spiraling injuries. If you go back further than that, you are asking them to trade away a healthy Yao and Tracy because they were some how supposed to know the future? There is also the question on if Alexander would have been willing to sign off on trades for either of them prior to these last injuries forcing his hand. Seeing how difficult it is to sign or trade for a star player, it makes sense to gamble that the one you already have signed could recover and play again. Certainly even as recently as the start of this season the majority of posters here said they thought this team would be a contender to win it all this year, and those of us who disagreed were considered "bad fans". Now the tables are flipped and people act like we are the worst run franchise in the league or something. Trust me there are plenty of GM's who would have us in far worse shape right now. Some of you seem stuck on the idea that tanking would some how guarantee getting the #1 pick and that pick would be guaranteed of becoming a superstar player. The problem is even when a team gets the #1 pick, getting a superstar is the exception rather than the rule, and even the worst record in the league doesn't guarantee you that pick. Some drafts have no superstars regardless of where you pick. Nobody likes where the team is as of today, but I think Morey is as good a GM as any to make the right decisions for tomorrow. Sure some of his "genius" praise is over board, but so is alot of this complaining.
We've been spoiled. Obviously I don't mean with championships or success, I'm talking about all of the big name players or prospects that have pretty much fallen into our laps over the past 25+ years. There was always a clear direction because he was always had a top 2 lottery pick on the team or a superstar. It'll be interesting to see how many Rockets fans stick around if we go the full rebuilding route.
My lord. The Rockets have not had hope for all of maybe 2 seasons already people are going bat-**** crazy. In way a few years of irrelevance and mediocrity will be good because many of the poster who post stuff like this will leave this site.
What exactly was Morey supposed to do when Bosh, Wade, and LeBron colluded well in advance and never gave serious consideration to any team but Miami (and NY, which didn't have the cap space). How was he going to brainwash Melo? Is he supposed to leave a bloody horse head in bed with Jazz/Hornets management so they'll trade him Deron/Paul? It sucks we are where we are...but we aren't sucking because he's been drafting and signing mistake after mistake. He ROBBED the Spurs getting Scola. He flipped Alston into Lowry, and McGrady into Martin. He's been swinging his bat after every strike out there, but there's just not been much for him to go after. It's a star-driven league, and we're in a disturbing time where those precious few stars are strong arming their way to a small handful of marquee destinations that have little to do with the franchise or front offices running them. 32 teams....maybe a half dozen of which are able to draw over elite talent. It stinks we're on the outside looking in, but we're in the same boat with three quarters of the league, including the likes of SA. Morey will adjust - the superfriends phenomenon clearly caught him off guard and his asset stockpiling plan backfired. He's not any happier about the current team than we are - he's been wanting a blockbuster roster-changer since the summer.
To his credit, Morey has been held hostage by the broken down superstars he inherited with this team. Once that baggage (sorry Yao, I do love ya) has been cleared away, I think Morey's ability to re-tool this team into a contender or even championship-caliber team will manifest it and we'll all sing kumbayah again.
Rah rah group? Really? You are naive, stupid, or a troll. From the way some people post, including this dude, you seem to think that Morey hasn't actively been pursue a superstar.
I dont know, but it seems like the rockets want to act like a small market despite being the 4th largest city in the US. I've said before, I dont buy into the p.r. spin machine and I'm into results. No matter what stat anyone can pull out their ass, Landry and his points off the bench helped the rockets win more games than the uber effecient kevin martin. I also see ariza helped the team more than courtney lee. I like lee, but from my view, the so called numbers arent adding up.
You realize that Yao Ming was a vital part of this team exactly four months ago? Christ, have you watched any basketball in the last thirty years? How many damn times do people just go down to the franchise player store and pick up a Hall of Famer within four months of losing their last cornerstone 'for good' mid-season?
Well said! If this "superfriend" trend continues, I'd vote for contraction in the NBA! There's not enough talents as is.
Thats not the way I should have responded. I apologize and realize some people may be sensitive or a little bit on edge during this time of the year with regard to the direction of the teams uncertain direction right now. Heck I used to yell and cuss at the TV when the refs made bad calls or someone talked bad about the Rockets in front of me. So.. My bad. Lets actually let this thread die because Rockets are not an irrelevent team. This is not a Clippers organization or Grizzlies organization we all follow. This is a two time Champion and perhaps greatest center player of all time Rockets team. Hakeem is one of the greatest ever. Drexler, Calvin Murphy, Barkley, Pippen, Tmac, Yao, Francis, Moses Malone, huge number of great players played here.
