It's hard to win a title without lucking into a superstar. Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, Wade, Jordan, Olajuwon this group has won all of the titles except 2 since 1990. my list of true elites Kobe not available Howard not available Wade not available D. Williams not available Durant not available LeBron didn't want to come Carmelo seems uninterested Paul seems uninterested do you believe Morey could have got any of these guys, because i don't We're still in good shape as a franchise, titles are difficult to win If the Yao hail mary didn't work, and that appears almost a done deal, we have plenty of young players, and no bad contracts to move forward.
There's actually no way to really know how much better or worse we would have been with or without DM. The same way we wouldnt know what could've been if Yao and Tmac hadnt injured themselves time after time. With that said Im really not sure where you were getting at. On what basis are you comparing DM to Presti? Us having the worse team of the two does not prove the point I believe you are trying to make or use as means for comparison. If you are saying that Houston had a worse team than the Oklahoma city (seattle) at the time, then you are wrong because we had two legit supertars then, something the Sonics didnt have. They didnt have to draft westbrook and they did, nor did they have to draft Greene or Harden or Ibaka, great picks if you ask anyone around the league. Presti was not lucky, he knew exactly what he was doing as opposed to Morey who in my opinion struck some luck and the proof is our current players didnt start out being who they are, it took them at least a couple of years to become that. And even now Im not satisfied with any of them, all being one dimensional either offensively or defensively speaking. If you read the entirety of the thread you'd see that no one is saying Morey is a bad evaluator of talent, just saying he doesnt have the balls to take this team to the next level. It should be rather easy finding talent if that's what you get paid to do, what good GMs do different is they manage their current team and get the most out of each and every one of them, coach included-clearly the problem with this year's houston rockets. I've never jumped on the Morey bandwagon and Im definitely not about to begin now that it's clear how many mistakes he's made throughout his time here in houston. Covering them up by making excuses or pumping us up for the season doesnt make those mistakes disappear and the proof is our horrendous start to what should have been a championship run.
It's a lot easier to make strong picks if you are picking in the top five. And I'd guess that he'd like to have that james harden pick back. And he drafted then traded Beaubois for a stiff. So his record isn't necessarily sterling.
Cool Beans, ill stay tuned. And yes my top five picks in this past years draft were John Wall, Derick Favors, Paul George, Wesley Johnson and Hassan Whiteside (in that order) so as you can see Im in total agreeance on drafting high risk players with large upsides. In other words, if it were up to me we'd have Whiteside right now instead of Patterson and he would be getting the minutes that Miller/Hayes are getting.
It was clear that TMAC would won nothing if he was healthy. The guy got no heart. Yao had huge hole in his game. The Utah run clearly showed us that Yao was not a player that you should build around. For rebuilding, I'd trade both for picks and healthy players. Rafer was he only bad contract on that team. For contending, I'd trade TMAC for anything available. TMAC had huge value back that time. I'd trade Rafer for anything too. But honestly, no team building around Yao will be a contender. The contending path will be a failure anyway but still closer to a contender than the current roster.
huh? I'll freely admit, I am not a fan of said strategy at all. Draft picks are good assets. To waste them on a player who might be good, but more likely will be trash is not sound strategy from my perspective. For every Jermaine O'Neal or Gay(whom have never been franchise players), there is Eddy Curry or Stromile. I prefer moderately athletic but skilled players whom have a work ethic as opposed to some super athletic guy who you draft in the hope that he "gets it" or some junk like that.
for 14th pick, I'd definitely take the risk.... is there even any risk at 14th pick? Paterson is playing in the NBDL anyway.
Thanks. There are some possible deals out there if you look for them. I'd ship anyone for future protected first round draft picks. I'd offer Hill and C-Bud to the T-wolves/clippers for a 2011 protected first round draft pick and trust me they are not going to get any better by having either one there. I'd offer Brooks, Martin, Scola and Yao for Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups (basically anything that would get me top picks and superstars, nothing else)
This reminds me of the SNL skits with George W. Bush..."it's hard work! we come in on Saturdays sometimes!" No one here is even mentioning winning titles. We've won exactly one playoff series in 13 years. Seriously, that sucks. I'm not demanding a ring...right now, relevance sounds pretty good.
I really think it's too early to say that. We're not talking about a max contract Yao.. but if we can get him on a cheaper deal, why wouldn't you? He's a huge presence on offense and defense. You just have to realize that you're no longer depending on him, which is why acquiring the high draft picks is key.
Agreed, look at the mavs they haven't won a championship in the past few years but they have been known as a damn good team.
It's weird. The past season, in every "should we tank" thread, most posters say they don't want to tank. Saying that it's for losers, that it's just not right. You can't have it both ways. If you want to watch a team that competes and go for wins, you're going to miss out on a high pick. Those picks that OKC had came at the price of their fans watching multiple 20-30 win teams. That would be like us going through this season 2-3 more times. I guess he really likes to watch a 20-win team play.
I guess I'm still holding on to the ounce of faith that's left. He's had no problems with his surgically repaired ankle. Until it goes, my faith will stay!
all good. i just think it's his lower body, period...particularly in feet/ankles/knees. at that size, no one has logged the kind of minutes he has...and yet they've all had careers marked by diminishing playing time due to injury.
