The Last 10 Years of Personnel Moves and Drafting have been a Disaster!

That brings up an interesting point. Players used to sign like that because they liked Rudy and they liked what Houston HAD going. I don't see the attraction with JVG and what is happening these days. They are not going to get discounts to come here like they did back then...

 

First of, I just want to say that I like Ming but I am a Rockets fan who was very glad they got him.

Now with that being said, if the Rockets did a great job picking up all the "perfect" picks, do you think we'd end up with the #1 the year Ming came out? If R. Lewis was on the team for instance or any number of the coulda shoulda picks instead of the ones the Rockets made?

The point is, every year the team is trying to pick the right people but it's all a crap shoot. What if we didn't trade for Steve, and we got the #1 pick 2 years ago? J. Willaims as a Rocket would have been the ultimate disaster, no?

Just be glad the rockets didn't listen to all the naysayers and traded down instead of picking up Ming.

Like it or not, the wagon is hitch to his big butt. It's up to him to get better and pull his 7'6" weight. I wish he would get stronger and better faster but he's still young and learning the NBA.

BTW, the Pippen trade was a "genius move" at the time. It didn't work out. You can say wins are the only way to judge a trade/draft pick but if the rockets didn't get Pippen and we knew they could have, what would you have say then? I know, great move for NOT picking that malcontent right, sure.

Same goes for the Eddie trade, another "genius move" gone south. Wish he was more mature but he wasn't.

 

The biggest "problem" the Rockets have had is a habit of winning. To wit:

1. We traded Horry and Cassell for Barkley to "put us over the top." It almost worked, but hurt us badly in the long run. We'd probably have been better off keeping Horry and Cassell, but we were willing to sacrifice the future to win now. Again, it almost worked, and people were mostly happy at the time, but it cost us in the long run. But that's what winning teams do: take risks to win.

2. Recent history tells us that winning teams rarely stay on top using the draft. The Rockets decided that the draft was simply not worth the risk and preferred FAs to guaranteed contracts to rookies who were just rolls of the dice. But when both Barkley and Hakeem had, in effect, career ending injuries in early 1999, we went from another "win now" season with Hakeem, Barkley, Mobley, and Francis to rebuilding, and started collecting picks again. I think that our use of the draft as a primary tool for collecting talent has ended again since getting Yao; hence trading the #1 in the Rice trade.

3. Many mistakes are made with an eye towards winning now, most notably picking for position over picking for talent. Bryce Drew is a good example of this: we needed a 1 and picked a 1 even though there were far more talented players available at other positions. When we were in rebuilding mode, we did just the opposite, trading Jefferson, who would have filled a need, for Griffin, who was the greater raw talent. I'd say we have stopped doing that again.

Basically, I think the mistakes made over the years were largely a result of trying to win now and forget the future. (E.g. Drew, Dickerson, and Turksad for their outside shooting to complement Hakeem.)

We have hesitated to make major moves since the Francis trade because we were collecting talent in rebuilding mode. I suspect the Rockets now feel the rebuilding is over and are in "win now" mode; thus the acquisition of the trade exception in exchange for a first round pick. So I predict that we will either:

1. Wait out the season to see how things shake out and use the trade exception this summer in a sign and trade for a major FA, or

2. If things are not going well near the trade deadline, they will use the exception then to acquire a major talent at the position that is our greatest perceived need (e.g. Rasheed at the 4 or Grant Hill at the 3).

This will be decided based on the odds of the Rockets making the playoffs in February. We are in "win now" mode and will do what it takes to make the playoffs this year. If it looks like we will, we'll wait till the summer and make a move aimed at a championship. The latter is preferable, snce we'll have a better choice of players to choose from.