It's not the one that got away, it wasn't realistic that we would have acquired him anyway. -It was literally impossible to sign him, Orlando matches the full MLE no matter what. -Martin was too high a price tag when you consider taking back Carter. Do you really think that Gortat + Lee + random backup SG is better than, say, Dalembert + Martin + Lee? I'm not including Carter in the lineup because this season doesn't matter. -Nene and Gasol will make more than MLE and both would be foolish to not retain if you're their respective teams. Jordan and Dalembert will see MLE money. Chandler is the wildcard here, he's on Gortat's level but he's going to be paid a lot more. So really, unless we go out and throw money at Chandler this year, you can't blame this Gortat situation on anyone.
Stats this season: Gortat(PHO): 18.8 PER, 12.7 pts, 9.4 reb, 1.4 blk in 29.6 mpg (post All-Star: 15.0 pts, 10.9 reb, 1.7 blk in 33.9 mpg) Chandler: 18.4 PER, 10.2 pts, 9.3 reb, 1.1 blk in 28 mpg Salary this season: Gortat: $6,322,320 Chandler: $12,600,000 Chandler is 2 years older, with an injury history. IMO Gortat is better "value for money".
Not blaming Morey here. He did the right thing for not offering more than the MLE at the time. Its just hindsight 20/20 that Orlando at the time of the trade in December, had they known that the Hedo/J-Rich trade really wouldnt pan out the way they had hoped, maybe they would have looked at dealing with Houston and still addressing their needs. Maybe Orlando Could have involved Brooks/Battier and been better in the longrun because of it.... who knows. That deal actually sounds pretty good actually. Just a deal I wish they could have gotten done because now the Rockets are going into another offseason with the same needs and they could pay double for a Center that might not even make the starting lineup.
If he was the Philly player the Rockets nearly traded for in the off-season... Iggy's bounced back this year.
If he's putting up good numbers I'd like to see us throw a lowball for Lopez just to get a 7 footer who can play and is cheap for the next 2 years. Squid and 2nd rounder for him
He didn't even offer the MLE. Even if Orlando was going to match, why wasn't Gortat worth the MLE in Morey's eyes? Unless there was some kind of strategy behind it, I would question his evaluation there.
