The rockets are on the "mediocrity treadmill"

So no one finds it funny that the guy who coined this new hip buzz word added Andre Miller and Gerald Wallace, two high-priced 10+ year vets to his non-contending team in successive years?

 

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=203598

Les jumps off the mediocrity treadmill. Les is firing Adelman because he didn't want to "win now" and wanted the young players to get more playtime. In the last few games, you see Adelman gave in benched Lowry, Scola, only as a pittance for Les. You can count on Hayes and Martin's minutes getting cut, next.

Any new coach would be a guarantee of more playtime for the young players and cutting minutes from the vets.

1) Less Lowry, Less Scola, Less Martin, Less Hayes, Less Brad Miller
2) More Dragic, More Patterson, More T-Will, More Thabeet and Jordan Hill.

For the rebuilding fans, it's time to celebrate. Les is listening to us. Top 5 pick, here we come?

 

so he rests the entire season on Yao being healthy (I'm sure rick expressed his concerns), forces adelman into another tough corner for the 3rd straight season and expects him to crap gold.

The amount of plot twists, instability and jeckyl and hyde transformations this team goes through is enough to put any coach over the edge yet he dealt with it.

They were supposed to be rebuilding when they didn't extend artest (which I fear was a mistake) and repeated history once again.

 

Yep, and Rick wanted to bring Brad Miller here...

Either way there wasn't a lot of big men to be had. Everyone acts like Morey could have just picked up anyone. Teams are reluctant to give up their big men, as Chicago has shown with Asik.

Morey HAS gone after big men, it just hasn't worked out yet. Acquiring a legit defensive center is NOT an easy thing to do.

 

Your not wrong, but regarding the Brad Miller situation he had a HECK of an impact with the bulls the year before. I don't blame morey or adelman.

Ariza...twill...etc don't really get. Its not just about getting big men at the best price possible playing overly shrewed like morey does...its about PRIORITY.

The fact he said they banked On Yao's health this season makes me want to slap myself. Sure you're trying to get the best end of things, but you have to take a bigger hit in order to take of priorities, which is the attainment of a big man.

Could he have gotten a big man using the trade tactics etc (giving up little) like he did before? Probably not, but to say he COULDN'T have is not true at all.

The fact is that he isn't too great at dealing with the FA. He had to sign Ariza to a terrible deal for the sheer fact of signing someone because they let Artest walk and going into the season was as bleak as ever.

 

To me, what the Pritchard/Portland story demonstrates is that, for a "mediocre team," trying to get to the top by first getting worse is just as fraught with risks as trying to get to the top without first getting worse.

Sure, "tanking" gives you some top picks to play with and being smart with them can get you out of the basement in a few years, but when you are so far away from winning, a few missteps or bad luck events (injuries) can really derail your effort to become elite and you are right back on the "mediocrity treadmill" or worse.

Before Portland blew their team up, they had a lower seed playoff team with some bad contracts (not to mention bad personalities). Now, for all their smart front office guys, ownership money and years of high picks, they are right back being a lower-seed playoff team without much contractual flexibility. All this because of a couple bad injuries to important players (where have we heard that story before?).

Now, with Portland, they had to clean House-- their prior "Jailblazers" playoff team with aging Pippen and Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells, Ruben Patterson and Zach Randolph just wasn't sustainable.

They made a lot of right moves and had a lot of luck (Celtics trading them the pick that netted Brandon Roy for, essentially Sebatian Telfair and the agreement to eat Lafrentz' salary), but they ran out of it at the end and it doesn't look like they have the momentum to march into championship contention for a while.

 

What big men was there to be had? Varejao got hurt early in the season and that ended all trade talks with him.

Nene was not going any where...and Gortat went to PHX in a much larger deal.

The one big men he legitimately passed on is Amar'e. At least rumors say that, rumors also say Morey was nearly inches away from nabbing Deron Williams.

I have no doubt any ways that Morey will fix this big men problem. There are a ton in this up coming draft along with FA he'll finally get a decent guy. Also can't blame Morey for not fixing every single problem in one season, no team does that. Even playoff teams like the Bulls have glaring holes (starting SG) that need to be addressed ASAP.

Also Ariza was not a horrible player, not even close. Everyone acts like he was just this terrible player that didn't do anything right. He played great defense and hit big shots. Sure he could have not been so trigger happy, but then again when your PG is trigger happy the rest of the team follows his lead.

The real reason Ariza was expensive was because other teams were after him. Contending teams and playoff teams. Cleveland, Portland, and the Lakers who were willing to pay Artest more.

But you're right, Ariza was not worth the contract he was given. So what does Morey do? He flips it into Courtney Lee of course who has been huge for this team.

 

You got me on that part and I agree with most of the post, but the point I made is answered in the first part of your post. My point being is sometimes you have to over pay for things. Were there players we might have had to make a seemingly bad deal with? Probably, but given our circumstances it was a necessity. Morey deals with things in a complete +/- manner. If you've lost your leg, your not going to try to swing it with a wooden one untill surgery or prosthetic legs become cheaper, your health, which is your priority take credence over everything else.

The center is in fact, literally the Center-piece, unless you have a PF that can play C like amare etc.., so trying to get by for number of seasons since Yao's been injured is inexcusable.

When examining the nature of his injuries I think the prudent choice would be to have the necessary steps in place to make the right move if the situation were to arise again.

 

oh, and artest took the MLE for a 5 yr deal (close to) for the lakers.

He played cheaper for them which is understandable, but I would have kept him. Just the way I would construct a team, I saw flashes of brilliance with that team despite artest's r****dedness at times.

 

At the time, I think he was a better pick than Ariza. Now I am glad we didn't pick him up. On a team that is under performing, struggling to make it in the playoffs, the last thing we need is a player who is aging. Artest is a great pickup for a team looking for the final piece, but for a team like this one, where there is no real star and a bunch of role players he would be chucking up too many questionable shots and we would roughly the same record. All he would be good for is entertainment...

 

And attracting free agents. Ron would have convinced Bosh to come shower with him in Houston.

 

Haha are you kidding me, I've been doing the Carlton dance all morning just at the thought of Rick the Ruler leaving!!

 

I agree with that. You have to overpay for some things but...overpaying for someone like Asik/Gortat/Nene/Varejao is a step backwards IMO. Especially since you may be able to get the same production from your own players.

Overpaying for a talent like Cousins? Thats a different thing and I'm sure Morey was willing to move up to draft a guy like that but did not have enough.

Also letting Artest walk was the end of an era pretty much. It is always my opinion that had Morey been around when Tmac and Yao were in their primes they would have been a contending team. I think then it became clear that the Rockets were building a new team, and they HOPED Yao could join them but we know that didn't work out.

But the moment Morey got here he's improved every position outside of those two significantly. When Yao and Tmac were around the Rockets had the worst of role players...man some of those guys don't even play in the NBA anymore.

That same team you mentioned with Artest is all Morey's work of drafting and shrewdness. It's just now the Rockets don't have a go to guy...well actually they have had one since the all-star break (Lowry)

I guess my point is. While Morey has not filled the C spot he's done a lot in his short stint here and now that the Center spot HAS to be filled I think he's scheming to get his hands on the right guy. Not just over paying for someone that is alright (what he did to fill the SF spot with Ariza...)

 

yup, and In my opinion that is what makes him a ---good---- GM, not a great one, or a God as many refer to him as.

 

I won't blame a GM for player injuries. Pritchard did a hell of a job rebuilding the Blazers.. injuries have killed their chances at a title though.

 

Pritchard knew about his draftees health issues before drafting them, though. They threw caution to the wind and paid for it. They didn't learn from the Sam Bowie incident. Since the injuries are so recent for Yao and T-mac, I don't think they will repeat the mistake as the Trailblazers. They passed on Blair, because of concern for his knee.s

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2011/01/trail_blazers_injury_woes_how.html

 

I'm not buying this argument. The Rockets were on the verge of drafting the very same player in Brandon Roy. He was a top 10 pick. Oden was a lock to be the first or second pick in the draft. It's not like he reached for someone every other team didn't want to touch because of injuries -- he has had bad luck. It happens. I don't blame Morey for drafting Yao either.

 

Blazers are going to knock out the Mavs, that's my prediction.

 

You don't know much about the Rockets do you? Morey wasn't even working for the Rockets back when Yao was drafted. He was working for the Celtics.