All the elite teams seem to find talent. The Rockets have two elite players, and they were not hard to find, just acquire. I love Rudy, but disappointed in his ability to evaluate young talent, and JVG doesn't seem to be much better. I have totally lost confidence in CD. I know it is difficult, but the best teams consistently improve themselves. Injuries were an issue, but the Rockets found a way to turn a playoff team into a lottery team in one year. Without the Ming or TMac, the supporting cast won one game!
A quick comparison between the two teams provides a depressing picture: Devin Harris was selected by the Washington Wizards in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2004 NBA Draft...Draft rights traded by the Wizards with Jerry Stackhouse and Christian Laettner to the Dallas Mavericks for Antawn Jamison on 6/24/04. So essentially they turned Antoine Jameson into Devin Harris & Jerry Stackhouse, their 6th man. The rest of the team: Josh Howard was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round (29th pick overall) of the 2003 NBA Draft. Jason Terry was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round (10th overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft...Traded by the Hawks along with Alan Henderson and a future first-round draft pick to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Antoine Walker and Tony Delk on 8/4/04. Marquis Daniels was not drafted by an NBA team...Signed as a free agent by the Dallas Mavericks on 7/29/03. And of course Dirk Nowitzki: Played in Germany in 1997-98. Selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round (ninth pick overall) of the 1998 NBA Draft. Draft rights traded by the Bucks with the draft rights to Pat Garrity to the Dallas Mavericks for the draft rights to Robert Traylor on 6/24/98. So the core of the current Mavericks was basically assembled in the past 3 years. They essentially broke up the Nash-Finley-Nowitzki team and retooled to what they are today during that period. Now, take a look at the Rockets during the period from 2003 to now: 2003: Malick Badiane - Over in Europe...somewhere. 2004: Luis Flores - traded 2005: Luther Head - on team Juwan Howard: Selected by the Washington Bullets in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft (fifth overall)...Signed as a free agent by the Miami Heat on 7/15/86...Contract disallowed by the NBA on 7/31/96...Re-signed as a free agent by the Bullets on 8/5/96...Bullets franchise renamed Washington Wizards for the 1997-98 season...Traded by the Wizards with Obinna Ekezie and Calvin Booth to the Dallas Mavericks for Christian Laettner, Loy Vaught, Etan Thomas, Hubert Davis, Courtney Alexander and cash on 2/22/01...Traded by the Mavericks with Donnell Harvey, Tim Hardaway and a 2002 first-round pick to the Denver Nuggets for Raef LaFrentz, Avery Johnson, Nick Van Exel and Tariq Abdul-Wahad on 2/21/02...Signed as a free agent by Orlando (Jul. 16, 2003). Tracy McGrady: Selected by Toronto in the first round (ninth overall) of the 1997 NBA Draft...Traded by Toronto to Orlando in exchange for a future first round draft pick in a sign-and-trade deal (Aug. 3, 2000). Rafer Alston: Second-round draft choice (39th overall) by Milwaukee in 1998; 1998-99: Played in Continental Basketball Association (CBA) with Idaho Stampede; September 22, 1999: Signed with the Milwaukee Bucks; July 30, 2001: Re-signed by Milwaukee; September 6, 2002: Signed as a free agent by Golden State; October 23, 2002: Waived by Golden State; January 7, 2003: Signed to a 10-day contract by Toronto; January 18, 2003: Signed for the remainder of the season by Toronto; September 4, 2003: Signed as a free agent by Miami; July 14, 2004: Signed as a free agent by Toronto. Yao Ming you all should know about. It's interesting to note that in Dallas it has been Donnie Nelson (whom I wanted for the head coach after Rudy T uh, pick one: "left", "was asked to leave", "fired", who makes the talent evaluations while in Houston it has been ? - Dawson, JVG, Uncle Les, Clutch the Bear? And I didn't even begin to list the players who have shuffled through here during that time. Bottom line: yes the injuries were a factor this past season but talent-wise, even with a healthy TMac & Yao, this team is seriously undermanned. I have to say that I agree with you about the this year's draft selection being a barometer on where this team is going.
We didn't release him. He had a player option that he decided to not pick up and was going to sign with the suns remember? But then something happened and he didn't have many teams left anymore so he signed with the Nets.
Impressive overview, thanks for the research. Unfortunately, your findings confirm the thesis that clever and aggressive team leadership can make a team better in a hurry with the right moves. The wrong moves take you to the lottery and they are hard to reverse.
It's not that I disagree with Hillboy's assessment, but he doesn't mention that they have an owner with an unlimited budget that treats his time like it's his own personal deck of pokemon cards - if it isn't winning, he buys more cards. Hillboy has always had a very negative opinion of our general manager. I understand some of his opinions, but I think I'm a bit more optimistic because even when we're at our worst we're usually in the middle of the pack. There are a whole lot of worse GM's through out the league, and perhaps I've always been frightened that if we lost CD, we might gain one of the many worse GM's. Regardless, we can't do what the Dallas Mavericks have done because we don't have the money they have.
My dislike of Dawson is based on his terrible draft moves and poor personnel decisions. He actually reminds me of Wes Unseld who performed similarly at Washington for many years before they finally made a change (not that Jordan as GM was any improvement but it was a change nonetheless). He's been coasting along for years now while his team has been stuck in mediocrity (5 of the past 7 years in the NBA lotto). In the NBA, that's the one place you don't want to be because with the salary cap you can rapidly dig yourself into a difficult hole ala what the Rockets have done. The final straw for me was the 2001 draft debacle where he/Rudy T/whomever managed to pass over Richard Jefferson and waste three 1st round picks only to end up with nothing to show for that draft. When EG washed out & Rudy T was shown the door, that's when Dawson should have been shown the door as well. Instead, he got a contract extension!. That's when I realized that the real problem was at the top with the owner. An owner who truly CARED about winning would never have allowed a one-time NBA Championship team to fall into the state the Rockets find themselves in today. And that brings us to Mark Cuban. Cuban is a smug, annoying flake with a big bankroll and a burning desire to have his team hoist the Larry O' Brien trophy. As an owner, you, as a fan, have got to love his passion and his willingness to do whatever it takes to win a championship. Has he made mistakes? You betcha! His arrogance led him to resign Shawn Bradley and keep him, to give Eric Dampier & Rafe LaFrentz stupid money and to let Steve Nash walk for nothing. But you can't fault his effort - at least he TRIED. And, he has learned from his mistakes. He moved out the coach who basically resurrected his team from the ranks of living dead and taught them how to win. He recognized that Don Nelson had taken this team as far as he could and that a change in coaching philosophy was needed in order for the Mavericks to advance to the next level. He cut loose the one guy (Finley) who'd been there from the darkest days of the franchise. He's also finally learned not to be the "spend whatever it takes" kind of owner because he understands the salary cap hell where he's placed his team for years to come. The bottom line is that at least Cuban got off the dime and did something to improve his team. That's more than can be said for Uncle Les. Both teams have made numerous mistakes in personnel - all NBA teams make bad personnel decisions but the top teams like the Mavericks & San Antonio have been able to weather their mistakes because they have made enough smart decisions on players to overcome them. I only wish that the same thing was true about the Rockets.
Please don't bring up Ron Artest. He's a borderline franchise player playing with a relatively cheap contract. Yeah, Les said he was willing to add him. I'm sure half the other owners in the NBA would say the same thing. Les loves to pick up franchise players because he's always looking to make a splash. I don't think he recognizes the value of putting quality starters who are not all-stars with a lot of hype on a roster. And Mike James had a relatively cheap contract when they aquired him and they managed to get rid of him before he was due a raise for a less productive guy with a long term contract who will be cheaper than James.
It's been a chain of events, but the biggest move by Dallas that set this whole thing off was trading a handful of garbage and acquiring Juwon Howard's enormous contract a few years back. They already had the trio of Dirk, Nash, and Finley in stone, but taking on Howard allowed them to start the revolving door of talent in finding a cast that could fit. They were able to trade Howard to Denver for BOTH Van Excel and Lafrenz, considered a coup at the time. They were then able to turn Van Excel into Jamison and Lafrenz into Antoine Walker. Walker later was turned into Terry and Alan Henderson. Jamison was turned into both Stackhouse and Devin Harris. Henderson was turned into Keith Van Horn, who would easily be the 3rd best player on this Rockets team. They've done their scouting too in acquiring Dirk, Daniels, Howard, and Diop, but I think it is unfair to use Dallas as an example. As I illustrated, they built that team by constantly maintaining the value of an expiring contract. The point of conception, if you will, was Howard's contract. From that spawned an influx of talent which they never allowed to die, even if it didn't fit. They simply kept the talent alive while simultaneously adding more peices through free agency (Dampier). This isn't a fair standard because the average NBA team cannot afford to follow this blueprint, financially. The team that most impresses me is Phoenix. Their only big free agent signing has been Nash and he wasn't even signed for the max. They've built that juggernaut without even a high lottery pick. Keep in mind that both Stoudemire and Marion were #9 picks in their drafts. They signed Raja Bell to a reasonable deal while the league scoffed, and he has paid off huge. Found Barbosa out of nowhere. Got Tim Thomas off the scrap heap. Landed Diaw and 2 first rounders for Joe Johnson. Absolutely amazing job by their managament. Now you look at Dawson who basically had the only two players worth a damn on his roster fall into his lap. Yao was #1 overall, and they traded 3/5 of their starting lineup for McGrady - not exactly a find. I've defended Dawson and Gundy for the past year because I think they've been responsible with their transactions and I can understand the thinking that went into them. Their downfall over the past year is that they've been out of luck. Stromile Swift was a good signing - that was a risk you had to take given our lack of assets - but it was just unfortunate for them that he is completely worthless. However, a team like Dallas would likely be able to swap Swift for some budding young star while we will probably trade him for some aging journeyman, depreciating the value of our total asset base. The key to Dallas' success has been keeping the value alive, even if it doesn't fit. Because we have nothing to trade, and haven't for the better part of a decade, our biggest problem has been that our scouting has been and is an absolute joke. We simply do not find and develop young players. Guys like Oscar Torres and Chuck Hayes look pretty decent for a year and then the next year they are cut in favor of aging vets. This is while the rest of the league is cultivating their young talent, we bring trash like Rick Brunson off the waiver wire. It is an absolute travesty that a clown like Ryan Bowen was playing heavy minutes in a lost season while we could have been developing ANYONE from the NBDL to give them a look. Same goes for Wesley and Howard. I still support Van Gundy, but this short sighted thinking greatly infuriated me towards the end of last season and left a bad taste in my mouth about this franchise which has yet to leave. I could go on about the blunders of the Rudy administration (having NOTHING to show for 2 drafts with 3 picks, the Maloney/Taylor/Norris contracts) because those are initially what has put this franchise so far behind in terms of talent. It's scary to think that had that ping pong ball not bounced our way in 2001, we would probably have a starting lineup of Cuttino Mobley, Caron Butler, Steve Francis, and two stiffs and probably be amongst the worst teams in the league. I think that we're in luck in that swingman is a very easy position to find at the top of a draft and there are some good ones this year. We absolutely HAVE to hit on this draft pick. If McGrady and Yao are healthy in the future, we will be too good to land another pick this high again, and still not nearly good enough to compete with the elite.
I do agree with the fact that we have to hit with this draft, whether we trade the pick of whether we keep it and draft. We've got to get a starting, contributing, third option player for this team. All that being said, teams like Dallas and Phoenix have taken shortcuts to where they are at today, Dallas by pumping up payroll and Phoenix by signing and drafting athelticism and running a system designed to maximize that athleticism while minimizing defense. Phoenix is a horrid defensive team and will get chewed up by the Eastern opponent IF they get past Dallas. And Dallas is just now starting to improve their defense this year enough to be a true contender. This is after paying thorough the nose for payroll for the last 10 years or so since Cuban has come in there. Cuban is the George Steinbrenner of the NBA. He simply has bought his way to the top. More power to him. Tack $25 million of well thought out additional payroll on to the Rockets for the past couple of years and we are every bit the team that Dallas is. While there is a difference in talent level, we do have 2 of the top 10 players in the NBA on our team. And we have the opportunity to add to that base this offseason. The talent gap will not be that huge come August and I will take our chances with what our front office does. There have only been 6 teams that have won championships over the last 20 years and our guys are one of those 6. It's essentially the same dude in the front office making that happen with the same owner. And we have an owner that is willing to pay the luxury tax, if he can see that it will put us over the top. I think we have the opportunity to look at this year as a blessing in disguise. First of all, we should get a pretty decent player from the draft or by trading the draft pick for good value. Secondly, our weakness was exposed early so we could fix it and fix it right. Thirdly, because of the injuries to McGrady, Yao was finally able to get over the hump and blossom into what we thought he would become. Now, we've got 2 LEGIT first options, who are both unselfish and want to win more than anything. When healthy next year, they will be the BEST 2 player combination in the NBA. Just think about it. When healthy, would you trade McGrady and Yao for any other 2 players on any other team in this league, salaries aside? Nowitzki and Terry?, Duncan and Manu or Duncan and Tony or Shaq and Wade or Lebron and whoever or Kobe and Lamar or KG and whoever or any 2 Piston players, any 2 Suns players, any 2 Clippers??? There may be a fleeting thought to Shaq and Wade but that is just because our guys were hurt. McGrady is better than Wade when healthy and Yao is just as good and in may people's opinions better than Shaq is right now. We're not the Suns, and we are not going to be the Suns. We are not the Mavs and we are not going to be the Mavs. We have our own style, and our own coach, and our own system. And there is more to it than just luck. Last year was an aberration and we need to remember it as such. Add a little bit of perimeter defense, and a third primary scorer to our team and with Van Gundy making a few coaching adjustments, which I think he will make and we will be duking it out with the Spurs and Mavs next year. We will be better than the Suns unless D'Antoni hires a defensive assistant coach that can raise the level of their play defensively and they make a move for a legit post up scoring threat.
Under normal circumstances, I would completely agree with you, but we have the very real possibility that McGrady may never be the same player again. If this was simply the case of T-Mac breaking his hand, Yao dominating, and us picking up Gay or Carney, I would be fine, but due to the nature of the injury and our lack of talent, I am not too optimistic about our future. Does it matter though? Is it really relevant if our top 2 is the best when our next 3 is amongst the worst in the league? Two things: *Yao and McGrady, as great as they are, are no Shaq and Kobe. Yao has his flaws that keep the 2 star model from thriving. Furthermore, we don't even know if McGrady will ever return to that level again and be able to maintain it consistently. *In the new NBA, 5 good players can beat 2 superstars and trash. You can double off the ball and force other guys to beat you. We also have the painful reality that there will be nights that foul trouble or tempo will simple render Yao completely ineffective. You are then down to 1 superstar and trash.
me and my friend were talking about rockets' role players, most of them don't even belong to the NBA. Their shooting mechanics are horrible, most of them lose their balance when they catch the ball.
I can't agree with you here. It's been debated 100 times, but James is a bad ass sixth man, but the wrong guy to pair in a starting line up with Yao and T-Mac. Reefer did a good job. However, it does suck that Reefer can't hit water from a boat.
Well said. I think if there was anyway to get Al Harrington and match him with Yao and T-Mac, how would any team defend the Rox?
Watching the Suns and Mavericks I still don't think anyone but Yao and McGrady would probably make their top 8 rotation. I see reports of the Rocket franchise going up in value from say $200 million to $450 million, yet it is automatically ruled out that the owner could invest an additional 10 or even $25 million in players, which by the way would return perhaps even more than the $25 million. I fail to see how this is good for the fans or even good for the business. What sort of business fails to invest in itself. I'm not sure that Les is much better than the Clipper's owner when all is said and done. Oh well, let's hope for some great luck with cheap players as that seems to be the main strategy. I think Yao should sit down with the owner and say: "I have increased the value of your franchise by at least $100 million", I can increase it more, if you spend some money. Get me some players or I will be gone soon.
You know what, maybe I am just way too optimistic. But I look at it like this. Healthy...T-Mac and Yao are way above and beyond the top two other duos in the league. I believe if they are healthy all year and play to their potential, regardless of the other players on the team, I think we get an eighth seed or seventh seed. Now, we need shooters. I think we need those first before a PG that can penetrate. I truly believe we are not that far away because we have two of the VERY elite players when healthy. Nobody else can say that. Superstars is what get you wins in the post season most times. I understand everyone looks at Dallas and thinks they are what we should be. But lets not forget they almost lost to us last year. They have Nowitzski. We have McGrady...who let me remind you all thoroughly outplayed Dirk last year. Yao has shown that he is the best center right now in the league. We had bad luck this year. Swift was a disaster and maybe we can't recover from it. But our main guys are in their absolute prime...again, hoping that T-Mac and Yao are healthy next year. Personally, the sky is not falling for me right now.
Almu, I hope you are right. Another poihnt. JVG makes me feel pessimistic, too, as we seem to be limited to role players who are noted for defense, whether they can play offense or not. I still wonder if JVG is such a good defensive coach why he cannot take players noted for their offense, but not defense, and turn them into all around players. I don't think you can teach the Ryan Bowens of the world how to score. I think the days of the smash mouth JVG -Knicks bb are dead.
Because we have nothing to trade, and haven't for the better part of a decade, our biggest problem has been that our scouting has been and is an absolute joke. We simply do not find and develop young players. Guys like Oscar Torres and Chuck Hayes look pretty decent for a year and then the next year they are cut in favor of aging vets. This is while the rest of the league is cultivating their young talent, we bring trash like Rick Brunson off the waiver wire. It is an absolute travesty that a clown like Ryan Bowen was playing heavy minutes in a lost season while we could have been developing ANYONE from the NBDL to give them a look. Same goes for Wesley and Howard. I still support Van Gundy, but this short sighted thinking greatly infuriated me towards the end of last season and left a bad taste in my mouth about this franchise which has yet to leave.
