Do any of you guys honestly believe CD has so much power that he made all the decisions regarding player movement over the past 6 years? In case no one knows, there were three guys who made the decisions regarding players on this team: Les, Rudy and CD. The way it went was Rudy would find a player he liked, he and CD would discuss it, they would make a decision and then go to Les to get the final ok. Their scouting and coaching staff were also in on the decision making process. CD has NEVER been the final say so in any transaction. His primary responsibility isn't even scouting the talent. His main job is discussing the possibilities with the coach and the owner and then making their wishes happen by making the deals or getting the contracts signed. But ALL contracts, transactions, draft picks, etc. go through Les before they get signed, done or selected. I'm not saying CD doesn't have culpability in this situation. He is as much to blame as Rudy and Les for the personnel decisions that went wrong and he deserves as much of the praise as they do for the good decisions. The problem is: will firing CD really make any impact on the personnel decisions? In reality, it would make very little impact on the type of talent drafted, signed in free agency or traded for. JVG has (just as Rudy HAD) a HUGE amount of say in the player selections now. It isn't as if he just has to play with the players that are handed to him. Rudy didn't either. He is involved in every aspect of the process. So is Les. So, if you consider our personnel decisions bad one's over the past 5 or 6 years and you want to fix the problem, firing CD probably isn't the answer.
History is History. We had these bad moves and contract. The way we are justifing the Rockets front office is how they handle the trades and moves if we miss the playoff again this year. Honestly, I am not confident for their playoff berth this year. Bulls removed Rose, their #1 options last two years. Cavaliers traded Ricky Davis, their #1 scorer for making space and leader status for Lebron James. I believe Lebron deserves it. He can shoot, pass, rebound. What rockets can do if they miss the playoff this year? That's the way we watch CD.
I think as a gm ,cd is middle of the pack. He makes good moves and he's had some poor ones also, but the problem that has been as of late is not being able to get rid of mistakes. Dallas knew it made a mistake signing Raef and as soon as he came off byc, he was gone for a all star type player in Walker. Not only that but Dallas also got another all star type player in Jamison for NVE. With all that , i think his biggest mistake to date is the way he used Glen Rice contract and got nothing for it. In this day and age with teams trying to clear cap room or just geta expiring contract, he got John Amechi in return. Jerry west uses wesley person contract and get Bonzi Wells while CD gets John Amechi. He probably could have gotten SAR for Rice contract and Eddie Griffin before all the havoc broke. Now after 3 yrs of disappointment, he released Griffin. Basically, since the last championship in 95, the Rockets have had 2 season in which the had 3 draft picks in 1 rd and at least 1 pick in every rd except last yr. of those people drafted, only 3 are still with the rockets.
Jeff - I agree about the scouting but if were CD, I would be looking for some new scouts. One thing CD should be held accountable for is the contracts and trades. Maloney (IMO) was a wink-wink deal so, I give him a pass on that. Cato isn't too bad for height and skills vs money. MoT same. Not trading Eddie was a mistake - but that was up to the coach (Rudy). But Moochie's contract and the Rice trade are just 2 that I can think of that are going to saddle this team for years. IMO, because Moochie makes so much, they won't shop for another player. And because he is the only pg backup, Steve gets too much playing time which effects his efficiency and removes his motivation. If Steve plays poorly what's JVG to do - pull him and put in Mooch?
Maloney, Moochie, Cato and Taylor were all under Rudy's watch and were all absolutely endorsed by Les Alexander. CD didn't pick all those guys on his own or make the decision to give them big contracts. Rice's trade was done because Les did not want to go over the luxury tax threshold BUT the team wanted to sign Eric Piatkowski. Dealing Rice gave them the room to sign Pike without going over the tax limit. I'm not trying to defend CD. If I thought he was the problem with all this, I'd be calling for his ouster as well. I do have a problem with the huge contracts for the aforementioned guys and I thought the Rice deal was a waste. But, if you really want the problem solved, you have to look at the WHOLE problem. CD is just one small part of it. Granted, he IS partially responsible, but firing him doesn't fix their problems and I'm more interested in real solutions than just indescriminate firings or trades to make us feel better.
Maybe Les should put someone between himself and CD like Tal Smith for the Astros, although I don't know how much authority Tal has over Hunsinker. Also, Les should realize that giving a coach too much control over player personnel decisions almost never works in any sport. Rudy T hit some home runs early, but his overall track record wasn't good in that department in the long run. This is the first Houston team I can remember rooting for that was overwhelmed with bad contracts.
Part of it is that we don't really know what JVG wants and we won't know until the end of this season. He is the equivalent of a college coach in his first season. He's playing with another coach's recruits. That doesn't mean he'll deal away the whole team, but I'm pretty sure that he has his own ideas of what will work and what won't.
Good points. It will be interesting to see what types of players JVG wants to add to this team. Seems like the players such as Pike, A Griffin and JJ are the types of players JVG wanted to add to the team. With the Trade Exception and this summer and some of our tradable assets in Mobley etc it will be intersting to see if the team makes any moves. The only thing that has me worrying is that if Les was worried about the Luxary Tax in the Rice trade then perhaps that same mindset might prevent us from getting a really good player in the offseason.
That shouldn't be an issue. This was in the Chron last week... Luxury tax could be gone after 2004-05 By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle The NBA extended its collective bargaining agreement with the Players Association as a matter of course. This was assumed since the day the deal was done in January 1999. No one noticed. The league and union leaders even said they were encouraged to be talking about the next contract long before they will need it. Whatever. The real victory came when union chief Billy Hunter tried to complain. "I'm still not a fan of the luxury tax," he said, as if he could not think of anything else. And nothing could have been a greater sign that there might be labor peace leading into the next deal. The NBA has quietly let teams know there probably will not be a luxury tax after the 2004-05 season, the last season of the deal. The tax is triggered by a formula that considers basketball-related income and players' salaries. Income is expected to reach the point that there will be no tax. Union leaders love a good fight, or they would not be good union leaders. But Hunter will have a hard time rallying the troops to fight a tax that does not exist. Next summer, teams are expected to be willing to spend without the fear of a tax hit after the following season. A few big contracts and the usual amount of player movement, and Hunter will have a hard time convincing players to start over. Calls to the Players Association were not returned. The NBA, meanwhile, thinks it has a pretty good thing going. And if the timing was not good enough, the league and its players can watch the NHL stab itself all summer and learn from that lesson in time for their next negotiation. Then there really might be labor peace. Forget that. Leagues never learn from mistakes in fighting labor battles. But the luxury tax thing is a good sign. "We have told the teams there is a substantial question about whether there will be a luxury tax after that season," NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said. "It's difficult to predict because of the way system works. Some years we will have the tax, some years not. The tax is only kicked in if after everything else shows we are paying out too much revenue, too large a percentage to the players. If the deal is working, and it stays at the appropriate percentage, we won't." The league has no real control over whether there will be a tax that year. But it can let the teams know they can relax a bit and then truthfully argue "the deal is working."
In fairness to CD most of the above is probably Les's fault. If he didn't become a cheap ass since lucking into Yao (which restored fans and national interest to the Rockets we otherwise would not deserve) CD would look better. But Les' has allowed the financial mistakes hurt us even though like everyone else we could use an MLE and match our RFA if we wanted to--where as a good owner like Cuban just goes out and makes the moves to give his team the best chances to win regardless of costs. The last 6 months this has been crystal clear with losing KT, #2 pick, than Posey, and other bad personnelle/good bottom line trades, just to make Les more money. So as far as bad personelle moves the last few years--I would say Les 50%, CD 25%, Rudy 25%.
Yeah, I saw a Stienline article on that as well. Seeing this makes me even MORE upset about the Rice deal. I mean, we make the deal to get under the LT and then we hear that the LT wont be triggered? Nice work! I like the trade exception more than most so I am not TOTALLY soured on that trade but we have to get something for it. Rice's expiring contract (while I think many of us might have OVER VALUED it) still have some value to bring in a player. The Rice deal can only be reviewed until we see if we use the T.E. This team needs one more "star" type player and a few more quality role players.
