Exactly! I'm not saying we wouldn't have to make sacrifices, but hell you can't make any moves without significant trade offs. They failed to prioritize and banked on being healthy when he came back the entire time. How many people I thought we would take for sure is appalling. Morey can't get a steal every damn time, but that doesn't mean he doesn't address the immediate concerns of the team. It was clear he wasn't on track as most of us had thought about some masterplan when we rushed to sign ariza to a stupid deal for the sake of making a move to provide some closure.
Prime Deke was an All-Star caliber, if not HoF player. If you want someone like him backing up Yao, prepare for disappointment. And Deke was a very reliable back-up center, and can you explain why he wasn't?
Ever since Les got a taste he's been dedicated to winning rings. Every other year he is facilitating blockbuster deals. Did Mo Taylor, Derek Anderson, or Scottie Pippen pan out? No... but we'd all have done the same (except the Mo Taylor thing, he was a sexy prospect, but I would have stayed loyal to Dream cuz I'm a sucker like that). He has barely scratched the surface with Morey. Let it ride... it'll happen. Yao + McGrady are two monumental (almost humorlessly debilitating) setbacks. Most GM's couldn't survive that disaster much less find a way to build around it. I don't know how the hell Morey has built around the debacle that has been Yao/McGrady the past few years but it is impressive. He simply has more patience than the average fan. Looks like Les is smart enough to see the big picture. At least someone is...
Man... me sorry for ruining valuable and insightful thread. Me hater. Me unconditional hater. Idiot ****ing coming in here insulting everyone who isn't groaning and moaning as "unconditional management supporter" and then starts crying when people shockingly make sarcastic remark.
Thats your problem dude. Your looking at it from the wrong perspective. Rather than questioning their indecisiveness you just can't look past the moves that kept a sinking ship afloat. I find the big picture analogy quite ironic. Refer back to the points I made and you will see its just the opposite. They tried to close their eyes and pretend we weren't going under. Putting more and more at stake.
Your not supposed to talk like that remember, its not your shtick. Some people may not think your cool any more, keep the cloak on.
I can't remember exactly but during tonight's game didn't Morey say something like Yao and TMAC played 70 something games together over the last 4 YEARS. Look no further, we went out and got Artest to form our "big 3" but the other big 2 broke down. Should we have played Yao less, sure, but he was the franchise...we needed him and his body failed him and the team.
Clutch, thanks for allowing me to express my opinion by the way. I realize it rivals those of many on this board and will not be popular by any means.
Management has prepared the team for a rebuilding post-Yao phase by getting younger and shedding the team of bad contracts. And I expect they will add a defensive center to the squad before the trade deadline. They had Mutombo, arguably the best backup C in the league, a couple years ago. Before last year, they pursued Gortat but let it go after they found out the Magic would match. Don't know who is the other C you have in mind that they should have pursued. This past year, they tried to trade for Chandler, and they tried to sign Dampier. Neither worked out. I suppose you could fault them for that, but its not like they've completely ignored the issue.
would he force the trade here before or after Amar'e walked over to the knicks during the summer? and i remember Deke stepping in and getting his 10 + boards and 2 blocks a game when he got extended minutes...gotta be crazy to suggest he wasn't more than a solid NBA back up center. He was better than over half the starting centers at the time. i dont think there's many unconditional supporters...people just stay optimistic about the future and are glad we didnt suck for 10 straight years. We have a young enough core to rebuild very quickly. If you think we're all happy with first round exits, then i dont know what to tell ya, other than you're wrong.
There are only a handful of franchises that have done as well or better job at staying relevant than the Rockets in th last 20 years. Los Angeles and San Antonio have done better, maybe the Suns and Heat can be argued for being equal. Boston, nope, one title doesn't erase a decade bad moves. Again and again the ownership of the Rockets has taken a chance to make the big trade, sign the free agent, and stay in the playoff hunt. Sure there have been some bad years, but compared to the terrible streaks that other teams have gone through it's not even close. Bag on Yao and the dedication the Rockets showed him all you want, but when a team does not make the conference finals and it's called a disappointment?... yeah that means the team is actually good. It means the organization had pieces to win a title. Who's management would you rather have? Denver, Utah, Portland, Orlando? How have they done a better job? The Rockets try to stay competitive and have done amazing jobs rebuilding over the years. I for one would rather be a fan of an organization I know will always do it's best to win. I cringe every time I read a post like this because it reminds me of the fans that were actually happy when Houston lost the Oilers. Yeah, I'm sure some of you remember those people. Criticize the Rockets all you want, they are not perfect and I wish they would have cut Yao's minutes like everyone else. But respect a franchise that tries to win for it's city. It's not as common as you'd like to think.
The thing about the NBA is that it takes a lot of luck to be able to make that big move for a superstar. You either have to be bad enough to land one in the lottery or you have to be in the right place when one is disgruntled. SA's front office is regarded very highly but how highly would their franchise be regarded if they didn't tank and land Duncan? The Lakers got lucky when Memphis wanted to dump Gasol and they had the right mix in Kwame's expiring and cheap assets (M.Gasol, draft picks). The Rockets were in the right place and had the pieces to make a move when McGrady became disgruntled. Morey has been collecting a lot of assets and putting the Rockets in the right place to make a move but unfortunately Melo doesn't want to be here. It really takes a lot of luck when one of these franchise players become available. I feel your frustration that we aren't anywhere close to being a contender but teams aren't just giving away their franchise player away? What move could be made to make this team into a contender? Sure they could have brought a more serviceable center in, but that still wouldn't have brought them much closer to contending.
There are things they could have done differently and are still in the process of doing. As a fan i voice my opinion but in truth they are positioning themselves still. Cant complain as long as they are not standing pat with what we have or not forward with Yao after this year is over. Which I have no idea which is the truth. Everytime a benificial upgrade is available I like to let it be known that would help our team. If it turns out to be right it would have? Then well they hear about it. Like the Amare Stoudemire deal we missed out on at the 11th hour. Now as of this year it looks bad but in the future it might not. To me we are doing much better than we should be with Yaos catostrophic injuries. Tmacs departure. There is complacency within the fanbase for the team to make moves but thankfully Morey is smarter than them. I do cringe when they say Morey is a genius though. He is good at keeping us afloat with this situation. Genius is something he will have to earn with me through success in the playoffs. Not just his player trades/moves or lack there of. I think he is actually setting things in motion more than some of us think. So far his grade is incomplete. Just doing my job cheering on and pointing out the players I want him to go after. If you think about it? Sometimes the trade suggestions are actual flattery to what people think Morey is capable of. I wouldnt suggest a trade if I think Morey couldnt get it done. I would just stay quiet. His actual ability to makes upgrades is what prompts people to post suggestions and players and is actually a compliment without calling him a genius. Not a put down for the moves he didnt do. Just reminders of moves he could have done and still can do others. If it wasnt true? People would just call him names and say he cant get anything done all the time. He can get things done though. This time with Yao and these assets he built up into still a good team? Is the potential time to show that. Its easy to compliment without any critical observation. Its harder but also better for the person that you compliment and observe their flaws for them at the appropriate times. One way breeds apathy. The other way breeds getting better and working harder. You figure out which one works.
Yao hasn't played over 30 minutes in 18 months and he still got injured. They stopped all activity for a year for him and he still got reinjured. They gave him 18 months of rest and limited him to 24 minutes or less a game. He got injured in the first month. Should they have waited 2 years? Should they have limited him to 18 minutes a game? If he can't stay healthy to 24 minutes or less as a role player, how can he lead them to a ring?
I think everyone here's missing the point. True Beaner is correct. What the Rockets SHOULD'VE done, of course, was to tank each and every year for the past decade. See, the reason why we can't win a ring is because we keep getting crappy on the "wrong" years. So to remedy that, we needed to be consistent... consistently crappy each and every year. Lebron, Wade, Melo, CP3, DWill, Durant, Dwight Howard, etc. were all players the Rockets could've had... if only Management weren't thinking about winning back then. If only they thought that by consistently sucking, they could've gotten maybe 2-3 of the guys mentioned above. See, that's what you get for tanking EVERY YEAR. You have a much better chance at getting the stars. Screw Les for thinking about getting into the playoffs one year after getting the #1 pick. He needed to think long term back then.
