They did get him to drop the player option for this year, so there's that on the + side of the deal...
Yea I don't remember the last time a player massively dropped off like this from one year to the next.
Exactly. This is a very important part of the deal. They new the risks involved in acquiring Lawson and didn't want that salary digging into this year either if it didn't work out. The Rockets had to roll the dice here. The Rockets crapped out, but to me it was worth it. If anyone says they saw Lawson's fall being as great as it was is probably not being honest.
The trade would have still been ok even with Lawson flopping if we had done the right thing and bowed out of a playoff spot when we could clearly see we weren't going anywhere.
+1 I still don't understand what happened to the guy. This wasn't like a sophomore slump or an injury or he was older and finally hit a major decline. This was a proven scorer and one of the best assist men in the game in his prime who suddenly looked like he didn't belong in the league. Truly baffling though I suppose it had to be the alcohol.
funny he still resides here and basically parties Tues-Sunday. Go to "The House" 'on Washington and he's usually partying with hookers. Same thing he was doing while he was a Rocket.
I cannot completely disagree with this, but here are a couple thoughts. I agree with what you say mainly because we would have kept our first round pick. It could be that Morey and company didn't care enough to have the pick that would eat into the cap for a player that probably would not contribute next year. Could the pick have been traded or maybe draft a euro stash talent? Sure. Maybe the thinking was the Rockets felt like their best chance in the offseason was to attract two max players to improve. At some point it was pretty obvious that the Rockets would be playing the Warriors. If the Rockets had a strong showing against them, it may be an easier sell. Rockets to player X..."Hey KD, look what we did against the Warriors . With you and insert player we feel like this will be the team to take the Warriors down and be championship caliber". It may be a little tougher sell to go to a losing team. Not saying this is or was the case, I'm just trying to think of what the mindset of the organization could have been. Hell, it could have just been Morey needing to make the playoffs to save his backside. I really don't know.
Yeah ok. Sell a 5-game non-competitive thumping. I'm sorry to be so crass. But it's painfully obvious now that we need new ownership. Less is a meddler and he's not aging well at all. He totally hamstrung us with that crapshoot make the playoffs at all cost mantra. We could be sitting here today with a prime asset to help us re-tool quickly. This was all about our irrational little nit wit owner's misguided, twisted, and confused understanding of what winning really is.
LMFAO No.... a new owner isn't going to move the Rockets out of Houston. Houston is likely to become the 3rd largest city in the next 25-30 years, has an excellent economic outlook and a young population. There is no place that would long term increase the value of the franchise like Houston.
This is one of the two picks the Rockets already had. We just now known *which* pick it is. Rockets will have: 43rd pick (from DEN - Lawson trade) Pick in 44-46 range, subject to coinflips (from POR - Robinson trade)
