Or to be more general, who is to blame for the state of mediocrity this franchise has found itself in for the better part of a decade? I'm sorry, but I'm just not in the mood to participate in the numerous free agent threads as I still have a terribly bitter taste in my mouth after Wednesday night. I admire everyone's enthusiasm regarding the impending signing of a Fred Jones-esque acquisition, but it will take alot more than that for me to get excited about this upcoming season. The only way for me to deal with my anger is to channel out my frustration upon one responsible individual. Immature, yes, but highly effective. So who was most to blame for Wednesday night and in general, who is most to blame for the sorry state this franchise has been in for almost a decade? [To avoid confusion, the latter query is simply for discussion purposes, while the former is the basis of the poll question.] Carrol Dawson - I don't think Dawson can directly be blamed except for the fact that it is becoming clearer and clearer that he is and always has been spineless. He has basically just been a puppet throughout his tenure as GM. All of the moves made by this organization have directly reflected a certain ideology held by either Rudy or Gundy. The overpaying for marginal players in Rudy's case and the acquiring of broken down, aging players while diminishing the value of younger players in Gundy's case. One should also question his negotiating skills. Have the Rockets ever made a trade under Dawson where you thought, "wow, we totally robbed the other team." Even for McGrady and Steve Francis from Vancouver, we paid market value. Who can ever forget giving away a 1st round draft pick in order to trade away a valuable commodity in Glen Rice's expiring contract? You never see him pull off the Mark Cubanesque 'acquire a star for complete garbage' trade. However, Dawson's greatest crime is his lack of a spine. As general manager, why is he so quick to acquiesce to the demands of the coach rather than using some foresight of his own? Morey - Was Moneyball to blame? Looking at Battier's 82games.com rating, Morey's influence is obvious. I don't think the principles of Moneyball directly translate to success in basketball as they do in baseball. There are too many factors in basketball that can go unaccounted for statistically which do not exist in baseball. Les - Is Les to blame? Not for Wednesday night, he wasn't. For the most part, Alexander has always been willing to pay for top free agents to try and build a winning team. However, if he is going to stand by and allow is front office to spin this "win now" bullsh*t, he had better be ready to wade near the luxury tax this year and take on some undesireable contracts. You can't tell us you're trying to win now and then stay stingy trotting out NBDL rejects. Those still angry about the firing of Calvin Murphy or still recovering from the Cynthia Cooper era should feel free to vent here also. Gumby - This b*stard was responsible. I don't buy his quotes in the Chronicle for one second. JVG is to blame for the trade. He knew he only had one year left on his contract to win or else he would be canned, and he mortgaged our future because of it. I was his biggest supporter from day one, but I will never forgive him for this crime unless we win the championship. It's also troubling that Miami winning the title probably only strengthened his convictions. Rudy - Not Gay, but Tomjanovich. He is as much to blame for the sorry state of the Rockets post-Olajuwon as anyone. His irresponsible handouts to the likes of Maloney, Taylor, Cato, and Norris set this franchise back and they still haven't been able to recover as evidenced by our lack of depth. Two summers with 3 draft picks each, the squandering of $10million of cap space, the list goes on. He wasn't to blame for Wednesday night, obviously.
Would u guys just give it up, the trade will be official on July 12th. TMAC and YAO realize we cant wait around for 3 years for Rudy Gay to develop, TMAC and YAO are 27 and 26 respectivly, and TMAC doesnt have the greatest back, and by getting Shane Battier, we get a good defender and good 3 point shooter, also we get riod of Stromile Swift, who ws downright terrible and a dissapointment last season, he skipped team meetings, was late for practice, was soft, and was suspended by the team a few times. Plus the rockets never wanted Gay, cause they now they cant wait 3 seasons for Gay to develop, but had we gotten Roy, who was a senior coming out, and is NBA ready. Plus Shane can play the 2, 3 and 4, so i think this was a good trade.
It's not about waiting for Rudy Gay to develop. This board is going to completely crazy whenever Rockets play Mavs next season. Mavs drafted Ager with the 28th pick and people here will go nuts about not getting the 24th pick out of this trade.
There's definitely plenty of blame to go around, including RudyT. Good post. This franchise has stunk for way too long now.
how about that: no single person is to blame, but instead all of them? they all discussed our strategy and came to the conclusion that we have to win now. you can blame this on cd, who obviously was not much more than a negotiator and a puppet. you can blame jvg for the way the team is composed. you can blame les for not spending enough money on the right players. you can blame rudy t for spending too much money on average players. and you can probably blame morey a little for aquiring shane battier. the truth is, if we don't make significant progress within the next year the rockets are better off with firing jvg, the retirement of cd and les selling the team. not one single person is to blame, it's the whole organization.
Exactly. We moneyball-ed Battier as a better pick than Gay. Moneyball stats can cost up to $30K/month and Cuban was in on the ground floor. You can bet Cuban and the Mavs found Ager to be a nice little pickup that we missed out on.
So you think Battier was the missing piece? This team as it stands right now has only 3 players that would be starters in any other team. How about the bench? We probably have one player that is worth coming off the bench and we already want to trade him also. You must be dreaming about this team. I am not saying that Gay would have been better, but at least there was some hope for the future. This team no matter who we bring, is not going to win in the next 2 years.
Give what up? 75% of us voted the trade was terrible. What do you think most of the posts on the board are going to be about right now?
JVG and Dawson would be my votes, but because I could pick only one I picked Dawson for caving in to JVG. I hate the arguements that we have to win now, there shouldn't be much decline between 27 and 30 for TMac or Yao. When they're getting up to their mid 30's is when you would expect decline to begin, not their early 30's.
Wow... To blame JVG is totally absurd. I thought everyone here kept up with the Rockets pretty extensively. Every sports analyst in Houston (SR 610, Feigen, McClain, even Richard *beepin* Justice) reported with no gray area that JVG would have nothing to do with the draft being that its a contract year, for him. Blaming Van Gundy is a great insight to ones actual coverage of this team. Blaming anyone really doesnt make any sense if you look at our superstar players ages. Anyone who blames the organization for the "Win now" mentality really needs to stand back and take another glance.
very good post, although i must say, they won on the francis from vancuver deal. maybe they gave up some picks. after that is when it really started to go downhill. the funny thing is, everyone was so pumped up and ready to forgive, not just for mcgrady, but for bob sura, jon barry, david wesley, and then even getting luther head, dropping taylor's and moochie's contract. and now it has all gone down hill again. if the rockets don't make it out the first round next year, they really need to evaluate their long-term plans.
I don't know. It might not just be one person, but a combination of all those you have listed except Rudy T. =/ I don't see why you have to drag him into this.
Wrong! JVG is a stubborn, stubborn man who has not been able to develop youth. He has stubborn substitution patterns (all the Ryan Bowen moments from last season were painful, overplaying Wesley, etc.) and no offensive sets. He gave playing time to Luther and Hayes last season but what choice did he have? JVG has stated on numerous occassions that he would trade the draft pick if he could, but Morey and CD wouldn't let him do that. Basically what JVG does is swing the ball from the left side to the right side on offense, and sets up an exhaustive zone trapping scheme which has Yao responsible for guarding 2 men on many posessions. While I don't question his ability to control the pace of the game, or his knowledge of the game, he wants certain types of players on the floor. Mainly players that don't make mistakes, and follow his instructions to the T. Swift is another example of a player JVG had no patience for. Hence the veteran look this team has taken on over the last 2 years. Draft day arrives, and it becomes clear a trade for Roy will not go down with Portland trading for the 7th pick. The Rockets panic knowing that Gay won't have close to the immediate impact Roy would have had on the team. Being so poor at evaluating talent throughout the years (especially Carroll Dawson), they take the most reliable offer on the table: Shane Battier. JVG is ecstatic and probably suggests throwing Luther Head in the trade. Why they could not increase their end of the bargain, we will probably never know. Why they couldn't get Mike Miller out of this deal, in exchange for Luther and the trade exception, or a future 1st, is beyond me. We received a very good player but that doesn't change the fact that this a TERRIBLE trade pushed through by JVG to save his own ass. Excellent post, thacabbage.
How many threads can we start with the same basic topic Are we stating that Gay was the future? or the trade value for Gay & Stro was to low (which i agree) As Clutch and others have posted, more then one team did not want Gay with their picks.
