RealGM

Please bear with me,this is going to be a long post.
The basic belief behind this post is Morey is doing something revolutionary in that he's putting the supporting cast in place and then looking for the Superstar that will make the team a contender for yrs to come.

Championship teams usually have a dominant elite player who leads them to a title. It can be a big man,or a wing. It's harder for bigs to be the Guy as teams can more easily collapse inside to defend them. The bigs have to be either too quick(Dream),too strong(Shaq) or too skilled(Kareem,Duncan) so they can still defeat the defense.
Usually to be the GUY,he has to be an unstoppable scorer,have an unquenchable will to win,the ability-and willingness-to make the right pass,and he has to be exceptional at another aspect of the game-defense,passing,rebounding.
And it so much easier on the Guy if there is a complementary Star teammate. The rest of the team needs to be filled w/complementary players who will defend,rebound,make open shots and someone needs to be able to carry the offense for short stretches so the Guy can save some energy for crunch time.
Teams can get the Guy by drafting him,trading for him or signing him as a FA.
When you trade for a GUY you tend to strip your team of talent. Drafting one usually means you s***. In either case a team needs a few yrs to get the supporting cast in place. To sign one as a FA you have to be far enough under the cap to do so,which often means you have no depth.
Should you draft a potential GUY you can either try to win now by acquiring pricey vet talent(Cavs and LeBron,Heat w/Wade) or you can accept being bad for a couple of more yrs,draft wisely,add good,young talent and let them grow together(Blazers and Roy,OKC and Durrant).

Now let's look at the Rockets roster.(Please note,I'm assuming the young players turn out to be what they were drafted for.)
As everyone has noted,w/out Yao and McGrady there are no stars. BUT,the roster is filled w/talented,young complementary players at affordable salaries.
At point the lightning-quick Brooks who can shoot 3s and score on the go and Lowry,a physically tough defender who attacks the rim.
On the wings we have the perfect complemetary player in Ariza(shoot the open 3,slashes,rebounds,runs,excellent defender),the glue guy in Battier,the 6th Man in Budinger,the scorer in Taylor and the disposable energy player in White.
Manning the bigs we have the Rock in Scola,the sniper in Andersen,the defender in Hayes,the rebounder/shot-blocker in Dorsey and the hi-energy,hi-wire guy in Landry.
Yao coming back in 2010 adds the Complementary Star.
Throw in a player-friendly coach w/a proven offensive system that creates space to work in and all that's missing is the GUY.
What Morey is doing is assembling a team that if/when he finds the GUY can contend immediately,and not have to wait while pieces are being added. While everyone else tries to get the Guy and then build around him,Morey is blazing a new trail and getting everything else in place first,and then going after the GUY.
(For example,put Wade on the 2010 Rockets and there isn't another team in the League w/more talent from top to bottom. Now imagine Bosh-or whoever-in either Miami or NY and Wade. Still major holes on either team that will take a yr or more to come close to filling. If Wade wants to win now-and it seems he does-who offers a better chance,Hou,Chi,NY or Miami?)
However,keeping the players I've listed prevents the Rockets from signing an established Star FA. So either Morey can draft one,or trade for one that hasn't become obvious he's a GUY-type(which is why the Rockets went after Rubio) or it all comes back to You Know Who.

If McGrady can come back early and healthy enough to lead the Rockets not only into the Playoffs but to winning a Series or two,he'll prob get a 1-2 yr contract extension,giving the team time to look for a replacement. If he doesn't,the team can try and package him in a sign-n-trade w/some draft picks for someone's Guy who's ready to walk.
If Morey wants a championship he's not trading McGrady for a one-trick player(ie shooters such as Hamilton or Redd),he's going to hold out for a Guy-type or the chance to draft one.

One possible wild card is Taylor. If his UCF fans are right,and he looks like an embryonic Guy thru the first half of the season,the Rockets are so freakin' set,w/only a scoring wing off the bench needed. While I think it unlikely,if it happens Les will put up a shrine to Morey in the Toyota Center

As a general rule i don't read posts longer than 150 words. Summarize.

ugh - I'm so tired of posts like this

How many teams could win a title if they had "the GUY"?...not very many (including us)
How many people THINK their teams could win a title if they had "the GUY"?... most people (including you)
How hard is it to get "the GUY"...damn near imposible

What Morey is doing is assembling a team that if/when he finds the GUY can contend immediately,and not have to wait while pieces are being added. While everyone else tries to get the Guy and then build around him,Morey is blazing a new trail and getting everything else in place first,and then going after the GUY.

Right, cause most GMs just sit on the couch eating chicken noodle soup until they find "the GUY" - THEN they try and improve the talent on their teams.

(Please note,I'm assuming the young players turn out to be what they were drafted for.)As everyone has noted,w/out Yao and McGrady there are no stars. BUT,the roster is filled w/talented,young complementary players at affordable salaries.
At point the lightning-quick Brooks who can shoot 3s and score on the go and Lowry,a physically tough defender who attacks the rim.
On the wings we have the perfect complemetary player in Ariza(shoot the open 3,slashes,rebounds,runs,excellent defender),the glue guy in Battier,the 6th Man in Budinger,the scorer in Taylor and the disposable energy player in White.
Manning the bigs we have the Rock in Scola,the sniper in Andersen,the defender in Hayes,the rebounder/shot-blocker in Dorsey and the hi-energy,hi-wire guy in Landry.
Yao coming back in 2010 adds the Complementary Star.

I see - so ASSUMING that EVERY player that is on our roster turns out to be an ideal championship piece, ASSUMING that our perennial all-star comes back new and improved, and ASSUMING we acquire a player who:

is an unstoppable scorer, has an unquenchable will to win,the ability-and willingness-to make the right pass,and is an exceptional at another aspect of the game-defense,passing,rebounding.

then we have a shot at winning the championship?

you're good

Sorry, I'm just tired of posts like this. Nothing personal.

Jet17,
Sorry you feel this way. I was trying to point out that Morey is trying something new-getting the supporting cast in place and then try and get the Superstar.
Yeah,I said I assumed the rookies and young player would develope-that's what this season is all about. Some might not pan out-but isn't it better to find out now than to rely on them when the Rockets are going for a title?

As to how many teams can win,in the past 10 yrs,6 different teams have won titles and another 6 differ teams made the Finals. 12 out of 30 is 40% of the League made the Finals in the past 10 yrs. Not once in the 2000s have BOTH teams from one Finals made it back to the next Finals.

tisbee wrote:I was trying to point out that Morey is trying something new-getting the supporting cast in place and then try and get the Superstar.

Wasn't a bad post, though it didn't require that much of a setup to say it (and yes, you can completely disregard that sentence if you like, considering who's saying it). I think the Clippers halfway tried something like that in the 90s, but then just quit, rather than spending on a franchise guy.

The reason it likely hasn't been tried much before is because it doesn't make as much sense. It's easier to plug pinholes, in theory, than to plug an archway. If you run out of cap/tax space after signing your star and as many supporting players as you can get, well then you may still have a shot and, at the very least, a marketable face. Building from the supporting cast up doesn't make much sense because one of either your team will probably suck, or one those guys will have to take over and handle the bulk of the scoring (we don't really seem to have that situation, but our team is VERY unusual), which means he's going to get paid. Really, it means everyone has a better shot at getting paid, since they're all going to have inflated scoring and rebounding stats due to increased usage. Now, you either have little cap space to sign 'the guy', or you lose your supporting cast that you painstakingly built. Since the supporting casts' contracts are small, you can't trade for him. There just aren't as many inroads to acquire someone after you've spent all your cap space. Not only that, but you either don't have a primary skill requirement, or it leaves you with a limited set of players, and an even more limited set of options (agents and teams will know this, and hang you out to dry for it). In other words, good luck at being INCREDIBLY sneaky, because you're going to need it.

I wouldn't say he's deliberately trying anything, so much as he's been backed into a corner by ill fate and is trying, through consistently solid and/or brilliant moves, to keep afloat by all means available. What are his other options right now, really?
- He can't trade anyone for a role player, we're set on those.
- He can't trade them for a name, their contracts are too small, we'd have to gut the team and likely wouldn't get good value for doing it.
- He can't Tracy and Yao get healthy, cause uh, gremlins. (no, I didn't leave a word out, I indistinctly verbed a phrase)
- He can try to trade one or both of our two guys, but isn't likely to find a buyer right now. The teams (losers) that usually buy contracts like theirs are all broke right now, and/or wanting to wait until the trade deadline (there's not much reason not to) and moreover, Yao is probably not either permissible or reasonable to be moved.
- Which leaves... taa daa. (arguments above are not necessarily well-formed, but I think this conclusion is pretty obviously the only viable route that doesn't involve the r-word, which would currently be an epic fail of McHalean proportions)