This is probably a badly timed thread -- I don't mean to connect it to this losing streak -- but I thought it was an interesting question. For the past 6-7 years, Carroll Dawson & Rudy T have basically had carte blanche control over the team. Les has pretty much let them make all the decisions -- from Drexler to Barkley to Cato and now Dream, Moochie and Rice. If the team doesn't improve over the next year or two, how long do you all think Les will just sit back? The last several "major signings/trades" -- Cato, Taylor, Moochie, Rice -- have had questionable results so far. Keep in mind that it is VERY early and we have no idea how they will pan out, so don't take this as criticism of all the signings (personally, I like the Taylor signing and liked the Cato signing at the time. I was ambivalent on Rice and didn't care for the Moochie signing). Assuming things DON'T pan out, though, at some point Les would have to say "OK, my money is not being well spent" and put a stop to it. He obviously had some second thoughts this summer with the Rice trade but ended up relenting. How many years do you think Rudy T / Carroll Dawson will (or should) have free reign on the team if there's not some improvement (both in W/L and/or attendance)? Just something to talk about besides "Cato sucks" and "Stop dribbling, Moochie".
Shanna your insight is right on. I thought Pippen,Rice, and Matt Maloney weere all poor decisions, but this is easy for me to second guess. I like Rudy and CD and I think they do the best they can with the team we have. This is a good owner we have- we should be grateful it's not still Charlie Thomas.
Well, there was the Francis trade, the draft pick of Mobley, and subsequent resigning, and the Eddie Griffin coup and Kevin Willis, and Oscar Torres. I saw Rudy and CD have quite a ways to go before they come anywhere close to having job security issues.
<B>Well, there was the Francis trade, the draft pick of Mobley, and subsequent resigning, and the Eddie Griffin coup and Kevin Willis, and Oscar Torres. I saw Rudy and CD have quite a ways to go before they come anywhere close to having job security issues.</B> I agree that they've made some good moves as well. However, if you look at it from Les' point of view (the financial one), attendance is declining and there's a league-wide perception (right or wrong) that the Rockets play a "boring" brand of basketball. In addition, a lot of his money is now going to players like Glen Rice and Kelvin Cato, whereas it used to go to players like Olajuwon, Drexler, and Barkley (fan-favorites, crowd-attractions, etc), or even Cassell, Horry, Maxwell, Smith, Elie, OT, etc who were all more popular than most of the current Rockets. If I was Les, I would be very tempted to interfere the next time my front office wanted to give a long-term contract to a middle-range player (ie, Moochie). In general, this is a bad thing for owners to do, but at the same time, it's their money, and if they aren't getting the type of results they are used to (and Les is spoiled with the instant success of the Rockets & Comets), there must be a temptation to start getting more involved. EDIT: For example, if Rice doesn't get healthy / become the player he was, Rice & Cato will end up costing Les $80 million dollars. He can't be very happy with things like that.
If Rice continues to play poorly, Cato never gets his head on straight, and Moochie continues to play much worse than his contract allows...I would say Rudy/CD have maybe 3 years to vastly improve the team before Les steps in. If we somehow lost Francis to FA, I think the intrusion would be much sooner...and much worse, somehow.
Oh yeah, I understand that whoever wanted him could have just had him on their team Who's to say Webber comes here even had we pursued him? Savremento's situation looked a little better I would think....
That, in my opinion, is the one mistake RT and Cd made. Maybe we wouldn't have landed him for sure but we never even TRIED. The Barkley trade, while i hated giving up Sam, was intended to help them win immediately. And dont forget, Cassell and Horry were both free agents at the end of that year and we would have probably lost one of them anyway. The only other bad move was being loyal to Dream a few years back when Toronto wanted to give up some serious draft picks (and if im not mistaken maybe Mcgrady was part of the deal) for him.
I don't think we ever had a shot at Webber-he wanted everybody in the league to court him, but no none could match Sacramento money. As for the Barkley trade - I think Rudy and CD did that to get us past Seattle, but I wish we could have at least kept Cassell- if nothing else then we could have avoided using Maloney at Point. Think of how much in resources we used to try to get point guards after that- i.e. Brent Price, Bryce Drew, Michael Dickerson, ( fortunately Mobley), and thank goodness for Steve Francis. We tried unsuccesfully to get Damon Stoudemire from as a free agent. He now sits the bench collecting 14mil per year. If we could work a deal to get Greg Anthony, or Eric Snow as point with Moochie to back up, Steve at the 2 guard, with Cat at backup, we would have depth and a more effective attack. In the potential trade with Toronto -the deal involved Olajuwon for Doug Christie. The Rockets problem right now in attendance has more to do with their marketing dept. than coache / GM. Also Houston fans are pretty fickle and would like a championshipe team right this minute, This will take time to build. I think Rudy and CD are light years ahead of the Bulls. And for the money - we have done better than New Jersey, Orlando, New York, and Portland in building a competitive team. Things could be a lot worse. Think of Matt Maloney trying to guard Stephon Marburry in '98.
why did you bring that up? ..Most of us are still having nightmares about that...I hope and pray a Rockets team will never see such an ugly situation ever again...
Webber is overrated..Look how well the Kings are doing without him. I could name 5 players at his position os similar positions i would prefer to him. While I agree Maloney was a bad move, the Pippen was move was brilliant at the time and he definetely jumped the gun on Cato but I belive we have the best staff in basketball.
What was all that malarkey about our lost interest in Webber because we were able to draft Griffin? Griffin, predicatably, is buried "out of" the rotation. Had we Webber at the 4 and KT/Rice/Walt manning the 3, we'd be okay. Griffin would back Webber for now; MoT and TMo/Langhi would work into the mix next year. All that said, I don't think Webber would have come here.... BTW, wasn't Eric Snow once on the Rocket's roster? We can never pry him away from Philly now. Why are HOUSTON fans so fickle with regards to attendance?
Other than Duncan and Garnett, there isn't a 4 in the league that even comes close to his all around ability.
I would disagree...I think Antonio Mcd. is better than webber as is Dirk (if you consider him a PF), Wallace (minus the attitude)..I really just have not bought into the Webber hype. Perhaps I stand to be corrected, I just don't see him as someone you can carry a team on his own like alot of other stars can do in this league.
