Rockets get Kudos for best off-season in NBA
According to ESPN.COM's John Hollinger, a team from Texas has had the best off-season of all in the NBA, and it is our own Houston Rockets.
Improvement. That's the name of the game in the off season, and it comes in all shapes and sizes. Teams can get better in a variety of ways -- through holdover players raising their games, through trimming dead wood from the previous season's roster, or by adding talent through the draft, trades or free agency. And sometimes, it doesn't even take any of that -- it just takes a different general on the sidelines pulling it all together.
But one thing remains constant: Standing pat is a formula for failure. In a business in which careers tend to be brief, it's imperative to constantly bring in new blood. Just ask the Miami Heat, who were so giddy about winning a championship in 2006 that they brought back the same roster last season -- and watched their aging crew fail to win a single playoff game in one of the weaker title defenses in league history.
The thing is, he is so right. Even when the Rockets won the championship in 1994, they made changes, which included trading for Clyde Drexler, and that helped propel them to a second title. But according to Hollinger the Rockets have done the best job of making adjustments to correct the problems they had last year, and we all know what those were: stagnant offensive that relied on two players to score; no depth in the back court; and undermanning at power forward. That being said, the team was also facing the first off-season with a new general manager. Daryl Morey, untested and unproven, was handed a team that was both old, slow, and lacking offensive consistency. So all he has done is remake the bench, replace the coach, and actually show that he may actually be the best fit for this team as GM.
Let's look at what Morey has done, step by step:
1) Replaced Jeff Van Gundy with Rick Adelman. That alone is a positive, because JVG was too single minded and it was apparent that he had lost or was losing the team;
2) Signed Adelman, causing Bonzi Wells to return for another year. This is positive because Wells is still a scorer, and when he is playing well he is a solid 15-20 points-a-night player.
3) Stole Mike James from Minnesota for Juawn Howar. Now I like Howard and his professional approach, but he is slowing down and is neither a good rebounder nor as consistent a defender. James, on the other hand, can light up the scoreboard like Vinnie Johnson used to do with Detroit.
4) Traded Spanoulis, for Luis Scola, and Jackie Butler. Butler gives the Rockets another young center and he can give Yao some more time on the bench during the season to help reduce the pounding he will take. We may lose some scoring with Butler but he is a good defender and can rebound. Scola is the jackpot in this deal. He gives us a young talented power forward that this team has not had since Otis Thorpe was here with Hakeem. Scola is only 27 and is a world class player who has been one of the top players in Europe for the past five years.
5) Drafted Aaron Brooks, a super fast point guard, who will in time hopefully be our answer to the Steve Nash/Jason Terry type of point guard that causes havoc for the defense when he is on the court.
With all that he has done this off-season, Daryl Morey has placed his mark on this franchise and it is a good one. Now the question is will all of the pieces fit together and produce a playoff series victory or is it all one big failure? Only time will tell, but so far the outlook is positive and I like that.
Posted by bweldon @ 07/19/07 10:11 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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