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You are literally the 1st person to point out that Houston has a bunch of nice players, but is missing a true star.

I'm glad we've finally come to realize this, so that we can now proceed with finding said star.

Nevermind the fact that morey traded for the exact person you are describing, and the league took him away.

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I know I'm not the first . Hopefully I'm not the first to suggest completely changing directions or taking some risks either.

And yes I'm still pissed about the Gasol thing too. I also really like Morey and I think without him, we'd have been a bottom rung team once Yao and McGrady went down. In a way his competence hurt us because we never went through a full rebuild like most teams would if they lost 2 star players.

[This message has been edited by Ryan34 (edited 4/20/2012 12:23p).]

I have come to the conclusion that it is really hard to build a championship team from the FA market. I think Miami will the exception. The cap rules are going kick in here and player collusion is going to get harder and it needs to, it will destroy the league!

How many teams have brought in seasoned 'superstars' and won the crown?

La, (got Shag) but had Kobe, Boston got Garnett, but they were able to get a number of established and aging front line players without having to give up the one front line player they had.

Miami should get there. Still if you look at these three what you see is they added a front line star to another front line star and a core a solid 3 and 4 year players. (Miami had Wade and got Bosh as well) though they had to gut the roster to do it. They haven't won yet either!)

There are a lot more fails then successes though. The Rockets traded Horey, Cassell and couple of other to add Barkley and then then added an aging Pippen and got worse.

The Knicks have added AS and Melo and they aren't any better then they were before. They will never win a prize with those too. The Rockets brought in McGrady to add to a developing Yao. No go.

I am not so sure that adding Gasol would of made the Rockets that much better.

Where the Rockets could of gotten better and didn't was before the trading deadline. They could of gotten pretty good value for Dragic then but it would of meant tanking the season. I would been alright with that because any one with brain knew the Rockets were going to be no better then a 6th or 7th seed and a one and done play off team with this roster.

Les doesn't want to do that. OK, then the other way is to draft and develop and bring in a few solid and value vets like Camby to let these guys grow up and develop. Quit looking for role players in the draft and trying to hook that 'over the top super star FA'. It is not going to work for this Rocket team because they have a whole bunch of nice role players.

I think there needs to be a change of mentality, they need to think draft and develop at least one All star caliber player. Until they do that they are not going to be an attractive destination for front line FAs.

All the team that succeeded with super FA pickups already had a home grown stud on the roster.

Until the Rockets find and develop that homegrown guy they will be stuck in mediocrity.

I don't think they really have to tank to do that, once you get a losers, tanking mentality it can be kind of hard to get out of it.

They do have really look hard to find the Nowitizki or Malone that and go get them.

Patterson maybe but this year was not good, he was very passive offensively and is not confident around the basket.

This Euroepean kid may be something,

I know this I would bring up G Smith and start him and M Morris the rest of the year. Aldelman didn't do that even after they were eliminated, I think that was dumb.

Somewhere here the Rocket brass needs to give their kids a chance to get some PT and find out what they got.

[This message has been edited by OPAG (edited 4/20/2012 12:49p).]

Don't worry. Morey is the man for the job. He hasn't traded, signed, nor drafted a bonafide star for the team to build around since he's been here. But that was not his fault. Other factors were involved that were out of his control. We already got role players here so we're 90% there. Let's give him 5 more years and maybe with enough praying, God will send the Rockets a player that we always wanted since Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady left.

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Let's give him 5 more years

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OPAG, I definitely agree. Play Morris the last few games and see what happens. Although we're not mathematically eliminated, we're still done. We will not beat Miami in Miami in the 6th game in 8 days for us.

I'm also trying not to get too optimistic about Motiejunas, but it's hard. He did very well this year and even grew a little. He was 6'11" at the pre-draft events, but this year when playing against legit 7' Junas Valanciunas he's at least the same height if not taller:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI8mM8M27cE

He improved a lot as a rebounder this year and is still very skilled offensively. I really hope he starts next year if only to see what he can do.

Motiejunas was measured at 7'0.25 barefoot like a year before he was drafted.

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Motiejunas was measured at 7'0.25 barefoot like a year before he was drafted.

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I thought I read 6'11" but I could be wrong.

Pau would not have been the solution, nor is he a guy you can build a team around.

He's a nice complementary player, but instead of 18th in the league the Rockets could have been 16th and you'd still be having this discussion

[This message has been edited by Iowaggie (edited 4/22/2012 9:47p).]

I gave Parsons a hard time on here, and he went out and had a fantastic game. Major steal by Morey and I'll be interested to see how good he ends up.

But I still hope we play Morris the last few games even if he struggles (as he has just about every time he's been out there). We're officially eliminated now, so just get him some time and see what happens. There's no downside anymore since wins and losses mean nothing here on out.

Patterson looked much more aggressive today as well. I liked that.

Most smart basketball people have been saying that Parsons absolutely could be a starter on a championship team. 6'10 defender with great feet who can hassle the best wings in the league? He will be in this league a long time playing the role of Battier, tony allen, Bruce bowen, tayshaun prince, etc.

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Most smart basketball people have been saying that Parsons absolutely could be a starter on a championship team. 6'10 defender with great feet who can hassle the best wings in the league? He will be in this league a long time playing the role of Battier, tony allen, Bruce bowen, tayshaun prince, etc.

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If he can end up as good as those guys, then I'll gladly admit I was wrong. He's certainly had a very impressive rookie season, so who knows. I should also add that I haven't seen a whole lot of Rockets' games up here in Dallas, and the games I did see Parsons struggled except last night. So I could just have the wrong impression of him based on too small of a sample size. It wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about a guy, nor will it be the last.

But I'd still like to see what Morris can do in extended playing time. We picked him that high for a reason. Throw him out there and see how he adjusts.

In my Rockets MVP thread, lots of fans were picking Parsons as one of the candidates. He's been mostly good this year with some rookie hiccups.

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In my Rockets MVP thread, lots of fans were picking Parsons as one of the candidates. He's been mostly good this year with some rookie hiccups.

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I'd love to hear the justifications for that. If you look at the stats per 48, he's really not very different than Budinger. Lower points/48, identical rebounds/48, and slightly higher assts/48. Obviously he was much better defensively than Chase, but Chase was better offensively and had a higher PER. Parsons was 9th in PER overall (which includes both Camby and Hill).

You just have to watch the games, I guess. He's not just better defensively than Chase. Chase is a defensive liability and Chandler Parsons is the best perimeter defender on the team and one of the better ones in the league. Even Kobe Bryant praised him for his defense after our game against LA.

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April 13, 2012

April 13: Parsons has been a revelation this season, mostly because of the way he can move and slide in his 6-foot-10 frame. He can guard all small forwards and, in some cases, really shut them down. But he does not use his height advantage to nearly the same effect on offense. That's where the best shooting big the NBA has ever seen comes in.

Dirk does two things Chandler needs to study: (1) He uses balance and a consistent follow-through on his catch-and-shoot jumpers (with good arc) and (2) he uses fakes and twists to get off good and uncontested shots over smaller players. A Parsons who can dictate action offensively as well as defensively can become an All-Star candidate.
April 05, 2012

April 5: Anyone reading this column over the years knows about my "royal jelly" theory. Parsons is the perfect example of this. His coach, Kevin McHale, loves him and his willingness to defend and grind through games. Thus, Parsons gets all the playing time he could ask for and is more involved in the offense than one would expect for a second-round pick going into the playoff stretch. Parsons answered the call in March, averaging more than 12 ppg on better than 50 percent shooting from the field. And he shot better than 35 percent from 3, proving that his stretch game has a chance to be good. If it continues to develop, Parsons has the makings of a long-term starter at small forward who can swing to the power spot when an opposing team goes small and fast. He could play the role Ryan Anderson plays in Orlando with an upgrade on defense.
March 01, 2012

March 1: Parsons gets the midseason award for biggest surprise. There are many legit candidates, but none start for a top-10 team that is firmly in good playoff position. One of the reasons the Rockets have been so good after a 3-7 start has been the addition of Parsons into the starting lineup. That a second-round pick is starting for a good team is a bit of a surprise, but beating out All-American lottery pick Marcus Morris is even more impressive.

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David Thorpe's Analysis.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/players/rookies/blogs?playerId=6466&season=2012&playerRankingType=1&period=1&set=0

He's listed at 6'9". Is that incorrect? Also I certainly agree that if he can improve offensively, he can be very good. I'm skeptical of how much he can improve offensively though, which is why I said he'd be better off the bench, ala Shane Battier this year for Miami and last year for Memphis, two teams noticeably better than Houston. On the flip side, we could also assemble pieces such that he would fit in the starting lineup. I don't think we have that right now. I think we need a lot of help at SG and PF.

Well he improved offensively pretty steadily and for a 2nd round pick rookie he is humble enough to know that he can't come in and start chunking it up. His 3 point percentage increase through out the year and by the end of the year he was taking and making big shots.

His FT percentage begin well below 50% and also got better through the year.

The guy is really smart, hard working athletic and tall. He will get much better next year and I think the they guy can be an all star. He really suprised me I though he would be another white stiff Matt Bullard type of guy, boy did I miss judge him.

I hope you're right OPAG and I am misjudging him as well.

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He's listed at 6'9". Is that incorrect? Also I certainly agree that if he can improve offensively, he can be very good. I'm skeptical of how much he can improve offensively though, which is why I said he'd be better off the bench, ala Shane Battier this year for Miami and last year for Memphis, two teams noticeably better than Houston. On the flip side, we could also assemble pieces such that he would fit in the starting lineup. I don't think we have that right now. I think we need a lot of help at SG and PF.

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I think a guy like parsons who is going to play his butt off on defense but may not be a dynamo on offense can be better utilized on the 1st team if your starting point and 2 guard are good/great scorers. You can match him up against the opposing team's best wing, who will definitely run with the 1st team.

Bringing him off the bench to guard 2nd teamers kind of wastes his abilities

Looks like Dallas sucked too much to get their first pick. Damnit.

Yeah Dallas needed to finish with their pick in the top 20 in order to keep it. They lost just enough games to keep the pick while still making the playoffs. I don't know if they have plans to keep the pick but it has pretty good value in this deep draft.

**** Dallass!