Rockets: Are Paper Bags In Our Future?

By Elliott Harris | Jul 6, 2016

Well, free-agency has been suspenseful and surprising to say the least. Unfortunately, the Rockets have yet to make a big splash. Is it time to un-coin the phrase “In Morey we trust”?I think we will have our answer by the end of this offseason.

Over the last few offseasons, the Rockets and their fans have been hoping to add a legitimate scoring threat to the former duo of James Harden and Dwight Howard. The wooing of Carmelo Anthony and LaMarcus Aldridge were the most notable of several failed attempts.

In their prospective years, the aforementioned players were considered the creme’ de la creme’ of the free-agency class, but decided against joining the home team. Sadly, the Rockets failed to sign their primary offseason targets Al Horford and Kent Bazemore this year as well. Free-agents have been passing on the opportunity to come to Houston and often times taking equal or less money to play elsewhere.

We did manage to sign Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon, which prevented a total loss over the weekend. They are two players who fit the D’Antoni system and provide a better shooting presence than we have experienced over the last two seasons. However, both of them have been rather injury prone, which adds a bit of risk to the signings.

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Will the reward warrant the risk? I suppose only time will tell. With this being said, both signings are being paid very well for their services and a lengthy injury from either could be a catastrophe for the Rockets. Anderson received a four year deal worth 80 million while Gordon commanded a four year deal worth 53 million.

Pricey? Personally, I think this is a very high cost for players who have experienced some injury problems in the recent past. It seems as though Daryl Morey placed himself in a position where he had to reach a little bit to lure in talent for the franchise. I feel that this is a sign that elite players do not like the direction that the franchise is headed.

We have trusted him to make edgy moves and collect assets over the last few years, but nothing has really come to fruition since the trade for James Harden. It appears that neither the free-agents nor the other GM’s share his opinion of what is truly an asset in today’s NBA.

No teams have really been interested in trading and no high-level players have been interested in what the Rockets have to offer. I believe that Morey has possibly been a step too slow in his attempts to turn our assets into a talented roster that is fit to compete for a championship.

We as Rockets fans have been patiently waiting for something that may never come during this analytics-driven era of Houston professional basketball. We have been waiting for the opportunity to truly feel like we have a better team than our opponents. We have been waiting to see a team that doesn’t have obvious weaknesses in the starting line-up, but this years offseason has not lead me to believe that the wait will be over next year.

Daryl Morey has indeed made some slick moves in the past, but it seems as though the magic is gone. It seems like the window is closing on the Rockets and the opportunity to win is on the outside. If nothing drastic happens before the season starts, we will be on the verge of becoming the next franchise having a fire-sale on our players in an attempt to gather assets for a mass overhaul.

Next: In Morey We Trust?Not so Much

Can Morey pull off a late trade to save the season? How far is he willing to to go to entice other Gm’s into a possible season-saving deal? Only time will tell. Unfortunately, time is quickly running out on the Rockets.

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