[ESPN] Top 10 Rookies (Morris #4)

P. T. Barnum approves of this post.

 

Morris will be solid for us. I guess this year ESPN is not going to bet against one of Morey's picks again. Say what you like about Morey but he is one hell of a draft evaluator.

 

Really wanted Singleton.

 

It's still early, everything can change when the NBA season starts...

Great find.

 

I wanted to hide this in a thread somewhere so that he doesn't get in trouble, but I feel like Morey slipped a bit when he did a Charlie Palillo interview two nights ago. They were talking about this year's draft, and Morey basically said that he thought that 1. the depth at the top might be above average, with up to 3 franchise players available, but also that 2. the depth at the 10-20 pick range might be the same as it has been in the past few years, meaning that he might be ok losing our pick if it really comes to it.

My question to you guys is, if you had to name three guys in this upcoming draft who would be franchise-worthy, who would they be? I feel pretty safe in saying Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond have a good shot at filling two of those spots, but the third one is wide open in my mind. I don't trust Harrison Barnes. I wonder if it's a wild card like Quincy Miller or Brad Beal. Basically, somebody that could fall into a range where we'd be comfortable trading up to select them. Fun to think about at least; thank you for having a loose tongue Morey!

 

People bring up the fact that we need to rebuild. It's like... if you are the Cavs and Lebron leaves and you are over the cap your best player is Jamison (I think?)... ok thats a team that needs to rebuild. But a team like the Rockets that can consistently get to the .500 mark and have a lot of cap flexibility coming up? I don't understand.

If we blow up the team and ship Scola and Martin for nothing (we would be getting late first rounders and expirings for those guys)... we'ld be a bad team and we would have a high pick for probably the next 2-3 years. We would eventually draft a franchise player and after about 3 years we would be again a fringe playoff team waiting to sign another star player with cap room. Orlando did this... they drafted Dwight and signed Lewis. Chicago drafted Rose (and Noah) and used their space to sign Boozer. Memphis drafted Gay and (Conley and Mayo to a lesser extent) and used their space to trade for Randolph and Gasol. Houston drafted Yao and traded for McGrady. It's not enough to just draft a franchise caliber player. You need that second guy. And its rare that you draft 2 all-star level players... you have to sign someone as a free agent.

But the thing is... that's where we are right now. We have talent on the team... and we're going to have cap room... all we need is the right trade to take off and we're golden. So why go through the 5-6 year rebuild process when it's basically just going to get us back to this point?

I think we give it a year or two. Maybe Kevin Martin is injured most of the season and the people that want us to tank would consider that fortunate for us. Or maybe we squeak into the playoffs and head into the offseason with 30 million in cap space and our core players under contract and a free agent takes a good look at this team and thinks he can take us to the next level.

If it doesn't work, we would basically be forced into a rebuild because the window with Martin and Scola would've closed anyway.

 

MM doesn't have short arms, he just has average arms. Like, he isn't a caveman or a gorrilla walking around with his knuckles dragging on the ground. Anyway, long arms are a plus but for a skill-based forward they aren't relevant, I mean who looks at Paul Pierce and Melo and thinks their arms are short or long? If MM would play like an athletic sf like Marion or Josh Smith then he does need long arms, because you need length to grab boards, shoot the ball in traffic, defend your man and generally cause mayhem everywhere.

If your game will be dependent on bullying weaker sfs, posting on the block and shooting open jumpers then I don't think its as relevant. I think he'll be fine, and I think we're looking at yet another underrated player like what PP was last year.

 

We as fans don't care much about those details ... Just saying that Gms tend to draft according to measurements...well because of that MM fell into our lap.
We should really be grateful.

 

good point except we dont have the 4.......

 

His arm measurements were wrong. I remember in a interview he talked about that and was remeasured having normal sized wingspan.

 

Then explain why Markieff was taken before him. Dude has similar skillset to Derrick Williams. Not as athletic though

 

Measurements at the Combine or in general can be deceptive.
Agreed.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQxt1bIO_gk&feature=player_embedded#!
3:30 is where they talk about it.

 

If the Rockets are correct in that he's a SF then arm length is irrelevant. If anything it leads to better shooting. If the Rockets are wrong in that he's truly a tweener who can't guard 3s, then it still doesn't matter what his wingspan is because they've already blundered the pick.

 

If the Rockets are wrong and he is a tweener who can't guard 3s, then the 13 teams who passed on him would have been right, and 14 is right around where he belongs. I wouldn't really call that blundering a pick, merely getting fair value. Remember, 14th picks are hardly homeruns and have mediocre value.

However, if the Rockets are right and he is a power 3, then more than a handful of teams passing on him would have been dead wrong. Based on his body of work at Kansas, as a 3 he should have been at worst a top 10 pick, more likely around 5th. That would be a homerun for the Rockets.

Either way I like, love, the risk:reward here.

 

Me too. And he's awesome in 2k! Rating isn't great, but I always rack up points with him in online games.

 

Thorpe is a moron actually, he collected fail after fail all over there

 

DeMar DeRozan is not a bust. He's an all-star in the making.

 

No he will certainly not be an all-star.

He's a jack of all trades, master of none.

 

I would say the Rockets blundered in terms of what they sought after and what they received. They obviously banked on Morris being a 3, so if he's not then he wouldn't fit nearly as well into their plans. Especially not with Motiejunas, Patterson, and possibly Scola/Hill sitting at the position in the future.

A tweener in the mold of Landry isn't that bad for a 14th pick. But this team is much more desperate for a wing scorer. Which I'm sure they're banking Morris on to be.