lipoli390 wrote:
I'm not sure I'll listen to the podcast. I'll probably find it too painful. :) But I can say that I remember knowing at the time that Kahn's role in the Pacers front office was a minor one. I wrote a scathing email to the Wolves Present and CEO about how unqualified Kahn was for the position. I wrote a scathing email protesting the hiring of Thibodeau and Layden. Yesterday, I wrote an email to Casson and other Wolves execs praising them for hiring Rosas. He may or may not be successful when we reflect on this with hindsight in a few years. But right now, I have a hard time finding fault with the choice. My main reservation is that I don't consider the Rockets a particularly good model for success with the Wolves. But Rosas has a lot of experience and, by all accounts, is very smart with an eye for talent. So there's reason to believe he'll know or figure out how to build a contender in Minnesota around KAT in spite of the constraints he'll face.
Even tough Rockets are on different position as NBA team because of being from low tax and warm climate state, they have done plenty of good to great moves during past 17 years that would be possible also for team like Wolves.
Here is my list of Rockets moves that I like:
- Drafting Clint Capela with 25th pick
- Drafting Montrelz Harrell with 32th pick
- Drafting Chandler Parsons with 38th pick
- Drafting Carl Landry with 31th pick (was drafted by Seattle but since it was a draft day deal I think he was Rockets choise)
- Trading for Louis Scola
- Signing undrafted free agent Chuck Hayes
- Trading Rafer Alston to Kyle Lowry
- Drafting Chase Budinger with 44th pick (was drafted by Detroit but since it was a draft day deal I think he was Rockets choise)
- Signing 23 year old Trevor Ariza
- Trading Aaron Brooks for Dragic and 1st round pick
- Signing 24 year old Patrick Beverley
- Trading Asik for Ariza and 1st round pick
- Trading late 1st round pick for Lou Wiliams
- Signing Eric Gordon as free agent
- Trading two 1st round picks, Lamb and Kevin Martin for James Harden
Of course Harden caliber young wing players are rarely available but in last couple of years players like Oladipo and D'Angelo Russell have been dealt. Wouldn't it be nice if either of them would play currently for Wolves?
Personally I also liked following move even though it wasn't as good than previous ones:
- Trading just drafted Rudy Gay for Shane Battier
It seems for me that Rockets have done good job in finding hidden gems with their late 1st or 2nd draft picks as well as signing young non-proven free agents. I certainly hope that Rosas has been contributor in some of those moves and that he would do similar moves in future as Wolves executive.