2007 Utah Morris Almond
2006 Cleveland Shannon Brown
2005 Seattle Johan Petro
2004 Boston Tony Allen
2003 Detroit Carlos Delfino
2002 Denver Frank Williams
2001 Sacramento Gerald Wallace
2000 Phoenix Jake Tsakalidis
1999 Miami Tim James
1998 Indiana Al Harrington
1997 New York John Thomas
1996 Utah Martin Muursepp
1995 Orlando David Vaughn
1994 Clippers Greg Minor
1993 Chicago Corie Blount
The Rockets general manager will try to find a player he considers to be much better than his draft position, and he will try to do it in a way the Rockets tried each of the past two seasons.
But this season, he will assume the plan to move up just enough to get the player he targets in Thursday's NBA draft to be a long shot.
He might have known as much before, but in each of the previous two seasons, the Rockets had a player targeted and a plan to get him. But the trades to move up never came through, and each time, the player they wanted — Brandon Roy in 2006 and Rudy Fernandez last season — were taken just two spots before the Rockets' position in the draft.
Undaunted, Morey said there are players he is targeting again, and again the Rockets will need to move up or hope for an unlikely, fortuitous slide.
"Our basic planning is we'll pick 25 and 54," Morey said. "That's the most likely outcome. I do think the shallow drop-off of talent from let's say 16 to 40 creates opportunities for teams to want to trade because the differences of opinion create opportunity. Both teams can feel they're getting what they want."
As the Rockets have seen, the chances of moving up are not great. But this season, with so much uncertainty about the post-lottery portion of the first round, the chance of the Rockets finding a player they would have taken much earlier being around when they pick at No. 25 is far greater than in the past.
Morey said there are two or three players he considers worth moving up to get and within reach without a huge change in draft position.
But even that is difficult to forecast because after the first 10 picks, presumed rankings in the first round have been unusually volatile.
Nicolas Batum, a 6-8 teenage forward from France with tremendous potential, and Brandon Rush, a 6-6 guard from Kansas with outstanding shooting range, once seemed to have a chance to be around in the last third of the first round, but now appear unlikely to be available when the Rockets pick.
Donte Green, a 6-10 small forward from Syracuse with outstanding offensive skills, and the ultra-athletic Joe Alexander from West Virginia, also would fit that dexxxxxion.
Varying opinions
"Similar to Rudy Fernandez last year, the ideal situation is we can trade up," Morey said without discussing his evaluations of or interest in any specific prospects. "I think that's a low probability. Usually teams are targeting the same player. Usually they fall in love with some player by then and are worried about getting them at 25. There's a lot of reasons they don't happen.
"That's the ideal scenario, a couple players we really like get into a range we feel we can realistically trade into, and we get somebody to trade with. That's our focus early in the day of the draft, which it was last year with Rudy, trying to get into that range. The next good scenario, someone we don't think we'll get at 25 gets there."
Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis and Courtney Lee of Western Kentucky are also versatile, offensive wings, and more likely to last toward the Rockets' pick.
If the Rockets choose to go with a bigger player, they could look at forwards Marreese Speights of Florida, J.J. Hickson of North Carolina State, Serge Ibaka of Congo, Ryan Anderson of California or Joey Dorsey of Memphis; or centers DeAndre Jordan of Texas A&M, Kosta Koufos of Ohio State, Roy Hibbert of Georgetown, Jason Thompson of Rider, Robin Lopez of Stanford or Nathan Jawai of Australia.
Morey would not rule out drafting a center or another power forward, given Yao Ming's recent injury history and Dikembe Mutombo's status as a free agent going into what is expected to be his last season.
But he described the Rockets' needs as on the perimeter.
"I think we've been pretty open about our needs, but we're not necessarily going to address these through the draft," Morey said. "To address certain needs might be difficult, especially if we stay at 25. We're looking for depth at the wing. We're looking for guys who can attack the basket, guys who can shoot. At the big spot, we have some opportunity there. We've had some consistent injury situations at the bigs."
Although the Rockets are small off the bench, Morey said size at the perimeter positions is secondary to ability and skill set.
"Size is a factor for sure and one thing we lack in our backups in general, but I think you'll always take the better player who might be shorter," he said.
But unlike last season, when he said he would not consider his roster when selecting, Morey said the Rockets' needs likely would be weighed this season.
But if there is someone available with far greater potential than the pack, needs would not be considered.
Situation dictates pick
"I think right now we see one or two players that might make it (to 25) who would be best available," Morey said. "You'd take them, even though their fit isn't perfect.
"There's others who we feel equally about in terms of potential, so we might be weighing more that they can get on the floor for us."
In a best-case scenario, Morey said he wants someone who fills a need and has greater potential.
He does not have to get to the Derrick Rose-Michael Beasley level of the draft to get that, but he likely will have to move up. But few teams have more recent evidence of how tough that can be.
PAST DRAFTS
With the Rockets holding the 25th pick of the draft, here are the past 15 players selected 25th:
Year Team Player
2007 Utah Morris Almond
2006 Cleveland Shannon Brown
2005 Seattle Johan Petro
2004 Boston Tony Allen
2003 Detroit Carlos Delfino
2002 Denver Frank Williams
2001 Sacramento Gerald Wallace
2000 Phoenix Jake Tsakalidis
1999 Miami Tim James
1998 Indiana Al Harrington
1997 New York John Thomas
1996 Utah Martin Muursepp
1995 Orlando David Vaughn
1994 Clippers Greg Minor
1993 Chicago Corie Blount
