I will not give McHale the credit of taking this team to the WCF. They were incredibly lucky to get there, having been down 3-1 to the Clippers getting destroyed in those 3 losses. It took a ridiculous and highly unlikely effort from Josh Smith to keep this team from being eliminated. McHale might have been canned if the Rockets were bounced by the Clippers. As for Morey, he has done great work bringing in talent and keeping us in the game for top tier free agents. No way I see him on the hot seat.
Yeah people are getting carried away here. Nobody thinks Morey is on the "hot" seat, but the Mchale experiment will go down as one of his mistakes. He still has a lot of goodwill to burn through, but Morey is not immune.
No because he has done his job as far as getting talent here. We have the pieces to win a championship we just need a coach to put it all together. Mchale was a coach that just let the team play he didn't have a plan. Lets be honest we all know that we were not winning a championship with Mchale as the coach.
hot seat for putting together a contending team, while not having one bad contract that holds us down? ok...
This, 20 teams would fire their GM for Morey. Another 5 would heavily consider it. Morey is a top 3 GM in the league. If you don't like his basketball philosophy, just lock him out of the coaching and game plan side. Asset management is his strength.
To be determined at end of the season: If this team finishes 41-41 with no draft prospects, no playoff prospects, and no trade prospects, then maybe. The other thing: If he's so good, he can basically get another GM job anywhere in the league. So you can't just tell him: "hey, I don't want you to meddle with the coaching anymore." You piss him off, he'll leave.
Morey put us on the good side of one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history to acquire Harden, grabbed D12 in free agency and then picked up legit NBA PG in exchange for some scrubs. I do agree with DD that he undervalues coaching but you don't toss away a guy like Morey, but if you're Les, you just don't let him pick the coach this time.
Who do you replace him with? Do you think that other GMs have been more succcessful outside of RC Buford, Pat Riley, and Bob Myers? Do you see any of those guys leaving to come to Houston? If you don't, then why bother to discuss firing Morey?
You're also wrong about this. McHale has basically been a filler who was brought on to help a yougn "semi-rebuilding" team who had no star (until we landed Harden and then Howard) and a very young uninspiring core with boat loads of ASSETS. So to say he was 'hand picked' by Morey to truly lead this team to contention is completely off base.
No. I don’t think Alexander wanted to fire McHale, but was forced to fire him when the players quit on their coach that had just taken them to WCF. Morey has worked some magic moves getting us 2 superstars, and would hate for him to go to any other team. A few bad moves that were very high risk but overall he has been brilliant. I believe that Les will keep him. Remember the front office wanted a coach that works with them. Adelman wanted no part of that and he was shown the door. Is this a "for real" question?
I like Morey, a lot. I just hope he drafts better. White and Dekker were, to me, strikes one and two.
I seriously don't think this is possible. Morey would just leave to find another team to implement Moreyball. A lot of other teams would be ecstatic to have him (and Moreyball).
Team would be insane to let Morey go. I mean just look at the scrubs we had before Morey versus today. We would have never dreamed such a strong group would be on the floor now at that time. He has delivered like no other GM in quite a while.
Glad you aren't the owner then. Those were draft busts; that stuff happens in the NBA. Just be glad the busts happened at #16 and whatever Dekker was picked at. A lot of teams have draft busts in number (1-5). Morey approach is to manage the risk and select a player with more upside then risk.
