Boffo, Dobro. My wife started asking me about KL. My,why? The front page of CNN KL, is why. I wonder how many teams would have seen him succeed as he has - - maybe all, maybe just SAS? For his sake, thank goodness he didn't go to the kings of dysfunction, the Kings, for example. Or plenty of others (maybe including TheGoodGuys???). No, they should not have matched CP25. I was sorry to lose him, but to match? Nah. In Cubes' heart of wallet heart do you think he believes it was $$$ well spent? Despite that, they'll likely remain together on a yet larger contract. PS I could stand a season of disappointment, I am well learned in that department. But this season of epic disappointment? I. was. not. prepared.
While he usually provides spin on these shows, it would have been interesting to hear the team's reasoning for activating Jones (who didn't end up playing anyway) and deactivating Goudelock against a team whose strength is at the guard position. So the result was we had two PFs not playing (Jones, Smith) and one hardly playing (Dmo) while Harden had to play 44 minutes, Terry had to play 26 minutes and Beverly was completely ineffective at both sides of the court. And the Clippers guards embarrassed us (Riddick 25 pts, Paul 15pts/16 assists, Crawford 14pts, Rivers 12pts). Sure, we were outcoached (again). Sure, the players seemed to go through the motion most of the night, taking plays off on defense and making really stupid turnovers. But even team management seemed to make a really bad roster decision last night, which exasperated the poor court performance and makes one wonder if we have the right people in charge. It would be interesting hear Mooreys thinking (?) on this...
Ok. Then you can make a very strong argument that there is nothing special about Daryl Morey. He's mediocre. He made the same mistake all the other mediocre GM's made passing KL. If that's your position, I don't wanna hear anything about Morey being a elite GM anymore, PERIOD
thanks for posting this, i was wondering exactly the same. hopefully daryl can take time out from his busy march madness scavenge for undersized PF's to chime in on this at some point
THe logic of "passing on a player" makes you mediocre is mediocre by itself. Even the Spurs fail this test - if they knew how good Leonard was going to be, they would have moved up to 1st overall to get him. Obviously they didn't, so it's a sign of their mediocrity. Also you know who is Mediocre? Bill Belichick. Look at the players he drafted over Tom Brady Adrian Klemm JR Redmond Greg Randall Dave Stachielski Jeff Marriott Antwan Harris Not once, not twice but six times - 6! - Bill Belichick passed on the greatest QB of his era for mediocre players - only by pure force of luck did he magically get a 7th bite at the apple. Pathetic, and mediocre. I don't wanna hear anything about Bill Belichick being an elite coach anymore.
Silly analogies are not worth typing up like that. They don't hold any value. People try to rewrite the story that KL was a darkhorse selection by SAS, and no one knew about him. That is so far from the truth. He was mentioned as a lotto pick by everyone, unlike Morris. Morey passed on KL at #14. At that spot, pretty much no other GM was going to pass on KL. He was the clear BPA, and Morey showed he doesn't go by BPA, he goes by need in that situation. He wanted to collect PFs to find one that sticks, and Morris also had a shot at maybe being a SF, too. One could also say it shows Morey doesn't know how to value defensive studs from the college ranks. That's what he did. And the Spurs jumped at the chance to take KL on the very next selection. There is no reason to protect Morey by saying 13 other GMs passed on him. It gives us insight into his thinking -- BPA or Pick for Need. Doesn't matter what they do with higher picks, they wouldn't have passed on KL if they had the #14 pick.
This is a very stupid argument from dobro....13 teams didnt have the same glaring weakness we did at that position. It was obvious then on that night he shouldve been the player picked because he was gonna make our defense 10 times better....not a 3rd 6.9 pf , MOREY Sucks at drafting especially in the first round. He did it again this year when we drafted dekker eventhough we just signed ariza and brewer when portis was right there for the taking in our biggest need. More is a great GM but his drafting isnt any good
Utah hitting the skids recently, and Detroit's DMo b.s., might have put a damper on any Rockets draft talk. Unless Morey can trade for a pick (which very few teams give up; they hoard picks like gold).
Who said anything about being "Elite"? Even Daryl himself would say that he hasn't achieved what he's hoped to, and that he could have done certain things better. What we are talking about though, and have been for sometime, is that if you want him gone, you need to tell me who is going to be better, and you CANNOT list people that ARENT AVAILABLE like Pat Riley, Ainge, Presti, etc. If you look objectively at what the Rockets need to do this offseason, who is more qualified, and has a better track record of doing what needs to done THAT IS AVAILABLE. If you or anyone else know who that guy is that is "Elite" please tell me... I have been asking this and waiting for weeks and have got nothing from you guys. I'm totally fine firing Morey, but firing him for who exactly, and for what reasons is this guy/girl more qualified to get what needs to get done for this team to get back to a 50+ win season contender??
Geezus, do I really need to even respond to this? I shouldn't but here goes anyways. What is very stupid is completely leaving out the fact that the Rockets at the time, had needs at virtually every position except for maybe Point Guard (Lowry & Dragic), and weren't even looking for a player at any position anyways.... They were looking for a STAR, or someone with All-Star qualities. The teams best player at the time was Kevin Freaking Martin for crying out loud. It was well documented at the time that Marcus Morris is who the Rockets went with because he was one of the most well rounded scoring bigs in the league, and there was a thought that if he could make the transition to the 3, he could be elite. Morey was wrong, but the nice thing about the Rockets is they are typically able to shift quickly, and make useful rotation players out of their so-called "busts". The Rockets quickly pivoted, and turned Morris into a solid "stretch-4" role player in just his sophomore NBA season. As the 14th pick in the draft, an NBA GM could do much worse. I'm not making excuses for Morey here. He wouldn't do so himself, and own up to the decisions and the draft picks he's made. But FREAKING EXPLAINING THE REASONS on why decisions were made at the time to do what they did should be tolerated around here. Why it's not is beyond me. It just shows you guys are looking for a fight, and looking to shame other posters for not following populous mob mentality. ...... Oh and the "why did he take Dekker when Portis was there" argument is so Clutchfans.... Their rookie season isn't even over yet, and Dekker has been injured. Portis might struggle and Dekker could carve out a nice career. Its incredibly early to have an opinion, but you guys never cease to amaze. And again... to show your ignorance to the draft process you again site "NEED"... the Rockets nor any good NBA franchise DO NOT draft based on position of need. Anyone who follows the draft over the past 20 years should know that the moment you put need above talent, you fail in the draft before you ever make a pick.
Excellent point. People that want to continue to point to the Leonard draft need to realize that half the league passed up on him. We are all aware that Morey could have drafted him and he picked the wrong guy but that doesn't mitigate the fact that many others in the league did the same.
It holds a lot more value than "anybody who passed on player X" is mediocre. This happens literally every single year, there are high value players that are passed on by every team, from the shrewd to the incompetent. Even the shrewd undervalue their own guys by passing on them and are lucky when their moves turn out even better than they had planned.
Good post. Totally agree. Ridiculous to not have Goudelock active and guys like TJ/Smith, who are unlikely to play, be active. TJ looks to be in the doghouse and is probably LAST on the Bigs depth chart. Smith is only ahead of TJ because of better defense. With Beasley/Harrell/DMO...they can hold down the PF spot. Not to mention Ariza in the small ball lineups. Goudelock needs to be active because if Terry goes down to injury you need a backup.
No, We did not need to match. We could simply option in his last year or prepared him a contract before other team did. Waiting to match offer from other team is simply not a good idea if you really want to keep your player, it is either you are lack of faith on your player or lack of confidence on correctly evaluating player.
