Expecting your GM to field a team that gets past the first round of the playoffs during his (now) eight year tenure does not strike me as "an impossible standard of superhuman perfection". Again, it all depends on what's important to you. If all you care about is effort and the occasional signing of a star player, then Morey looks terrific. But, if you are a bottom-line results oriented person who has watched this team slide into irrelevancy since those two championships, then Morey falls short. Again, did I mention that he's going into year eight as GM? Not so, at least under the current NBA environment where star players will not sign on for long contracts thereby trapping themselves in a losing situation. Take DH: next year he essentially becomes an expiring contract. Let's say, the Rockets flame out in the playoffs again and he is really serious about wanting to win a ring. Morey and Co will essentially find themselves in recruitment mode all over again. And, it will be the same thing with Griffin, Bosh, KD, Aldridge or whomever NBA star player is the flavor of the month. My concern is what happens in the meantime while this team and organization is passing time locked in pursuit of that (mythical) magical "third star". Again, my initial question is "how long should this "process" take?". We are in year eight of Morey's tenure. How much time is enough? Plus, and this is the unspoken question: What if Morey's approach doesn't work and we have patiently stood by as the years have frittered away and both Dallas and SA have managed to win titles while the Rockets are still on the outside looking in? I have to wonder just how "understanding" the readers of Clutchfans will be then. Now I'm not saying that this will come to pass but as I look at the three Texas teams, I understand what Dallas and SA are doing to advance those teams fortunes. I see a Houston team that's somewhat adrift and lacking a real strategy on how to build a championship team and organization. In fact, to me, Morey's strategy looks remarkably similar to that of his predecessor: chase after star players while shuffling through reams of players until you somehow find a combination that clicks. How'd that work out for CD?
With the way some of these fans think of Morey, I think he could make a lot of money if he just came out with his own video game series like Madden did. He could call it "Daryl Morey's Asset Manager 2015" and come out with a new installment each year. Boom!!!
Real quickly - The "impossible standard of perfection" I refer to is actually that. There are people who look at two or thee individual moves that don't work out and say "this is proof that Morey needs to be fired."Ted Williams, greatest hitter ever, got an out 6 of 10 at bats. We don't say he sucks because he didn't bat 1.000. Rather, we see that he got an out a whole lot less than everybody else, and we judge him on that standard. Presti gave away Harden for a pile of magic beans. SA gave away Scola in his prime for cap relief. Under the standard of perfection applied by some to Morey, they should have both been fired on the spot. Again, with respect to the playoffs, so many of those factors are outside of the GM's control, that I think it is not a useful metric to evaluate specifically Morey in isolation. It reminds me of people who throw the president out of office because the economy is bad, despite the fact that the economy basically swings back and forth rhythmically like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. I evaluate Morey by placing other GM's in the same post-Yao/McGrady situation and trying to think who I believe would have had a better outcome. In my opinion, that list is pretty short, IMO. Granted, it is very subjective so I understand if you disagree. But I pretty categorically reject an absolute standard of playoff series victories as being a direct metric of Morey's performance. That is the kind of crap "appease the masses" move that leads so many teams to spin their wheels on end for decades. If Morey deserves to be fired, do so on something he is directly responsible for. I agree that he isn't perfect. I think things could be so much worse if we fire Morey and replace him with some Flip Saunders type. If you have a candidate you think is a major upgrade, let's hear who. But at the very worst, I still rank Morey above some of the standard retreads bouncing around the league. People screamed to get rid of JVG - then wished they hadn't. People screamed to get rid of Adelman - then wished they hadn't. I don't want to be looking at Rockets GM Kevin McHale in five years, thinking how much better we had it when Morey was around. Firing him just for the sake of firing him, without something better lined up seems pretty self defeating. Remember when we used to throw cash at people like Mo Taylor? Are things really that bad?
We dont need to fire Morey. He views the team like a true fan does and is an aggressive if not the most aggressive gm out there which is what Houston needs. Can't do it all overnight just give him time, he knows what it takes to win . he got rid of the poison which was Lin and Asik now dmo And some others gonna see the door soon for a nice player. I love Morey I'm ridin and dying with him
This team needed to add something to become a real contender. Morey should not have sat on his assets. If this team had a Goran Dragic or Isaiah Thomas, they could have taken advantage of Chris Paul's absence much better. Oh well, wait til next year as usual.
don't have to wait till next year…..only till next month…..we have a great great 18th pick that we saved to make big 2015-16 splash
The problem isn't talent. It's focus and discipline. It is morey's fault that he's kept Mchale around but that's it.
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How can anyone honestly blame Morey? 2nd seed w/ all those injured. We are missing 2 starters and are still deeper than the Clippers. We have the players, That was just a pathetic performance.
Coaching doesn't matter. This series will be a coin flip. Without Harden MVP, this team is nothing. We just need to shoot more 3s. Mchale was a candidate for coach of the year. Next year is our pursuit.
i think not having another ballhandler/creator on the roster besides harden is a talent problem. and having 2 dinosaurs backing up an injury-prone beverley who played mediocre at best in the last 2 playoffs was simply negligent on morey's part, unless of course the whole 'pursuit' and 'trying to win a championship' narrative was all BS anyways.
I have said a few times that Morey's biggest failure this season was not to trade for a starting caliber pg. I also said the team, as constructed, was flawed in that there has to be someone that can effectively make plays for others or himself when Harden is not at his best.
What hurts is that all Morey needed to do is get just an adequate starting pg to be a floor general, not even a star pg. The best stretches were when Prigioni were in there but he's not a starter at this phase of his career.
Meanwhile Aaron Brooks is giving Chicago quality minutes this postseason. He would be huge for us right now. Another creator who isn't afraid of the bright lights and big moments. But I guess Hamilton is the wing we needed. Sigh.