[ClutchFans] Video: Full Daryl Morey 2016 Post-Season Press Conference

and that the majority of our players under contract will be returning next season.

for the past several months i could not understand why morey let the agony and failure of this season drag on without any real changes......how he could torture the fanbase with this brand of stupidball game after game. and now it really seems that not only was he for the most part content with this crap, but in fact intends to stay the course. he said he just started thinking about what he might want from the next coach. not last month, not even 10 days ago, but today!

 

Pretty sure that's the PC thing to say, but doubtful he'll get the job unless everyone passes.

 

If he is not a complete moron, he would do changes.

What he says in interviews, I could care less about, he is just saving face and trying to get JBB another gig somewhere else.

He is getting more defensive than Rockets have been this year.

Lmao

 

It's super sad just in the first 2 seconds.

 

I second this comment from DD!!!!!!



I don't like when people keep their hands in their pockets when they're speaking! Makes it look like you're hiding something! Overall, he deflected the chemistry issue as best as he could. Funny how he's on board about getting the (right choice) coach and how they are not going to rush into anything! I thought he wasn't to concerned about who the skipper was...
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Tough season. Didn't end the way we wanted/expected. We win at the Rockets. Only 2 or 3 losing seasons ever under Mr. Alexander. Here to win championships. Losing in the first round is not something we consider successful.

Set up well going forward. Top players in the league. As much cap room as any team in the playoffs. Young players improving(Capela, Harrell, McDaniels). All our draft picks going forward. We know we'll turn this around. We'll pick a great coach. Mr. Alexander on picking a great coach is unparalleled. All have stayed 4 years. We'll get the coach search right. Someone who will help turn this around. Offseason is big. We're set up well. Part of this disappointing season comes from all of our success. We have the 3rd best record in the entire NBA over the last 10 years. Not our goal. We win a lot here. One ways we win, we're not bad. We don't pick high. Because we don't pick high we have to take bets on our roster, on players that maybe other teams don't see won't turn out. Maybe guys like Beverley. We have to take those gambles other teams don't see because we're not picking top 5-10. This was a year on me. A lot of the guys we brought in didn't work out. That's on me. We're gonna do better. We're gonna get back to Rockets basketball. We're gonna get back to winning.

Bickerstaff?

Thorough search. He was thrown into a tough situation. Did a solid job. None of us got as far as we wanted. He'll be under consideration.

Type of guy/coach you're looking for?

Someone who embodies what we need: our defense stronger. I don't get caught up into this coach is this style or that style. Teams goes opposite or do quick searches. We're not gonna do something quickly or opposite. I can't tell you what we'll do. We just started. Thorough search & we'll get it right.

Coach hired by draft?

Ideally, we have a coach hired by yesterday. Most important is we get it correct. We'll take as long as that takes.

In the past, you've hired coaches that fit the roster. With expected roster turnover, more difficult hiring this time?

More of a challenge. We have cap room, maybe more significant free agents than usual. We'll see. We know we're building around Harden. Howard is a free agent. Don't know if he'll be back or not. We'll find a good coach. Changing coaches mid-season is not something we like to do or have a history of doing. We have least coaching turnover during Les' tenure. Only Utah has had less turnover. We don't change coaches very often. It's been disappointing people are painting the season we had and trying to make it into a larger thing than what it is. It was one season disappointing in a sea of lots of seasons that were successful, not as successful as we want but for sure not the entire negative environment that seems to be people trying to paint. It's smart for other teams to try and paint us negative. It's a competitive free agent situation. All the articles you see are other teams trying to paint our situation as negative. Any free agent that looks at us will see the history of winning, 3rd best winning % over the last 10 years, almost no losing seasons. We win at a high level. Very few teams can put their track record against ours.

Dwight a free agent, has his reps told you that?

He has the option to be a free agent. If he's back, that's great. We'll have a great center.

You talked about teams painting you in a negative light. Talk of players not wanting to play with Harden?

That's smart strategic positioning. I had to address that last year when a certain owner was painting us in a bad light. This year it's no different. It's smart other teams are trying to paint our players in a bad light. Harden, I don't know who wouldn't want to play with him. Top 5 player in the league. Unbelievable passer, unbelievable scorer, guy you can build around. Everything we hear is people only want to play with him.

You said it's on you. How important is chemistry?

It's hugely important. I don't remember the articles last year that said how great our guys are together. That's a label thrown on a team when it's not going well. We didn't have enough guys playing together & well. Last year we did. The reality of the NBA is when you have a down year, people will write negative things. It's the same group of guys, they had good chemistry. We just didn't play as well.

Players say there was dysfunction. Terry says we weren't strong enough to overcome those distractions.

That comes from not winning as much as we expected. I thought we would be right there this year in the West. It's the convenient thing to say that chemistry is bad. I didn't hear anyone writing about how great our chemistry was last year and I don't know how the same group of guys became bad chemistry. I'm not trying to question Jason Terry but the reality is we lost games. Everyone is trying to figure out why? Our defense was worse. Guys were not playing as well as we needed them to play.

Looking back on the decision to fire Kevin 11 games in?

We made the best decision with the info we had at the time. We were losing by double digits at home to not good teams. We were trying to contend for the West championship, if not overall championship. It wasn't working. It was the best decision at the time. I did think we would turn it around more. We didn't. Do we know it was the right decision? We don't. I thought J.B. did a good job stabilizing things, getting us to the playoffs, making us competitive. I wanted more. It didn't happen.

2nd half game 4 or game 5, no shows.

We didn't play well but we were playing maybe the best team ever. I shouldn't get frustrated but I will for a minute. There were teams swept out of the playoffs and we're not hearing how they have problems. There are teams with supposedly great chemistry & coaching and lost the same as us and I don't hear about them and they don't have our track record of winning. It was a disappointing year. Expectations got us. We want expectations. But to go from those expectations to somehow the Rockets don't know how to win, it's frustrating. Anyone, the players want to be here. We have a great city, great owner, we have great players to join, the players know that, we're not worried about FA. We're set up so well going forward.

Any light shed in exit interviews?

Main goal is to set up the offseason. Guys working on the right things, their schedule,...we do get feedback on what happened the prior season. Last game, if you don't know what's going on, you don't need to hear it in the meetings. Not a lot of enlightening information.

Plan on talking to Howard about his future?

I can't talk to him until July 1.

Priorities with roster concerns right now?

We have to sure up the defense. That's the priority. It's early.

How important is it to get into the first round of the draft?

We always look to do that. It's healthy to have a set of young players. We have 2 picks in the second round. We've had success in the second round.

Do you believe James & Dwight, if he comes back, you can build this team?

We need a great player along with James. Dwight is a great player so it's for sure an option.

Coaching search, you do have a certain style you've played and favored for some time. How important for a coach to accept that style?

I would say...we'll have a large majority of the players we have back next season, especially those under contract. It's important for the coach to fit the skills and talents of those players. A lot of our players are set up to be good in transition, long & athletic defenders. That fit matters, yes.

Whole pace & space & uptempo the way to go? Would a coach who hasn't used it in the past, would he have to express that what he wants to do?

We're open to all styles. Going in, we're open to all styles of coaching. We're not limiting ourselves to a particular preconceived notion of what they can do.

So Dick Motta comes in and walks it up 22 seconds.

That was a good reference Jonathan.

How surprised are you to be standing here?

Very. Not as surprising when we were 8th seed playing one of the best teams of all time. We knew it would be a challenge going in but a surprise relative to what we hoped for in October.

Donatas a RFA.

Can't talk about that.

Negative nationally, why?

It's smart. Very competitive FA situation coming up. Being kicked while down is a smart strategy by teams leaking things to make us look bad.

Did you call them on it?

I try not to but did so publicly last year. Maybe we'll have to do something again.

 

"in fact we haven't even picked in the top 13 in ten years"

rudy gay @ #8
jeremy lamb @ #12

 

You could see from his facial expressions that he is under pressure.

He is not really smiling or relaxed, grey hairs are growing ..... this job is wearing him down, signs of overwhelm

 

In fact we have not picked in the Top 5 or Top 3 in years (other than Yao)

 

If you really want to know whats the Rockets #1 problem just listen to this interview.
This guy is delusional and arrogant.

 

Looks like he lost some weight.

 

Given Morey's track record, he deserves this summer to retool.
If things aren't better by next season, I would start questing his moves and bring in an outside consultant to supplement Daryl.
Like him or not, Morey is an asset to the organization and I feel like firing him would be the wrong move.

 

He has to say the standard things: until a guy has actually exited, you have to say that you at least have some interest in keeping him. I don't think he's gonna tell everyone his real plans in a press conference in April.

I'd watch what a team actually does rather than listen to what they say.

 

Fine. Take as much time as you need, Flash. But hey, look, Walton is gone just now. Pls learn something from Lakers. How many championships did they got in last 10 years!

 

I agree. He's the best guy out there qualified to do what the Rockets need him to do.

However his attitude and defensiveness concerns me even as a long time Morey fan. The Rockets didn't need media narrative out there for people watching the season to know the main issues the team had. The fact that he's not admitting how bad the team chemistry, effort, and defense was speaks volumes. Almost like he didn't even watch the games himself and judged only by checking off boxes on a spreadsheet.

Morey has the talent and the smarts to right the ship but it's his arrogance and stubbornness that might get him fired next year if he fails again. Let's see what he does this summer. It's the biggest summer of his legacy for sure.

 

Yeah and when he was talking about not changing head coaches much only Utah has less, I was like, just up I-10...someone named Pop has been there for 19 years.

Also, he is saying "Les always picks good head coaches" subtly letting folks know it is not him.

DD

 

It's been a tough season.

 

Arrogance and stubbornness. Et tub dobro?

He did mention or allude to defense, chemistry (not playing together) and effort. Is he supposed to go chapter and verse about it?

In any case, aren't you the one who says Morey is going to strike out on all the decent free agents so he's just going to asset-build again? How will that play out?

Dude's under a lot of pressure and I have faith he can deliver. If he doesn't, he's gone. Not that he would be out of work for long, but I don't think he wants to go out like this.

 

Wait guys, wait! We're one of the teams with the most wins!

/sarcasm

I'm on the bandwagon of terrible defense, coaching etc but as someone else said I doubt Morey is planning on divulging any moves he plans on making. And though I see Durant a longshot I feel that the seat is hot enough for Morey to make some VERY necessary moves and get us in the right direction again.

I'm not an MOF, but I'm an optimist by nature. Thanks for sharing the vid Clutch!

 

This kind of interview doesn't really mean much. He has to be as positive as possible. There are already lots of bad light out there on the Rockets. He has to battle that to keep the hope of big fish FAs alive.

If he does strike out this offseason, then I would really want to see what he would say about the true issues.