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Morey on Woj podcast

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by rockets13champs, Aug 17, 2017.

  1. rockets13champs

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  2. Clutch

    Clutch Administrator
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  3. justtxyank

    justtxyank Contributing Member

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  4. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    Let me help J.R., as we wait

    Woj: what about the Melo situation

    Morey: Well, I can't talk about that. [saying through that giggle of his]. But like many teams, we look to add Team USA players every year, and we feel fortunate to have two so far.
     
    #4 heypartner, Aug 17, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
  5. ROXTXIA

    ROXTXIA Contributing Member

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    (sigh) That ain't gonna cut it.

    Clutchfans: HEY, KOOL-AID!

    J.R.: (bursts through wall) OH, YEAH!!!
     
  6. Captain Hook

    Captain Hook Member

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    Wade to Houston confirmed

    [​IMG]
     
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  7. LjGarci

    LjGarci Member

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    Morey said the team has to take risk to close the gap on GS !!! And im here thinking Capela, Gordon are not expendable any more
     
    #7 LjGarci, Aug 17, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  8. FTW Rockets FTW

    FTW Rockets FTW Contributing Member

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  9. rockets13champs

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    Prob not terms of draft picks.

    But those 2 could be had if Lebron was available and we needed to open up cap next summer
     
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  10. Vivi

    Vivi Member

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    I think they have never been unexpendable, but they're for the right deal, which is not Melo.

    Gordon was in the offer for George, Capela would eventually be in an offer for Cousins, but for Melo it doesn't make sense.
     
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  11. larsv8

    larsv8 Contributing Member

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    Said we might be in the news and make some moves that people might not even understand, due to the risk profile.
     
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  12. J Sizzle

    J Sizzle Member

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    There's a difference between "taking risks" and making your team obviously worse overall.

    They won't be traded unless the haul is for more than just Melo.
     
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  13. Reeko

    Reeko Member

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    "Daryl Morey was asked about how James Harden factored into the recruitment of Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets.

    The Rockets acquired Paul in an opt-in-and-trade deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

    "There's no coaching there. He's not naturally an extroverted guy," said Morey. "He's a worker, a quiet guy who just wants to win. His first job if he wasn't doing this wouldn't be like the lead sales guy somewhere. He'd probably be the strategic guy because he's so smart.

    "With that said, one-on-one he's so good with people. Obviously the great guys are all together. Whether it be USA Basketball or weddings or whatever it is. They get together and they talk. And one-on-one I can say James is an unbelievable recruiter because he's smart. He understands the plan. He wants to execute for the team he's leading. It makes my job easy, frankly, to have him.""

    fools really wanted to trade him for the likes of Lillard, Paul George, D'angelo Russell, and Wiggins

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. mikol13

    mikol13 Protector of the Realm
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    This was a really good listen. Woj makes the comment at the end that they bs'd a lot before they started recording. I would love to know what is said off the record. You can tell they have a good relationship.

    Also, Woj has integrity when it comes to his reporting. Love his style. He won't get involved in all the garbage or compromise said integrity.
     
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  15. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    When you're not trying to make big trades in mid-to-late August, is this the one window where you can catch your breath?

    No one should be worried about my time. Generally, that's true. We got an ownership sale so a little more intense this year. We try to inject a lot of long range planning into this period. If people are trying to get away, usually August is the best time.

    Opportunity Leslie Alexander gave you?

    I owe him almost everything. His vision for the team, ...he took me from obscurity with the Celtics and somehow gave me a chance no one else would have. Chris Wallace said it best: only in the NBA would one of the worst teams in the NBA get two GMs hired. I'll always be grateful to Leslie. He gave me all the resources to generate the success we've had. We're finally positioned & what we've been working towards in two top top players in the league & great supporting cast. It's all thanks to him.

    Besides having a lot of money, what separates the good owners from the ones not any good at it?

    Agree, no accident that Leslie has only had 3 losing seasons in the 22-23 years he's owned the team. A lot will invest. Leslie always did that. What separates the great owners is their smart, forward looking approach. He's not driving from the rear-view mirror. On top of that, stay active & ask all the right questions. There's been a perception that you want an owner who is hands off. That's one of the strangest notions that's ever been foisted upon fan bases. It's actually the owner that really is the only one who has the same exact incentive as fans: winning, consistently having a chance to win the title. Executives in my role, coaches, they have other things they worry about. Having a smart, active owner who when you're about to make a decision - "Should we really give up 3 first round picks for that? Have you thought about doing it this way?" - those questions and having them be smart questions & insisting on getting good answers is key for a well-run franchise. It's why I think the West teams have won consistently.

    Great point about asking the questions about direction. A GM might say I can buy myself a 2nd contract here by extending a rebuild.

    It happens in both directions, in a rebuild & where you have a year left on your deal & need to prove something so you make a trade & give up future assets. Unfortunately, people in that role might think it'll work out & I'll still be here or it won't & I might not be here anyways so why not go for it? That's when the owner needs to protect the fan base & franchise.

    Hardest decision/direction you & Leslie had to make together?

    We didn't labor over it but most important decision in my tenure...I came in & it was a solid team. I saw my job there as maintaining that & improving the team to be championship. In '09, we had our best team. When Yao & Tracy's injuries caught up to them, we had a very big strategic decision. Most teams in that instance get bad either by choice or not for at least one year. You can't find a team that doesn't go through a dip to get back up. For me, it was one we had to discuss. There's classic examples, whether it's the Spurs, Lakers,...for me, it was something we had to talk about. For Leslie, myself & others, it was very clear we were going to find a 3rd path. It doesn't always work. You have to do things well & have good fortune. We have to create the situation to trade for Harden and he has to become available. It's rare someone like that becomes available. You need great planning & good fortune. You need both to come together. We did getting James & now he's our foundational piece.

    You had been gathering assets for someone to become available. Boston has been doing that. You didn't go as long hoarding/waiting. Is there an uneasiness in an organization because A) you don't know if that player will become available B) can we get him? You wonder are we just holding onto this for something that isn't coming?

    I would say you have to be less picky. We traded for Harden but made attempts to trade for multiple people before that and didn't work out. We ended up getting the best out of all of those. If we did an earlier trade, maybe we still can trade for James but you don't know how that plays out. You can't be super picky. If you're never going to dip below .500 & get a high pick, you can't be super picky on your trades. You have to take on some variance & risk. Even the Harden trade, we were thrilled but at the time, 40% thought we didn't get the better end. People thought he was just an off the bench scorer, Durant & Westbrook set the environment for him to be successful. He was better than we thought. We thought he was very good & he ended up being better. His relationship that we've had with him to build a team around him since then has been the key to our success.

    You ended up having 3 MVP caliber players on that team. I always thought that first night at Detroit where he put up 40-something, everyone went whoa!

    Including us. The key thing I remember, the hour I want back in my life, it was me negotiating with Rob Pelinka. We signed the extension minutes before the game started. We had just been through injuries with Yao & Tracy. What I was trying to get out of Rob at that moment was if he happens to get injured, the last year of this massive deal, we'd like it to be partially guaranteed. We're going back & forth. Eventually, it ended up being a fair thing. The out was if he makes an all-star team, it becomes guaranteed. We were totally fine with that. It was clear he was gonna be an all-star the first ten minutes of the first game. Rob & I laugh about that as the longest waste of negotiation in history.

    James' part in bringing Chris Paul here? Players recruiting, is that a natural ability?

    With James, there's no coaching there. He's a worker, quiet guy who wants to win. His first job if he wasn't doing this, wouldn't be the lead sales guy somewhere. One on one, he's so good with people. The great players are all together. They get together, they talk. One on one, he's an unbelievable recruiter. He's smart, understands the plan he wants to execute for the team he's leading. It makes my job easy to have him.

    The way you acquired Chris Paul, no one was ready for that.

    You were always ready.

    I do remember how I worded it. He was opting in & then a trade. If I write he was traded, that would've been confusing. Some reported he had already opted out. ... Some creativity came into that. ... I guess his opt-in date allowed it to happen?

    You know more than me on this. You're able to talk to players & know more than me on this. The great thing that happened for both franchises was it was figured out at some point, if a trade was done early & he was willing to opt in, that'd create a win-win scenario for Chris, LA & the Rockets. We can create a better team around Chris & James, that allows us to give up more so the Clippers can get more & allows Chris to be on a better team in Houston. It created a win-win-win. The deadline of him needing to opt in pushes the timing of that. In the NBA, nothing happens without a deadline. No deadline, everyone waits. Otherwise, it's F you, we're gonna wait. It frustrates me & other GMs at times because we're willing to move early but generally, without a deadline, nothing happens.

    There's the artificial Rockets deadline a month before everyone else.

    It's a real deadline.

    I think the league understands because it allows you to do what...

    It you do moves by mid-December, roughly it allows you to be flexible at the deadline. Anything past it, you're sorta locked into your team early. Before mid-December, you can stay flexible. We value that more than most teams. It's creating some momentum. We need a name for it & the NBA to put it on the calendar. That'll help teams aggressive like us. We need those deadlines to get things done.
     
    #15 J.R., Aug 17, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  16. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    Harder to get big deals done now than when you started? If an owner sees criticism of a potential trade, that can paralyze some activity. Does it feel different now from when you started in Boston?

    Feels similar. I always felt it's hard to get anything done. I describe it as, if you're a probability statistics guy, it's type I error, type II error. Unfortunately owners & fan bases criticize more moves done that don't turn out than moves not done that you could've done that would've turned out. Reality is, especially if you're a good owner, you should criticize both. If a good deal happens somewhere else, you obviously could've done it & should be criticized just as much. Because only moves done that don't work out are criticized, it means people do less & less deals. I'm only going to be judged on the ones I do.

    You won't know about the 3 or 4 I turned down.

    Exactly but that dynamic helps us. When you get a player like Harden out there,...the reality is OKC should get a lot more for him, right? There should be a rush to the door but because of this, people only criticizing the errors you do. When you're trying to make a move, you generally don't get as much as you should unfortunately. One dynamic I talked to Coach Van Gundy about is all 30 head coaches are coming back. Quite a few changes in GMs. It should be the opposite. There should be more turnover in my job, less in the coaches job. It isn't for some reason. One sign the league is changing, there is more turnover in my job than there is in the coaches job. I haven't looked but if it's happened another time, just once. Owners are getting smarter about how they judge GMs on their draft, FA, trade, overall strategy.

    You're an organization that hasn't been afraid to go big game hunting.

    The NBA is about the big game. If you don't have a top player in the league, you may as well not play the game. You have no shot if you don't have at least one. Reality is, you generally need two. It's all about big game hunting so I don't know why you wouldn't be doing that? I also don't get why teams don't want to get involved unless their odds are very high. We've said screw that. Why should anyone care we spent countless hours prepping for a meeting? If it doesn't work out, worst thing that happens is nothing. There are teams that say I don't want to get involved, we'll look bad if we get involved & don't win. No one should care we spent 3 weeks preparing for a FA meeting & it doesn't happen. I don't understand why people care but some teams do.

    How much of your time is spent thinking about the Warriors, thinking ways about building a roster, trying to think of other ways to close the gap?

    Generally, I felt prepping or thinking about one team in your strategic planning was a mistake. That's what I would have answered for the last...I'm in the league 15 years now. Now we're in the situation where we have a good chance to be the 2nd best team in the NBA. Vegas thinks that. We have to prove that on the floor. The other thing that is difficult right now with the Warriors is they're historically great. They could end this run being one of the best of all time. I am forced to think about the Warriors. We're just here to win the title. That's all I think about. You can't help but think about the Warriors. It's not just closing the gap. We're not going to close it all the way. We do feel we closed it a lot this summer. There's never been two 70-win teams in a season. You not only want to add players to get you closer but also take more risks. We'll continue to be in the news because we'll continue to take risks to get better. We haven't been perfect in our moves. I can rattle off all of our mistakes. We may make a few more. To close that gap, we have to take risks & ones that may not make sense to people on the surface.

    You're going for it.

    I understand teams marking time. I wasn't in the league in the 90's with the Bulls. It has to feel like that. We have one of the best players in the league, top 5 for sure, 3 arguably. We have to. James' prime is overlapping with one of the all-time great teams. We can't change James' prime. We're in it full bore.

    Having James locked up for now six years & seeing this group with the new CBA being able to have $200M in guaranteed money locked in. The thought with the league was having the supermax was going to keep guys in places. Are guys going to stay in places they don't want to be? Will it have the effect the league thought it would?

    It has to help. The key test that would've been tested didn't get tested because they didn't make All-NBA teams. The process for voting for all these things is so difficult. I don't have a solution. Baseball has a set criteria that is objective. It's a lot of responsibility for the media. They're determining hundreds of millions of dollars. Our local media opted out.

    I haven't voted for years. It's not my league, it's yours. It's not our job to make news or influence balance of power. It's not right. I don't want that responsibility. I don't have to worry about GMs, agents, players calling me.

    I think more will do that.

    It's not right. I don't know what the right formula is. It shouldn't be us.

    Baseball has done this on compensation & other areas where you have a set objective criteria. The process we have for All-NBA, MVP, COY, all these awards...I know it's historic but pretty broken in my opinion. We didn't get the key test this offseason. It has to be positive. How big it will be, I don't know.

    End of your season, chalk it up as James had a bad game, couple bad games or was he tired? Something bigger?

    There were a lot of things. You always reflect when you go through that. From my perspective, it was a big motivation with the Chris Paul move. It's just too much to ask one guy to carry a team all the way to the WCF or Finals. It caught up to him. Nene was out at that point. We have a lot of excuses. Reality is we needed to do better. We also knew to get past the Spurs, we needed to not put that much of a burden on one guy. Chris allows us to do that. You won't see a guy dragging on the last few steps up the mountain to try & win a title.

    Operating as you have to do in the West, does it feel like you're in a different league?

    The 3 top records over the last 11 years, it's Dallas, San Antonio, Houston. We have to play each other a lot. It's crazy the 3 top records have been from one division of one conference. It does feel like...the WCF is generally the Finals & has been for awhile now. My whole career it's been that way.

    You have a volleyball to get to. Appreciate the time.
     
    #16 J.R., Aug 17, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  17. rockets13champs

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    I'm starting to think the Melo deals deadline is December 15
     
  18. Brown Lost It

    Brown Lost It Member

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    Paul/ego
    Harden/wade

    If we wanted wade, he would be hardens back up, i dont think he wants that. He can't guard today's nba points with those knees

    If he does then welcome aboard
     
  19. J Sizzle

    J Sizzle Member

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    I'll always remember the "OJ Mayo or James Harden?" thread.

    This forum is very dumb sometimes.
     
  20. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    Morey had job security, now we won't know with potential new ownership.
     
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