1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

Rockets GM Daryl Morey Talks Westbrook, Player Empowerment & More with Rich Eisen

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by DaBeard, Aug 1, 2019.

  1. DaBeard

    DaBeard Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2017
    Messages:
    2,994
    Likes Received:
    8,229
  2. ROXTXIA

    ROXTXIA Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2000
    Messages:
    20,024
    Likes Received:
    11,693
    I might have to wait for the JR transcript.
     
  3. BigBum

    BigBum Member

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2018
    Messages:
    3,860
    Likes Received:
    1,346
    I think Westbrook is a huge improvement.

    Chris Paul is shooting 41.9% overall field goal last season with slow pace on defense and missing 22 games.
     
    Hakeemtheking, Mazulis, sammy and 2 others like this.
  4. AroundTheWorld

    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2000
    Messages:
    66,681
    Likes Received:
    44,405
    I'm surprised Eisen never asked about Chris Paul's reaction or anything like that. Softball questions, but nice interview. Thanks for posting.
     
    FLASH21 likes this.
  5. FLASH21

    FLASH21 Heart O' Champs

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2008
    Messages:
    13,501
    Likes Received:
    5,423
  6. macan

    macan Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2017
    Messages:
    6,878
    Likes Received:
    10,487
    anyone knows what kinda shoes Morey's rocking?is that nike or adidas? looking nice
     
  7. don grahamleone

    don grahamleone Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2001
    Messages:
    23,313
    Likes Received:
    33,293
    Nice interview. Thx OP
     
  8. J.R.

    J.R. Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2008
    Messages:
    106,788
    Likes Received:
    154,648
    (Anything happening lately?) We have two MVPs. Two of the last three. That's been a good formula for teams recently.

    (Do you recognize this voice? -- Previous Daryl interview with Rich; RE: You said a couple days ago Chris Paul is gonna be a Rocket next season. DM: Yes. RE: Is that 100%? DM: It's 100%, yes. RE: You can say that with that certainty right now? DM: I can. -- Who is that voice?) I think that was a voice manipulator like Scream maybe.

    (That was untouched.) I should listen to Holic know in sports always to go 99.9%.

    (If you say that, that does open the door for someone like me to come crashing through.) I deserve that. I deserve that. I do. I did not anticipate Russell Westbrook to be available. Chris Paul is an amazing player and we were only ever gonna do anything if we were getting something amazing back. That whole maneuvering, I should have seen it maybe but I did not.

    (Nobody saw Paul George saying "I want out.") I didn't see it at all. He picked them. There were the rumors he was going to go to LA the year before but when he signed again in OKC, "Oh, he must love it there." We did not anticipate that, did not anticipate a MVP to be available. I should have gone with 99.9%.

    (When you heard Paul George was going to the Clippers, did that a light bulb over your head about Westbrook?) It made me say I should check in. Maybe they're going in a different direction. I still didn't think they would do something like trade Russell Westbrook. He signed for six years there. It didn't seem like someone they would move. I did make a note to check in the next day. I thought they'd still build around Russell.

    (When did you reach out to Sam Presti?) The next day. If it was later in the season, you might wait a little bit because you don't want to be the ambulance chaser. In the offseason, it's fast & furious so you gotta check in right away.

    (Because your concerned others might check in on Russ?) Anytime a great player is available, every team should check in. I'm sure Sam was sick of all the calls he got.

    (If there was nothing wrong with Harden & Chris Paul, why would you check in with the Thunder for Russell Westbrook?) First off, they have good players on their roster & it's my job to check in on that. Russell Westbrook, if available, is something I have to investigate. If he were traded to a different team for something less than what we would give up, it would be a problem. To get a recent MVP, I think only four times in NBA history a team has had two MVPs in a three year span on the same team and it's always ended in a championship. Obviously we're gonna have to go out & win it but it's a pretty good formula.

    (When did you first reach Harden or did he first reach you?) I talked to him the next day. The move happened so late at night. I talked to James the next day after I spoke to OKC and seemed like there's some chance. James has been playing with Russ in LA since he's 6 years old. They know each other real well.

    (Position of you as GM in the NBA, you could be cruising your ship, hoping to get to some championship destination, you like your roster the way it is, you've set it up, you've signed a star long term and then all the sudden, star is like I gotta call for my buddy, I don't want to play for you anymore. That's life? Why can't a GM say no?) We have. Mostly we've been lucky that players haven't done that. We've been lucky. Houston is a destination city players love playing in. We've had a great winning tradition. 2nd most wins over the last 15 years. People love Coach D'Antoni, love ownership Tilman Fertitta. We've not had that situation but for sure we've had trade requests and we've said "No, you're signed."

    (So you've had trade requests from players on your current roster?) No on rosters in the past. We've said "No, that's not how it works." To be fair to David Griffin & others, each situation is unique and you have to handle it the right way but we've not had that situation & on top of it, when it's come up with non-star players, we've said "It's not something we're going to do."

    (Interesting you say non-star players because star players can make things very difficult.) They can.

    (Is there some way to rectify what we've seen from Paul George & Anthony Davis?) I don't think there's any way to do it. I'm very pro player empowerment. That's been one of our advantages. We involve our stars in big decisions. These top players are what drives the league, what people come to see & it's appropriate they're involved in everything. I feel like it's my job to make sure they never want to leave, not worry about how to make it so they can never do it.

    (David Griffin also called USA Basketball legal tampering) He's pretty right about that. The top top players all play USA Basketball & they all get together. They're like Game of Thrones, they're masters of the universe where they're figuring out which area of the map for them to team up. I think it's great for the league honestly. End of the day, people come to watch the stars. It's appropriate they have a big say in where they go.
     
    #8 J.R., Aug 1, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2019
    Ramo$e, Game7, dobro1229 and 10 others like this.
  9. J.R.

    J.R. Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2008
    Messages:
    106,788
    Likes Received:
    154,648
    (Fans, kid sitting there in OKC staring into space, bummed when Damian Lillard waved bye-bye to them, having no idea we were all waving bye-bye to them as they were constituted. And for years to come. Any Rockets fan right now fired up, you got it done Daryl, you did in fact bring Westbrook to town. You got that situated. What if suddenly Russ turns around and "I want to play with a buddy in Los Angeles." How does that work?) It's tough. We went through some tough times between Yao/Tracy and when James Harden came. I told people to get a jersey with their own name on the back because we were doing a lot of changes. I do think that's the biggest negative angle. Lot of kids are fans of the players now. I know for sure we have lots of fans in OKC who are Rockets fans now. They'll be excited to watch Russell on the Rockets.

    (What did Harden say?) It's the same when I call him about any star being available. He wants to play with them. He wants to bring them here. He wants to win a title. He's hungry to win a title. Whatever move we can get to get a player that will help us win a title, he's all in for.

    (And the fact that he knows him & played with him) He knew Russell really really well. Obviously played with him in the NBA but even growing up in LA.

    (You've been wide open saying you were building your team to beat the Warriors and it looks like they'll no longer be the Warriors we've seen.) They're gonna be really good. To me, there's six really good teams in the West. If you look at Vegas, we're ranked somewhere between one and three in terms of title odds & O/U in wins. That's about right but there are six teams that are really strong. It's gonna be a war and it's gonna be fun.

    (Where do you think you stand?) First. 100%.

    (You're swapping Paul for Westbrook & running it back) They're different players but we think Russell in Coach D'Antoni's system, who's one of the best ever at taking a guy's strength & utilizing it on the floor. Doesn't ask for them to change, he molds to them. In our structure, he'll be great.

    (There still is just one basketball right?) I think. We are trying to be innovative here with hockey subs & stuff.

    (How is it gonna work?) When we brought in Chris Paul, everyone said it's not gonna work. This is similar. It's gonna work. If you saw Russell's opening press conference, we're not gonna even ask him to change but he was talking about how he needs to go back to what he was doing when James was on the ball in OKC, cutting, moving, doing whatever is necessary to win.

    (What needs to change for the free agency period?) Commissioner Silver is a great leader and is already on this. There's a lot of rules they have on the books that are basically unenforceable. Good in concept but unenforceable. I think he's talking about changing them such that the ones on the books, they'll be very diligent & enforced and the ones almost impossible to enforce that maybe those will change. We'll see what he does.

    (What do you want to see?) I've spoken to him. It hurts the league office to have unenforceable rules. If you can't create an environment your players want to be in and they want to leave based on one phone conversation with someone, that's your problem. You haven't created the environment for that player to want to stay.

    (Finals are over, day after that you can start talking, then a draft afterwards.) The NFL does a lot of things right Rich. Putting free agency first I think is better. The reason NBA free agency is such a big deal is not only our players like more out front, public, you can see them but also make a way bigger impact. The only players who come close to having the impact of your 2nd best player on a NBA team is the QB in the NFL. Our top few players have such a big impact. If you want to decide who's going to win the title, you don't even have to look at role players generally. You just have to count the number of All-NBA players they have. That will track to how Vegas is projecting that team. Those big players moving creates drama & fun.

    (Fine with a period of talking with free agents right away? Right as soon as the season is over.) I would be. It's more realistic. Or just always. Player to player, these conversations happen constantly. Why pretend it doesn't happen?

    (Certainly if a player is part owner or has associates who are owning agencies. That is part of what's going on with Davis, LeBron & the Lakers.) I think formally having ties into ownership does create a lot conflict. That should be something that's always not allowed.

    (Who came up with the term load management?) I think it was Ron Jeremy Stan Van Gundy. I think he's just the biggest proponent. I don't like the term. We don't label it. It's common sense. You're trying to win the title so we're making sure our player is at their peak in the playoffs. It's common sense. We don't need a term. We won't have a specific like we're calling it load management and this is exactly what they do but we'll have a plan ahead, work with Russell, work with James, work with our other key players because we are the most veteran team in the league now. We bob & weave. If you win a bunch of games in a row, maybe the pressure comes off. If you lose a bunch in a row, ...like it does matter how the season unfolds.

    (But you will not, when the schedule comes out, this day you're definitely on a load management situation) Here in an ideal world where we're tracking to 55-65 wins, here's how we think it will be best handled but then how the team performs, how that player's injury maps out, how much effort they're expending in practice & games all go into managing it through the season.

    (Fantasy football draft?) Haven't gotten it scheduled.

    (Who's in your league?) My wife who beats me all the time. Just a bunch of friends. No cool celebs or anything.

    (More difficult to schedule: your fantasy draft or Harden's load management?) Harden's load management.
     
    #9 J.R., Aug 1, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2019
    thadeus, alethios, Mazulis and 12 others like this.
  10. s3ts

    s3ts Member

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2007
    Messages:
    3,109
    Likes Received:
    2,847
    it's hilarious how he starts the show off w/ Morey's comment that CP will definitely be a Rocket next season.
     
    don grahamleone likes this.
  11. ISOBall

    ISOBall Member

    Joined:
    Nov 17, 2015
    Messages:
    2,908
    Likes Received:
    1,998
    That host kept repeating the same questions over and over again :confused: why does Daryl even bother
     
  12. TheRealAllpro

    TheRealAllpro Morey only fan

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2012
    Messages:
    5,842
    Likes Received:
    4,999
    Morey: “If you want to decide who's going to win the title, you don't even have to look at role players generally. You just have to count the number of All-NBAplayers they have”

    This is great insight into Morey’s view of team building.
     
    Easy and smp like this.
  13. HoustonWest

    HoustonWest Member

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2014
    Messages:
    351
    Likes Received:
    605
    Good interview, thanks for posting.
     
  14. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2001
    Messages:
    43,148
    Likes Received:
    25,188
    Harden has load management??

    Is it at Treasures??
     
  15. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2002
    Messages:
    35,054
    Likes Received:
    23,952
    LOL. This is so like many CFers.

    Before: Westbrook stole Harden's MVP.
    Now: We have two MVPs.

    Pretty sure if he got Giannis, he'd say the same thing.
     
  16. theDude

    theDude Contributing Member
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    3,054
    Likes Received:
    4,148
    Morey was basically talking to all of the players.

    'Sign here and we will cater to you."

    If you're a star.
     
    Ramo$e likes this.

Share This Page

  • About ClutchFans

    Since 1996, ClutchFans has been loud and proud covering the Houston Rockets, helping set an industry standard for team fan sites. The forums have been a home for Houston sports fans as well as basketball fanatics around the globe.

  • Support ClutchFans!

    If you find that ClutchFans is a valuable resource for you, please consider becoming a Supporting Member. Supporting Members can upload photos and attachments directly to their posts, customize their user title and more. Gold Supporters see zero ads!


    Upgrade Now