New Article - The Curious Case of Daryl Morey’s Point Guards

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http://pickandroll.com.au/daryl-morey-point-guard/

 

the NBA is a business, pure and simple. it's quite rare for NBA owners and management to actually prioritize loyalty and character over the chance to get big name stars, to give them a "better" chance for a title.

players may endear themselves to fans for whatever reason, but in the end, that rarely matters when personnel decisions are made.

i guess the thing that sets the Rockets situation apart is how young the point guards mentioned are and how much potential each of them had if allowed to stay the course as starters. but then again, i should add that the NBA is a business where the top brass rarely have patience.

 

Good review. As the author said.......rent, not buy. I do think the rotation of players will slow just because we are much closer to our goal today than we were a year ago.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised by the following....

Lin is traded or allowed to expire
Beverley is resigned for a Lowry-esqe contract
Llull is signed

 

Current role players will expire (Bev/Parsons excluded, they r here for a long time), but soon we will get MLE with a good amount of years on the contract. The vet min guys will go yearly or every other year, but core should expand (Lin/Asik/Garcia/Casspi will all be gone in two years, while Harden/Howard/Parsons/Bev will be here for the long haul, with a MLE, mini MLE, and one player in the 8-10 mil/y added as core)

 

If you are a team with a great power forward - what's the most appealing trade.

Asik + Lin
OR
Asik + Bev

Hmmmmm. Not sure it's Lin who will be gone.

 

There's a fine line between wanting a winning team and burning too many players to the point that guys don't want to sign here. Luckily, that hasn't happened, but I doubt anyone wants to be treated like Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola after giving Houston everything.

I think Morey has done a commendable job. I get the appeal. He's smart and makes moves that are somewhat unexpected with big payoffs.

However, as much as I love my Rockets, I think a lot of us fail with objectivity in assessing the extent of "Morey's Greatness." I'm not disputing that Harden and Howard's signing are the biggest since Tmac and Yao, but we have to consider everything that happened before our team became a legitimate Finals threat.

It's not like Morey put this together quickly. We've have gone through so many consecutive seasons wit mediocre finishes, along with numerous trade deadlines where Morey gutted our team and traded for players that, well, were TRASH in comparison to what we already have.

Look, I get the salary cap, understand the concept of having the space to sign a marquee player, and I recognize the notion of "potential," though it is VERY overblown on this BBS. (Hi, DaDakota---I haven't seen Chase Budinger become Larry Bird or Jordan Hill become Amare STAT.)

However, I just do not buy that Morey made EVERY SINGLE trade and transaction with this "ultimate plan" of acquiring James and eventually Dwight. In many ways, Morey has been on the losing end of the trades he's "masterminded." The guys he thought had so-called potential were really disappointing for what was given up to get them in a Rockets uniform.

If you go back to the Pau Gasol trade that was rejected, you can see some of the holes in the "Morey is a God"ideology. If that would have gone through, once again, our team would have been gutted from every position (Kmart was our best scorer at the time)

From my personal connections,, I know that Pau would have been paired with NeNe, though a former Celtic got in the way of that.

People argue that every Morey move has been designed with the consistent mindset of acquiring James or a "star." The numbers don't add up to this defense.

I'm grateful that this team is finally a cohesive, strong unit, but Morey does have his flaws, and it gets annoying that some fans don't recognize his countless missteps along the way. Even if they were for cap purposes, (Shane/Thabeet), the outcome didn't net us a star until much, much later.

Morey's greatest strength is finding and developing talent from a drafting standpoint.

 

Good articles, although I don't think we'll make either of the trades suggested.

 

Its not as cut and dry as some would have it seem

 

He drafted Royce White that may cost him.

He could sign Lin at lower cost if he didn't waive him.

 

If you accept the premise that you have to have star players to win (and I think everyone does), then there are three ways to aquire them. Draft, free agency, and trades.

My understanding is that Morey thought tanking was the easiest way to go, but the owner said no. That means you have to always have assets for trades and cap space for free agency (and trades), while at the same time fielding at least an average team. And it means taking bigger gambles in the draft (Royce White).

While you are hanging around waiting for that star player to arrive via free agency or a trade, you can try the fourth route...sift through a lot of players with potential and see if anything develops. That is bound to result in tons of roster churn, because you have to give each of them a chance before moving on.

It's not that he was a genius wizard in predicting talent, it is that he developed a plan within the constraints he had and methodically worked it. It was a good plan, and he should get credit for that.

 

Morey mentioned in one of his interviews trade happens by chance, just like how Harden and Dwight landed on Houston. His job is to evaluate talent (aka assets) and make cap space available when opportunity knocks the door.

 

BAD GM's ASSEMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your ridiculous suggestion

 

Morey can pull quality PG's out of his ass. He used to pull serviceable 4's also with Landry, Hayes, Scola, and Patterson(was low lottery pick). However, he swung for the fences with Morris, White, and Dmo and he missed on Morris and White. It remains to be seen how Dmo turns out. All that being said, everyone knew we were swinging for the fences with White and Morris, so the bust factor isn't surprising.

Morey isn't perfect, but his track record is better than most.

In regards to the Gasol trade, everyone points to his numbers the last few years. However people forget that Gasol had to play with Kobe and Bynum which limited his touches. If you saw the Olympics and the first game of the season without Kobe, you can see Gasol is still the most skilled big man in the game. He just took a back seat to Kobe.

Getting Harden was pure luck, but Morey put himself in position to take advantage of OK's incompetence.

 

What's rediculous about it? It follows logically with what Morey has done in the past.

Lin is traded or allowed to expire so there's enough room to sign LMA or Love in 2015.

Beverley, a quality role player and good fit next to 3 dominant players (Harden, LMA, Howard) is signed to a resonable deal using his Bird rights.

Llull, a euro that Morey himself has said is a great fit next to Harden, fullfills his wish to win a Euro Cup and comes to the NBA in a few years.

If you're going to call me out, at least provide an intelligent rebuttal.

 

He may have determined that the PG is like the NFL's RB position. Easiest to find and plug into than the other positions.

 

There is another article: Bloodied Jeremy Lin ...

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/sports/10-31-13-bloodied-jeremy-lin-saves-rockets-from-coaching-blunder-shows-class-and-true-skills/

 

Contract wise yes, but if all contracts were equal I wouldn't think anybody would choose Asik + Bev over Asik + Lin.

 

As long as there are competent ball handlers at the 2 and 3 spot, the point guard position is just an ancillary position. I'm not saying we have a LeBron/Wade duo on our hands right now but Miami can afford to have a Mario Chalmers or a Norris Cole play point because Wade and LeBron can handle the ball for most of the game. Harden and Parsons don't have that elite ball handling skill but it's something that will improve with Howard here and the PnR become even more of a staple in the offense.

One of the things that almost burned Miami last year in the Finals was Tony Parker because Chalmers and Cole are sub-par to average defenders. If Beverly can be that competent point guard (hit the occasional 3; keep defenses honest) that can defend like no other, that's all the Rockets will need.

I'd wish we still had Lowry or Dragic to go with Harden/Parson/Asik/Howard but that's not a possibility right now and I don't think that not having a "premier" point guard will hurt us in the playoffs. As long as there's a steady hand at the point, the team can ride Harden/Parsons/Howard.