Heading into the season to mark the silver anniversary of their championships, the Rockets come off the best three-year regular season record in franchise history without having broken through for a return to the NBA Finals. They have been retooled again, this time with the rotation largely returning intact around one enormous change, with every intention of contending for a title. With Russell Westbrook replacing Chris Paul next to James Harden in the backcourt, the core of the rotation all under contract for at least two more seasons and the Western Conference considered even deeper with contenders than during the Warriors’ reign, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey addressed some of the questions heading into next week’s start of training camp. Q: You said on the NBA Awards red carpet that the Rockets should be Western Conference favorites. That was before the Clippers moves, the Lakers additions and your deal for Russell Westbrook. With all the changes in the league since then, how do your championship chances compare to your expectations then? Are you still the favorites? A: Yes. We’re favorites. But as usual, there is some very tough competition: Clippers, Lakers, Utah. Then I’d say people are probably underrating Golden State still. We have a healthy respect for them. But we go in shooting for the No. 1 seed. Q: Speaking of the Warriors, your best teams as the Rockets GM have been repeatedly stopped by one of the best teams in NBA history. The Warriors have been presumably diminished by injury and defection. With a sense that the championship race is more wide open, is this season, assuming good health, is success this season a championship or bust? Is that how you measure success this season? A: That’s how we’ve measured success the past few seasons, so I guess we’ve been a bust. Yeah, we’re just focused on one thing. Q: What makes Russell Westbrook a better fit than Chris Paul? A: I wouldn’t compare him to Chris Paul. I don’t think we need to do that. I would just say what makes Russ a really good player for us is he’s a weapon. Obviously, he’s a guy who can elevate his game in the playoffs with his athleticism. He’s a guy who has an extra gear. He’s a weapon in transition. He’s a weapon on the boards. There is instant cohesion with him. We’re excited. Q: You had often said that you expected Chris Paul to age well because he does not rely on explosive athleticism. Russell Westbrook does. With that in mind, does Westbrook extend the championship window as much as might be assumed because he is four years younger? A: I do think Chris will be very good later in his career. Generally, Hall of Famers hold up. The ones that are high IQ and things like that tend to last longer, as well. Russ and James (Harden) and Eric (Gordon), they’re all in their prime, all 30. Some of the aging stuff is not a big question right now. Q: With only one major change in your rotation, do you view this team as having great continuity or making a significant change because the move is at point guard? A: I think we have great continuity because I think we’re returning more minutes than most teams in the league, but also the familiarity of all the players. You get players of similar age like Russ and James and Eric in particular, they’ve known each other since they were very young. They’ve been battling on the court together, against and with each other for a long time. Q: How will the style of play this season differ from past seasons? A: That’s probably a better question for Mike (D’Antoni,) but just in terms of what he told me, I think we’re going to get back to transition being more of a weapon for us. That was something Mike did very well his first year for us. Mostly because we were an elite halfcourt team, we got away from it. With a weapon like Russell in transition, you have to use it. I think you’ll see more offensive rebounding with our personnel. Defensively, Russ is bigger, stronger than Chris. It makes it easier to switch certain screens. We’re more like-sized at multiple positions, as well. Q: To what degree will the Rockets join the load management era? Do you envision James Harden or Russell Westbrook sitting out games when healthy? A: We don’t like to label it, honestly. Our goal is to peak in April. We need to be smart about it. Keith (Jones, the Rockets senior vice president of basketball operation) and Jason (Biles, the Rockets head athletic trainer and director of performance rehab) are putting together a plan. I think there is a good chance you’ll see some guys resting when healthy. It all depends on the context of the season. If we start 7-11 again, I don’t think there’ll be a lot of resting. We’ll be battling for the playoffs. Everything is contextual. We need at all times to be looking at the ultimate goal of wining a title and what is the best decision. That’s why we don’t like to have any hard and fast rules. I don’t think that’s pragmatic. Q: Danuel House is the only forward backup that had a regular rotation spot last season and he played a half of a season. Gerald Green has generally be considered a guard, though in your offense the two and three are very similar. Still, do you have enough depth in the frontcourt? A: Yeah, we feel we do. We downshift so well. James guards big guys probably better than he guards smaller guys. Eric can guard small and big. Obviously, House can guard small and big. We just have a lot of guys who downshift to the four so we don’t really need a lot of minutes (off the bench) there. Then, at the five we feel like we’re well in hand with Clint (Capela) and Tyson (Chandler) and Nene and Isaiah (Hartenstein.) We’re not worried about the five at all. Q: P.J. Tucker has said he would seek a contract extension but has two seasons remaining on his contract. Assuming agreement on the terms, would that make sense to have his contract line up with the rest of your core players? Or could you just guarantee the second year and deal with it with one season left as you did with Eric Gordon? A: We’re open to the concept of extensions early. We have done it with players in the past. Normally, it’s the James Harden type players. We’re open to it. That said, I have found you don’t really get to an agreement with what both sides are looking at to how the extension can work realistically until you are one year out. I wouldn’t expect any other extension from us this year, mostly because everyone is signed for multiple years. Q: Would you guarantee the remaining year so there is no uncertainty? A: That kind of stuff is between us and representation. I’m not going to announce stuff in a Q & A. Q: A lot of veterans are joining your guys at this week’s players minicamp in Las Vegas. Do you expect to make additions to the roster? A: We’re going to have 20 going into camp. We can only keep 17 (including two players with two-way contracts.) Right now, we have nine fully guaranteed. I think we do have more roster opportunity than any team in the league at least for the back end of the rotation or guys that might come in if we take an injury. Q: So for guys in Las Vegas – Corey Brewer, Terrence Jones, Nick Young – is Las Vegas a tryout for them? A: No. I would say really high level veterans like them it’s more them getting comfortable with us than us getting comfortable with them. There’s guys in Vegas who are friends with our players that are here. There’s also guys who are not here for various reasons we are evaluating. I don’t know how it’s going to shake out. We’re still making decisions about the last few guys that will come to camp. Q: After the Nene deal, you are very close to the tax line. Would you surpass that for a player that initially would not be a part of the rotation? A: Yes. I’ve been authorized to do what it takes to win a title. Q: The 17th guy might not win you a title. A: Yeah, but I would expect will be over the tax at some point. Q: Will you carry 15 plus the two-ways this season? A: Yes. I think we’ll be at 17 this year. Q: Mike’s contract has gotten a ton of attention You did have contract negotiations with him, indicating you wanted him under contract beyond this season. For a team so determined to align the contracts of core players, why not with the coach, too? Does it need to get done?” A: I think everyone wants it to be longer. It takes two to tango to come to terms. We haven’t. At this point, he’ll coach this season and we’ll figure out how to keep Mike around after. Q: So there’s no chance to initiate talks again? A: The plan now is to pick it up after the season. Q: Knowing how much you love this measure of excellence, will Russelll Westbrook average a triple double again this season? A: I want us to get triple double championships. (Laughs.) I want to get the Chicago Bulls triple double. Q: So, with several years to consider the arguments, who should have won the 2017 MVP? A: There were many deserving candidates.
On the surface (e.g. just reading the notes above) I can tell Morey still misses CP3 or, rather, the potential it could have been.
Indeed. It seems obvious to me that the CP3/Westbrook trade was a Tilman/Harden spearheaded thing versus a Morey thing. We'll see what how it works.
Q: After the Nene deal, you are very close to the tax line. Would you surpass that for a player that initially would not be a part of the rotation? A: Yes. I’ve been authorized to do what it takes to win a title. *Whatever it takes* Tilman!
Q: Will you carry 15 plus the two-ways this season? A: Yes. I think we’ll be at 17 this year. Interesting that they are going to carry the full 15. I thought for sure they would carry 14 and an open roster spot since they were close to the LT.
Decent interview, though his answer to front court depth was a classic Morey not wanting to admit we’re small at the 4 so talked about the centers only. And if he truly believes we’re good right now, then he’s also lying about that or truly lost his touch with how basketball is played. I’m disappointed with Feigen not following up on that, especially because he could’ve framed it as a rebounding question with us being so poor at it.
You cannot 'manage load' with Russell for an extended number of games as he ain't as good as Harden offensively and he is sometimes worse defensively. Also his shooting numbers won't let him.
Dude, we have 20 rebounds coming out of our back court alone... Rebounding will NOT be a problem this year. Not even a little bit.
I’m saying Feigen could’ve used our bad rebounding from last year as an excuse to talk about the 4 position depth..
