Personally, I don't think anybody here that thinks DM is less than very good is worth arguing with. But, I submit three reasons why CF members should believe in him: 1) He has gotten us to here, i.e., where the team has excellent assets. I grant that this point is definitely arguable. 2) He does a great job with draft picks plus stealing Ish without even losing a pick. 3) He has kept us from having bad contracts that hamstring many teams. We are in a position to take back some bad contracts now, because we don't have any already. You may think this is easy, but look around at the other teams.
First domino has fallen Morey. Go get em now! Happened a few hours earlier than expected. Plenty of time to shop.
LOL! Thats what I really wanted to say. Its too late now and people jump down my throat with anger if I do. :grin:
yeah...awesome. it's your number 1 point and you note that it's definitely arguable. :grin: I would argue it. look, at the end of the day what I see most people credit Morey with is avoiding bad contracts...and that's really good. But that's a means...not an end. Ultimately, the end is building a team that can win. That's where he'll ultimately be judged, like every other GM.
it was just my prediction. fetish? get your mind out of the gutter. i'm just talkin' hoops here. geeeeeezzzzzzz....
1. Without last years trade for cap space NY wouldn't have been able to sign Felton nor Mozgov. 2. I agreed that the trade was great for the Rockets, I was more so referring to the belief that Morey completely bamboozled Walsh to the point where no other GMs want to trade with Morey.
This is the only good thing he's done. The current roster is not something worth bragging about, and our supposed 'assets' aren't winning games nor are they being sought after by other teams.
I listed it first to get it out of the way. I'm not sure you and I are that far apart. We agree he hasn't made it there yet; we just disagree on whether he's on his way.
The Rockets have a $75 million payroll (and a $41 million payroll next year, BTW). Even the Morey-haters begrudgingly admit that we don't have bad contracts, at least not to any glaring extent. Meaning, we have $75 million worth of talent (setting aside Yao for the moment), unlike other teams, that might have $60 million worth of talent at a cost of $75 million. Of course, we aren't winning anything, though if we had $17 million worth of players instead of Yao's contract (roughly another Martin and Scola), we would certainly be better. We're basically a #8 seed-team that has had a tough schedule, and a few months at the start of the season where we were working things out. Add in another Martin and Scola instead of Yao's contract, and I submit we're a low-50s win team. Another thing to consider is, we have a lot of young players. Some of them might not grow much more, but as a group, they will get better. Plus, if all we do from here on is let DM draft a 1st- and 2nd-rounder every year, we will be adding talent there. Now, what does your average GM do? Over a few years, he takes a low-win team, builds it up by taking on bad contracts, peaks somewhere short of a conference championship, and then has to start re-building again. Really, which GMs are clearly better? Who has gotten to the top and stayed there? Joe Dumars was tough stuff for a while.. but then lost it. Pat Riley? He brought it all together for one year with Shaq and D-Wade, but why couldn't he keep the team at the top? Look at Dallas: even with lots of money, they peaked at a finals appearance, then dropped. They're always within strking distance, kind of... I only see San Antonio and Boston that can raise competitive teams, let's say, 2/3 of the seasons. Yeah, Lakers too, but where would they be without that sneaky Gasol trade that magically appeared? And besides, they're only a few years removed from Kobe demanding to be traded because they sucked too much. So, clearly better than Morey? Everybody's list might be a little different, but I don't think anybody can honestly name five GMs that make it. You might have some you think are a little better, but name five that are clearly better.
1. Our assets aren't "excellent," it's become obvious since summer that nobody values our assets as much as we seem to, as evident by the fact that we still have them and have not been able to make a deal for a star or superstar player, which was the entire point. 2. Ish has yet to prove anything so calling him a "steal" doesn't make any sense. And finding decent role players from 2nd round draft picks is nice, but doesn't matter much if you can't put together a solid core, as evident by the current team. 3. This is true, but it's also given the organization a bad rep among players (seemingly). If you look around the league, most good teams have at least one or two bad contracts, it's bad of building a team, it involves taking risks and sometimes overpaying for a player if it fills a need. You aren't going to get very far in the NBA if all you want is undervalued players.
I think it takes a while to get a deal for a Kevin Garnett, for example. How was Danny Ainge doing before that happened? If you want to tell me he was always an excellent GM, why did he struggle so much before that happened? Still, I would have liked to see more trades up to now. I think the problem is that Morey wants to win every trade. Maybe he relates everything to total team talent, and isn't interested into trading a player worth 70 Morey points for a true defensive center only worth 60 Morey points. Hopefully he gets over that in the next couple of days.
20 hours left!!! What's doin Morey??? I will be extrememly upset if Brooks+Bud+Hill remian on this team aftyer the deadline.
We do have excellent assets, the major difference that is being left out, and overlooked is the position that Morey sits in the trading landscape NOW vs when YAO was still considered part of the team. In that I mean, Morey's look to other gm's to me now looks more like NEED than WANT. And when a GM is in NEED mode, the other GM's typically have the upper hand, as you with the need tend to have to bargain at a much more difficult level. They know Morey NEEDS something, therefore they aren't going to negotiate on an even table IMO. Not that Morey IMO hasn't gotten doable deals, but is Morey willing to go ABOVE what he really wants to give up to get a superstar or potential superstar. I say Morey won't by this trade deadline, IMO it's just not there for the taking. I could be wrong, but I just can't see anything that really solidifies this team coming from the trade deadline.
Daryl Morey was throwing offers at the Nuggets until the last hours before Carmelo Anthony was traded to the Knicks on Monday. Now what's left for the Rockets? "We've got to get something done, or it's not good," Morey said. "If I'm a fan, I'm waiting for us to get someone." If you pumped the Rockets' general manager full of truth serum, he'd tell you his offer of players, cash and draft picks for Anthony was better than the one the Nuggets took from the Knicks. Anthony had made it clear he wanted to play only for the Knicks, but Morey would have made the trade anyway and taken his chances on re-signing him. The Mavericks were also going hard for Anthony until the end. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have told the Rockets that center Nene isn't available, and unless they're bluffing, there goes another interesting option. What's left? Morey has two other trades in play: one for a potentially high draft pick, the other for an impact player. He said he'd feel better if he had five or six possibilities instead of two. There was fatigue in his voice, and he knows that gets him no sympathy. "I'm not optimistic," he says, "but I don't think I ever am at this point in the process. Everyone is playing poker, trying to get the best deal they can." Shane Battier and Courtney Lee are the Rockets whom Morey gets the most calls about, but neither is likely to get him a difference-maker. If you're frustrated, he understands. No one wants to know how the sausage is made. "It's not for lack of trying," Morey said. "I hope people understand that. We're going to be among the top five teams in the league in flexibility this offseason." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/7441527.html Morey Dont seem to confident
This is what I was saying last year when the thought and Idea of Melo was being discussed and quite a few people were just so sure the nuggets had all the cards. I said Melo held the most cards and would get what he wanted even if there where better trades for the Nuggets out there. Which according to a few sports reporters that the Rockets and Mavs offered better deals, not exactly sure what that consisted of, but it must have been pretty damn good for the Nuggets. But what a Superstar wants, a Superstar gets...
Then Stern's fat ass signs off on it. This is why there will be a lock out. At this point I could careless because the NBA is going straight down the sh!tter.
1. I would take either of the two as long we get rid of Brooks+Bud+Hill. 2. This sentence make me doubt the 1st point about the two options. Man these last 19 hours are killing me. I cant even begin to imagne how the players feel.
