[ClutchFans] How we got here: A look back at the end of the Yao era to now

I see what you did there.

 

I love CD, and I'm glad that he still has a role with the Rockets from time to time. He is an important part of our history, and deserves immense credit for so much, including our two championships. CD is not, however, Daryl Morey. Vastly different in more ways than I want to list. They both have their strengths, but those strengths come from such different places that they may as well have been from different planets. So I disagree. CD couldn't have done what Morey has done to date, and Morey couldn't have done what CD did to bring us two championships. Different era, different methods, and that's one heck of an understatement. In other words, I don't think Alexander's wallet, or lack of same, made much of an impact on CD's great history with the Rockets. It was the other things he did, not the least being hiring RudyT as coach, something no one else would have even considered, in my opinion.

 

Morey = genius

 

I just think how, not long ago, it was all about how far K-Mart, Scola and Lowry would take us. My, how far we've come.

 

I think this is the plan at least according to what Morey has said this offseason (take with grain of salt). I still don't expect the 11-15 spots to necessarily be constant, but I expect little change in rotation.

Howard, Parsons, Harden, and Beverly all look like good bets to make it the next two seasons as Rockets. Very likely one of Motiejunas and Jones is still around in two years.

Lin and/or Asik are making decent money and could be used for salary matching purposes/cap space to acquire a better player. I expect Rockets will keep one for next two years. I don't think Rockets want to lose Garcia, but he and whoever Rockets use the room exception on have salaries that would go well with Asik or Lin's contract for a max player.

Smith, Ohlbrecht, Anderson, and Casspi all have cheap deals. I think Rockets try to keep these guys to balance out max salaries, but are gone in a heart beat if needed for cap space for Howard or salary matching purposes for thirs star.

Canaan...Rockets will probably keep for two years to give him a chance to develop into an NBA player. PG is a position that may be in flux for Rockets in near future.

 

Ah, I see this post got a makeover and star treatment. Nice. I prefer an infographic next time, Google loves rich media, thanks.

 

Next time Morey haters start cropping up again (They are like bad weeds, they never go away) I'm going to link them to this article.

 

I'm afraid in a few years other team owners will take notice and start offering Mauri unheard of $$$ to be their GM. Teams like Knicks, Lakers, Nets could come knocking on Mauri's door and offer something like $15 mil or something.

 

did i just see a haven post on the 2nd page?

when we actually got howard, i think the thing that made me happiest was knowing everything morey has done finally paid off. i have been a fan since the beginning of his time here and even when he didn't get the breaks, i always thought his moves were extremely well thought out and took advantage of any given situation from every possible angle, whether that be future value, current needs, salary cap management, etc. but as long as he had that "can't get the superstar" label, people weren't going to give him his just due. but now that the breaks have gone his way the last 2 years, people are starting to realize how good he has been all along.

he took over a roster with 2 stars/superstars and no role players and then saw his stars taken away due to injury. and yet, with no high draft picks and no capspace due to the injured stars' salaries, he somehow rebuilt a team with young players and good contracts. he then netted a superstar and created a ton of capspace so that he could get another superstar. and he did all of this without ever falling below .500.

the number of trades and draft picks where he has created value has just been amazing. he finds role players, good character guys who play hard and with chemistry even though they are on a revolving-door team where it would be easy to only play for yourself, and gets them on good contracts. and every move seems to be part of a larger picture and rarely deviates from that larger picture.

i think this is important to remember. ultimately, all Morey could do is present howard with the best basketball situation possible. he couldn't control if howard wanted to play in L.A., he couldn't control if jack nicholson calling howard was important, he couldn't control if howard had a donut shop down the street that he never wanted to move away from. all he could do was build a team with a superstar and good role players and future flexibility and hope that some other superstar would a) be available and b) be enticed by those things. this time morey had the good forture that a) and b) lined up with his plan.

also, more than the money, les alexander's faith in morey should be praised. he could have easily said "hey, stat guy, you're just spinning your wheels here with these .500 teams, i'm going to go find a guy that can hit a home run." but he stuck it out and has now been rewarded.

and i have no doubt that if gm's were a tradeable commodity, now that everyone in the world thinks morey is the greatest gm on the planet, morey would tell us we should maximize his value and sell high and get as much value in return as we can.

 

Fantastic Read - repped!

Traditional GMs or GMs with prior basketball experience are going away, paving the road for business-minded leaders.

 

obligatory Morey pic

 

I must say I have been following this team for a long time and I was starting to think it was going to take longer for us to get back to championship contention but I gotta give credit to Morey for making some great moves in the past years. I will admit some moves I was weary of but I have come to realize that Daryl Morey is playing his GM role like a chess master. He has been strategically setting up each piece for his final move. True some of the moves didnt quite work out but you cant fault him for taking calculative risks. Great original post though, I really helped me to see how far this team has come with that whole roster move breakdown. I am really excited for next season and cant wait to see what other moves Morey has up his sleeve.

 

This is a great write-up well done Sir

 

Wow, what a great article, thank you!

We're blessed with an amazing FO, and there ain't nothin' better than being a Rockets fan on CF.

 

Great write up.

Dont forget though, Morey got LUCKY that trade got vetoed that wouldve sent Pau Gasol to Houston...

 

Awesome write-up!

 

I think you kind of missed my point. I wasn't trying to take away from anything Dawson did, just pointing out that while the biggest misstep we can point to for Morey is the Ariza deal, there were a lot more of those with CD, which might have caused Les to be somewhat less trusting as time went along in CD's time as GM. That was something that Morey would have had to battle through to gain more and more trust with his wheeling and dealing.

 

CD became the GM in 1996. I think his contribution to the franchise as an executive is overrated. He seems like he was all class, but his drafting was pretty bad for the most part and his talent evaluations in coordinating with Rudy were awful.

Edit: He also didn't "hire" Rudy T, just convinced him to take the job after Chaney was fired and CD couldn't take it because of the lightning strike. Bob something or other was the GM during the title years and Patterson was the GM before that. CD was a coach until 96.

 

Nobody plays the long game than Morey.
Nobody.