Daryl Morey inherited a team with 2 of the top 5 players in Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady – Didn’t even make a Western Conference Finals with that group. Had Bobby Sura running point who refused to throw lobs to Yao Ming when he actually could jump. Had no point guard during Yao Ming’s most athletic years. Also oversaw Yao Ming bulking up, which was the exact wrong strategy – is body couldn’t hold up to all that extra bulk – much more explosive player when he was skinny and athletic. Daryl Morey was gifted James Harden by OKC who couldn’t afford 3 premium salary players at the time – He was the best player in basketball at least 3 seasons in the NBA – Morey never surrounded him with a team capable of getting to the NBA Finals. San Antonio Spurs built around Tim Duncan primary through the draft with non-lottery picks - Kawhi Leonard – 15th pick, Manu Ginóbili - (Round: 2 / Pick: 57), Tony Parker - Round: 1 / Pick: 28th overall. Golden State Warriors built team through the draft: Steph Curry - 1st round (7th pick, 7th overall), Draymond Green 2nd round (5th pick, 35th overall), Klay Thompson - 1st round (11th pick, 11th overall) and Andre Iguodala was a free agent when the Rockets prioritized signing Dwight Howard. Morey effectively traded Nicolas Batum and a 2009 1st round draft pick for a one-year rental of Ron Artest – should have kept Batum and the pick. Morey traded a 2013 1st round draft pick for Terrence Williams – bust Morey traded a 2013 1st round draft pick (he got in previous trade - Andre Roberson was later selected) to basically dump Brad Miller’s terrible contract. This is typical of a Morey draft: Selected Jeremy Lamb (1st round, 12th pick), Royce White (1st round, 16th pick) and Terrence Jones (1st round, 18th pick) in the 2012 NBA Draft. Even when he got first round picks in deals – he did a poor job of evaluating players, and in the end, wasted a bunch of these picks, or traded away the good one’s in other transactions like Nikola Mirotić and Will Barton. October 27, 2012: Traded Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, a 2013 1st round draft pick (Steven Adams was later selected), a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Álex Abrines was later selected) and a 2014 1st round draft pick (Mitch McGary was later selected) to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook, James Harden and Lazar Hayward. – Essentially, 3 - first round picks and Kevin Martin who probably would have netted a first-round pick – so 4 first round picks for James Harden. Good trade – but Presti lost his touch in drafting and player evaluation – Lamb took too long to show anything in the NBA. [This trade looks a lot better because James Harden improved every year for 8 straight seasons] Does one great trade weighed against terrible trades and free agent signings for 13 seasons make one a good general manager in the NBA? – So far Morey hasn’t accomplished anything with James Harden besides Western Conference Finals appearances (two of them). Morey traded a 2015 1st round draft pick (Larry Nance Jr. was later selected) to dump Jeremy Lin’s salary before his contract was up – only had one year remaining on the deal. Morey traded the 2016 1st round draft pick for Ty Lawson – bought out before the season ended. Morey traded the 2017 1st round draft pick to dump Corey Brewer’s salary and rent Lou Williams for a couple of months. Morey on June 28, 2017: Traded Patrick Beverley, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, Darrun Hilliard, DeAndre Liggins, Lou Williams, Kyle Wiltjer, $661k cash and a 2018 1st round draft pick (Omari Spellman was later selected) to the Los Angeles Clippers for Chris Paul. – Should have traded players away for draft assets to other teams, and signed Chris Paul outright as a free agent – just a terrible move in the end. Morey traded the 2019 1st round draft pick to dump Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight’s contracts in a salary dump which is related to the bad free agent signing of Ryan Anderson. Morey traded Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook: Plus Picks: Pick protections in Thunder/Rockets, Russell Westbrook/Chris Paul trade: 2024 first round pick, protected 1-4 2026 first round pick, protected 1-4 2025 swap, 1-20 protected 2021 swap, protected 1-4 -- OKC can swap Clippers pick or Heat pick. Morey traded a 2020 1st round draft pick and Clint Capela for Robert Covington – moral of this trade, never go to the grocery store hungry – significant overpay as CC is the better asset. The Houston Rockets have no future. There is a better way to build a team, without gutting the franchise’s entire future assets in the process. When you look at the actual transactions, Daryl Morey is not a good general manager – he has benefited from coming into a great situation in Yao Ming & Tracy McGrady and was gifted James Harden by the Thunder organization. Moreover, once you have a James Harden – you have the responsibility to build a great roster around him like the spurs did with Tim Duncan, and the Warriors did with Steph Curry. Daryl Morey did not do a good job of building a sustainably good roster around James Harden – otherwise, the Rockets would already have a championship during the Harden era. Daryl Morey should have been building around James Harden through the draft – this is his biggest failure as a general manager in my opinion.
Ah. This is the part where we retroactively pretend that EVERYONE knew James Harden was going to be this good and not give credit to Morey for realizing it himself.
Literally hindsight is 20/20 for the majority of what you just posted. You don't have to make a long-winded new thread every time you get a thought in your head. Thanks, Roomba
but it wasn’t longwinded. It simply takes a lot of space to list all of Morey’s idiot decisions. maybe you could’ve said “too thorough” or “too many facts” lol
This dude has been around only a few weeks and has already become the most annoying member of this bbs
[No but he wasQUOTE="Clutch, post: 12850227, member: 1"]Trash. Claimed Morey picked Bobby Sura and I stopped reading after that.[/QUOTE] I rechecked that, looks like Bobby Sura was injured prior to Morey, however Rafer Alston, Luther Head, John Lucas III, Vassilis Spanoulis, Steve Francis (2nd time around), Aaron Brooks, Bobby Jackson (washed up), Mike James (not a point guard) - no wonder Yao Ming never got the ball enough when he was really unstoppable.
Not DRAFTED... that he picked him as GM. Had Bobby Sura running point who refused to throw lobs to Yao Ming when he actually could jump. Check Sura's time with the Rockets and Daryl's time as GM.
But it is long winded. If I were to go through every single GM's decisions and look back at them then for the majority of picks I could point out a few players that could've/should've been selected. Same with trades, and free-agent signings. Again, hindsight is 20/20. Nobody here is saying Daryl Morey has been a perfect GM, but he's been a good one at the very least. Also, let's look at motivations here. This poster signed up like 3 weeks ago. In that time he's posted a crapton of long-ass threads talking about not much in particular. And it's pretty much all the same spiel. Using a ton of words to convey very little is the very definition of long-winded.
yeah he never said that Morey “picked” him. “Had” implied that he inherited him. At least thats what it looks like to me.
Can you create a sub forum for this guy to talk to people who want to read his constant negativity? This sucks.
Dude have you seen the crap @Joe Smith posts? He literally copied basketball reference and put a few sentences around it. No point of defending that, especially against @Clutch lol
granted, this is the only post I have seen from him but I thought it was well thought out. I enjoyed going through all those past moves.
I love Yao and all, but he was never a Top 5 player in the league. Neither was TMac when he was here, maybe in Orlando.
Maybe Tomstro and Smith are the same. He is defending himself while arguing with himself to himself he doesnt need other people.
