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Morey's Moves Since Harden; Or How we got here and what's next.

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by treyk3, Jul 3, 2019.

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  1. treyk3

    treyk3 Member

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    The trade for James Harden is Morey's masterpiece, he will never top this trade. It's an all time trade. I wanted to see what happened next. Below is a full list of trades since Harden. The list is divided by season and some of the trades are out of order within the margins. Information is from basketball-reference.com. I wanted to go through every trade post Harden because we always hear rumors and very rarely do they come to fruition. Trades are hard to make. Daryl is a willing trader but I was quite shocked about how few actual game changers there were.

    Compared to pre-Harden when he pulled Lowry out of a hat, found Dragic from thin air and turned a broken T-Mac into Kevin Martin, this is pretty ho-hum sans CP3. His blockbuster post Harden was for a free agent, but he did get it done at all costs.

    2012-2013 (clearing space for Dwight)

    Traded Cole Aldrich, Toney Douglas, Patrick Patterson and cash to the Sacramento Kings for Francisco Garcia, Tyler Honeycutt and Thomas Robinson.
    Traded Marcus Morris to the Phoenix Suns for a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Isaiah Canaan was later selected).

    2013-2014 (Dwight)

    Traded Thomas Robinson to the Portland Trail Blazers for Kostas Papanikolau, Mirko Todorovic, a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Richaun Holmes was later selected) and a 2017 2nd round draft pick (Dillon Brookswas later selected).

    Traded Furkan Aldemir, Royce White and cash to the Philadelphia 76ers for a 2014 2nd round draft pick. (Top-55 protected, so never conveyed)

    Traded Aaron Brooks to the Denver Nuggets for Jordan Hamilton.

    2014-2015 (we got Bosh'd) (Parsons out, Ariza in)

    As part of a 3-team trade, the Houston Rockets traded a trade exception to the Washington Wizards; the Houston Rockets traded Omer Asik, Omri Casspi and cash to the New Orleans Pelicans; the New Orleans Pelicans traded Alonzo Gee, Scotty Hopson and a 2015 1st round draft pick (Sam Dekker was later selected) to the Houston Rockets; the New Orleans Pelicans traded Melvin Ely to the Washington Wizards; and the Washington Wizards traded Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets.


    Traded Jeremy Lin, a 2015 1st round draft pick (Larry Nance, Jr. was later selected) and a 2015 2nd round draft pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for Sergei Lishouk. 2015 2nd-rd pick was protected and not conveyed

    Traded Alonzo Gee and Scotty Hopson to the Sacramento Kings for Jason Terry, a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Rakeem Christmas was later selected) and a 2016 2nd round draft pick (Chinanu Onuaku was later selected).


    As part of a 3-team trade, the Houston Rockets traded Sergei Lishouk and a 2015 2nd round draft pick (J.P. Tokoto was later selected) to the Philadelphia 76ers; the Houston Rockets traded Troy Daniels, cash, a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Rakeem Christmas was later selected) and a 2016 2nd round draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves; the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Corey Brewer to the Houston Rockets; the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Ronny Turiaf to the Philadelphia 76ers; and the Philadelphia 76ers traded Alexey Shved to the Houston Rockets. (Top-45 protected and not conveyed) (Minnesota's 2nd-round pick in 2015 and 2016 are protected for picks 50-60 and 31-45, respectively.)


    Traded Alexey Shved, a 2017 2nd round draft pick (Ognjen Jaramaz was later selected) and a 2019 2nd round draft pick to the New York Knicks for Pablo Prigioni.

    Traded Isaiah Canaan and a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Richaun Holmes was later selected) to the Philadelphia 76ers for K.J. McDaniels. (2015 2nd-rd pick acquired by PHI will be the worse of MIN & DEN picks)
     
    #1 treyk3, Jul 3, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2019
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  2. treyk3

    treyk3 Member

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    2015-2016 (the gas leak year)

    Traded Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson, Kostas Papanikolaou, Pablo Prigioni and a 2016 1st round draft pick (Juan Hernangomez was later selected) to the Denver Nuggets for Ty Lawson and a 2017 2nd round draft pick (Isaiah Hartenstein was later selected). (Lottery protected 1st round pick plus cash considerations)

    Traded Maarty Leunen to the Los Angeles Clippers for Sergei Lishchuk and Josh Smith. (Clippers also send cash to Rockets to cover Smith's salary)

    2016-2017 (Pivot to D'Antoni)

    Traded Michael Beasley to the Milwaukee Bucks for Tyler Ennis.

    Traded Tyler Ennis and Brad Newley to the Los Angeles Lakers for Marcelo Huertas.

    Traded K.J. McDaniels to the Brooklyn Nets for cash considerations.

    Traded Corey Brewer and a 2017 1st round draft pick (Tony Bradley was later selected) to the Los Angeles Lakers for Lou Williams.

    Traded Dillon Brooks to the Memphis Grizzlies for a 2018 2nd round draft pick (De'Anthony Melton was later selected).

    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.

    2017-2018 (Tilman Enters)

    No Trades

    2018-2019 (Tilman Year2 : Luxury Tax Savings)

    As part of a 3-team trade, the Houston Rockets traded a 2020 2nd round draft pick to the Sacramento Kings; the Houston Rockets traded Marquese Chriss, Brandon Knight, a 2019 1st round draft pick and a 2022 2nd round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers; the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Wade Baldwin, Nik Stauskas and a 2021 2nd round draft pick to the Houston Rockets; the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Alec Burks to the Sacramento Kings; and the Sacramento Kings traded Iman Shumpert to the Houston Rockets. (Pick is less favorable of HOU or GSW 2020 2nd-round picks.) (Pick is MIL's 2021 second-round pick.) (Pick is top-14 protected.)

    Traded Carmelo Anthony, Jon Diebler and cash to the Chicago Bulls for Tadija Dragicevic. $1.56MM


    Traded Wade Baldwin, Maarty Leunen, Nik Stauskas and a 2021 2nd round draft pick to the Indiana Pacers for cash.


    Traded James Ennis to the Philadelphia 76ers for a 2021 2nd round draft pick. (HOU gains right to swap 2021 second-round picks with PHI.)

    Traded Carmelo Anthony, Jon Diebler and cash to the Chicago Bulls for Tadija Dragicevic. $1.56MM

    Traded Michael Carter-Williams and cash to the Chicago Bulls for a 2020 2nd round draft pick. (Pick is top-55 protected.)

    Traded Ryan Anderson and De'Anthony Melton to the Phoenix Suns for Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight.

    Traded Chinanu Onuaku, cash and a 2020 2nd round draft pick to the Dallas Mavericks for Maarty Leunen. $1,544,951 (2020 2nd-rd pick is ability to swap GSW's pick for HOU's pic


    In Summation: Morey has made quite a few moves since Harden. Most of the moves were to position himself for big free agents. To ensure he got Howard he made sure he cut enough salary to sign him outright.

    CP3 was clearly the biggest deal in what was essentially a Free Agent Signing. It was a slight overpay in my opinion and despite his successes here, I'm not sure who won this deal and with a free agent holding all of the cards it seems like a bit of a wash.

    The best trades he probably made were for Corey Brewer and subsequently getting rid of his contract by attaching a first and getting Lou Williams out of it.

    Ty Lawson was his biggest risk trade and it definitely did not pan out.

    Most trades made were kind of non-factors, almost an asset treadmill in the form of let's see what we can do with these guys in a new system.

    Since Tilman has come, the team has not made a single trade with financial gains not being the pure purpose of the deal. With all of this talk of fireworks and improving at any cost, on top of saying ducking the repeater in year 1 was an accident, will this be the summer where Tilman puts his money where his mouth is?
     
    #2 treyk3, Jul 3, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2019
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  3. BeardNation13

    BeardNation13 Member

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    90% of those trades would have been redundant if only Morey drafted KAWHI LEONARD
     
    #3 BeardNation13, Jul 3, 2019
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  4. justtxyank

    justtxyank Contributing Member

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    Most of this looks bad tbh, but also needs the context of these draft trades were normally about trying to stay flexible for other moves to win a title.

    Obviously if he could undo most of these he would.
     
    #4 justtxyank, Jul 3, 2019
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  5. treyk3

    treyk3 Member

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    Yea, definitely preached flexibility. We rarely needed it in the long run.

    I mostly did this as an exercise of lowering expectations. We all want Morey to make a huge trade, but those kind of trades rarely happen. Who knows, maybe this can be updated in a week with a new #1 single. Somewhat of a reverse jinx.
     
    #5 treyk3, Jul 3, 2019
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  6. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    [​IMG]


    "Best GM."
    "Wouldn't have anyone else running the Rockets."
    "We are so lucky."
     
    #6 J.R., Jul 3, 2019
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  7. justtxyank

    justtxyank Contributing Member

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    It's really hard to evaluate. I think Morey rightfully saw that he needed to be able to add another significant player to win a title and has constantly stayed flexible in order to do so. But when it DOESN'T happen you look back at the moves made to stay in that position and you cringe.

    To illustrate what I mean. If you replaced this chart with Dennis Lindsay it would look a lot better, but the Jazz haven't been closer to a title than we have been.
     
    #7 justtxyank, Jul 3, 2019
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  8. sealclubber1016

    sealclubber1016 Member
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    We were an eyelash from winning the title in CP3's first season.

    I know people like to s**t on it now, but Morey built a legitimate title worthy team, which is extremely hard to do in this league. Many franchises haven't done that in decades.
     
    #8 sealclubber1016, Jul 3, 2019
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  9. treyk3

    treyk3 Member

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    He definitely peaked with Harden. Now the question is, will he come back with another smash hit or will he ride into the sunset with his syndication money? Is Daryl a Julie Louis Dreyfus type or is he a Michael Richards?

    Hey, I agree, it was a low risk move that he took on a superstar and it sort of panned out. The WCF was a fun year. The question becomes, was it worth it if we never win with this team? We made the trade with a 5 year deal in mind, when any other team would have only had the ability to give him a 4 year deal in free agency sans the Clippers. If CP3 signed a 3 year max last summer, the deal may have been looked at a bit more favorably.
     
    #9 treyk3, Jul 3, 2019
  10. PeterKingX

    PeterKingX Member

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    Most of trades and drafts are bad, or meaningless.

    If you make 100 trades, usually you will have at least 10 good trades for the sake of odds.

    From this long list, you have to agree that Morey is an overrated GM.
     
    #10 PeterKingX, Jul 3, 2019
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  11. Nook

    Nook Member

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    There have been a couple of handicaps for Daryl Morey since he became GM.

    The biggest one has been that he has never been allowed to rebuild. The worst record the Rockets have had in the 12-13 years Daryl has ran the Rockets is 41-41. As a result adding any high end potential has had to come through trade or free agency. In trade we did get James Harden from a lottery pick that Morey essentially created out of nothing. The other types of trades have been trading for former lottery picks that had faltered and the Rockets attempted to "fix". In free agency, he has an above average market to work with (Houston) but it is not a super market like LA or NY/NJ that attracts the vast majority of top free agents. The Rockets have been successful in getting Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. He made efforts for Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge, LeBron James and Jimmy Butler. The Rockets were second choice on some of these, and some never seriously considered the Rockets.

    The second handicap has been owner involvement. Daryl never made the call on who to hire as coach and when to fire. Those decisions were always made by Alexander. The Rockets did not go into the luxury tax once under Alexander. Last year, the moves involving Ryan Anderson were motivated by ownership to get below the luxury tax. Losing Trevor Ariza was also financially motivated and not made based on basketball decisions.

    That isn't to say he hasn't made mistakes. He was motivated to "win now" and took Marcus Morris or Leonard. At the time Morey admitted that Leonard had a lot of ability, but the Rockets wanted to win now. A number of teams passed on Leonard and only the Spurs seemed highly motivated to get him. Still he is one of the 5 best defenders in NBA history.

    The biggest problem Morey has had from a perception standpoint is how he has handled communicating with the press. He said the Rockets would get their pick of free agents last off season, both he and MDA knew that wasn't the truth. I am sure he did it to keep the players positive and the fan base engaged. It didn't work that way. Then this year the leaks to the media and even the statements made by Morey were the Rockets were confident about Butler. Since the season ended all I was told, when I asked, was that the Rockets had very limited interactions with Butler's camp. The Rockets knew that the Heat had interest in Butler and the Rockets knew that the vast majority of teams could make a Butler deal happen. I also knew from someone in Chicago with the Bulls that Butler has ZERO interest in being a Robin to Batman. While the Rockets pursuit of Butler was worth a shot, it never should have been discussed publicly like it was for a whole host of reasons. How much of that is ownership and how much of that is Daryl Morey? I suspect some of both.

    Daryl Morey is stuck, he had to resign Chris Paul, the Rockets were very close. He has to maximize his window with Harden and Paul. The problem has been the Warriors, and now the Lakers literally falling into James and Davis and likely Leonard.

    Under the circumstances it is difficult for me to be overall too critical of Daryl Morey as GM. There are things to criticize, but I suspect any GM in control of the organization for well over a decade has some scars.
     
    #11 Nook, Jul 3, 2019
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  12. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    Unlikely to come back with another smash hit IMO.
    Stuck with Chris Paul and very few assets, no cap room.
    Capela, Tucker & Gordon.
    Gordon is expiring.
    Not that Capela sucks but how many teams really need a center?
    PJ Tucker is 34 and would/should be of interest to contending teams only.
     
    #12 J.R., Jul 3, 2019
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  13. foggy94

    foggy94 Member

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    Turning Asik into a mid first rounder was a pretty good deal. And then turning that into a 3 team deal to net Trevor Ariza after that gutpunch with Chris Bosh and Parsons walking...that was great. Moving Corey Brewer for Lou Williams for just the 28th pick was also pretty great, it just didn't really work. I dont know why Lou didn't quite fit, when you look at what he was doing for the Lakers and since with the Clippers. He was Godawful that Spurs series. But that trade would look amazing if it happened again right now.
     
    #13 foggy94, Jul 3, 2019
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  14. treyk3

    treyk3 Member

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    Based on history, this is the safe bet. I'm still hoping we get Veep this summer and not a comedy club meltdown.
     
    #14 treyk3, Jul 3, 2019
  15. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    Harden elevated him to Gawd status but could also be his Demise.

    This harden centric system is only going to get you so far.......the last really exciting young guy was Capela and that was 2-3 years ago.
     
    #15 daywalker02, Jul 3, 2019
  16. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    DM's one significant weakness is Drafting
    Also . . . .our organization's major weakness is . . . Player Development
    Those two need to be fixed

    Rocket River
     
    #16 Rocket River, Jul 3, 2019
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  17. topfive

    topfive CF OG

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    You say that like it's a bad thing, but that trade is probably the single best NBA trade of the decade, so every other GM fell short of Morey's peak.
     
    #17 topfive, Jul 3, 2019
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  18. calurker

    calurker Contributing Member

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    Billy Beane was the A’s GM for 19 seasons but never went to the WS.

    Daryl Morey is coming up on his 12th season and is under contract through his 16th season....
     
    #18 calurker, Jul 3, 2019
  19. treyk3

    treyk3 Member

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    No I didn't.

    "The trade for James Harden is Morey's masterpiece, he will never top this trade. It's an all time trade. "

    It's like saying Marty Scorsese peaked with Goodfellas.

    I don't understand why I'm even responding but jeeze, read what I wrote if you're going to attack me.
     
    #19 treyk3, Jul 3, 2019
  20. topfive

    topfive CF OG

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    Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers, breh. It wasn't even close to an attack.

    I was just pointing out that the Harden trade alone was so good that judging the rest of his moves against that is unfair. And while you might not have meant it, saying that someone peaked that many years ago is usually seen as a comment that they've gone downhill since.

    Also, great job gathering up all that info.

    And you're right about Goodfellas. :)
     
    #20 topfive, Jul 3, 2019
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