Daryl Morey on 790

You should try actually reading the Morey interview.

 

Yes. It has been explicitly stated what Bev's condition is. He and Howard could probably play tonight. But why rush two key players back from injury when the Rockets have basically sewn up the fourth seed and HC in the first round? We will see them in another 3 or 4 games. Healthy, rested and ready to go in the playoffs.

 

Your "join date" notwithstanding, please tell me you used the word "talented" ironically.

 

Last time I checked, championship teams in recent years either have a 3 and D point guard or a star PG. For the teams that don't have a star PG that win championships, there is generally a ball dominant star SG or SF (Jordan, Kobe, Lebron) or a dominant post up player (Olajuwon, Shaq). Lin does not fit with these guys. I don't care about how well a player fits on a bad team with no hope of winning a championship team.

Beverley compares very well with the 3 and D point guards that have been on Championship teams. This is not to say Lin could not become a better fit. He just needs to be able to shoot a lot of catch and shoot three pointers and make a good percentage of them. If Lin could play consistently like he did early in the year, he would be better than Beverley. Either that or Lin needs to up his game and become a star so he doesn't have to adapt to a ball dominant star perimeter player.

 

I can see your point on Indiana even though I disagree with it. I may be wrong and you may be right. I will agree that Indiana may be better with Lin, but it may also be better with Beverley.

My opinion is based on Indiana's offensive problems revolving around Hibbert. He can't post up, set picks, roll to the basket, or catch and shoot. Asik can at least set picks and roll to the basket. I don't think Lin is a good enough offensive force to cure playing 4 on 5 as Hibbert's man will basically guard the paint.

 

You just can't help yourself in to bringing Lin up.
Good job!

 

Morey was on 790. I only caught the last bit as I stepped into my car.

790: On Harden's injury?

DM: He is sore but he should be fine. Nothing major.

790: On the Viper guys?

DM: Happy that they did well but sad about the the overall performance and the 20 point deficit that they had to deal with.

He says these guys are all great shooters and with Dwight on the team, one of the point of emphasis was getting good shooters around him. He expects at least 1 of them to play regular season rotation minutes and be a major part of the team next season but hopes at least 2 would make it.

Then they were talking a bit about his travels yada yada.....

 

Travels meaning him checking out the European dancers?

 

12:00
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Are you Bosnia, Australia, France, where are you?

I'm in Houston. That radical country.

Defensively, not so great the last few games.

I'd say: 1) we're missing a good couple defensive players--our two best. I'd say also: both these teams we played spread you out and play uptempo so you'll get higher scores. It happened that not only are we missing two of our better defenders but also playing teams that play uptempo.

Dwight playing tomorrow night?

Day to day. There's a chance.

Beverley?

Same answer. They're getting very close but I haven't gotten final word for tomorrow.

How important to get both, especially Dwight, back on the court?

I'd like both to get at least 2 or 3 games in before the playoffs to get back to our normal rotations. Hopefully by then we will have clinched and won't have to play them the whole game. I'd like to have some semblance of what we'll do in the playoffs the last couple games.

Lance revealed earlier in the show his wife gets heated when there is disputes with local businesses he has issues with. Your wife seems calm and low key. Not a lot of stress for you in that department?

The season has gone well. There's always a lot of stress. I try to minimize at getting mad at local businesses.

How many teams in the NBA have copied "your model"?

A lot of it is personnel. Harden is the perfect guy. He shoots great threes and great at attacking the hoop. If you have a great mid-range shooter like Dirk, it's a great weapon to have and you should utilize it. We never had an intentional strategy like "Hey, we're gonna absolutely do this." We follow where our personnel leads us.

James Harden okay?

Yeah, apparently that's fine. We'll know more when he wakes up.

Isaiah Canaan and Rio Grande team got some work in.

I was happy they came in and played well. I was focused on us being down 25 or whatever.

I'm surprised how many NBA teams still don't utilize the D-League like they should but then again, I'm surprised how many first rounders are ending up in the D-League. Seems like some NBA teams understand getting guys minutes and playing basketball is going to groom them more quickly than guys who sit at the end of the bench.

Maybe 6-7 teams are starting to use it real well. We're excited about the young guys we have. We got a lot of shooting coming up through the system. You look at Canaan, Daniels, Covington, they all can shoot the heck out of the ball. With Dwight here as a centerpiece, we wanted to develop shooting. I don't know how many will end up in the rotation next year but I'd be disappointed if it's not one and I'm hoping two at least end up being contributors for us.

Any international travel in the next week?

...

DM: The hallmark of future dictators is they never left the country so maybe you'll turn evil at some point.

People are sending in suggestions about phrases to put on t-shirts that represent the show. Any suggestions?

The Draft and a Few Other Topics.

Omer Asik is eating glass like he always does. He's stepping it up.

He's been tremendous. No other way to look at it. He's saved us. Dwight's been out and we need to clinch home court. Without Omer, we're two games worse and tied with Portland. We still need to take care of business.

 

Canaan is still inconsistent, but he's shown flashes against legit talent. If he can prove to be at least an average defender and not turn it over on the offensive end, he will make it.

No idea whether Daniels or Covington make it. The Rockets have said multiple times that Covington is a good defender, but I get the sense that we won't really know until he plays with Asik or Howard.

 

5/1/14

790- does hardens struggles concern you ?
Morey- Scotts and Mathews are just really doing a good job to stop him, we need him in game 6, he hit a big 3 and another shot in the 4th that helped us come out with the win.

790- Everyone was talking about lins play in game4 but he stepped up tonight
morey - I really don’t get it, It was 32 secs left on clock, yeah him stopping in his tracks calling a timeout would’ve been great but the clock wasn’t under 24 yet. But you don’t think Mo will come up and make the best play ever, "knock ball out, some way tip ball inbounds, then hit a 3, on the same play" But it’s what lead up to that and why we in that situation, its plenty of plays throughout a game, he wasn’t the only player with a turnover, he wasn’t only one had bad plays during the game and we still had a chance to win in OT. So I think all that was just media generated

790- I saw on your twitter that you feel that these teams are just a like and has really been close every game
morey - yeah we had same record, games keep going to OT, we have same point differential during reg. season

Plenty more, this was just key points, sure someone will post audio later, big win last night, game 6 let’s do this !

 

Morey on 790 a bit earlier with Adam Clanton

AC: A little bit of a sigh of relief I am sure this morning after going down 3-1. You guys are a lot happier than you were for many games this series. The team as down in this series and down 3-1 and the way Rox got into that poisiton got to be frustrating to that win got to feel good.

DM: Absolutely, a close game again. A 1 point game with 3 minutes to go. Extremely close games and this one we got a key 3 from Harden, a bunch of defensive plays, a reverse lay up from Harden. Dwight really got us to that point and has been unbelievable the whole series doing exactly what we wanted him to do when we signed him.

AC: Last night on TNT the guys did their usual Dwight bashing. But D has consistently had a good series and done what the Rox have asked him to do. I just don't think he is getting enough credit esp in this series and when you consider he is also doing on the D end with regards to LMA

DM: Yeah I mean the TNT guys. I don't know about that. It's just personal a little bit. Dwight has played amazing and don't really care about what Shaq and Chuck are saying.

AC: On the other side is Jeremy Lin who has taken a lot of criticism rightfully so. He has had a lot of head scratching plays, turnovers but credit where it is due, I don't think the Rox get that win if Jeremy doesn't play the game of his life last night.

DM: The other thing about is 3 overtime games. I mean overtime games it is hard to play through one guy. He got criticized in game 4 for not calling tiemout. For sure he could call have called timeout and had it poked away and then they hit a big 3 but the reality is if you call a tiemout with 32s left, you still have to inbound. It's not liek you're taking a TO with less than 24 on the timeclock. I thinka lot of it is media jargon. There really isnt anyone looking down on Jeremy in the locker room.

AC: And he has handled it well to his credit about as classy as you can and he came out and talked about his mindset and being focussed on ahving a good game. That brings me to my next QN. I know that Harden has beeen consistently good for the Rox all season long, but has struggled this series. I don't know if you give credit to Mathews and toa lesser extent Batum who have harassed him on the perimeter. I don;t know what it is about Portland's D. They are not known as a good defensive team

DM: Terry Stotts and Mathews have done a great job. Very smart team. Making it tough for Hardenmaking go to harden spots on the floor and sending help on the strong side to take away his drives, making it tough for him to come back left. For sure he could play better but you look at a friend of JH and WB, look at KD. These things hapen. We know he will show up and that is why I am confident in our ability to come back this series. We know he will have a big game soon in game 6.

AC: Does he have to have a very very good game for Rox to win game 6 and bring it back here?

DM: I think the whole team has to play well. They are a tough team, playing well, have a great home crowd. We need the ebst game from pretty much everybody.

AC: This is one of those series, yeah Rox were down 3-1 and now 3-2 but such a coin flip series. Is this the closest 7 game series or 3-1 down series that you have ever seen and can remember?

DM: Yeah someone analyzed on ESPn as well. We have had the longest time where teams are within 1,2 or 3 points in the last 10-15 years. OKC series ahs gone to OT 4 times but we have been close. Yday was the biggest win of the series with 10 but it was a 1 point game with 3 mins to go. We have played them 9 times, we have won 5 they have won 4. Exact same record in the season. Two very very fairly matched teams. Even series.

AC: Last night not to keep going back to TNT well, guys were debating who the pressure was on more. Chuch insisted all pressure on Rox in game 5 in an elimination game then he said all pressure on Rox in game 6 but backtracked and said Portland. I know you're the Gm of one of the teams but who has more pressure?

DM: I don't understand them in all honestly.

AC: I don't think they understand, let me ask you this way then. Do you think your guys feel any more pressure than normal going into game 6 than in game 5?

DM: Yeah I mean they either win or go home but Portland haven't won a series in the longest time in the NBA. Very important series for both. It is an amazingly close series. But we're the better team but unfortunately down 3-2.

AC: LMA was held to 8 points last night. A guy that goes off for 89 points first two games held to 8 points. Just like Harden, I expect you would think he would go off on game 6.

DM: I don't expect him to go off. I thought our team has dominated the paint. We're in the paint 90 times a game, they're in the game 60-70. THey take jumpshots but we crashed the boards all night and I thought that would happen more than once. We really really controlled the paint this series.

AC: You talked about points in the paint you ahd like 60 yday. What about the fact that Portland ahs completely shut down fast break or transition opportunities. Is that part of the reason why Harden has struggled to get into rhythm because it is sucha big part of what he does?

DM: Yeah absolutely. He gets going with easy runouts in transition, great in the open court. Credit to their coaching staff. They have taken away all the easy stuff for us. They have decided not to to double Dwight. That is the biggest area and Dwight has made them pay.

AC: I know game 3 seems a long long time ago but this is the first time I got to ask you this. How proud of Trey Daniels esp with the Mo Williams thing over the past 48 hours?

DM: Troy has shot the ball since he is a little kid. He is unbelievable. Unbelievable confidence players have in him. Try to get him a shot in transition. Fact that JH and DH are looking for Daniels is testament to him. He puts up so many shots and Troy abuses everyone on the team in these shooting contests.

 

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Starts @ 20 minute mark.

 

Morey on 610


How excited for Johnny Manziel in Cleveland?

I'm happy the number one pick went East too. I'm excited. I like the Browns. I like the Texans. I think I'm allowed to like both. He seems electric to me. It'll be fun to see what happens there.

Traveling--overseas or in the states?

Came back from LA. We had pre-draft workouts in LA.

Five stages of grief--where are you with the Portland series and Lillard shot?

I don't know the stages of grief model. I'm not over it.

Does it make you feel worse based on how the Spurs have won 6 games and none have been competitive? Do you feel you guys would give them a better test than Portland and Oklahoma City?

Yeah we felt that way. I thought Portland would give them trouble. The Spurs are playing at another level. Now I've come to feel like we play the Spurs, we give them a better series but the way they're playing, it would have been very tough to beat them right now. I wish we had gotten the experience at least.

James Harden knows he needs to play better defense. The rest of the team, what do they need to do defensively to take that next step?

We only have 3 strong defenders--Dwight, Omer and Beverley. The rest of the crew, we're gonna as far as our defense next year. Our offense is fine and good enough to win the title. Our defense is gonna be what decides if we win the title or not. Next year it will be all about defense and that will determine how far we go.

What do you as an organization need to see out of James Harden on defense?

I hate that youtube clip. If you took the 12 worst minutes of your life last year Mike, I'm not sure what it would look like. Probably pretty bad. The idea of creating...any NBA player, if you create 12 minutes of highlights, they'll look amazing. The 12 worst minutes, they'll look bad. I thought that was pretty unfair. Your top players need to be 2 way players. Dwight and James both need to do that for us to win the title. They know the task in front of them. It'll come down to whether we're doing it or not doing it.

When the season came to an end, any discussions about Kevin McHale's job status?

As part of my job, I have to evaluate everything and Mr. Alexander evaluates me. We're very positive on Coach McHale and feel like he's done a great job. He took us from low 40 to when he took over, to 46 last year to 54 this year. The progress has been good. Every year when we put our goals out there, we achieve them, save advancing this year and I think we were close to that. We hire people, we bet on them and give them the tools to exceed and believe Kevin will do that next year.

Misconception among fans that the Rockets defense was not good in the regular season. It was in the top half of the league. Given that, were you surprised how ineffective the defense was against the Blazers?

Neither of us could stop the other. We were 13 in the regular season, which is not good enough to win the title. We were disappointed. We thought if we out-rebound Portland, that would be key to beating them, in terms of the defensive end. We were able to do that better than we thought but in game one, the game plan against Aldridge didn't work. Game two, better game plan but still had his best game of his career. Then he settled down but by then, we were in a too big of a hole. Our defense needs to get better. The point I've made that people don't understand, if we're gonna win the title which is our goal, we can't be in five of six close games with Portland in the first round. We're gonna be in close games and need to win our share of those but if you're gonna win the NBA title, you have to win a couple like the Spurs, where they're beating them by 10+. You can't be in close game after close game in the first round and expect to win the NBA title.

I'm on board with recognizing the mid-range jumper is an inefficient shot. As defenses adjust to that, does the guy who can shoot that shot become that more valuable, like Aldridge, and did you think about getting someone who can do specifically that?

I don't know about more valuable. You absolutely need guys who are skilled at making all sorts of shots. We know the mid-range can be efficient because a free throw is basically a mid-range shot. People overplay the whole mid-range shot thing. We're trying to get the best shot every time down the floor and it just so happens that most times it'll be at the rim, getting fouled or getting an open look from three. At no point are we against mid-range shots.

Starting PGs in the West--do the Rockets need an upgrade?

The one spot is where we are the biggest gap from our Western competitors. Clearly it would be great to have an all-star at the one spot but we're not gonna have an all-star at every spot. Our all-stars are at the two and the five, which is historically two very good spots. There have been NBA champions who more or less have managed the one spot, going back to the Bulls team, the Heat teams, I'm gonna forget all of them. It's a common position to not have an elite player at. It's more common to be structured like we are. It's possible. That's the biggest gap. I'd say our four spot is even weaker than our one spot. In terms of a gap from most Western teams to us, the one spot will stick out the most. We can get an upgrade for sure. I'd upgrade every spot if we can but no one is going to give us an all-star point guard.

The isolation in the big spots--in game three against Portland in the 3rd Q, the Harden/Howard PnR was eviscerating the Blazers defense. Why don't we see more of that in big spots down the stretch?

Our execution late hasn't been good. It's something we need to improve. There is no way to spin it. It's something we need to improve. I know our coaches are on it. A lot of it is easier said than done. "Hey, we need to score more than the other team!" Often times, teams are taking away or will blitz that, where Dwight is bringing an extra defender to James. That's a coverage we struggle with, if they double team the ball because that pass to Dwight is hard and he gotta make a play off the bounce, which he can but not the first strength with Dwight. It's easier said than done but our execution late needs to get better like 10 other spots we need to improve. You've highlighted two that are important--defense and execution.

I told Seth that if I was the Cavs, I would not trade the number one pick for Kevin Love. Am I crazy?

I can't talk about players. I can talk about draft picks. Would I trade the pick if I was the Cavs? It'll be a cop out answer but it depends what you get, right? If you can get an all-star plus plus caliber guy, you look at it. The advantage of the number one pick, not only do you generally get an all-star, but you also get them cheaper. The number one pick has some big advantages. You not only get a likely all-star but can spend another 10 million on another player.

What are the chances the 7 overall pick ends up being as competent as Chandler Parsons?

That's interesting. Chandler is very good. I would say it's more likely than not the player is not as good as Chandler. More likely than not.

Do you want to use your first round pick this year?

We really like the draft. Generally when you have 2 max players like us, and hopefully looking to add another one, you need cheap guys. Guys who are very good players who aren't expensive, which is why we do so much with the D-League, all our scouting and international players. I think the 25th pick will be better this year than generally most 25th picks. We do like that pick.

Do you laugh at these NFL guys who keep pushing back the draft and need more time?

Our pool is way more limited. By the time we get through our process, we end usually with 20 guys that our draftable, guys we would use a roster spot on. Our pool during the year gets funneled down from 100 and by this time, maybe 40-50, and by the end of the process, 20. In a good year, you might get 23-24 draftable guys. In a year we don't like as well, you're looking at 15-16.

Hypothetically, if I were disgruntled with CBS and looking to start a basketball academy in some area of the world where it isn't quite known as a basketball producer but is on the brink, where would I put it?

Probably China but that's a terrible business model. There's no secret. Everyone has to declare for the draft. It's not like baseball. Asia is probably the hot bed.

 

There are a lot of people around here that need to read this.

 

not me it’s been in my sig that finals will always have a pick & pop PF, its no way around it , playoff coaches will adjust their defenses to post ups, and perimeter players "see rockets with 2 stars and playoffs success this year"

I still have an issue with morey because he knows this, it’s a personnel thing, which he is responsible of. He gambled going into the playoffs with non-shooters at PF dmo, jones, asik.

A lot of people here want rondo here but if he doesn’t have anyone to pick & pop with to make defenses adjusts don’t get your hopes up thinking we will see a playoff Celtics version of rondo. All the successful PGs in the league play with this type of PF setting screens and always have someone to dump back to if they don’t like how the lane looks on the drive. I give harden a lot of credit for being able to still be successful during reg. season, and I don’t judge LINs game as much because I know he will improve being paired with one also.

 

Including the Rockets players themselves.

 

Lin fans, notice how Lin was left out of Morey's list of "strong defenders" on the Rockets, while Beverley was included. Now please, stop suggesting their defenses are equal.

I'm glad Morey agrees with me that PF needs to be addressed more than PG. In other words, Kevin Love is a much bigger need here than a Lowry or Rondo (though I would prefer Bledsoe).

 

Ton of good info in that one.