[Rockets.com] Daryl Morey Discusses the State of the Rockets

lol a state of the Red Nation address...

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2010/04/15/PressCon041510wmv-1290926/index.html

link to video

 

Did he mention our defense sucks balls?

 

This team just need Yao back and everything will take care of itself. Yao is the anchor offensively and defensively...when you don't have that....everything just broke into pieces....we can help ourselves by upgrading and finding a backup for Yao and i am talking about a good decent backup. And if we can get a superstar...all the better! Maybe we can trade all the draft picks from New York include this years' for a superstar in return??

 

Good stuff. The Rockets IMO will be big players this offseason, and I can't wait to see what happens. I think Morey will blow our minds again.

 

DM really stressed "looking for a quality big" through free agency. also mentioned they are looking at defensive players at the 4/5.

also mentioned if they could land an elite player at any position they would, but its a real long shot.

 

Can someone explain to me why Morey would want to broadcast to the rest of the league that we will match any offer to Scola/Lowry?

Doesn't that just encourage teams to make larger offers to force Houston to match?

 

Repeatedly. He said we must be a top ten defensive team.

 

Knowing Morey and his great ability to not only evaluate talent, but get talent as well, I am extremely excited to see what this team will look like next season.

And I hope Morey does everything he can to bring in Camby. He may be a little too expensive to get, but I do think a simple move like that could put this team over the top.

 

Yeah, in the article he spoke about improving the teams defensive and becoming atleast a top 10 defensive team.

 

Quite the opposite - it tells other teams not to waste their time going after them. Because in the time it takes to pursue a player/make offers as well as the 7 days the Rockets would use to "decide" on matching, tons of other options would come off the board for that team. Teams with cap room above the MLE have bigger concerns than merely trying to saddle Houston with an overpaid contract. They're trying to add an impact player(s) to their team, and if they think the Rockets will match anything, they won't waste two weeks playing a game while tons of other options come off the board.

It potentially lowers the players' outside leverage quite a bit. See Landry two years ago.

 

That had nothing to do with missing a 7'6 center...

 

from his interview, the impression is that defense minded elite bigs are targeted by rox in this summer. it is rox #1 job. most likely, amare is not on the list since he is an offense only big. i guess rox will focus on bosh for sure.

definitely, morey's already calculated the possibility of getting him. here are my reasons we have a chance.

if raptors trade bosh, raptors will be in rebuild mode for sure. raptors can't get equal value when bosh can be a free agent and he doesn't want to stay there. in this case, what do they want? a few rotation players to match the salary, plus high picks. if those rotation players have an expired contract, it makes the deal even sweeter. look at our current roster. we have this year first round pick, next year first round pick which can be swaped with nickers, and 2012 nickers first round pick (top 5 protected). those are very attractive picks for a rebuild team. plus, we have shane and jj expired contract. i hate to give up shane due to his fundamentally sounded defense skills. if raptors doesn't like shane's age, we can add ariza instead shane. ariza can be very solid defense player plus his shooting when he is not an offense focal point. any of combinations we put into the deal should be very attractive to a rebuild team.

 

Morey saying that he is focused on getting a defensive minded big is music to my ears.

 

It does absolutely the opposite.

If you sign either player to an 'offer sheet' then the Rockets have 7 days to match. During those 7 days you may not sign anyone else, since your salary cap portion is tied up.

example: Chicago offers Scola $9million per year for 5 years to 'screw' the Rockets. During the week that the Rockets are waiting to match, Wade, Bosh and Amare (who in this theoretical example all opted out) all sign with someone else.
At the end of the week Houston matches, and Chicago gets nobody.
OR, at the end of the week, Houston DOES NOT MATCH and Chicago gets stuck paying Scola a ridiculous amount.

So in the end, the only way to get Scola and Lowry away from the Rockets is to be completely committed to overpaying them to such an extent that the Rockets would not be interested.

Don't see that happening for a 29 year old PF with defensive issues or a PG who can't shoot to save his life.

Then it gives Morey further bargaining power to negotiate cheaper deals with the 2 of them 'oh, so nobody offered you $2million per year Kyle? Well why not just take the money from us instead."

A very sensible move which worked wonders with Landry's contract.

 

he threatened to trade anyone who doesn't bust ass on defense

 

Those teams could run the risk of the Rockets not matching the offer and sticking them with a bad deal. So it better not get to crazy.

 

Marcus Camby come on doooooooooooown!!!!