Well if you read it so says the article as well: by pressure he probably means gambling. And then that's right. Gambling may lead to one turnover and in 10 easy uncontested layups..by the opponent, when it fails. We dont' have the discipline to play good defence, so we gamble and go for the easy steal.
Nice article. Shows the value of coaching and having a good offensive system, rather than playing playground ball and focusing on 3's and layups.
lack of system and coaching. Lack of catering and adapting your system to your roster's strengths. And another thing that is not touched so much in this article, but in previous Seth articles on Morreyball..being predictable. We play Morreyball in a robotic stupid way. I'm surprised Morrey who is a stat guy doesn't see it and wonder why our xefg is so hideous compared to what it should be. And he still insists that coaching just gives "a couple wins a year more".
"Like assists and early shots, three-pointers and shots at the rim are indicators of good offense, but they're not good offense in a vacuum, and teams that use them as targets should be wary of putting the cart before the horse. Those are good shots in theory. In practice, the best shots are the ones the personnel on hand can make..." Morey has actually said this very thing on multiple occasions.
except that actions speak louder than words. And everything he has done, by completely dismissing the importance of good coaching, speaks to the contrary.
Our roster isn't suited to what he's trying to do. He's a good GM in terms of maximizing value on most of his deals. But (and I think he now knows it), he's no replacement for a good coach. Blindly gaining incremental value in a vacuum doesn't make sense if the players don't fit the offense. Morey's been generally good at addressing the needs he sees, but he needs a good coach to tell him what those needs really are, something that advanced metrics aren't going to readily reveal to you.
I love Morrey. But it's a GM's job to find the players who can do what the team wants to do. And agreed about the rest of your post. Morrey can go and say in the press whatever, but the truth is the appliance of Morreyball by this team, compares to what a highschool team would do. And he talks but what he does about it? The almost complete dismissal of the importance and input of coaching by the FO, and the composition of this roster, speak louder than words do.
Most people see what they want to see.. With Morey being a stat guy, he can pull certain numbers to prove his theory, even when the numbers are not telling the entire truth. T_Man
What you can't hide is the fact that we're basically a .500 team this year without a good coach and that we never really had a shot at the ring last year, despite making it to the WCF. I'm sure Morey feels the sting of both of those things keenly as he's been at the helm for nearly a decade now without getting us to the promised land. He's a smart guy, I think things will get shaken up this offseason.
Why do you think we don't really have an offensive system? Players usually are moving towards certain a spots and sets are generally being called out in the half court when the defense is set. Our system revolves around finding the best shot which does involve a lot of chaos based on the principle that attacking when the defense isn't set usually leads to easier buckets. Now the execution is sometimes dreadful but we have been top ten in offense and offensive efficiency more often than not under Morey.
What are this rosters strengths and how should we play with this roster? Morey isn't the only who thinks that about coaching. Ever listen to Lowe and Pelton and their ilk? What out there would suggest or has suggested that morey passed on good head coaches in favor of Mchale and our current coaching staff. I'm surprised you don't understand that there are 29 other teams going after the same coaches and players.
If "good coaching" only gives you "couple wins a year more" and bad coaching by extension should give you "couple of wins a year less" or much more than a couple less, then this is significant, especially because the West is so competitive. A game or 2 variance could be the difference between the 4th seed and the 8th seed. You would think the advantage of having a good coach would be clear to Morey.
<iframe src='http://media.957thegame.com/audio-embed/113082059/embed.htm?width=500&height=350' width='500' height='350' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' style='border:0;padding:0;margin:0'></iframe> http://media.957thegame.com/a/113082059/daryl-morey.htm Thoughts on how GM Bob Meyers has constructed this Warriors team from the front office down to the players on the floor? Amazing. Bob is the best. I appreciate the kinds words. They aren't coming appropriately as much this year. The biggest thing Bob did was after winning, that's the toughest periods for a team, to do what you did last year and go to greater heights this year is an amazing achievement. Surprised the way the Warriors started the season based on what you saw in the Finals vs. the Cavs? I am. I don't know how you guys keep it interesting. It's every night, it's something new, both sides of the ball. Everyone notices the offense but the defense is solid as well. He should get GS to move on to bigger problems like affordable housing in San Francisco. Will we see Harden tonight? He did hurt that finger pretty bad. He went through full practice. Got it hit in practice again but all signs he'll go tonight. What led to the decision to bring back Josh Smith? We didn't want him to leave. We offered more money but a lot of factors that go into a free agent decision. That fit didn't work (with LA). We were happy to bring him back. His defense is solid. He can move the ball. He's a solid guy to have on the team. We're struggling and nowhere near where we want to be. We've had a lot of injuries at that four spot where he plays. It all came together to bring him back. He's been effective for us. I know you're a competitive guy and going through a tough season like this, what's your steps when you look at how you can improve things? You have to question everything. Look at all assumptions. Look at what can be changed. We made the tough choice with changing our coach. We continue and try and find the mix that will get us back to where we can be, in that top four in the West. We're not playing it and need to turn things around. How are the players responding to Bickerstaff? Very good. We've had some periods where we get some relative success, win a few in a row and then take a step back. That's been frustrating. Bickerstaff and our coaching staff, they've done a solid job getting us on a solid footing and now we need to build on that and get to the next level. How is the NBA doing in taking advantage of analyzing new and creative ways to process data and transition that to what happens on the floor? Long way to go. ... You have a lot of pioneers here with Billy Beane and you guys have been at the front of that in this town. We're hoping to continue to use that as an edge but the edge gets tougher and tougher every year. Will the NBA change the HAP? I have strong opinions on this. I mostly disagree with Rick Barry. The notion FTs are "part of the game", that's the one I disagree with most. FTs were put in the game as a penalty to keep people from hammering other people. If the penalty is such that it's advantageous to basically engage the penalty over and over, your penalty is messed up. One example, the clear path rule, they wanted, the NBA instituted a rule that they didn't want you to hack & hammer people in transition, we wanted a free flowing game. The penalty wasn't working so they upped the penalty. The league needs to up the penalty for hacking off the ball so teams stop doing it and we can get back to basketball. How does Harden get to the FT line so many times? It's simple there. He drives and you foul him or he makes a layup. The reality is he beats his man clean than any other player in the league and because of that, foul him or a layup. Biggest threat to the Warriors? Spurs right now are the toughest team in the West (outside of GS). We're hoping to get back in that group. Thoughts on teams tanking for better draft position? Something need to be done in the NBA? The right thing to do is you want to set up a structure so that getting a marginal win is advantageous for a team. If you don't have that, you have situations where people will speculate teams are losing on purpose, true or not. ... There are incentives to lose right now in multiple sports. It's a league office problem to come up with structures so winning is the right thing to do that evening. How do you approach the trade deadline? We have very few tools. We have FA, the draft & trade. Trade deadline is a key time for teams to maximize what they're trying to do. When things are going better, there's fewer moves and not going as well, more moves. A lot of prep goes into it and it's a big time for every team.
Notice how very few fans intone "in Morey we trust" anymore? Those were the days of wide-eyed innocence and burning hope, now there's only ...
In Morey I trust. Hell, the Logo had a bad year or three; what did DM the GM do? He stuck with the continuity factor, what 'everyone' believed we wanted, the team needed. Stuff happens. BTW - - reports were that the Logo worked hard to nix/scuttle/s-t-o-p the Love/Thompson trade. I wonder how that one would have looked in retrospect?!!
In Morey we trust. Despite the nightmare of a season, I'm very glad we have a well run organization. Yeah, we're not the Spurs by any stretch, but when I see how many garbage organizations there are just being straight embarassing (hi Kangz), I'm grateful for the folks that are running our front office.
The problem isn't what Morey's saying, it's that he's saying it. You don't see Bob Meyers or RC Buford giving interviews. By putting himself out there, he opens himself up to criticism. I along with most Clutchfans were in awe in the preseason that Morey was able to assemble this roster. We had one question mark as a healthy roster last year and that was starting PG. Someone who could score off the drive and shoot the open 3. In Lawson we thought we had that guy. No one could have predicted this piss poor showing. Heads may roll, but the Rockets will take many many steps back in getting rid of Morey.
