ClutchFans and Daryl Morey: A Call for Introspection and Reason

Yeah, but he said "assets." I mean, dude.

 

I personally believe Morey has done a great job with the resources he has available to him and with the opportunities or lack thereof that presents themselves. I have complete confidence that when a deal for a superstar does unfold for Houston again, DM will jump all over it. For the people that choose to ridicule him or his decisions, they are typically small or narrow minded and seem to believe we can simply generate superstar deals out of thin air.

 

Bashing Morey over using the term asset is ridiculous, but he does yap to the media too much, and must we always assume that every move is a Morey move? We know that Les is an active owner, and if the general manager boast that rebuilding is out of the question, I tend to think it's because the guy who cuts the checks has made that decision and Morey is just following orders.

 

Great post, Bima. Making a case to be a mod I see.

Call me a Morey skeptic; he hasn't earned the right to be free from heavy criticism. I might turn into a Morey supporter if he can ever put together a full roster and stop gambling on Yao Ming. (note: that doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of Yao.)

EDIT: My point is posting this is to say that Clutchfans criticism isn't inherently evil and opinions can be changed. Picking sides is overrated.

 

Definitely a Morey Supporter...

 

It's just you.

 

This is the trap that I fall under. If you recall the entire body of work by certain posters, and by body of work I mean the eye gouging deformity that is the body of work of certain posters, I am far more tempting to just poop all over them and laugh than to take my time and respond in a respectful and informative manner. Obviously that is not the right way to go about it. But the alternative of leaving them be to spread their vitriol is not productive for the board either. The other alternative of dignifying them with intelligent discourse is unacceptable for me as well. Since that only lends credibility to them as anything but the clowns that they are.

I am at a crossroad.

 

According to the OP, yes, we must. He should take some of his own advice.

 

He runs his own conference and is called Dork Elvis and stuff. Thats kinda cool. Either you want to have BEER with Morey the MIT Wonder Kid and hang out with him or you dont.


There's the other elements of Morey outside his actual GM basketball moves, unintentional mostly, that play into how he is perceived. Morey the "Celebrity" adds to the "Group A - The Moreyites" fervent support.

 

I am a 'B', a Morey supporter. I am glad to have DM the GM 'on my side', doing 'my bidding'.

BTW - - Dan Majerle? Booed, and Cotton took the mic and said it would be the last time their fans booed. I knew then I couldn't make the call on draft picks. What do I know? The answer is, "what does any 'expert' know?"

But, I believe the Battier trade sealed the deal on Adelman. It demonstrated a lack of unison between DM the GM and RA the HC. Morey tried to force his hand, and Rick responded by taking the Battier-less Rox on a grand run. (I did think Morey could have gotten more from the Griz, or Gerald Wallace or just more.)

How does a team leave purgatory for the Promised Land? Luck helps. It is really tough to steal a Gasol (tho Marc has made that deal look a whole lot less bad). It's even tougher to find a 'King James' (sic) at #14. So, pray tell, how do the Rox rise to a challenging level? The only two answers I see are (de facto) tanking and taking advantage of an amnesty, should it occur (and I blindly believe it will).

Until then, what? I'll continue to support DM the GM. I'll hope the 2% chance of a Top 3 pick occurs. I'll dream of an Artest-esque trade availing itself. And I will hope against hope that Woodson (or Brown [either Brown]) gets the coaching nod. I want Turner, but I guess he doesn't want this job. So give me Sikma. Or at least Casey. (Or is Coach Cal and WorldWideWes in the cards?)

 

I think the problem that prevents Morey supporters and skeptics from having a meaningful discussion is the fact that Morey haters (and some skeptics also) tend to run off with this red herring argument that Morey somehow treats his players (and coaches) like inanimate objects instead of people, and from this point their next logical step is "Morey is too smart for his own good", "Morey thinks he is better than everyone", "that's what you get when you have an MIT grad with all those fancy degrees and no common sense running the team". In fact these are all ad hominem attacks with no bearing at all upon the situation, much like Obama birth certificate argument.

If you're going to attack Morey, stick to the issues of player, contract, and draft pick acquisition and utilization, because everyone can have some common ground and we can actually have some meaningful debate on those topics. Ad hominem attacks just leave both sides at an irreparable impasse, and you'll never be able to convince anyone else that your opinion is actually more correct.

And please do be careful about the "I don't identify with Daryl Morey as a human being" argument. Because Clutchfans has a wide variety of viewers and posters, and Houston in general is one of the more diverse cities in the country. If you're going to imply something like "I resent Daryl Morey for being educated" then you are invariably going to be alienating an entire group of Clutchfans, i.e. I grew up in Alief and my parents still live there in a tiny house, but I ended up going to good schools--and even if we have different doesn't mean we have to take such impassioned sides on a debate of sports as a result of it.

So stick to the issues! And I think everyone will be better off because of it.

 

Not to get off-topic, but this point about Adelman v. Morey bugs me. I know it's been reported that Adelman wasn't a fan of the Battier trade and felt like Morey was dismantling the team. BUT THE TEAM GOT BETTER WITHOUT BATTIER!!! I could emphasize that more, but I can't emphasize that enough. So while Adelman may have thought Battier made them a better team, IMO he was wrong and Morey was right -- the Rockets were better off as a team with Lee and Budinger taking Shane's minutes. You can spin that into "Rick took a worse roster and made a great run in spite of Morey's move" argument, but I think the Rockets are simply a better team without Shane.

The owner feels the same way. I believe he said the Shane trade was an addition by subtraction, which I agree with.

 

Skeptic here, love the trades, for the most part, and am happy they have a direction.

Don't believe in the trade for a Superstar strategy overall, as it is more rare than getting one in the draft.

Also very skeptical of Morey's people management, I think he is too dry, and detached, and frankly speaks too much to the press.

It is one thing to treat players like assets (that is his job) but to constantly be in the media, seeking attention, and talking about them in this manner is poor people management, IMO.

As for the analytics, I believe that a good basketball man should be at the top supported by people like Daryl.

Now, maybe he will grow into the role, he has already learned a lot from his mistakes - like not being concerned with height in the draft - now he seems to get that height matters, whereas before he spoke openly about it being overated.

Also, he gets rid of his mistakes very fast, Ariza etc....

So, overall, I give him a "B" but I think this is his shot, he has no excuses, from this point on, it will be his team......no more big contracts to have to turnover, nothing, this is his baby.

I am skeptical that he can do it, but am openly going to be cheering for him to be successful.

DD

 

As stated previsously, I'm happy that Morey has fired Rick and it is now all up to him. It's his team (coach and players) and I'm hopefully that Les holds him strictly accountable for the success of the Rockets.

Strengths:
* Willing to trade to obtain Superstars
* Not loyal to a coach only winning
* Has owners support

Opportunities for Improvement
* Doesn't understand that without landing 2 major superstars(Dwight and CP3) , the only way to win consistently is to build chemistry by drafting and developing players
* Nobody knows his plans for the current team and as of right now, what do we have to offer to get a superstar?
* Has he created a culture where superstars are not interested in playing in Houston
* Too focused on stats instead of chemistry

 

Um, I am pretty sure the point of the OP is a call for better discourse between the two sides. Not a roll call to state your allegiances. I know the post was kinda long and all, but please read beyond the bolded bullet points.

 

Bima, as with all discussions on this board, you cant change a posters opinion. I agree with your well written tirade and I think you fall more to moreyite than supporter, but I feel like we can discuss that and stay mutual. Most on this board can't and it just turns every thread into a pic or blast.

I'm probably more critical and opinionated than most of morey, but I've said many times that he's done a good job. I know for a fact through contacts some deals he frankly got cold feet on or went wal mart shopping about. He's a top 10 gm, but he's closer to 10 than 5, but thats ok. Right now though, he has no excuses anymore.

People were waiting on mcgrady and yao to come off the books and now he has a clean slate. The ultinate job of a gm is to construct a contending team worth of a title. Until that happens, he's just a gm who can find bargains, but nothing special. We will see how this goes going forward. I have an idea of the path he is moving toward,but I would be lying if i said i was anymore than 50/50 hunch right now.

 

Thats why I feel, too. I refrain from the "for me to POOP on" approach 98% of the time. But I find it harder and harder to respectfully dignify some posts that are OBVIOUSLY meant to agitate just to cause a stir. Its mostly the cleverly disguised agenda posts posing as "objective" that get to me.

As its often said, "fan" is short for "FANATIC". So trying to remove the emotion out of it, trying to limit reactionary heat-of-the-moment posts just goes against being a sports fan in general. But there's just those certain posts and members that make you wonder if they're about basketball or if its about something else personal.

As it pertains to Morey, Morey represents a different non-traditional approach. Understandably people don't like that kind of change having to adapt, so Morey has to WIN people over. Has Morey done that? Thats where the detractors can rightfully give their scathing reviews.

 

Knowing how you interact with others, this philosophical dilemma of yours gives me a headache. Just relax and stop trying so hard. This is a discussion board, not a contest.

... sorry someone else's thread isn't going the way you think is best. Thanks for the veiled insult.

 

Does anyone actually consider themselves to be in Group A or Group D?