A Few Thoughts Regarding the Team's Approach and Morey's Tenure

Excellent post.

 

Wasn't Morey hired in April of 2006 as assistant GM of the Rockets?

By May of 2007 Morey was the GM here.

Allen was traded in June of 2007 & Garnett in July of 2007.

 

Just what the **** is that supposed to mean? Please elaborate.

 

It was actually Morey who masterminded the framework of those trades. I dont think Ainge is smart enough to craft Garnett and Ray Allen from a Jefferson and a high draft pick. After that year, they really didnt make any significant changes except ride the Big 3 for 5 years. Morey is trying to do the same thing with the Rox

 

I think Morey had been in Houston for a year when those Boston trades happened.

 

Right, but there is no question that Morey was working in their front office leading up to that transition period, and its been reported that he did have a hand in their approach leading up to the trades.

I dont know where i heard it, but I heard it. Take it with a grain of salt since I do not have anything to back it up at this time, but I know thats not just something thats made up out of nowhere.

Also remember hearing a story about how Morey had to convince Ainge to draft Rondo as well. I want to say it was coming from his most recent BS report with Simmons, but I could be wrong about that. Ill try to look for more on this. Sorry for leaving it at hearsay right now.

Regardless, I am positive that Morey is coming from the Celtics school of thought of rebuilding on the fly via trade.

Count-Dough made some good points about the similarities not being exactly the same. Obviously the Celtics had a much worse season leading up to the trades in 07 than the Rockets, but it doesn't change the school of thought behind making the deals. Acquiring assets to trade for a star. Ainge and the Celtics had better assets which led to better stars.

The Rockets have the assets that they have and ended up "almost" aquiring Gasol and Nene as opposed to Ray Allen and KG. Not saying they will be able to pull of trades that good, but what I am saying is that they are coming from the same school of thought to building a contending team on the fly in the simplest fashion.

 

At the rate people here worship Morey I won't be surprised if they believe that it was him who parted the Red Sea. Morey has been GM for five years but after that period of time there is not even a semblance of a core group of players.
How can one build team when there is nothing to build on? So the process rolls on with looking for trades and collecting assets. This process applies to the stock market but not to basketball.
It is also mind-boggling when people pose the question of who could replace Morey if he is fired. This question pre supposes that Morey is such a successful GM that no one in the basketball universe could do a better job than what he has done so far for the Rockets. Incredible.

 

Mind boggling it is. Who is going to replace Morey? Well, we're gonna get a new GM! Again, mind boggling to think that there is no other qualified person out there for NBA GM, so we must keep Morey. I'd hire Dennis Lindsey back today if I could.

How could you blame them?! 3 years now...

So what do we do then?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Morey sure does a lot of trying, sure does come 'close', and sure does come up empty more times than not. 'Close' on Gasol, 'close' on Howard, 'close' on the other Gasol, 'close on Deron Williams, 'close' on Carmelo, 'close' on Chandler, 'close' on Nene, 'close' on Bosh, 'close' on Gortat, 'close' on Stoudemire, on and on and on and on. Man, those Rockets, aren't they cursed? They sure must be! Those basketball Gods hate them! I can't wait to hear who they were 'close' on next this upcoming summer.

Is that how we're supposed to judge him? Based on his 'trying ability'? Trying isn't good enough and doesn't earn him some sort of pass for failing. Should we give him a trophy for trying? That's what they do in little league. Good job, good effort!

'Most fluid in the league' and nothing has changed. Just rearranging, shuffling the deck of our role players. It's even starting to carry over to the management/coaching side! 3 coaches in the last 9 years.

Yeah, we might eventually reach our goal doing it this way, and you might not be around to see it either. Hey, at least they reached their goal, right?

 

Ainge was smart enough to know that Celtics team of 2002 that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals was not a real title contender(as exhibited by the team that defeated them, the Nets, getting swept in the Finals). He willingly took a perennial playoff squad and tore it apart in order to remake it. That was his plan, not Morey's. And even though fans in Boston gave him hell at the time, he was vindicated in the end.

The Rockets are fortunate in a sense that they don't even have to break up a playoff team. They've been in the lotto 3 years in a row already. All that's required now is to trade away superfluous players like Scola or Martin who've shown they ain't leading this franchise anywhere anytime soon, be 10-15 games worse in the standings, get higher draft picks, develop the young players who remain, and use that additional cap room to fill out the roster.

They frankly have no alternative at this point. They're not getting Deron Williams and Dwight Howard in sign-and-trades. Even if they manage to trade up in the draft, it won't be that high. And what they've currently got in terms of personnel isn't even good enough to make the playoffs, much less contend for a title. They need to come up with a plan that spans the next 2-3 years and stop making it their goal every season to barely squeak into the postseason as the 7th or 8th seed.

 

Actually your logic is the one that is flawed. For one thing, it is good to be results oriented but the "result" shouldn't be based on overall record and playoff appearances but rather draft picks and trades.

Danny Ferry Results in Cleveland: 1 Finals Appearance, 3 ECF appearances
Otis Smith Results in Orlando: 1 Finals Appearance, 2 ECF apperances
DM the GM: 0 Finals, 0 WCF appearances,1 Western Semifinals Appearance

Which is the better GM? The fact is, there a lot of factors to team success than just the GM's ability, so you've got to grade him based on the trades and drafts he's made given his circumstance. Prior to the past two years OKC's GM had been having a horrible record, they picked in the top 10 lottery at least 5 times (KD, Green, WB, Harden, Cole Aldritch). Are you then going to say he'd been doing a terrible job and fire him?

DM hasn't done a perfect job, for example IMHO he messed up by trading away Batum and passing on Dejuan Blair, and honestly all the superstar chasing is getting old+why can't he let go of coaches properly, why does it always have to be such a PR nightmare?

However he's done a great job working with the mess he's inherited, esp. since Les Alexander doesn't want to tank. Anybody who says otherwise doesn't know wtf he's talking about.

 

There is no convincing the Morey clones. Short of him bungling this draft and a 4th year in a row of broken promises. Thats Houston fans people. They love to forgive and forget until it literally hurts them. They have nothing resembling holding people accountable. Its funny because Texas is the most conservative state but has one of the largest fanbases of liberals within it that loves to give a second, third, and if need be a 4th, and 5th chance. There is no New York, LA, Phillie state of mind where its win or shown the door.

 

so much wisdom and insight being typed on both sides of the arguement...

i wish i coulp rep....

/sigh.......

 

I agree that a lot of Morey bashing is unjustified, especially the "show me the result" mantra. Result is important, of course. But you have to look at the hands Morey was dealt. Most of the adverse factors aren't controlled by him (the main one being Les Alexander's insistent on "winning" and coach firing). There aren't many GMs out there who could have done a better job given the same conditions.

So firing Morey isn't going to get us out of the mediocrity purgatory. Firing the owner probably will, if that is even possible.

 

Well we will get to see for the 3rd straight year of drafting 14th if it leads to another 14th to 16th pick next year wont we? That wont have any of those "Les Alexander or David Stern excuses hanging over his head" will it?

 

Not that there hasn't been enough written about this on CF, but it still amazes me how so many people have turned on Morey in the last 2 years. How can you say he doesn't have strategy or a direction? He made a lot of good moves to acquire role players around 2 stars. When those 2 stars had their health fail them, he pretty seamlessly moved to turn the team into a scrappy young bunch while taking low-risk shots on highly talented but underachieving young players. He clearly is looking to make a big trade move, and until he does, impatient people will claim we're going nowhere. So the answer is obviously to tank, right? After all, 1 team is going to draft a franchise player this week, and that team is the one who actually won a bunch of games to lose lotto balls at the end of the season. The draft is around the corner, and we have 2 mid-round picks along with some likely to be trade players to work with. Let's see what he can do. I just wish people would give it a rest and let things play out.

 

This is a good point but at the same time, under the assumption that Les is calling the shots, I wonder how another gm would produce under those circumstances. He's kept the team flexible with the cards he's been dealt, I'll give him that, but the assets he's drafted/collected need to start showing their value either on the court or through trades. This is where he should be judged since his m.o. has been "assets" since the Yao/Tracy era ended. What he should not be judged by is his inability to create a team that will lose for a high pick.

 

Preach on and let me add. This team and mgmt is full of excuses. I mean even when the rockets were 1 and done during the late 80's and early 90's, we had something,dream. People forget that Dream was almost traded for 2 solid players. One of which, glen rice made a few all star games. The championship rocket teams were together for 4 yrs or so before they won. They didnt't do as much shuffling of starters as they have recently. Now i'm not saying they shouldnt try to get better, but guys have to know who is on the same page and thats thru playing together. Overrall, i think morey has been solid, but i will contest those who say its not his fault or stern **** blocked him. I will support the team, but pick a lane as i have said the last 4 yrs or so.

 

You make some valid points but again if you feel results are important then how can you ignore overall team record? Team record is part of the "results equation" that must be included. Like i said before i give him props for his draft picks and trades but his record and playoff appearances have not been up to par.

 

It doesn't matter when or where you heard it. The writing is all over the wall. The proof is on the paper. However you say it... The moves that Morey has made since his tenure here supports your claims of what he did during his time in Boston.

He committed highway robbery by getting Artest for Donte Greene, Bobby Jackson and #23 pick. Speaking of Boston and their "BIG 3"... When Morey acquired Artest we had our own BIG 3 set in place with Yao, McGrady and Artest. That was probably the most exciting off season ever with the biggest expectations since the Mid 90's Rockets. CFans were predicting a dynasty and multiple championships.

Even with that failed experiment I think Morey still did another excellent job in acquiring Kevin Martin for a broken down/sulking McGrady and losing Landry hurt but it's not like he was irreplaceable.

His moves of flipping Alston for Lowry and Brooks for Dragic leads me to believe he definitely could have known something about Rondo that Ainge and the rest of the Celtics brass might have missed.

I've been frustrated with Morey as of late and I know I'm not the only one but the more I think about it ... he really is a fantastic GM. Let's not forget the impact of Yao's retirement and T-mac's "issues". The only thing you can blame Morey for is trying to keep this team competitive by trying to "reload" as opposed to fully "rebuilding" aka TANKING.

 

I didn't know Morey was Head Coach as well.