Adrian Wojnarowski taking a shot at Morey?

Durv you're not even making sense. So what if DM has an article written about him? A self-promoter by definition is someone who promotes himself, why is the fact that a writer thought he was interesting enough to be the topic of a news article be proof that he's a shameless self-promoter?

Also he's only had the job for what...3 years? 2 playoff entries and a 2nd round appearance in 3 years sounds pretty reasonable and not exactly what I would call a "playoff failure". On the other hand Cuban is indeed a self-promoter (appeared in WWE), and the Mavs have consistenly spent the most money in the West yet still don't have a title to show for it. Add to it the Finals chokejob against the Heat and the 1st round meltdown agains the warriors and you have playoff failure all over it.

 

Cuban is way beyond Morey as a self-promoter. Still, sounds like Woj likes a lil bit o' gut and a lil bit o' ball. He be so MAN!

 

"This. IMHO it isn't DM, why would he hate on the guy who's keeping a low profile? DM is anything but a self-promoter, he wants to keep everything on the down-low all the time."

I did not say that. But he isn't exactly keeping a low profile; he does a lot of local radio as well as national media stuff. He's not exactly RC Buford when it comes to keeping a low profile. So it should be no surprise that he invites such a criticism, whether its warranted or not.

 

Hmm let's break it down Doc Rocket style...

self promoters

He must be talking about a reality tv star.

without playoff success and championships

The reality tv star doesn't like basketball, or has even won the the show.

“Star Trek”

There was an episode on Star Trek named "Survivor". It must be a reality tv contestant from Survivor.


in New England.

On Survivor Season 20, Rob "Boston Rob" Mariano. Boston Rob has never won on Survivor.

Damn... that's cold Woj... why you gotta diss Boston Rob like that?

 

Cuban is the biggest of the self-promoters, but Morey isn't exactly low profile. I don't think it's chance that Morey got into the NYT (how many GMs ever get profiled?).

In any case, the backlash is actually a good thing for Morey. The more that people deny his approach, the greater the value he brings. Woj is showing his true colors, as an old school reporter who is probably putoff by some of Morey's methods. Not really a surprise, since most of Woj's contacts at teams probably dislike Morey because he's been doing well lately and because Morey is more Machiavelli than Forest Gump.

 

If it's an attack on moneyball, it's pretty unfounded. The application of the concept to basketball is way too new to be conclusive. There are certainly are more successful franchises then us, but they have different circumstances that gave them an advantage. Things such as market size, years of high draft picks, conference, lack of serious injuries, and other random events.

As far as person skills, there could be an arguement that Morey isn't great at that given the situation with JVG, Landry, and Tmac, but you also have cases like Scola where the player or coach is perfectly happy here.

As for self promotion, Morey's radio appearances, tweeting, etc do not appear as self promotion to me, but an effort to promote the team (since the coach doesn't do that) and just a reflection of his personality. IIRC, JVG was the one on the radio when he was coach, I imagine every team has the coack or GM on the radio regularly.

I honestly think Cuban is less about self promotion as he is about trying to have fun with his life....but I couldn't argue with anyone calling him a self promoter either.

Regardless, the reference is not well written enough to clear state the writers opinion in the first place.

 

Please, all, keep in mind - Owner Alexander exited JVG in no small part because of JVG's reluctance to 'get out there' and be a face of the franchise. It's an issue he has with RA. DM the GM has been directed to 'get out there' and he does. Does he mind it? probably not; but it is part of his Rocket GM job description.

 

I dont really see what the big deal is even if he did take a shot at morey. He is paid for facts and opinions. I'm old school in terms of how i look at the game and i disagree with the way some of the numbers are slanted to prove such numbers. Through time and post from my main man durvasa, i can see where some of the numbers make sense beyond just the naked eye. Before a number was telling me lowry draws fouls at a very high rate, i've watched lowry in memphis and saw him draw alot of fouls in a short time.

In the end, whatever works. Roasa, who works with morey is a basketball guy thru and thru. The scouts who are on the road sleeping in hotels do alot of leg work on the college level as well as pro. Whatever works and if you go to the geeky star trex convention, so be it.

 

It was just a general slam of the type of front office types he considers to be overly interested in the quant stuff. To him, they think its all about optimizing team performance and treating players like they're assets, but he thinks there is more to being a GM than that like how you relate to players, coaches, the owner, and other teams. I think that's his point.

 

I see your point. The numbers are helpful because (1) we simply can't see every game or even everything that happens within the game we are watching, and (2) of what we do see, we will naturally remembers some things more vividly than others, and that will reflect our own biases.

The numbers are like an independent and objective consultant. We may not always agree with that consultant, but its nice to have anyway to give us more confidence in our assessments.

 

This is why this kind of criticism is almost always too simplistic. They just assume that the quant people are all Vulcans with no sense of human sentiment. That is obviously false if you get to know some of these guys.

This kind of generalization is not much different than some racial stereotypes, imo.

 

Mark Cuban AND Bill Simmons with the self promotion elements. With what Cuban does and what Simmons writes about, with anything those guys do together are you going to think there's NOT any self promotion involved?

The lack of playoff success part is a jab at everyone involved.

Right. Morey is even keeled for the most part. But if it was about him about keeping a true low profile there wouldnt be a "Morey Twitter Thread".

I think alot of its is Morey's a young guy who's hip, is in the technology and video game age, knows how to enjoy himself on the job, and is part of the fresh approach to management you see in other industries too. Like "Google Headquarters" and such. He's doing what he wants, what anyone would want, and taking it in stride.

Though isnt it odd how its old Larry Brown, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich winning all the recent titles? With a bunch of nondescript GMs in the background...

 

I don't think anybody would still put Brown and Riley among the elites, and the Moreyball era is really only 3-4 years old. SA has been known to be one of the best at analytical aspects in GM'ing (Buford, Lindsey, etc) for a long time. Parker and Ginobili were not traditional picks by any means.

 

Why wouldn't you put Riley and Brown as elite coaches along side Pops and Jackson? Riley has won 6 championships, 5 with the Lakers and 1 with the Heat, and Larry Brown has won a championship with the underdog Pistons and has taken them to like 7 consecutive ECF.

 

Maybe cause Pops and Jackson have actually won something in the last decade and a half.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to piss some people off. I thought he meant throughout the WHOLE career and not the past decade. Even so, Brown won a championship like only 6 years ago and Riley one it only 4 years ago.

 

Brown used to be great. Then he was terrible. Now he's passable.

Riley used to be great. In the last decade he's bobbed between good and ok. He did a fine job in the Heat championship, but it's not like that team didn't have talent, and Wade got some very generous officiating.

 

The sentence is an act of grammatical terrorism.

Until a copy editor makes some sense out of it, I will refrain from comment.

 

Don't flatter yourself kid...it takes a whole lot more than you posted to even irritate me.

Winning one a piece in the last 15 years, versus 4 for Jackson and 4 for Pop.
Hell, by your standards RudyT(with 2) is more elite than Riley and Brown in the last 15 years. Also, one could argue that Riley only got his cause of Wade and the fact that he was against Dallas who choked the series away.

Career accomplishments dont mean jack when ranking how good coaches are in the current day...just like players age and lose their dominance, so do coaches. imo, Riley and Brown are done.