Daryl Morey interview following D'Antoni hire press conference on SportsTalk 790's The Bottom Line

Get easy buckets. That's the mantra the next team needs and it starts with D. Play d and get easy buckets in transition. Sell them on this and it could work.

 

THIS.

 

Dwight and the massive hole in the salary cap that his leaving creates

 

Doesn't that work the other way too? You believe it was all Les' decision because you want to believe that.

 

This !

 

Except or insiders have told us more didn't want dantoni, that moreys first choice was van Gundy, and that Morey himself said repeatedly that they needed defense and then they got an offense minded coach with no defensive history. Don't believe me - woj and feigen both repeatedly stated that front office wanted a van Gundy defensive type and that ownership wanted dantoni or didn't want to reconcile with van Gundy. Posters like cheekie and wtf rockets wtf who insist that Morey is in lockstep with this are completely wrong. Morey is in agreement with Les the same way a VP agrees with the decision of the CEO. You don't agree you get fired.

I think Morey is gone in about a year so cheekie and wtf rockets wtf can be happy about that. At the very least, Morey is now a GM whose owner doesn't trust him to do the job he is paid to do. No good. If MDA succeed he'll have the power in the organization and knows Morey didn't want him. If MDA fails it will be spun as a lack of talent that fit and Morey and the rockets will separate. In the meantime it is foolish to see this as anything other than any owner imposing his will. I don't think it was right but we can always hope. But I think this means the end of the Morey era here in any case, sadly.

 

No, because Morey's previous statements and what we have heard from insiders point into the direction that he would have hired a defensive-minded coach, specifically JVG, if it had been his and only his call.

What do you expect him to say at this point?

"Oh, Pringles would have been my last choice, because I know we might win a few more games, but we will not get anywhere in the playoffs if we make them. But my boss decided, and even though I hate the decision, this is my job and this is what I have to do."

Can't really say that now, can he?

 

I do not care whose decision it was, the fact Morey vouched for the decision, even if the decision was not his, is evidence enough to hold him accountable for this possible awful hiring of a head coach.

 

This. There's plenty of evidence we weren't as good defensively as our numbers showed. Teams missed more open shots - OPEN - vs. us in 14-15 than in 15-16. That regression to the mean alone counted for a calamitous fall defensively. Dwight's decline as a rim protector is overblown - he wasn't that much worse in 15-16 than in 14-15, where he was hurt and never fully mobile and comfortable. Let's not forget that the roster was a mess to start the season, people came in hurt and/or fat/out of shape, D Mo was out for most of the year and then almost traded, chemistry was awful, etc...

Both claims are true. We shouldn't have been a WCF team in 14-15. We should have been at least a 4 or 5 seed in 15-16.