I think if you've read some of my other posts, you know I'm a make fan of Morey. However, he got really lucky the last two offseason, I'm not talking about the Harden trade, which unlike many, I attribute less to luck and more to his great management in getting the right players with the right contracts in the right situation. The smallish trade like Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris is the perfect example of that, he knows that he would do not like either for a long term deal and both would be harder to move if he did. He SOLD at exactly the right time like he did many times before (Brooks, Courtney Lee, Budinger, Battier, and etc). He's made a couple of small mistakes, but nothing that hurts us long time and many times rectified by flipping them for future "assets". But if he actually had his way the last two offseasons, we'd actually be in a pretty bad situation. Obviously with "basketball reasons" we'd have Paul Gasol and Nene Hilario in the front court right now. I actually think both would've played better on this team than they did the last two seasons but we'd be a lower seed going no where if the trade went through. The other bullet was NOT getting Dwight last year. We'd likely gave a similar package we did for Harden, but would likely of gotten more salary back (J Rich might've needed to come to us since we could actually take the contract), not signed Asik, (though probably still signed Lin), not make the playoffs and sitting on pins and needles right now. So that said, while I think Morey is really really good, he's also gotten lucky that some things did not go his way last two years.
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. You can't win the lottery if you never play to begin with. Morey sure as hell plays the game enough to give himself a shot at hitting the jackpot.
You can say this about every success story. There's always some luck involved with life. And surely no GM has had worse luck than Morey he started, with Yao and T-Mac failing just as their supporting cast appeared. But over time, luck generally evens out. And that's what's happening now.
Harden is a big part lucky + prepared. The small trades are mostly management and hard work. I think you got it the wrong way around.
Rockets signed Asik and Lin before Dwight was traded. Some of what was traded for Harden would have gone for Dwight, though, as you mentioned.
I am just glad the Gasol trade fell through and we didn't sign Nene. That squad would have been terrible.
He has had his share of bad luck as well with the injuries to Yao and TMac, missing out on Brandon Roy etc. It hasn't been one sided, indeed until the Harden trade Morey seemed cursed. Morey plays and calculates the odds... Like poker, sometimes the houses loses but not in the long term.
If he had traded for Dwight last year, wouldn't we be in the running for signing Harden this year? (assuming OKC kept him another year, which most people thought they would) The only thing I feel we got lucky on was that Pau trade getting blocked. At that time though, I don't think we could imagine the scenario of having both Harden and Howard.
