I do have a problem with this philosophy. This style of play will when you 54 games a year, but not the style for playoffs (ask Phoenix). I thought the while idea was a championship.? Morey has made some great moves as we'll as some bad moves. You have to take the good with the bad, that's just the way it goes. My problem with him is the constant chasing of stars and not building a team. We need bulldogs like Challenging, Avila, Landry. Guys that with their limitations gives you hustle and grit.
The real problem with what the rockets are doing isn't so much the philosophy, it's the gameplan to execute it. Too often it looks like the rockets don't know what they're running out there and don't know how to get easy points.
Joey Dorsey!!!! Who in the HELL signs Joey Dorsey?? I'm still baffled. Morey can't be that dumb OR did he sign him to entice K-Pa to sign with the Rockets
He was pretty much the best defensive big in Europe the past couple years, and desperately wanted another shot at the NBA, was willing to sign for the minimum, and all of the good backups were already off the board in FA at that point. Its that simple. Morey knew his size would likely be an issue again, but all indications were that he's still good at what he does, and with the experience he had, maybe that would help him do much better in his 2nd stint in the NBA. So far Morey and others look to be wrong about that, and he hasn't progressed in his abilities to use his head along with his physical attributes. I said on here before training camp started to watch how Tarik Black does in comparison to Dorsey and that will be a pretty good indication of how far he's come or not since Black literally is the same size and does the exact same thing. If Black looks comparable, or beats him out in training camp than that's not good, and he hasn't progressed. Unfortunately, I was right, and not only did Black compete with him, he flat out beat him out. Good news is, his contract is pretty minuscule, and he will be short of easy to get rid of. People act like Morey signed him to a 40 million dollar contract or something. No, he hasn't earned a spot in the rotation, therefore he's a goner at some point in the next couple months. Onto the next one.
What's amazing about Dorsey isn't that he's still abysmal on offense - we all expected that - it's that he's a terrible post defender and rebounder. When he gets a rebound or two, the Rockets announcers are blown away and sing his praises. Why, they've never seen him do such a thing! That play where he was defending Boozer one-on-one in the post and Boozer did a simple drop step for an easy, uncontested layup is the play that made me declare in front of everyone I was watching the game with* that Joey Dorsey is the worst player in the NBA. *2 of my 3 dogs
After watching the Orlando Dwight days with Gortat, and what happened to that team after Gortat was traded, and then watching the Rockets now with Dwight before and after Asik, it's apparent to me that this is a huge issue with Dwight Howard teams that has to be addressed. I think the issue is because your whole team concept relies on Dwight to anchor the middle, and for whatever reason the other 4 players just can't adjust to the drop off when Dwight isn't there or comes off the floor. We've seen this before, and its nothing new. Gortat wanting to go be a starter elsewhere was the beginning of the end of the Orlando glory days with Dwight. Let's all hope that the Rockets can fix this issue so they don't look back and say that losing Asik was key to the Rockets having issues moving forward. The need legit backup 5 ASAP.
It seems like there's real confusion about what it is Morey does. He does a lot but he is not a player, he is not a team of players, he is not a coach, he is not an owner (in fact, why not blame Les for everything)... His work is done off the court -- off the game court, off the practice court. His job is to provide the players. In two years he got the top 2 guard and the top center in the league -- or, if you want to be a little more pessimistic than the pundits and their standings, a top 5 shooting guard and top 5 center. (Marginal superstars - lol) Nobody better provided better players to his owner and coach than Morey in those two years. Or disagree, but you can't deny he was near the top. You seem to think it's not just Morey's job to sign Harden but to play for him too. Morey doesn't control what happens on the court. He provides the players. The players he's provided us with this year are 9-3. What are you complaining about again?
Dorsey is a scrub. Cut his ass. I'm a big Morey guy but he makes way too many excuses for my liking and oversimplifies things. On 790 this morning, he said their bigs outplayed ours. It's as simple as that. No, how about the coach be accountable for the predictable crap we run late in games for THREE years now. If Morey wants to continue to act like coaching doesn't mean anything in the league, he can go with Mchale.
Complaining about the last 4 games. Because that 9-3 record will soon be history at the rate we've been playing. Teams have gameplanned for us and just like the last 3 years of McHale's time with us, the team has no countermove. "It seems like there's no offense out there." say the experts. Up to now, no growth from the coaches. That's the biggest issue that the team cannot overcome. Hey, we played with a 6'5 center and we won. It's the lack of coaching. And Morey continues to legitimize it.
We have a serious backup 5 problem, it's true. We also have a serious problem at the other big position. A starter that's growing by leaps and bounds but who has been out for 3/4 of the season so far and has no legit backup. The Dorsey signing would be a gigantic mistake if there was anything gigantic about a couple million to a player that's supposed to play 10 minutes. But it was a mistake. Every GM will make mistakes. But let's put some of this in context. We are very shallow at the big positions. 2 of our 3 losses have come when our future Hall of Famer big has been out. We only really have one other very solid NBA big and that's Jones. He's been out for all three losses. This thread was made in reaction to a loss to a bad team when we were playing without far and away our two best big guys, after which there is an enormous drop-off. And I'd say that PF/backup C is our position most in need of improvement. Those guys aren't super easy to find, especially ones that can guard the second of two starting 'towers.' Black is a great 12th man and Dorsey shouldn't be in the league. Last night we went into battle with Black as our center and no one behind him. We started with D-Mo with no one but Papa or Harden behind him. You need a three-man rotation of bigs that can play. We have one great big in Howard, one big that's very good, very promising, and improving rapidly in Jones, and then we have a huge drop off. Last night and for 8 of our 12 games this season we haven't had our two decent-great bigs. We've only had our highly insufficient backup bigs with really no one at all to back them up. But Dwight hurts his knee, Jones is seriously injured and out long-term, we start a game with maybe our 10th and 11th men (if Dorsey is 12) or at best our 9th and 10th (if you don't dig Troy Daniels or Garcia), we lose, and Daryl Morey is a bad GM. I'm sorry fellas but that just doesn't track. And when Morey improves our team once again, which will almost certainly happen by the deadline, our 9-3 team will be better and more holes will be filled. Warning: Morey still won't be playing the games for us or coaching them. Since so many of you don't seem to get that.
Can you even imagine how happy you would have been last season to say, "The problem is our offense?" We took our greatest weakness and made it our biggest strength. That takes work. It doesn't leave a lot of time for improving or even maintaining the second best offense in the league while going from a bottom-dweller to a top two or three defensive team. There's an exchange in a Samuel Beckett play that I find appropriate. A man that cannot walk is being pushed around in a chair on wheels and then returned to his neutral position. H: Now I feel a little too far to the left. (C adjusts.) H: Now I feel a little too far to the right. (C adjusts.) H: Now I feel a little too far forward. (C adjusts.) H: Now I feel a little too far back. (C adjusts.) H: Don't stand there! You give me the shivers! Or, to use the lame, banal, cliched terms of our announcers, "Daryl Morey cannot do wrong right" in the eyes of his team's 'top' fans.
The thing is, Morey held back on using his resources to add talent all summer, preferring "cap flexibility" over player acquisition. He traded Asik for a pick. He let Parsons go. He dumped Lin. Those guys have their flaws but they were contributors on this team and their particular skill sets just happen to be what this team misses right now. On the "incoming" end, Ariza was the only one he signed to a significant long term contract. With the rest, he held off on significant future guarantees. This means HOU has trouble competing for decent free agents, who are almost all looking for and receiving multi-year deals. Morey does have ways to "address" the depth deficiencies on the roster, but I wonder if he will sacrifice his treasured "flexibility" to acquire anything other than that Third Star that he's dreaming of.
McHale still seems to be a Black fan based on his postgame comments. Once we get a real backup C like Okafor, Dorsey is surely out
You mean we exchanged one problem for another problem? How is that growth? And truthfully, I don't think we're that great of a defensive team, esp when Howard sits.
batman are you saying that morey is not the reason mchale's option was picked up (and it was actually les)? also, isn't the 'read & react' offense w/ emphasis away from midrange shot attempts being dictated from morey himself on down?
I've been saying for months Morey should be fired if he wastes the Rockets' next 2 years sitting around waiting for some elusive 3rd star(i.e. Durant) to sign here. Who's even available who might come here? Maybe Dragic next summer. But forget Love or Aldridge. Paul Millsap would be a great addition, but he's not technically a star and Morey and Les seem to be fixated on that. Otherwise, the pickings is slim. Better to go for quality depth and take your best shot with the Howard-Harden duo(while you still have it) than waste time with another attempt at a grand slam like the one that failed miserably this past offseason.
Ironically, tonight was the game they interviewed Morey about the tracking of ball and body movement and he has pushed Mchale into a philosophy where they're not even using it.
