[Haberstroh Podcast] Morey: "Slam me. I deserve to be slammed."

I love Daryl Morey. Brilliant brain. I could listen to him all day.

 

Haha really.

 

Ask the Warriors if they'd rather play the 14th place Rockets or the 2nd place Clippers. In fact, ask any coach. Heck, ask Doc Rivers if he'd switch teams with MDA.

 

Healthy no. But if they knew beforehand that one of Harden and Chris Paul would be injured, then hell yeah.

Doc Rivers would not switch this year, they are doing really well meaning their chemistry is historically high without a single superstar.

Cannot buy chemistry. It's still too early to evaluate.

 

Without Paul, still no. Harden being injured is as likely as any NBA ironman being injured, not sure how that's relevant.

I don't quite understand why such a hypothetical makes sense in determining who coaches and GM's right now would pick to play in the playoffs without knowing how health and the rest of the season will unfold. They would all pick the Clippers. They know Morey will add depth, they know the best player in the series matters, they know the Clippers are going to sink and they know our collective veteran experience would be a problem in the playoffs.

 

Why in the world would doc rivers want to switch teams with MDA? Doc’s team is overachieving and he may have a shot for COTY if they continue this. MDA’s team is trying to salvage a complete disaster after a historic season.

If we don’t improve by January, I don’t think one can make a legitimate argument that we pose a greater threat to the warriors than the clippers.

 

Because we have more talented players and the MVP. Their 7th through 15th players are clearly better than ours. Woopdie-doo. 4 of their 5 starters wouldn't start for us right now in this state of affairs. Btw, Rivers and MDA by now are both aware of the COTY curse.

As you said, they are OVERachieving right now. We are UNDERachieving right now. You are even stating yourself: we only have to improve from an 11-12 record by JANUARY to not be considered a greater threat.

Everyone would choose to play the Clippers right now. In January, if we are in the top 6, they would still choose to play the Clippers.

I'm disappointed with this season too bro, but let's not forget that James Harden led Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon to a winning % that the Clippers are celebrating right now. Let's not forget that we are likely to add a rotation piece. Let's not forget this team is healthier now than they have been at the beginning of the season. Let's not forget Chris Paul, James Ennis, Gary Clark and Eric Gordon will at least improve slightly. The best thing about the Clippers is that they have cap space next offseason. There's a reason they're not committed to a single one of these guys.

 

We're winning less. Literally. You can't be serious that that is now the standard. Then it gives weight to the "Why Not Tank" thread.

 

I don't agree with this take. Objectively speaking if you look at the Rockets they are in disarray right now. They MAYBE have a shot to make a deal for someone and hope that it all falls back into place together, but no one outside of Rocket fans would look at this team and think they have a real chance to win a title this year. If it doesn't happen this year there's no reason to think it's happening in the near future. On top of that you know if you come here you don't get to coach the team your way. You have to install a system the GM supports and your team isn't going to run because your two best players simply won't do it.

On the other hand, the Clippers are about to have a summer with big cap room and the chance to get a marquee free agent.

I don't think Doc Rivers would trade places with Mike D'Antoni at all at this point. Last year yes, but this year no way.

 

It’s doubly sad when I’m watching highlights of Lou Williams and Harrell on the clips on sports center.

 

In other words, nobody wants to play us in the playoffs.

 

LMAO that people think the Clippers are the 2004 Pistons

Rocket River

 

Morey should be slammed. Any working exec would otherwise be fired. Heck he is the same guy who wanted to trade for Melo back when he was with the Knicks only to see OkC get him.

Even if u want to give Morey talent for finding players and making deals happen, with respect to money and value, sometimes the best deals are the ones that don’t happen.

Meantime for all the money tied up in CP3. I guarantee you - he’s but one injury, another first round loss, or one “bad teammate” locker room skirmish away from becoming public enemy number one in the forum of fan opinion.

 

Paul Pierce on Rockets’ woes.

 

Lol, but seriously...I enjoyed his discussion about the impact of individual players in basketball versus any other major professional team sport. Baseball, for instance: your best hitter does not get an at-bat at will. They have to patiently sit on the sidelines and the other team may walk them to eliminate the threat. So the impact of a James Harden or Lebron James in basketball is equivalent to allowing Bonds to have every at-bat, and with switching defenses in the NBA, essentialy allowing Bonds to choose who he wants pitching against him.

 

You don't think Doc Rivers would trade the chance at having someone as good as James Harden for James Harden himself? Let's take the best case scenario: the CHANCE of having Kawhi vs guaranteed to have James Harden.

No brainer, especially for an old-schooler like Rivers. The likelihood that they will assemble a better top 4 than Harden/Capela/Paul/Gordon is flimsy imo. It would have to be a dream summer, and they are far from being the only big market team vying for those players. Lakers, Knicks and Nets will all be open for business.

Regardless, I was making a point that we are still highly likely to be the more dangerous team in the playoffs. We don't look like we'll win it. Neither do the Clippers. But during this season, we are at least right now still a team the contenders are far less likely to want to face. Warriors would rejoice to be playing the Clippers in the 2nd or WCF.

 

That's not true. I'm sure several teams fancy their chances of beating us and rightfully so. But they would prefer to play the Clippers.

 

Rockets are still currently 4th favorite according to Vegas at +1200 to win the title behind GS, Toronto and Boston.

Clippers sit at +7000

Vegas still sees a serious gap between us in LAC.

 

We don't make the playoffs at this rate with the same squad

There's no way to "turn it up" this season. Almost every team in the West is a playoff contender, it's hard to build up a win streak. There were so many tankers last season than we were getting freeby wins without even trying. Now we have to grind every single game, that's a good way to injure CP

 

Anyone who bets on nba games knows there are huge variances to actual vs expected outcomes. Our chief risk that would tank those odds is simply one injury to any one of our big three.